Tips on how to render Anima People separately please

[PGD]

I've rendered the animation already and would like to these Anima people over the top of those frames, but I'm struggling with decent looking shadows. (not that any of it looks great compared with the results I see on here!! )

When the characters are in the direct sunlight the result is ok. It's when they are under trees or the shadow of the building where the problem lies.

I got to this result by selecting everything but the people, then in Vray Properties check Matte object, set Alpha contribution to -1. Then select the floor which the people are walking on and in Vray properties again checked the Shadows and Affect alpha boxes.

Looking at this in the Docs now but it seems really complicated: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...Moving+Objects

Any ideas?

[Leeds3D]

as it happens i've just been trying this myself for an animation (rendering an empty scene, then adding the people masked out afterwards). so far my logic goes as follows:

? Vray Override material - for everything in the scene except for the people.
? the override material is a VrayMtlWrapper, with a default vray material as its base
? in the VrayMtlWrapper settings tick "Matte surface", "Matte for Refl/Refr", "Shadows", "Affect alpha" and untick "Receive GI"
? add into vray elements vrayrawshadow and ...VrayMtlRefractGlossiness (as a standin for the alpha)

that should render just the people with the sky in the background, receiving shadows, a separate shadow layer that only shows what shadows the people are casting and then use the VrayMtlRefractGlossiness element layer to mask the two layers correctly. Set the mode for VrayRawShadow layer to "Darker Colour" in photoshop to avoid extra dark shadows in photoshop.

[PGD]

Thanks for that.

Here's what my images/elements look like - is that right?

Compositing with AE I can't get to anything like the result I want I attach an image of BF render with all visible - guess I should have rendered it all in one with the people on!

[Leeds3D]

pretty much AE is a bit more fussy than Photoshop, but generally does have the same output (often through very laborious routes). I suspect there is a more efficient way to composite the people in afterwards but i've not found it yet!

[PGD]

Ok, I'll keep trying.

On a side note, are you in or from Leeds? I'm just outside of there in Wakefield, work in Sheffield..