Soft Shadows

Al Hart · 2 May 2009, 17:59

Thanks for the pattern, BTM. I got the criss-cross shadows to work - the first pattern is used for the lighter parts of the shadow, and the second pattern is brought in for the darker parts (and overlayed over the first pattern).

Also, I made these shadows red (someone had requested colored shadows, so I added a shadow color button) (I can't see that they are red. (Someone just told me that this model didn't look very good. Pay attention to the technology of the shadows, not the model or the final result. If someone has a small model which would be better for these examples, sent it to me.)

Chris Fullmer · 2 May 2009, 22:08

I like it a lot on the house shadow that is cast on the ground. Any chance of seeing it with a regular grey shadow instead of the red? Its really looking great Al!

Chris

Al Hart · 2 May 2009, 22:19

@chris fullmer said:

I like it a lot on the house shadow that is cast on the ground. Any chance of seeing it with a regular grey shadow instead of the red? Its really looking great Al!

Chris

Good to hear from you again - this whole "soft shadow" think came from your idea of taking several (64 or so) images moving the sun around, and combining them to get softer shadows. As a result you will get a free copy of NprTools when it is delivered.

Send me a model you would like to see some soft shadows on, and I will run it through as a test case.

Chris Fullmer · 2 May 2009, 22:24

Oh I've been eagerly watching this thread Al. I think the soft shadows are coming along very well. I genereally prefer them with no hatching, but the criss-cross pattern on the last one is actually quite nice I think. I think it has to do with the density of the strokes. They are closer and tighter in that example than they have been in some of the others. I like that best.

Anyhow, its coming along really well. I'll find a model and PM it to you. Keep it up!

Chris

Al Hart · 3 May 2009, 00:00

Thanks,

I'd like to try another model.

I'm getting tired of looking at this one.

There are a lot of settings here for density, color, transparency, pattern, blurring, etc. which you will be able to use when I get the Beta out.

BTM · 3 May 2009, 00:33

Soft shadows could probably be good for indoor scenes (windows). Maybe you should make some indoor scenes, as well as outdoors.

Pixero · 3 May 2009, 07:40

Wow, I'm really looking forward to this.
And colored shadows, yeees!

Question, does the line scale factor also go into less than 1 for getting even thinner lines?

Al Hart · 3 May 2009, 13:20

Here is an interior scene:

Here is the result with soft shadows (no cross hatch)

Here is a result with cross-hatch. I don't think it worked well. I might try a light (rather than dark) hatch in the sunny area instead.

Here is a BW image with cross hatch.

Al Hart · 3 May 2009, 13:23

@pixero said:

Question, does the line scale factor also go into less than 1 for getting even thinner lines?

The scale factor can be less than 1.

It scales the entire pattern, line and spaces between lines - not just the lines.

kwistenbiebel · 3 May 2009, 13:34

Hi Al,

Interesting experiments!
I like the soft shadows in the first post a lot. A plugin that can output this effect as a .jpg would be great!

Al Hart · 3 May 2009, 16:52

Aha, this inverse image took some clever balancing and a trick ("leave shadows on, but set the sun intensity to 0 to get an image with the same lighting as the shadow image, but no sun"), but it turned out pretty well.

I have added "Invert" as an option to SketchyShadows.

I think Inverse mode worked better on the interior, then on the exterior. You would need less sun and more shadow for the exterior to work well.

BTM · 3 May 2009, 17:15

... How many layers of cross-hatching do you think will be available, and will NPR Tools be available for macs?

... Also, just throwing this out there, but what would happen if you included cross-hatched shadows and sun?

Al Hart · 3 May 2009, 17:35

@unknownuser said:

... How many layers of cross-hatching do you think will be available, and will NPR Tools be available for macs?

... Also, just throwing this out there, but what would happen if you included cross-hatched shadows and sun?

Probably 4 layers, but you will have to use a naming convention for the patterns (so I can select the first pattern - say Lines_1.jpg - and I can know that the other three are Lines_2.jpg, Lines_3.jpg, etc. - So I won't have to prompt for the names of all 4 pattern files)

I hope to make a Mac version in time for the next "Design Visualization Center" conference. (as far as I now it is not scheduled yet).

I will try to dual hatching - perhaps reversing the order or the patterns to so they won't just run together.

Al Hart · 5 May 2009, 05:12

This is the first pass at double hatching - dark hatch in shadow area, light hatch in illuminated areas.

There are a lot of options you can balance - cross hatch colors, cross hatch intensity, cross hatch size, cut-off between single hatching and criss-cross hatching - but this should give you an idea of what can be done.
Note: the hatching here is based only on shadow intensity. If I can find a way to determine the z-depth of the image (How far each pixel is from the eye), then we could have the hatching pattern based on the distance from the eye as well - which is often very effective.

Comments?

Chris Fullmer · 5 May 2009, 05:37

Ooh Al, I REALLY like where this is going. It sort of Gorey-esque (ok, not exactly, but perhaps in that vein).

(www.spamula.net)

(sorry for the weird domain name on thos images, its nothing to do with spam. Its a literature website with some great Edward Gorey Images)

Chris

pilou · 5 May 2009, 13:28

Maybe some hatching at Gustave Doré home
and here beautiful examples

Al Hart · 9 May 2009, 18:34

BTM - I am using 6 of your patterns in the NprTools. These are working great.

But I need two more (see arrows). Then you will qualify for a free copy of NprTools.
(The two that are missing are horizontal and vertical thick lines)

Here are samples of criss-cross shadows using your think and thick lines.