Is there a way to render an object's shadow without rendering the object itself?

lou_harper

I thought I could do it with Canvases, but doesn't seem to be the case. Not only that but the sphere primitive I put in the scene is rendering without a shadow. Draw ground is on.

hansolocambo

Iray Matte and Advanced Iray Node Properties seem to be the way to go :

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/4035871/#Comment_4035871

Same thing. In video.

Rendering ain't really my thing. I tried to follow the tutorial in Daz forums and couldn't get both : object invisible and shadow. 

If you manage to do it. Please share the process here.

lou_harper

Woot, thanks!

lou_harper

Okay, It's not quite what I wanted. I have followed the canvases tutorial to the letter in my original attempt.

I did additional testing and what I found out that I can have have shadow cast on another object but not on a transparent object. What I wanted was when you render an object without environment, with transparent background, dome off, but ground shadow on, but without the object. It doesn't seem to be possible.

hansolocambo

Yeah I don't know sorry. We're lucky to have Iray in Daz. It's not great but withtout that it'd be 3Delight... Sadly none of the serious rendering engines are interested in developping for Daz (Vray, Redshift, etc.). And iRay seriously lacks options compared to other pro renders. 

I'd have told told you to try Corona. But Since Chaos (Vray) bought Corona, I'm not even sure there's still developping a Corona for Daz. Can't find it anywhere. Chaos has never been interested in the Daz market :/

Best option maybe, as it's simple to use and damn efficient, try with Keyshot. 

Hopefully someone will come in here with an idea.

lou_harper

No worries, it wasn't anything important. Just a minor would be nice if it worked, but I'm fine without it.