-
Shadows From HDRI Don’t Show Properly
Hi all 👋
I’m asking for some help about a project, for which I have a scene sitting on a couch, and on the coffee table in front of me, I’d like to place small demogorgons (from the Stranger Things show).
I haven’t tried the environment light, the use of HDRI for lighting/shadows, and the direct import of 3D models, since all this became possible in AE. I’ve done this in Blender a few times and by no means am I an expert. So I got a free model of the creatures with different animation type hardcoded and I chose the ones I like. I found an HDRI that mimics the warm, orange colors I need for lighting and used it via the environment light. I also used a 3d solid , aligned with the table’s perspective and used it as a shadow catcher.
The result for the shadows wasn’t good, though. No matter how I change the environment light’s rotations, I can’t get proper shadows from the proper angle. Even worse, they appear somewhat distorted with missing pixels and some jitteriness. The light also throws a double shadow for the first Demogorgon, but doesn’t throw any shadows onto the 2nd. It really depends on how I rotate the light with the HDRI. I had to make a second shadow catcher to add shadows for the 2nd subject, and I had to use some masking to remove the doubled shadows of the 1st subject, because I wanted to find a workaround to still have some shadows, even though they weren’t looking quite aligned and fully believable. You can see the settings and results below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ro23RHcircrsWLn9-f6y2sS-LeFll73H/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y9NQ9fJHunk6JcK31KIl_K_6avpFfi6E/view?usp=sharing
I also tried rendering the demogorgons on their own as separate clips and importing them to add the Shadow effect I have from Red Giant. I can get it done for the first subject that stands still, but the second subject has movement, and when the creature jumps, the shadow stays behind, it doesn’t move enough to get to where it’s supposed to be. If I turn the demadogs’ clips to 3D layers, they don’t get lit properly, plus one of them doesn’t have any shadows at all I have no idea why that is. I also tried this tactic by using the 3D Glb models of the demogorgons, by using the calculations effect on an adjustment layer, and then add the shadows effect, but the result was the same.
I’m attaching a few screenshots of the original result after applying 1 shadow catcher, and I’m also sending a screen recording with the rendered version I talked about, where I’ve used 2 shadow catchers and some masking, and the shadows are jittery.
I’d be very grateful to anyone who has an idea how to add proper shadows in this case. If someone needs even a closer look, I can share the project files.
-
2 Replies
-
hey man! no panic, so from what i see, your setup is correct for AE’s limits.
The artifacts are engine limitations. Clean, believable animated shadows require an external 3D renderer.
What actually works in After Effects:
Use Environment Light only for ambient fill (low intensity).
Add one or more explicit Spot / Parallel Lights for shadows. These produce stable, directional shadows.
Use one single shadow catcher aligned to the table. Enable:
Accepts Shadows: ON
Accepts Lights: OFF
Increase:
Light Shadow Map Resolution
Light Shadow Softness slightly
Comp bit depth to 16/32 bpc
Disable Cast Shadows on any non-essential meshes to avoid doubles.
Avoid animated GLB shadows entirely when possible.
Best-practice pipeline (industry reality)
Render creatures + shadows in Blender / C4D with proper HDRI + key light.
Export beauty + shadow pass.
Composite in AE with Multiply/Add.
AE is not a reliable final-lighting solution for animated 3D contact shadows.
-
Hi and thanks for your reply! I did also try to light the demogorgons with a spot light. As much as I hate tinkering with AE’s god damn lights, because I often do’nt fully realize where the light is in the 3D space, I managed to get it right on top of one of the creatures. So lit it, but there were no shadows. I guess something isn’t working right, so I’ll have to try in Blender:
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up