Shadow Catcher Material - Emitting Light

Corona Corona for 3ds Max Help Required
1

It may be an obvious button but whenever I use a shadow catcher material it acts like it is emitting light. No other lights in the scene but the model is still being lit up. Is this just how it works or am I missing something?

Thank you in advance.

2

At very least an image showing what you mean would be a huge help (along with either the scene, or screengrabs of the various set ups of the scene)

3

Absolutely, here’s a quick scene with an open sided box (default shadowcatchermaterial) and a sphere inside. There is no lighting in the scene so I would have thought the ball would be black but it appears to be illuminated by the shadowcatcher material.

ball in a box.jpg
ball in a box.jpg800×450 12.3 KB

4

The Shadowcatcher material produces GI according to its color/texture map - which is logical, you want the shadow and surrounding objects to be affected by its GI, otherwise it wouldn’t look natural.
You could probably use the Rayswitcher material with the Shadowcatcher nested in its Direct/Visibility slot and a black material in the GI and Reflection slots as a workaround.

5

Ok great thank you, good to know it is how it is and not something I’m doing.