# gobo lighting Light shining on objects create shadows that get cast on other objects. If you want cast shadows in your scene, you need to create the geometry to block the light and cause shadows, right? Not always. In Maya, you can sometimes “cheat” shadows. Imagine you are sitting under a tree on a sunny day. Look at the dappled shade on the ground cast by all the leaves, nice huh? Well you can achieve this effect in Maya but you don’t have to model the tree if you aren’t going to see it. You are using a light to project an image. A gobo is a physical piece of glass, gel, or paper placed over a light to alter its appearance. In Maya, this is done by texture to the Color channel of the Spot Light. The glass, gel or paper may have holes cut into it to create a dappled shadow effect. This can be simulated by placing an Image into the “shadow” attribute.  Here’s another example where the gobo creates interesting projected shapes.  The shadow below is a Gobo. There did not have to be a model of a man in the scene. Gobos save work and have a profoundly aesthetically pleasing effect on just about any scene because they give a sense of there being more things happening behind the view of the camera.  **Big Important note:** if you are rendering with Maya Software and using Maya lights, then the materials in your model also need to be Maya materials (Blinn, Phong, etc.). --- ## more advanced gobos with arnold You can also use Arnold materials and lights and include Gobos. _need to put those notes here._ --- Learn more… - <https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AFMUG/Gobo> - [using Gobos with Arnold in Maya YouTube video with Mike Hermes](https://youtu.be/es_ikrc3rWg) --- tags: #3d #maya #lighting #resources home: [[! 3d modeling- maya]]