Max 2010 - mental ray - how do i enable shadow?

Lonewolf

im trying to get some outdoors shadows on my renders, i use mental ray GI and have skylight

how do i make stuff cast shadow?

Piflik

Enable Shadows in the Light...

However, a Skylight doesn't cast real Shadows...it is a kind of ambient light, mainly used for Occlusion. If you want Shadows, you'll need an Point or Area Light Source.

MoP

Yeah, skylight by itself just casts light from all directions, you will get nothing but ambient occlusion from it.

I would recommend using Area lights with mental ray since they can cast nice soft shadows and are more realistic than point lights.

Lonewolf

ok so how do i setup that area light

i placed it where i want and selected "mental ray shadow map"

but nothing is really there

what eles so i need to check?

MoP

You should probably use raytraced shadows instead of mental ray shadow maps, they look better.

Why don't you just read the help files? You'll learn a lot more without having to wait for people to reply to this thread... o_O

Piflik

You have to click the little checkbox to activate the shadows...and yeah...read the manual and use Raytraced Shadows...

Lonewolf

thanx guys, no time to look in the manual =O

malcolm

Hey Lonewolf, you should make your portfolio site so I can save the images off it, you've got some great work that I'd like to save to my inspiration folder but it's a pain they way you've got it set up in flash or whatever.

CompanionCube

if you have time to start a thread, you have time to read the manual

CompanionCube

very very basic mental ray set ups

http://www.sendspace.com/file/a971r7

my gamma settings are at 2.2 so make sure you open normal and displacment maps open them using a gamma of 1.0 otherwise they won't work properly

to learn more about mental ray check out masterzap or jeffpattons blogs.
but what your asking is very basic and in the manual

itsJH

thank you for the basic set up scenes it helped me alot