Shadow Catcher Setting For Maya

[vikastri]

Hi,

Need a shadowcatcher ground plane for a scene. Played around with the VRayMtrlWrapper, but only getting a black ground plane.

Any simple shadowcatcher material/settings available for Maya??

Regards,

Vikas

[vlado]

Another way is to do it from the V-Ray object properties - assign them to your object, turn on Matte, turn on Shadows and Affect Alpha; set the Alpha contribution to -1. That should be all. The alpha of the image should contain the shadows.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vikastri]

Thanks.. can you elaborate in details please. I am new to Maya/Vray.

Regards,
Vikas

[yolov]

You can practically use either the Material Wrapper or the VRay object properties (Create > V-Ray > object properties for a given object) to achieve this (see the attached scene). matte_wrapper.zip

In both you have to enable the "matte surface" option in the Matte properties, then set the alpha contribution to -1 and enable "shadows" and "affect alpha". If you choose the material wrapper, you'll have to assign it any material for "base". This way those objects will only receive shadows from other objects.

If you have any other questions regarding this, don't hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
yolov

[vikastri]

I am getting no shadows with VRayMtrlWrapper if I do not use a base material (see image below). If I do, it all becomes black.

[vikastri]

Thank Yolov.. applying the material wrapper texture I am still getting a black background. On the panel it is saying "Please replace background override texture (Render settings>VRay>Environment// or hypershade >textures)"

[yolov]

That was a note from me, because you need to use your own texture for this. You can hide this note from the Channe box > display layers (I've made a separate layer for it) or by just deleting it.

As for the case when the matte object goes black, I see that you're using a texture from the dome light. You have to connect the same texture for "background override" (in Render Settings > V-Ray > Environment) and also you'll have to set the "GI texture" to pure black when using GI.



Best regards,
yolov

[vikastri]

Thanks Yolov, it worked! The missing piece was the background override in Render settings.