Adjusting shadows

[DH7777]

Exterior or interior is there a way to adjust the intensity of how dark or light a shadow is without adjusting the position or the intensity/brightness of sun or lights? I know you can do this in other programs and it is very useful. 

[TheKitchenAbode]

Unfortunately there is no independent Shadow Depth control. Currently shadow depth can only be controlled by mixing/blending light sources, some with shadows turned on and some with shadows turned off. It's easy to do but does require additional steps and lighting adjustments.

[Chrisb222]

19 hours ago, DH7777 said:

Exterior or interior is there a way to adjust the intensity of how dark or light a shadow is without adjusting the position or the intensity/brightness of sun or lights? I know you can do this in other programs and it is very useful. 

 

1 hour ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

Unfortunately there is no independent Shadow Depth control. Currently shadow depth can only be controlled by mixing/blending light sources, some with shadows turned on and some with shadows turned off. It's easy to do but does require additional steps and lighting adjustments.

 

Not entirely true, depending on the Rendering Technique.

 

Vector View has a specific setting for shadow intensity:

 

 

And Standard View has ambient lighting which gives some control of overall depth and intensity:

 

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

40 minutes ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

 

Not entirely true, depending on the Rendering Technique.

 

Vector View has a specific setting for shadow intensity:

 

 

And Standard View has ambient lighting which gives some control of overall depth and intensity:

 

 

 

Good point Chris. I was focused on PBR'ing.

[Chopsaw]

10 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

Vector View has a specific setting for shadow intensity:

 

You can add Technical Illustration to that list.

[Renerabbitt]

11 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

Good point Chris. I was focused on PBR'ing.

Believe it or not you can control shadows quite well in PBR with ambient occlusion, using materials that have an ambient occlusion map and adjusting your ambient occlusion intensity in the active camera settings along with adjusting your AO map...Maybe a bit advanced for most but it definitely works.

AO on 100% with dark maps

AO 60% with lighter maps

AO off

[TheKitchenAbode]

16 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Believe it or not you can control shadows quite well in PBR with ambient occlusion, using materials that have an ambient occlusion map and adjusting your ambient occlusion intensity in the active camera settings along with adjusting your AO map...Maybe a bit advanced for most but it definitely works.

AO on 100% with dark maps

AO 60% with lighter maps

AO off

 

The issue I have using the ambient occlusion is that it's global and when pushed too much it has other less desirable effects.

 

Here is are a few examples if one uses an additional light source to control the shadows.

 

In this interior PBR the main shadows are created by the ceiling recessed lights. These ones have 1 light source each with shadows turned on, intensity is 50 lumen.

 

In this one I added an additional light source to each of the recessed lights, one with shadows turned on and the other with shadows turned off. To keep the overall light intensity the same each light source was set at 25 lumens, 2 X 25 Lumens = 50 Lumens

 

To demonstrate further control, in this scene I adjusted the light sources intensity ratio to increase the shadow depth from the front of the room towards the staircase. This is most evident if you look at the shadow depth just below each of the three wall pics.