9

Area Shadows 911
Scene rendered with a 3D (omni) area light
The light uses the default radius of 20.0.
Note: To render soft-edged shadows, shadows
must be ray-traced, not shadow-mapped. See the
Render Scene Dialog > Renderer panel > Shadows
& Displacement rollout (page 3–114).
Area lig hts support global i llumination, caustics,
and other features of the mental r ay renderer.
Tip: Area lights t ake longer to render than point
lights. If you are interested in creating a quick
test (or dr aft) rendering, you can use the Area
Lights/Shadows As Points toggle to speed up your
rendering. This toggle is on the Render Scene
dialog > Common panel > Common Parameters
rollout (page 3–27).
Area Shadows
The shape of the shadow-casting region changes the shape
of area shadows.
Area shadows simulate shadows generated by a
light with area or volume.
Aspect R atio
Various aspect ratios
Aspect ratio describes the proportions of a still
image or the fr ames in a movie, expressed as the