Creating Ground Shadows on a PNG animation...

Enlighter

So we are animating a character out using png files. curious how we could achieve the effect of light casting the characters shadow onto the ground which would also render out into the png, but still allow for us to put the png file over any ground texture with the shadow there?

Thanks in advance.

Mark Dygert

Depends on the 3D app the specific steps are a little different but the process is pretty much the same.

- On the ground geometry turn off shadow casting (still receives) so only the object you want casting shadows is your character.
- Apply matte/Shadow material (background shader in Maya) to your ground geometry.
- Render and call it a day.

Just to be clear you're looking to do something kind of like this?

Enlighter

vig,

yes and no. Each frame of the animation is being rendered out as a 2d png file which are then recompiled in the engine to give the effect of a full 3D character. Maybe your saying the same thing, I wish I was more familiar with it all.