i really love your lighting here, not just the projective idea from the initial artist but also your recreation. and in specific the seeming simplicity and subtleness of the shadow and the light fall off. did you use a rhino spotlight for this? can you briefly explain your overall light? i tried to rebuild a simple scene using a spotlight which does not allow me to create a soft edge, using a point light with a physical parabel gives me softer edges but i can not recreate the soft fall of where the light emits out.
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Thank you @encephalon
I used Spotlight and play with settings.
The key to get soft shadow is to decrease Shadow intensity depend on the scale of the objects and distance , you need to play with it until you get the wanted shadow then play with other settings: intensity, hardness, falloff to increase or decrease the light intensity.
Here i used two spotlights with different settings and different colors at the same position
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thanks @anon39580149 it was the shadow intensity, which i was reluctant to change assuming it would just brighten up the shadow but it indeed changes the edge softness of the shadow instead. meddling with spotlight hardness was also leading me astray⊠thanks for making my life easier i will be using sportlights more often now.
oh and happy new year!
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Cycles hasnât directly shadow intensity so it has been worked around by using the (primitive) light size.
Lower shadow intensity essentially makes the lights larger. It will give softer shadows, just like a bigger rectangular light means softer shadow edges.
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You are welcome and happy new year
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hi @nathanletwory thanks for the clarification, now after knowing all that it makes sense in which way to modify the shadow and what do address in future, though i would strongly suggest to rename the Shadow intensity to Shadow hardness, the info that the light source gets resized internally is then still interesting but not that necessary anymore. Shadow intensity would never ring a bell if i would try to find a way to make the shadows crisperâŠ
with this knowledge i tried now rectangular light and got again confused does the same apply there? lowering the intensity there rather looks like it does the opposite meaning that the light source gets smaller and the shadow gets blown out additionally.
Do you ever think about to try this in real - maybe with a 3d print, laser-cut or cnc milling?
No because i donât have 3d printer or cnc machine
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I think some users here including me are capable of produce rapid prototypes and models. Maybe there is a way to try a small collaboration in this.
I am able to print things 3d and I am able to cut with a 50w Co2 Laser max. 600x375
Thank you @HugoIII for the suggestion
Maybe Iâll print it out in the future or try it out on cardboard, but for now, what would I gain if someone else printed it?
If it were up to me Iâd get rid of shadow intensity control completely.
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Wow!! really impressive work, and pretty
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I didnât know that when we connect the geometry to the custom preview, the shadow appears in Rendered mode.
This makes the result appear faster
Shadow intensity do his job in the native renderer.
Maybe Cycles needs to have its own lights tab
Recently, I saw an artwork that really captivated me: it was an image âspecifically a portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiatâ formed entirely from shadows. The piece consisted of about 20 to 30 vertical layers, each with a uniquely shaped profile. When a light source is projected diagonally across the piece, the combination of shadows cast by each layer forms a full, recognizable image on the wall.
Itâs not about thickness or depth â each layer has a distinct silhouette designed to cast a specific shadow that contributes to the overall image. The magic happens in how these silhouettes work together under light.
Iâm wondering:
- Can something like this be generated in Rhino?
- Would Grasshopper be the right tool to automate the layer creation based on an input image?
- Are there any plugins or workflows you recommend for this kind of âshadow-based reconstructionâ?
Any advice, references, or directions would be hugely appreciated. Iâd love to start experimenting with this technique for physical builds, possibly using laser cutting.
Hi, Iâm working on a project and am trying to create my own shadow art similar to this for an upcoming school project. I would like to recreate this specific work. Is it possible for you to provide me with the dimensions for the cut-out just so I can have a better idea of how to create my own work.
TIA
@Russ_Tamouse Iâm afraid that user left our forum, since their account was anonymized.