Casting shadows without the object being visible

Comments

• Headwax Posts: 9,922

  August 2012 edited August 2012

  Not sure

  but Fenrik has a "toward/away' shader with which you can have different shaders on either side of a polygon. I guess you could make one side transparent?
  Put it in the alpha chanel and then invert.
  Maybe not,
  http://www.daz3d.com/shop/pose-and-shading-tools-2

  
  Also Inagoni has baker which will bake shadows onto a texture and let you export it - so the shadow will still be there even if object casting said shadow is not.

  http://www.inagoni.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.3

  
  you can also put texture maps on lights
  so with some fiddling you could get the shadow on the texture map and project it

  also carrara has negative lights which with fiddling could emulate a shadow

  just depends what its the shadow of I guess

  Post edited by Headwax on August 2012
• JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  I think maybe you're talking about a shadow catcher?

  Maybe if you describe a bit more what you're trying to do...cause it's not real clear what result you want to get. You can remove objects from your render in post (using an "object index" pass), leaving only their shadows, but I'm guessing that might not be what you really want.
• PhilW Posts: 5,139

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  If you are using a distant light, you could just move the object out of the field of view, and the shadow will stay the same size.

  But as has been said, you perhaps need to describe what you want to achieve in more detail, including what lighting you have in your scene.
• tezen Posts: 0

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  Hello Eyos!

  That´s an easy one:
  Just apply a black color / 0% to the Alpha-Channel to your "ghost"-object and
  put off "Light through Transparency" in the Rendering-Room-Tab.
  Voilá!

  Greetings
  tezen
• Headwax Posts: 9,922

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  Heh, heh
  Live and learn eh? Nice idea tezen
• tezen Posts: 0

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  Hey Headwax!
  Live&Learn;? Sometimes... but mainly I`m waiting for earned money. Until that I`ll relax :D !
  Greetings tezen
• PhilW Posts: 5,139

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  tezen said:

  Hello Eyos!

  That´s an easy one:
  Just apply a black color / 0% to the Alpha-Channel to your "ghost"-object and
  put off "Light through Transparency" in the Rendering-Room-Tab.
  Voilá!

  Greetings
  tezen

  OK provided there is no other transparency in your scene.
• tezen Posts: 0

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  @PhilW: Of course! ...but with some compositing-work even that is possible.
• PhilW Posts: 5,139

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  Very true!
• Eyos Posts: 114

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  I appreciate all the ideas and suggestions. Thank you very much everybody.
  Eyos
• JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  tezen said:

  @PhilW: Of course! ...but with some compositing-work even that is possible.

  ANYTHING is possible with some compositing work, but "fixing it in post" shouldn't be the goal. I'm still curious about the original intent. Something isn't quite adding up. I just hope he's not going roundabout for something he doesn't need to go roundabout on.
• evilproducer Posts: 9,040

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  JoeMamma2000 said:

  I think maybe you're talking about a shadow catcher?

  Maybe if you describe a bit more what you're trying to do...cause it's not real clear what result you want to get. You can remove objects from your render in post (using an "object index" pass), leaving only their shadows, but I'm guessing that might not be what you really want.

  
  I agree, more information about the scene would help. I was thinking a shadow catcher as well, but they can also act as a mask. If there's an object in the scene that's behind it, or partially obscured by it, then it would be masked by it. Strangely, I used one once and mistakenly intersected the shadow catcher with a model (I was using it to mask the model I wanted it to appear later in an animation), and the model behind it was completely visible. Of course the alphas in the shader on the object may have confused Carrara as well.