Shadow Artefacts and Pass Question

[Neptune_Imaging]

Hello, my name is Kashif, and I am a new member here, and I have a problem that will not go away for some very strange reason. I am trying to do some shadow passes for a wip and for some very strange reason, I keep on getting artifacts (see the stairstep effect on both images) especially when I use area shadows. I am also using the shadow shader that comes with XSI so I can do comps in after effects. The settings on the shadow shader are set to "RGB" and "Shadow Cast on Visible faces", but even with either of them turned off I am getting the artefacts.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/JamesRayder2026/Soft_Shadow_Pass_artefacts.jpghttp://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/JamesRayder2026/Nasty-Shadow-without-area1.jpg


My second question is, is there a quick way to get the shadows pass with the reflective properties of the surface without having to create many partitions to cheat this effect? I know in another program this is automatic...

Thanks,

Kashif