Lights cause strange pixelation on some surfaces..

[Lars Bunch]

HI,

I don’t have an answer, but I’ve seen the same problem. In fact, I recently saw the problem for the first time on an animation that seemed okay a couple of days earlier. I am wondering if this might be related to a version of CS3 (I’m running the most recent version [8.0.2?]) or open GL. Actually I didn’t see the problem when working on a G5 or Macbook, but when I upgraded to a MacPro, I noticed it. It might not be related, but that’s when I saw it. This makes me wonder if it might be related to the graphics card.

I didn’t see the problem in the final render so, at least in my case, I assumed it was a preview issue. I assume you are seeing it in the final render on your animations.

What version of AE and Quicktime are you running? (Major and minor verion numbers.) What is your OS and your graphics card?

Where I have seen this sort of problem more is in Maya when the resolution of a light’s shadow settings is too low. There doesn’t seem to be a comparable setting in AE, but do you see any changes to the quality of the pixelation if you adjust the light’s shadow darkness and fall off etc?

Lars

[April Henderson]

Well…this one has happened to me a few times already. ONe of the last videos I made, the same thing occured in a virtual room I made and the strange light thing was happening on the wall. At first I wasn’t very conscious of it. But now I noticed it and it seems rather ugly.

I use the very latest version of AFX CS3 all updated. I’m using an AMD dual core processor on XP with latest version of quicktime installed. I myself usually render to window media files at highquality settings.

I’m gonna play around a bit with the shadows and diffusion to see how that helps.

thanks

[David Bogie]

Hit the online help system for SHADOWS and see if you can find the prefs settings that control shadow render quality. Sorry, not at my AE machine today. It’s a subtle thing and doesn’t always affect what you think it should. Also, shadows can get messed up in render pipeline if they are applied to nested 3D comps that had lights in them or the surface properties of the upstream elements are set differently. Sometimes, just turning Casts Shadows on and then off and then on again can clear it.

Hmm, re-reading this, doesn’t seem to help. Hope you get it fixed.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Darby Edelen]

Have you tried using 16bpc in your Project Settings? I’m not quite clear on what the issue looks like, but that might help if you’re seeing issues in the penumbra of the light (the area between full light and full shadow… sounds cool and metaphorical doesn’t it?).

16bpc will increase render time.

Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA

[Aled Rhys jones]

Had a similar problem with this (hundreds of layers bunched together casting shadows on each other – the shadows seemed to split into ugly stripes & not looking like what I expected)

Although changing the Project Settings to 16bit smoothed out the problem, changing the “Shadow Map Resolution” seemed to resolve it enough to get away with it!

To do this, go to Comp Settings, select the Advanced tab. Where it has Advanced 3D selection you should see Options next to it. Here you’ll be able to change the Shadow Resolution Map from a range of 250 to 4000, the default is Comp Size.

A higher resolution will slow down the render depending on your comp, so time for a cup of tea I reckon!

Good Luck.

Aled Rhys Jones
Director
wipgfx.co.uk
Cardiff, Wales

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