Experiment 1

As a quick experiment and proof of concept, I drew some rudimentary shapes ad hoc (= without any deeper meaning) in Illustrator:

These shapes replaced the basic geometric ones in the Shadowmachine. The distribution is totally random, amount of objects in total: 49.

Full Setup in 3D-space with lights

Rendering (first test of Redshift in Cinema 4D)

Resulting shadow map (exported as 32bit OpenEXR, no denoising)

Resulting topography from this shadow map (quick render with Redshift and basic sky rig)

First person perspective of standing inside this landscape (different time and with atmospheric effects)

Experiment 2

What happens if the Shadowmachine does not work by separate lights, but some shapes illuminate the complete scene. From a metaphorical point of view, these “Light-Shapes” would then be the “initial idea” in the imagination, which also arises from an abstract shape within the mind.

The setup (4 shapes feature a distinct “light-material”)

The resulting shadow map (quite long render time (ca. 4 minutes for 1000x1000px 32 bit EXR image) and high raytracing-sample-count necessary)

The resulting topography

Experiment 3

What happens if the shadow casting shapes feature different amounts of transparency? Setup: Two light sources and all 49 slots are in use. Homogeneous transparency.