In the real world, our mind often compensates for the visual effect of perspective distortion. Often we are surprised at how distorted a photograph comes out, when, in fact, the camera had the same perspective as our eyes when we looked through the viewfinder. This experience is even more common with 3-D graphics. Without a spatial environment to interpret the visual data, a 3-D object often appears distorted by a correct perspective rendering. That is one reason why shadows are so important to creating satisfactory 3-D graphics.
Shadows give additional visual clues to the true geometry of objects in a scene.
Copyright 2001 INT Media Group, Incorporated All Rights Reserved.