Integration: Lighting Volumes Part 2

Notice that the volume of smoke itself is casting a shadow on the ground for strong integration in top screen left. This bring us into our next section.

While I was at first surprised that smoke can cast shadows, I remembered that clouds of varying thicknesses cast shadows. So the same rules hold true for smaller volumes on the ground.

Along with casting shadows themselves, volumes can have shadows casted onto them for integration with the objects blocking light around them. This is interactive lighting/shadowing.

A similar example can be seen in Heat with the shadow of the counter casting onto smoke.

The example above was of static shadow-casters (a counter). But what about a moving shadow-caster? Taking a look at this “Planet Earth” lion clip, we can see the same rules at play. However, on thinner layers of volume, shadows can greatly carve out opacity in the shape of the shadows casting over it. Look for the shadow of the lion against the closest plume layer of dust.