Technical Paper
Validating the Sun System in Blender for Recreating Shadows
2024-04-09
2024-01-2476
Shadow positions can be useful in determining the time of day that a photograph was taken and determining the position, size, and orientation of an object casting a shadow in a scene. Astronomical equations can predict the location of the sun relative to the earth, and therefore the position of shadows cast by objects, based on the location’s latitude and longitude as well as the date and time of the incident. 3D computer softwares have begun to include these calculations as a part of their built in sun systems. In this paper, the authors examine the sun system in the 3D modeling software Blender to determine its reliability for accident reconstruction. Multiple environments in different latitudes, longitudes, and elevations in the United States of America were scanned using Faro LiDAR scanners to create pointclouds of the environments. A camera was then set up at each environment and pictures were taken at various times throughout the day from the same location in each environment.