Shadow Comparison

Rendering with Final Gather for Soft Shadows

This page is designed as a supplement to lectures. It is not intended to be a stand alone tutorial.

These four images reflect the better choices of the different techniques for creating soft shadows in this scene. Please note that a raytraced sharp hard-edged shadow renders in 7 seconds.

Mental Ray Depth Map Shadow. Render Time 00:10
Resoultion 2048; Samples - 25; Softness .01
Mental Ray Raytraced Shadow. Render Time 00:43
Light Radius - 1; Shadow Rays - 40

Mental Ray Area Light with Raytraced Shadows. Render Time 00:29
HIgh Samples - 32; Low Samples - 1

Mental Ray Final Gather using a white card. Render Time 1:45
Accuracy - 1024; Point Density -2; Point Interpolation - 50

UMBC Department of Visual Arts, Advanced Maya Courses, Dan Bailey


Mental Ray Depth Map Shadow. Render Time 00:10 Resoultion 2048; Samples - 25; Softness .01	Mental Ray Raytraced Shadow. Render Time 00:43 Light Radius - 1; Shadow Rays - 40

Mental Ray Area Light with Raytraced Shadows. Render Time 00:29 HIgh Samples - 32; Low Samples - 1	Mental Ray Final Gather using a white card. Render Time 1:45 Accuracy - 1024; Point Density -2; Point Interpolation - 50