Shadows in 3Delight or Basic OpenGL

plan111

Hi.

I need to export some animations that are quick to render, so I'll render with 3Delight if the animation is not too long, and with OpenGL if it's long. I don't need the quality of IRay, takes way too long.

I've been fighting with Daz to get a shadow from these two render engines, with no success whatsoever. I created a simple shadow (just a blurred rounded rectangle on a transparent background). In iClone, I just parent that shadow as a plane to a vehicle and it works wonderfully. However, in Daz, when I apply it to a plane, when rendering I still see the contour as a light gray. Is there some setting I can change in the surfaces tab so that the contour becomes transparent? Or any other simple way to apply a shadow in either of those 2 render engines?

Thanks.

Sven Dullah

For 3DL, are you using a linear workflow (meaning do you have gamma correction on and gamma set to 2.2)? That's how it should be done! If yes, are you using an opacity map for your "shadow"? Are the black (transparent) areas pure black? Check the gamma settings in image editor for the transmap, if you use gamma correction, the gamma for the transmap should be 1. If gamma correction is off (not recommendable) it should be 0.

With shadow problems, do you mean groundshadows? You can create a shadowcatcher in 3DL if you wnat those groundshadows rendered without actual geometry. But then you also need a lightsource that casts shadows.

plan111

Thanks for the reply Sven.

I'm not sure about that gamma stuff. I just created a shadow on a transparent bg and whenever I open it in any program (Photoshop, After Effects, Vegas, Premiere, iClone, etc) it just opens with the transparent bg. Where do I change the gamma settings in Daz?

Yes I do mean ground shadows. I checked a few tutorials on creating a shadow catcher but they didn't work for me.

By the way, sorry for posting the image 3 times. Nothing happened when I clicked on Upload File, so I kept clicking.

Sven Dullah

Gamma settings can be found in the render settings pane/editor. Just set gamma correction on and gamma value to 2.2. That should be the default, but for some reason it's not;) Yeah, you need to create that shadowcatcher shader in shadermixer if you want proper groundshadows. Or you can use products like IBL-Master by Parris. It gives you the option to use HDRIs with a shadowcatcher ground plane. You might want to check it out!

Dug up this for you, in case it helps:

1. Create a new scene and load a 3DL skydome, just to cover transparent areas (not necessary, just looks nicer;)

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This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.

 

2. Create a primitive plane that will work as the shadow catcher! Select it and turn Cast Shadows off in parameters/display. Also select it in the surface tab!

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This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.

 

3. Open the shadow mixer pane, it will look something like this:

 

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4. Delete the Default Material brick on the left by clicking the x in the upper right corner! Now you should have this:

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This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.

 

5. Insert the shadow catcher brick and the mix brick by double clicking them in the menu on the left!

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6. Connect the bricks, as shown in the screenshot by clicking and dragging! Set the color in the surface brick to pure black, and set the layer in the mix brick to a value between 0 and 1, one meaning black shadows and 0 meaning no shadows! With the plane selected in the scene tab AND the surface tab, click apply!

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This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.

 

7. Create a light with raytraced shadows and a sphere or whatever to test your shader!

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This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.

 

8. Do a testrender and save as a shader preset! If you want, you can go to the surface pane, click the cog wheel for the layer and rename it to shadow strength or something to your own taste!

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plan111

Thanks Sven.

It worked.

Sven Dullah

plan111 said:

Thanks Sven.

It worked.

Great!