Greetings,
Thank you for the question. This question was asked on a forum outside of Cineversity, and I am copying over the response from the author:
Kobold Studio Says:
“The gradient material should be applied to the polygon in front of the light. The rationale is that the soft box isn’t a pure white rectangle. If you look at professional product shots, you’ll often see a hint of a radial gradient from white to grey in the soft box. This is due to the materials in the soft box and light falloff.
The polygon has a compositing tag on it. It is told to not cast or receive shadows. This then allows the light from the light source to shine “through” the object.”
Donovan Keith Says:
“There is a compositing tag on the polygon that ensures it doesn’t cast shadows and/or it’s excluded from the light in the light’s settings. This allows for a high quality realistic reflection from the polygon and simple illumination from the light object.”
Cheers,
Michelle