The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

What is probably confusing is that the shadow is very soft at the edges, and also that shadows are what?

Shadows are NOT just areas where a single light source is stopped by an object. A shadow also happens, in addition to—if you understand what I mean—where naturally-occurring light, ambient light, cannot reach a surface.

Yes, objects cast shadows, but darker areas, which we might not even call a shadow, occur when light cannot get to an area.

This is scientifically called "ambient occlusion", and this is what my modeling program is doing.

Also, the front of the icosahedron is pointed and it, too casts a shadow, although our eyes fool us because a 2D scene flattens this 3rd dimension and we don't expect it to cast a shadow.

Let me grossly simplify the scene, okay? No tricky ambient lighting, nit very photorealistic, though...



-g-