[Robsoyo]

Hi there,
Im new to this forum, and fairly new to lightwave so i'll probably be askin for help in the future! My question is about lighting mainly, i want to get soft shadows from the lights, ive tried different lights, at diff' sizes, at diff' intensities but the shadow allways ends up really sharp! Also, can anyone let me know how to create those backdrops and floors used to simply display an object? The ones that are usually white with soft shading, if anyone knows what im on about?
Cheers

[Koushirou]

when I want a soft shadow, I usually go with Area Lights. Though, set to a higher quality, increases the rendering time, you can get some pretty nice shadows.

(I believe Linear Lights can also produce soft shadows)

[bullet_evader]

you can give a shadow map to a spotlight ( wich create soft edge shadows ). open the properties of the light. and select spotlight for the "light type".then open the shadows tap and set "shadow type" to Shadow Map.then you can give the shadow map size and the Shadow Fuzziness a value of ( i give them vallues of 2048 and 3.0 most of the time ). hope this helps.

im not sure what you mean with:

Also, can anyone let me know how to create those backdrops and floors used to simply display an object? The ones that are usually white with soft shading, if anyone knows what im on about?

maybe someone else can help you with that!?!

[Mark]

Hmm... you might also want to check out Overcaster. This is part of Eki's plugpak and gives great results when trying to accomplish soft shading.

Go to: http://www.kolumbus.fi/erkki.halkka/plugpak/ to check it out.

[Robsoyo]

Thanks much for your suggestions,
In reply to you bullet evader, check the attachment for an example of what I was meaning with -

"Also, can anyone let me know how to create those backdrops and floors used to simply display an object? The ones that are usually white with soft shading, if anyone knows what im on about"

Its probably real easy but i just dont know how yet!

Also, Mark,
Ive checked out the plugpak thing, it looks pretty good to use? Is it free to download and easy to use?

Thanks again
laters

[Mark]

It's free to use for non commercial use (as long as you can put up with the nag screens). It's relatively inexpensive anyway to register it (around $40 iirc). Well worth it...

[PolarBear53]

Check this out for what you're talking about with the lighting and background.

[Robsoyo]

Nice one polarbear! Thats exactly what I was looking for. Cheers