Overcaster

OC Shadow

(OC_Shadow.lsc)

This setup is used to add soft shadows to an object.

If the current camera doesn't have motion blur set up, the script will set up a requester where you can set up motion blur and anti-aliasing (Overcaster needs motion blur to work).

If there are no objects in the current scene, the script will add a null. This is because if the first object in the scene has sliders applied, the scripts will fail to apply the sliders plugin to the current mixer object.

When you run the script, a following requester will appear (If running from the hub, as many times as specified):

The Script will attempt to suggest you an unique name for the morph mixer control object, but you can name it manually if you wish. In this document, it will be referred to as the Shadow_mixer object.

If you have selected a parent object, you have the option of letting the script attempt to scale and move the shadow area so that it best fits your object.

The manual settings are the following:

The shadow area should be about the same as your object's size in centimeters. If standing the height, if laying down in width or length.

The verical offset will move the shadow area up, "resting on ground" if set to 100. If set to -100, the area will be totally under the ground. If zero, the area is centered.

There are four resolutions to choose from.

1. EZ
Choosing EZ will set up a single pair of spotlights light with spinning light trick. As the shadower always needs at least two lights to work (they cancel each one out, except for the shadows) the EZ rig also uses sliders for control, unlike the other EZ rigs.

2. Normal
This is the same as in previous version of OC Shadow. The script will set up three pairs of spinning lights.

3. Double
This option will create six pairs of spinning lights.

4. Triple
This option will create nine pairs of spinning lights.

Choosing the correct resolution depends on your scene. Doubling the amount of lights roughly equals doubling the amount of AA passes when quality is concerned.

In some scenes, more lights but less AA will render faster, in others the opposite.

Shadow type and resolution can now be set. If the script is run again while Shadow mixer is selected, these settings can be modified.

There is now a new option called "cast light". This will turn the shadow area into light area - there will be soft lightdome type light inside the area. This option is experimental. Note that the color adjustments SUBSTRACT from the light, instead of add like usual (adjusting blue slider will remove blue from the light). Shadow intensity becomes diffuse intensity.

There are six slider controls, for shadow density and color, cone softness light distance and spread.

Cone softness determines how abtruptly the shadows cease to exist at the edges of the shadow area object.

Light distance can be used in open places for slightly increased accuracy - beware that the lights can easily be obscured by unwanted objects (i.e. the roof of a room) when high settings are used.

Spread acts like softness control.

On the left, spread is set at 20% on the right to 100%. The image is a motion blurred OpenGL preview of triple resolution shadowers. The original OC Shadow roughly equaled normal resolution version with 45% softness.

Overcaster shadower uses a "shadow area" object, which is used (surprise) to define the area where there will be shadows.

The shadow area object should be set to closely surround your shadow casting object. This can be done in a variety of ways.

1. The easiest way is just to use the "automatic" button in the OC Shadow interface.
2. You can estimate the shadow area and set up the dimensions manually in the interface, ie. when you wish to use just one shadower with multiple objects.

3. The old fashioned way is to scale and move the shadow area object at frame zero so that it covers the desired area.

NOTE! There is a known bug in the Shadow script - when applying the shadower, the automatic scaling does not work correctly. However, if you run the shadower script again with the mixer object active, it works. I don't know yet where exactly the bug is, but i'll fix it ASAP.

Everything outside the shadow area will have ambient light (Use Overcaster ambient or ambimage - LW native ambient... don't get me started!), but no shadows casted by Overcaster shadower.

The bigger the area object, the softer but less accurate the shadows.

Overcaster shadower is used just to add soft shadows to an object. It doesn't affect lighting in any other way, so you can load as many instances as you want, and use multiple shadow areas in the scene.

This example with 3 instances rendered in 2 minutes 17 seconds with p2 350 at low AA. The shadow blotchiness would be unnoticeable with medium or higher AA, or with higher resolution Shadow rig. As you can see from the computer specs, the above examples are very old - i will update this page with current examples (with Chastity, yeah) whenever i have the time...

The rig can be completely removed from the scene by deleting the Shadow mixer object and it's descendants.

PlugPak 1.0 notes
Some of the features mentioned above do not apply.