To produce realistic raytraced shadows for area lights

1. Only available through raytracing. Make sure to turn Raytracing on in the Render Settings window for Maya software rendering, then turn on Use Ray Trace Shadows in the area light's Attribute Editor. The size and orientation of the light controls the shadow color distribution.
   Note

   You may have to increase the number of sample rays to ensure high quality shadows. This can be time- and processor-intensive.

Depth map shadows also work, but you create shadows varying from hard to soft. Adjust the filter size to control the uniform softness of the shadow.