[MAX] - How to render out only shadows that appear on object

Danzigo · Dec 2013

Hi guys,

I know how to render shadows that appear on the matte shadow material but I'm having an issue with rendering just the shadows that appear on objects.

An example is, I have a plane with the matte-shadow material on with two boxes. Box one and 2 both apply shadows to the plane....so I simply right click the two boxes and uncheck "visible to camera" and render, getting only the shadows on the plane.

Now, box 1 is casting a shadow onto box 2. How do I go about rendering just the shadow on box 2 and not the actual box? I can render without any shadows but whenever I try to render the shadow, I either get the box with it or no shadow at all.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark Dygert · Dec 2013

I think I understand what you're trying to do...

Select the items you don't want to cast shadows, right click and choose object properties, then turn off "Cast Shadows"? If that doesn't work I didn't understand what you're trying to do =P

Memory · Dec 2013

Just put a matte/shadow material on the object you want the shadow to appear on and make sure it's visible to the camera.

So in your example, put a matte/shadow on your plane and on the cube receiving shadows (cube 2.) On your front cube just turn visible to camera off.

To get only the shadow on cube 2, hide or delete the plane.

@Mark - It's pretty clear what he's trying to do: http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_spells#Shadowcery :poly142:

Danzigo · Dec 2013

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ok, so I think I'm going to override all the materials with a matte/shadow and then do an entire render of the shadows.

ZacD · Dec 2013

You might want to look up render passes in 3ds max, I haven't used them in max, but if you want to control individual lighting and material attributes and effects in post, it's a great tool.

[MAX] - How to render out only shadows that appear on object

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