Step 1: Preparing Your Surfaces
Following the instructions from Basics, import a model and set up a Target camera. Now draw a plane for your character to stand on. I use the Top and Front viewports to draw the planes. Once drawn you can change the color of the plane and name it if you choose in the…Name and Color section. Mindblowing!
By right-clicking the top-left corner of the viewport you can bring up the menu to change that viewport’s perspective. I usually change Top to Left so I can adjust the positions of my planes. Make sure your model’s feet lay flush on the surface of the plane. If you made another plane behind your character, use the Left view to move it into position.
Once your planes are in place, select one of the planes then open the Material Editor menu (Rendering > Material Editor). Click the “New Material” button (#1) then double-click “Matte/Shadow” (#2). Apply the material to your plane (#3) then exit the Material Editor. Repeat this process on any other planes.
Step 2: Adding A Light Source
You can’t have shadows without a light source so that’s the next logical step. In the New Object panel select the light icon then mr Area Omni (Omni will also work). Make sure the “On” box is checked under shadows, then place your light in the scene. Double-check the placement of the light, verifying that it’s above and behind the camera.
Now you can render the scene to check the light placement but there is one change to make first. Scroll down in the Rendering box and expand the “Assign Renderer” section. Click the dots next to “Production” and select “mentalRay Renderer” then click OK. Now you can render your scene (from the Camera01 viewport of course). It will work a little differently than before and may take longer. You should end up with something like this, where the shadows are clear and strong but you can’t actually see the planes in the scene.
Only one problem here – the model itself is mostly shadowed. That’s to be expected because of the angle of the light but you can fix this without moving your light; simply lighten the ambient light. Go to Rendering > Environment and click the Ambient box under “Global Lighting”. Adjust the whiteness slider to a lighter color and render again. Repeat this procedure until you have the balance you want.
Note: If you want your planes visible simply skip the part about applying a Matte/Shadow material. That will give you the appearance of having a floor and wall.
Practical Usage: Fusing Your Model Into A Screenshot
Let’s be honest, the reason people want to learn how to create and manipulate shadows is so they can render their model into a screenshot or picture. The procedure for this is actually pretty straightforward, it just requires a lot of practice and patience.
To start, pick your screenshot or picture and apply it as a background to your perspective viewport. Now import your model and give it a plane to stand on, then group the model and plane together. Place a camera and set your perspective viewport to Camera01. You should end up with something like this:
I picked a pretty simple still shot of my buddy wearing the same gear as me. Stretch the Camera viewport if you need to, it’s important to be able to see the ground and shadows so you can adjust your scene. Of course, my plane is blocking the ground in my screenshot and I honestly can’t get a good feel for the angles, so I need to change this view to wireframe like the bottom two viewports. To do this, just right-click the top-left corner of the viewport and select “Wireframe”.
Now comes the practice and patience part. Utilizing all of your viewports, move tilt zoom resize and adjust your model and plane until it looks like it belongs in the screenshot. There isn’t really much I can tell you about doing this except just eyeball it! You’ll either get it perfect or you won’t. Experience will help you get it right quicker, but this particular scene still took me ~5 minutes to get into place. Just keep working until it’s right.
Now you need to add your light source. Look at the existing shadow in the screenshot and try to imagine where the “sun” is, then add your own light there. In mine it looks to be behind and to the right of my scene and at a fairly steep angle above. Add your light and use your Top and Left viewports to get the position right.
From here it’s just guess-and-check. Render your scene and see what comes out.
My model placement looks good and the shadow isn’t too far off position, but the model and shadow are both way too dark. I’ll move my light a bit to the left of the scene and that should fix it. To lighten up the model, adjust the Ambient Light like discussed above. For the shadow, click on your light then go to the Modify panel. Expand the “Shadow Parameters” section, lighten the shadow color and decrease the density.
Render again and see if it looks better, that’s all you can do!
Now we’re getting somewhere. The model is still too dark, and now my shadow looks a little too light…probably need to raise the density back up a bit.
This example render took me 7-8 tries to get exactly how I wanted it, but there’s no point in showing each render. Just keep adjusting and moving, lightening and darkening, until everything looks right. Here’s my final picture:
The shadows are about perfect and the model lightness is much better, though the colors don’t exactly match. It’s a small difference, and with a little photoshop magic this would look like too friends hanging out in Windurst.
Alternate Method: Indistinct Shadows
Remember LordWafik’s signature style, with the fuzzy indistinct shadows under his models?
These are actually really easy to make, but beware! They take forever to render, so depending on your system and the complexity of your scene you could be sitting there awhile.
So to start, import your model, give it a Matte/Shadow plane to stand on, point a camera at it, set your perspective viewport to Camera01, then open the Render box. Scroll down to Assign Renderer, click on the dots next to “Production”, and select “Default Scanline Renderer”. Exit the Render menu, and now you can add a Skylight to the scene.
The skylight should be placed directly over the center of your model or scene. The height of the light will affect the size and density of the shadow, and it just takes practice to be able to judge how high to place it for the effect you want.
Make sure the “On” box is checked along with “Cast Shadows”, and do NOT set “Rays per Sample” above 20. Just trust me on this. Now render your scene from Camera01 viewpoint and go grab a sandwich. Maybe pick up a book. Eventually, you’ll come end up with something like this:
I set my model a little too far forward on the plane so the shadow cuts off at the front, but the effect came out nicely.