Making very hard shadows softer?

Question

Once I set up the lighting I've noticed that there is a very Hard Shadow falling from one object to another, from the Sky Map. Is there a way to make the Shadows softer without affecting the Intensity of the Sky Map.

| world settings

I put the samples up to 200, the difference isn't that big in this scene, I don't like this Harsh Shadow, and want to change it, but no method comes to my head

I tried unchecking the Shadow box in settings of the front object; the one casting this harsh shadow, and it seems to work, but now I am not sure if this is a good way of getting around it?

What would that first image look like with more samples? It's hard to tell how hard the light is in the first place. — TARDIS Maker, Sep 21 '15 at 21:55
@TARDIS Maker as you can see setting the samples upto a higher value, didnt really change a lot in my instance, but thanks for responing anyway — A.D., Sep 22 '15 at 11:29
I see a few options: 1- Add a very big ara light behind the camera to control the shadow level. 2.-Make a shadow pass to control the darkness of the shadows. Use less Ambien Occlusion. Also take a look at this answer, it might give you some ideas: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/8930/how-can-i-cast-artificially-darker-shadows — , Sep 22 '15 at 12:16
I guess that is coming from your particular scene setup (I mean the position of each object). Usually you have the opposite problem when you are using a background texture for lighting a scene. Could you post more screenshot about where the light comes from and where the objects are? Do you have the same issue in other scenes too? Or just in this one? — Carlo, Sep 22 '15 at 12:41
You know I never really remember myself to have issues like that before, I am thinking now maybe this could be caused by the Film setting in the Color managment Properties. I will post where the light is coming from etc. — A.D., Sep 22 '15 at 13:48
The less noisy one is actually a lot better. I have a much better idea of what's going on with the light. I have one idea, but it would probably make everything look really noisy, but here it is anyway. When working with actual light, filmmakers will use what's called diffusion. It's usually a piece of white cloth or something of a similar material. It lets the light though, and sometimes dims it a bit, but more importantly, it softens shadows. This could possibly bet simulated by a mix of a diffuse and transparent node on a plane that covers the entire scene. — TARDIS Maker, Sep 22 '15 at 16:56
Another way could be to scrap the sky texture and use a sun lamp and plug a blue color into the background node. You could then use the same color for the sun, but you would have control over their softness of it's shadows. — TARDIS Maker, Sep 22 '15 at 16:58

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 03 '19 at 19:40

6

Depending on what you want, there are a couple ways to approach this.

Increasing the Size (in Properties > Lamp) of the main lamp to produce softer shadows:

Or Angle value if you are using blender 2.8 :

Here's a gif showing the size animated from 0.1 to 1:

Adding a second lamp to to put more light into the shadowed area:

Disabling Shadow rays for an object allows light to pass through and illuminate surfaces behind it. If this works for you, then all well and good, but be aware that this isn't a physically accurate phenomenon and may look strange in some situations.

edited Sep 03 '19 at 19:40

softyoda yoann

575
6
17

answered Sep 22 '15 at 19:33

gandalf3

157,169
58
601
1,133

And how would one increase the "size of the light" for an Emission Material? – Edward Nov 01 '18 at 12:01
@Edward Increase the size of the object the material is applied to – gandalf3 Nov 01 '18 at 22:12
But then either the lampshade object is very large compared to the rest of the scene, or the bulb goes outside of the lampshade. – Edward Nov 01 '18 at 22:53
@Edward The relationship between shadow "softness" and light source size is an artifact of light traveling in straight lines. If you aren't happy with the results, then you can either tweak your lighting, materials, and scene to "spread" light around (e.g. large bright diffuse surfaces can effectively bounce light from a small light source, in a sense becoming a large light source itself) or break from following physical rules and use whatever means necessary to get the look you want (this route may be difficult in a physically-based engine like cycles) – gandalf3 Nov 02 '18 at 06:49

Making very hard shadows softer?

1 Answers1

Linked