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Jaggy ugly shadows in IRay render.

LindaBLindaB Posts: 180
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

The shadows on this Iray image are all jaggy, blocky and ugIy. I used a distant light and a spot light for this render. The Environment mode is set to 'Dome and Scene' and the 'Environment Intensity' is set to 0.94. Can anyone tell me where I went wrong?

Shadow-error.jpg
439 x 572 - 42K

Comments

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    This is called shadow termoinator artifact, and it can be caused by a combination of things. You seem to hit those things.

    Some fixes you can try:

    1. If your character is not at "world center" (0, 0, 0), move her there, and try again.

    2. See about moving a light 10 degrees or so. That can shift the position of the shadow.

    3. Increase the resolution of the mesh, character or clothes. There are several approaches here, depending on the type of mesh, so I'll defer to the several threads here that have talked about it. Do a google or bing search for 'daz iray shadow terminator artifact.' The first set of links should be to a number of posts here on the subject.

     

  • LindaBLindaB Posts: 180

    I've got Aiko at world center; I tried changing the angle of the lights but that didn't seem to help. I tried increasing Aiko's resolution and that did help, but as you can see on the face on the right the shadows are smoother but they still look patchy and wierd. But I stumbled onto a solution via trial and error - I turned off 'Parametric Mode' for the distant light, and now she looks good. I'd feel alot better if I solved the problem because I know what I was doing! But it's solved anyway. DAZ Studio's lighting system is very different from Poser's leaving me totally confused. Thanks again!.

    shadow-prob-fixed.jpg
    700 x 525 - 47K
  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300
    LindaB said:

    . But I stumbled onto a solution via trial and error - I turned off 'Parametric Mode' for the distant light, and now she looks good. 

    Glad it's now working. Sounds like a bug if switching off parametric mode fixed it. You might want to file a support ticket with the details, especially if you're using a beta version of 4.9.

    Most folks don't light characters with the distant light, as it has no facility to soften the shadows. While it has uses, you might consider using light from an HDRi (i.e. environment dome map), or going with the more traditional light sources, spot and point. In Iray, you can also light with meshes (apply the Emissive shader), but for speed, keep those flat and simple.

     

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