Area spot light grainy shadows

#1

Hi, I’m working on some night lighting using area spot lights. The shadows are hard and crisp without area spot lights turned on. Once I turn them on the shadows are too washed out and grainy. I tried increasing the samples and smoothness but nothing has worked. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to smooth them out?

Thanks

#2

Here are some samples of what I’m talking about. I’m trying to make the area shadows more define.

Spot light shadows

Area spot light shadows

Thanks

#3

The size of the area light and the samples make a difference. Set your samples up (careful not to take this needlessly high as it will affect render time, I start at 6-7 and try not to go past 10 for the sake of render time but you may need to if the grain is still bad) The size of the area light itself affects the amount of softness you get (the larger the area the more diffuse the light) if the shadows are too sharp make it bigger, too soft make it smaller. Use the scale values under “area transformation”

#4

Thanks man!

Take care…

#5

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