Soft Shadows in Clay Render Settings

[Fletch]

from this post at SketchUcation forum

Fletch, the file comments under the images I posted show the presets (I used the highest, I thought). Don't change anything on my account: I don't have a clue what I'm doing. Just wondering if I'm gonna get something better once I learn what to do...so thought it a good idea to see if I can at least get myself inside the ballpark :`)

Well, we aim to make something that anyone can use and get great images...

oops, see that now. sorry... am looking into it. I would suggest opening the light editor, and changing the slider on the sun down from default 50 to 1 or 2. It will still give soft shadow, and in my experience also look even more "realistic" for direct sunlight, as well as rendering more quickly/cleanly. meanwhile, we will look at the clay settings. Had no idea they would be so popular.

ps - They do not currently correspond at all directly to the Easy settings, but I see the confusion, so I think we will make them correlate as directly as we can. Thanks for the input!

pss - while you are in the light editor, I almost always tweak the sunlight a bit warmer - a nice warm very pale yellow.

[Pg09]

from this post at SketchUcation forum

Fletch, the file comments under the images I posted show the presets (I used the highest, I thought). Don't change anything on my account: I don't have a clue what I'm doing. Just wondering if I'm gonna get something better once I learn what to do...so thought it a good idea to see if I can at least get myself inside the ballpark :`)

Well, we aim to make something that anyone can use and get great images...

oops, see that now. sorry... am looking into it. I would suggest opening the light editor, and changing the slider on the sun down from default 50 to 1 or 2. It will still give soft shadow, and in my experience also look even more "realistic" for direct sunlight, as well as rendering more quickly/cleanly. meanwhile, we will look at the clay settings. Had no idea they would be so popular.

ps - They do not currently correspond at all directly to the Easy settings, but I see the confusion, so I think we will make them correlate as directly as we can. Thanks for the input!

pss - while you are in the light editor, I almost always tweak the sunlight a bit warmer - a nice warm very pale yellow.

I found that slider really hard to use, as it is auto updating - and is very sensitive. When you said moved it down to 1 or to 2 from 50, i hit 0 then 7 then 5 then 3 and 1
What i' would like to say maybe a type in solution would be better.
Had the same experience with the render size - when i type in 900 first it recalculates to 9 and then i add 0 and a next zero.

Now that i think about it maybe I'm using a too big model for testing - so i suspend this comment temporarily

[Fletch]

use your arrow keys to fine-tune the number
works on a lot of things in Twilight

apply any color to the water, and then use the water template. If rendering water in Easy 1-7 render settings, turn off shadows for it by checking the box.

Bonus Tip: when I work in big models with a low-end video card, I have to shut off shadows, and sometimes use the button that turns my materials into colors but turns off the textures. They will all still render with Twilight, even with them shut off so that I can work.