I recently got a copy of learning evaluation edition of Maya along with a book I purchased at Barnes & Noble. I have been trying to follow the tutorials for modeling, etc. but there aren't many on rendering. I am trying to make objects with these types of characteristics:



So far, what I have come up with is something like this:



The shadows are much too sharp, and the surfacing / material application is not what I am used to from 3DSM and Lightwave.

I am looking to make materials such as:


How do I make the shadow fall off like that? I have played around with shadow mapping and can't find something that looks like 'falling off'

Also, how would I make a material that has translucent qualities like this?

Thanks for any insight:

Here is the scene I did for the red sphere