User Guide > Learning > Characters > Rigging > Weight Blending

Weight Blending


In real-life, light travels in a straight line until it is either bounced, transmitted, or absorbed by a surface. Traditonally, computer graphics rendering does not take these secondary effects into account and focuses on direct illumination. Global Illumination considers both direct and indirect light which could include the light bouncing from one surface to another (irradiance) or transmitting through a transparent object (caustics).

Topics covered:
Setting up an Area Light
Area Light Shapes


Setting up an Area Light

Irradiance offers a way of achieving global illumination effects without using photons. This is accomplished using the Final Gathering algorithm which calculates illumination by casting rays from objects in the scene, rather from the lights. The use of irradiance speeds up render times.

How to set up irradiance rendering


Area Light Shapes

To achieve caustic effects, photon rays are used to create a mapping of the scene that takes into account the reflective and refractive qualities of surfaces such as water or glass.

How to set up caustic rendering