Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 1
This course will look at the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. We'll look at what makes a good model in Maya and why objects are modeled in the way they are.
# 1 02-05-2011 , 12:00 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 3

Problems with shadows

My first post here. Been trying to set up my shadows for a project. Problem is as you can see in this picture, the shadows are jagged and just going over the polygons. I dont know why its doing this and need to get it switched over to smooth shadowing. I'm rendering in mayasoftware btw. Thanks in advance for any helpuser added image

# 2 02-05-2011 , 04:38 PM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374
If you're using depth map shadows, which it looks like, try increasing the resolution. (You'll find this in the attribute editor for the light you're using). Or try switching to ray tracing shadows, then increase the light angle a bit and increase the number of rays. If you try this last method, you'll have to enable raytracing in the software renderer (in the render settings). Hope that helps.

# 3 03-05-2011 , 12:47 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 3
Thanks for your reply. I've tried adjusting the settings and its not made any difference. I was using an ambient light, but I tried changing it to directional and it mostly fixed it. the shadow is smoothed but there is still the jaggedness there which you only really notice when its rendered out in an animation. I'm using raytracing and not depthmap. I thought maybe the jaggedness was a remainder off the fill light which is still ambient, however when I switched that too, it didnt fix it. At least its looking better than it was though so thank you very much user added image

# 4 03-05-2011 , 02:18 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 3
Fixed it. The Ray Depth Limit was set to 1 so I dropped that down to 0 and it is now smooth and perfect ^^

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