Shadow Catcher material

[S. Houtzager]

Hey,

 

How do you make a shadow catcher material aka just shows the shadow and nothing else for a floor?  Used to know this.

 

 

[mondoman]

Select 'Generate Shadow Mask' in the Shadow tab of the group window.

[S. Houtzager]

Thanks.

[Tomas Egger]

Ola,

 

“'Generate Shadow Mask” doesnt work with GI Sky light :(

 

Thanks

 

Tom

[Thomo]

And set the shadow casting objects to be shadow only.

[S. Houtzager]

Well I never figured out this one. I set the shadow casting object to shadow only and those objects turned off.  Is there a way of making a shadow catcher floor that only renders a shadow while using Global Illumination? Like the mini cooper renderings are doing. Thanks!

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Steven!

 

Two Projects here, one Dome Light (Light Object) and another to cast only the shadow using the same previous project.

Right now, its not possible to use generate Shadow Mask in conjunction with GI Sampling engine.

 

Please, open the project and look my settings :)

 

Thanks

 

Tom

 

DOMElight.zip

[S. Houtzager]

Thanks!

[yhloon]

Shadow object only?
 

 

 

another method is to use APass shader with all lights turn off. that will just render the AO pass

[edecker]

Hi Steven,

 

Sorry for the delayed response but I have not been on the forum for a bit!

 

This plagued me for a long time but I finally worked out a solution using GI. I simply ticked "Generate shadow mask" on a floor plane and because this does not work with GI I added an area light at a very low intensity that casts the shadow and I get my item with a shadow on a transparent background. If you only want the shadow tick the item shadow object only.

 

Cheers,

 

Eric