Sandy Scene

[truevis]

Here is a little scene I've been working on lately. The only thing troubling me is that the shadows on ground from the columns are not appearing parallel. It's like the sun is 50 feet away. Any advice?

[shura]

hi truevis,

what you are experiencing is a "reduction due to perspective representation" (dunno the precise english term).
in other words: parallel shadows will only occur when you set your FOV to zero.
if you want to reduce this effect, reduce the SU default FOV of 35 degrees to e.g. around 20 deg...
...this will of course have an important influence on the impression of your entire scene.

cheers
alex

[Ecuadorian]

A very similar effect occurs with crepuscular rays. They are parallel but they appear to diverge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular_rays

[Fletch]

Shura, that was a very kind explaination... thanks!

First, that's looking like it will be a killer image. May want to change color of sun to be a sunset-like color!

This may be a different question, not sure... "Why are my soft shadows so soft"?
Truevis, open light editor and slide Sun slider to "5"... it's default is at "50" (probably too soft for most situations) See also the Clay Render Settings thread, which demonstrates this very clearly.

The "First thing to do to warm up the Sun and Sky" thread may also be interesting reading for you.

the example from the Clay Settings Thread...
http://twilightrender.com/users/Fletch/ ... arison.jpg

[truevis]

"Why are my soft shadows so soft"?...the example from the Clay Settings Thread...
http://twilightrender.com/users/Fletch/ ... arison.jpg

Thanks for the advice, guys. How does one change the sun radius?

Actually, the shadows should be very soft in that scene because it's supposed to be humid. It uses a sky probe but without any sun the shadows are too diffuse.

Here is my image with some post-render layer work...

[Ecuadorian]

You change the radius with the slider Shane just pointed out. It's just that instead of calling it " sun radius", it's called "shadow softness" and has a 0-100 scale, but it's the same thing.

[Fletch]

... guys. How does one change the sun radius?

looky here!