Classic 3D videogame shadow techniques
Towards the end of Wim Wenders’s excellent Perfect Days, the protagonist Hirayama is drinking beer under a bridge after he has seen a Businessman courting his crush. Suddenly the Businessman joins him under the bridge. As it turns out, things aren’t actually that simple but the point is their conversation takes them to some fundamental questions:
Businessman: Shadows. Do they get darker when they overlap? Hirayama: Not sure. Businessman: So many things I still don’t know… That’s how life ends… I guess. Hirayama: Let’s find out now. Businessman: What?
Even though the Businessman sees no difference, Hirayama is convinced the overlapping shadows do become darker. “It has to get darker to make sense.” What a moving scene.
Unfortunately Hirayama is mistaken. Shadows don’t get any darker there. There’s just one light source, and relatively far away, so the shadow is simply an absence of light. It doesn’t matter how many times the light is blocked.
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