[Dexter Morgan]

Might be easier if I give an example.

I have a background of a huge tree. I shoot an actress in studio in front of a green screen. Key it and add her to the tree bg.

She appears to be standing under the tree, but it looks superimposed because there are no shadows on her, because she was shot in a studio with even lighting.

I thought if I shot a leafy branch (obviously not green 🙂 against a green screen and keyed it, then drop shadow of the branch, lay it over the actress and remove the branch, leaving only the shadow. That may give me the effect that I am looking for.

Similar if I want it to be a building shadow covering part of her face.

I am just not sure what is the easiest and best way to go about this. Be it in FCP or Motion or if there are tools in-built that exist that could create this effect.

As I said most of the material I see about shadows is creating drop shadows of objects, but I need these shadows on my subjects without the objects present.

Does this make sense?