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Creating lights in a scene

Lesson 2: Rendering fur

Rendering the scene

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Fur > Lesson 2: Rendering fur > 

Adding fur shadowing attributes to lights

If the scene were rendered at this point, the fur would not appear realistic because it would not contain shadows. To correct this you must turn on fur shadowing attributes for the spotlights.

To add fur shadowing attributes to spotlights

1. Select all three spotlights in the scene by selecting Edit > Select All by Type > Lights.

   All three spotlights in the scene are selected.

   TipWhen more than one item is selected in the scene view, the Channel Box displays the name of the last item in the selection list with three dots after its name to indicate that more than one item is selected.
2. Click Fur > Fur Shadowing Attributes > Add to Selected Light.

   This adds adjustable fur shadowing attributes to all three spotlights in the scene that were not included with the default spotlights. These extra attributes let you refine how the lights affect the fur on the model when rendering.

3. Select Window > Outliner to display the Outliner.

   As your scene gets increasingly complex the Outliner becomes useful for selecting specific objects in the scene, especially when you want to select objects that are hidden by other objects, or are outside the camera’s field of view. Selecting items in the Outliner is much easier when you have named the objects and lights in your scene.

4. In the Outliner, click spotLight1 to select it in the scene.
5. Open the Attribute Editor by clicking the Show/Hide Attribute Editor icon on the Status Line.
6. Select the spotLightShape tab, and under Fur Shadowing/Shadowing, set the Fur Shading Type to Shadow Maps.

   

7. In the Attribute Editor, under Shadows > Depth Map Shadow Attributes, set the following options:
   • Use Depth Map Shadows: On
   • Use Auto Focus: Off
   • Focus: 40

     

   Depth Map Shadows are one technique for producing shadows in a scene by determining which objects in the scene are in the path of a shadow casting light.

   Fur Shadows can be incorrectly placed when Auto Focus is turned on. To avoid this, turn off Auto Focus for all spotlights that have Fur Shadow Maps turned on and instead set the Focus value to Cone Angle + (Penumbra * 2).

8. Shift-select spotlight2 and spotlight3 using the Outliner.
9. In the Attribute Editor, under Fur Shadowing/Shadowing, set the Fur Shading Type to Auto Shading.

   The Autoshade attribute provides a quick simulation of shading that occurs at the root and back of the fur strands without the added complexity of a shadow map.