Advanced Maya® Texturing and Lighting, Second Edition

Chapter 3. Creating High-Quality Shadows

Shadows are an inescapable part of the physical world. Unless an animation is intended for a stylized look, high-quality shadows are a necessity for a professional render. Depth map and raytrace shadows can be fine-tuned to match many lighting scenarios. In addition, you can shadow advanced effects in Maya, including Light Fog, Maya Fur, Paint Effects, Maya Hair, nCloth, and the Toon system. To make the shadow-rendering process more efficient, you can link shadows.

Chapter Contents

• Depth map methodology

• Fine-tuning and troubleshooting depth maps

• Adjusting raytrace shadows

• Linking and unlinking shadows

• Applying shadows to Light Fog

• Creating shadows with Paint Effects

• Creating shadows with Maya Fur and Hair System ...