shadows (9)

[wurp]

how do I make an object in XSI recieve shadows only, and not render itself?

[atyss]

Do you mean: the shadows that are casted on the object are rendered but the object itself is not rendered?

If the answer is yes, I don't know if this is possible to do it in XSI. But it is very feasable in post-prod.

Render your scene without the shadow you want to apply to the invisible object.
Then, take the same scene and change all the materials to constant white. Make visible the "invisible" object, and make it constant white too.
Turn off shadow emission for every object, except the one that casts shadow on your invisible object.
Render the scene.

Now, let say you use After Effect. Import your first render, this will be the bottom layer.
Then, create a layer with only a black solid color. This will be the shadow itself.
Next, import the second render, and place it on top of the other layers. Apply an Invert effect (Effects > Channel > Invert).
Make sure that in the timeline window you see the Modes. Select the middle layer (black color), then click on None under the TrkMat column, and choose Luma Matte.
Here you go!

Hope this helps
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[devdoka]

Now, for the easy method

To create shadows only:

1) Render > [Pass] Edit > New Pass > Shadow

To create a pass without shadows:

1) Set current pass to "Default" using the passes dropdown menu on the Render toolbar.
2) Render > [Pass] Edit > New Pass > Empty. Rename it to "NoShadow".
3) Verify current pass is "NoShadow" (or whatever you named it), then access the render options for this pass via:

Render > [Render] Render > Options.

4) Click the "Active Effects" Tab in the resulting PPG, then change the dropdown menu for Shadow type from the default of "Regular" to "None".

Now that both passes are set to go, you can render them using Render > [Render] Render > All Passes.

Hope this helps,

Matt

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Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com