I'm currently trying to render shadow, but I'm curently using a Surface Shader in Mental for the sky assigned to a Nurbs sphere. The Surface shader illuminates the whole scene. I also created a few fill lights for the characters and certain sections of the background oblects. I set up a render layer with the characters and ground assigned with a Use Baground shader, but the shadows need the Surface shader (assigned to the sphere) to complete the shadows I created. I can't seem to do that since the surface shader is assigned to an object. I tried to turn off cast abd recieve shadows for the shpere, but that was a fail. What am I doing wrong and what can I do to adjust my shadows layer to get the results I need?
Below are to links to the Master layer shot and the render all layers is the second.
Master Layer Render
