Possible to make "Soft shadows" object based?

[TheBadger]

What I mean is, is it possible to have shadows cast from an object at different soft shadows settings than the scene as a whole?

I am playing with some studio photography ideas in TG, by attempting to manipulate light in TG as one would in a studio. Im having pretty good results. But if I can control shadows more from TG (as apposed to further altering my objects) then that would be pretty helpful.

So to be clear. If I have an object in my scene, can I tell TG to cast shadows with a different number in the soft shadows parameter for that object and have another setting for the scene as a whole?

My guess is no, but hope yes.

Thanks.

[Dune]

No, as far as I no.

[Upon Infinity]

No.  The only way you could do it is with multiple light sources and / or spotlights.

[Oshyan]

This works in TG the same as it works in reality: it is *per lightsource*, not per *object*. The light source is what controls the soft shadow parameters. So if you want multiple variations, you'd have to use multiple light sources, just as you would in a studio lighting situation.

- Oshyan

[TheBadger]

Thanks Oshyan. That is logical. I just thought maybe there was a way to do it that I could not think of.

I was also playing with the spotlight. I made a plane object and put a bunch of holes in it to use as a bounce light and a diffuser. I Put the holes in because I wanted to try and fabricate god rays in a more controled way. I got the thing working with the sun, but not with the spot. I need to play with the spot more, but just off the top of your head, is there a reason that the spot cannot work for rays?

Thanks again.

Oh, by the way, for the object as diffuser, Tweaking the transparency of the object is still not possible in TG? Or maybe I should not use the word transparency in this way here??

[Oshyan]

"Rays" are only going to show up when there is a medium to show the difference between light and dark; they are, quite literally, *shadows* being cast into atmosphere. So they depend on atmosphere and/or cloud and while normal rays from a cloud can work without Receive Shadows enabled, from an *object* you would need Receive Shadows in either the atmosphere, and/or a cloud layer if you were using that to easily increase local haze density. Keep in mind that both options will significantly increase render time.

Bottom line: I'm highly dubious about trying to use bounce setups and other traditional lighting approaches that are focused on small scales within a TG environment at large scales. While it may be possible to get the effects you want, you're going to need very high GI, and possibly other options enabled like Receive Shadows (for your rays, at least), which will mean very high render times. There are tools like Enviro Light Strength on Surfaces and Luminosity that are designed to address subtle lighting issues like this.

- Oshyan

[TheBadger]

Thank you again for info and context Oshyan.

Im just playing with some things to see what I can get back from it. One thing that has been easy and works good is using the plane object with holes to control where shadows fall.

In this image http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,15153.msg147507.html#msg147507  I set up a bunch of giant objects to cast shadows in specific places. I did this in order to use light to better direct the eye. Its a very simple and straightforward trick from art 101. But not so easy in TG. IF I had thought to do this then, I would have had better results.
In the case of the shrooms those shadows are not natural to the scale and objects in the scene. It was pretty time consuming to get them how they are.

So, just trying to see what I can cheat is all.

[Oshyan]

Casting shadows is going to be less render-intensive than casting *rays* or *bouncing light*. But do be aware that for shadows cast from off-screen objects, you may have issues due to the reduction of detail outside of the camera's view, which the Ray Detail Region Padding settings are designed to deal with.

- Oshyan