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Rendering 3d Shadows with transparency
Ok, so I have checked around for info on getting a 3D comp to have floor shadows only.
The solution seems to be making a white solid, matching it up to the floor, and having it accept shadows, then changing the blend mode to Multiply.
Cool that looks great when I have a background behind the comp. BUT now I wanna take this composition and render it out using millions+ for transparent video in flash. The catch is I need that shadow attached to it. When I turn off my background layer to go transparent with everything I, ofcourse, see the white solid again.
Is there any way to make a 3d object only receive shadows? So nothing but the shadow will show, that does not involve blending modes. That will support exporting.
Any help? thanks guys!
-ross -
2 Replies
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Dave thanks for posting! 🙂 I know I am new here and some of your posts have saved me a crap load of time. Your totally right, but I was really just looking for a solution to the problem.
Actually it ended up being quicker to just do it that way, the old copy, color and flip.
BUT for anyone wondering. I did find a solution.
Start with
Some comp with a 3d character or something that you want to cast shadows.
New White Solid.
Make it 3d.
Make a light.
On your character set the material options to Cast Shadows and not to accept light or shadows.
Set the white solid to accept shadows, not lights and not cast shadows.
Position in the scene as a floor and Pre-Comp as Floor.
Collapse Transforms
Inside Floor comp set mode to Silhoutte Luma
Back in the main comp make sure you have some background behind the floor. (Black Solid will do it)The Siloutte Luma will cut into the Black Solid giving you transparency with just a shadow. If you need other parts of your scene rendered just go back into the floor clip and create more white solids to take up space.
Your layers should look like this
Main Comp
Light
Character
Floor Comp
Black SolidFloor Comp
White Solid for Floor (silhoutte luma)
Other Solid for wall
…🙂 Hope this makes sense, and I know its madness… So honestly Black solid and feather mask is a good solution 🙂 Or Copy comp, tweak and blur… But for those as crazy as me… here is a trick.
thanks
-ross -
wow, this is huge to me, a great tip! thanks so much for finding a solution and posting back to your original question.
Thanks,
Steve
Steven Kutny
Digital Artist
http://www.stevenkutny.com
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