Creating a hold-out matte layer?

Deke

I know there is some way to create a matte layer. One way is simply turn off all the lights so the figure is rendered in black, but I believe there is a way to select the figure and tell it not to reflect any light that hits it. What control would have that affect?

Deke

Answering my own question. I can get a silhouette if I turn every color setting to black. For some reason my figure won't render at all now...as though it's turned off or invisible. You really ned a PhD to understand all the settings in the surfaces tab....

Richard Haseltine

Make sure Opacity isn't set to 0. All you should need to do is zero Diffuse, Ambient, Specular and Reflection strength.