Hello, I can hardly believe that I am not possible to render a picture with a shadow of the person on the ground. I read in the manual that there is only a shadow on the ground to help building the scene. But it must be possible to have a shadow on the ground, mustn't it? Any ideas? Thanks!

Do you have shadows enabled in the render settings? Do you have a ground prop (the preview shows shadows even when there is no ground prop)?

Message edited on: 05/28/2004 08:18

This confuses people all the time. To expand on what Stewer said: The 'ground shadows' that you see in preview mode are just a guide. They can be turned on and off from the display menu, and have their colour changed from the little dot to the right of your window. They aren't real shadows. To get real shadows, you need all of the following: 1) Render your picture. No offence intended, but I don't know your level of experience. 2) Have 'cast shadows' enabled in your render settings (it's off by default) 3) Have shadows enabled, and set to a level > 0 in at least one light's properties (on by default, I think) 4) Have 'casts shadows' enabled in the properties of the thing you're rendering (on by default) 5) Have something to cast shadows on. Surprisingly, the Poser ground plane is not very good at this, and gives confusing results; but it should give something. Many people, myself included, use a separate ground prop. 6) Have the lights angled so that a shadow will be cast - the default light set should pretty much guarantee this. These comments apply to Poser 3 and 4, and the P4 renderer setting in Poser 5. There's probably more settings to cope with if you're using the Firefly renderer. Let us know more about what you're doing, and your Poser version, if you still can't get it to work.

Hello! OK, I solved the problem: Just as I added a plane to the ground and rendered, there was a shadow... Thanks!

I'm seeing something curious in a few of my renders related to this topic. (Like other newbies I quickly found the need for an "actual" ground prop which I now use.) I'm using Richabri's "Light of Day" Set--highly recommended--but occasionally I get a render where the shadows don't meet the character, giving the impression that she's floating above the ground plane when, in fact, she's not. I usually have one of the infinite lights casting shadows with the settings between 0.7 and 0.9, and a map size of 1024. I've tried altering these settings, camera angle, which light casts the shadow, light intensity, etc., and even tried changing the shadow light to a spotlight, but I keep seeing the same result. Any suggestions?

Attached Link: http://www.morphography.uk.vu/dlprop.html

This usually happens when you're using the Poser ground, since it isn't actually situated at Y=0 but slightly below it (and it seems to have unique trouble with shadows even if you drop your characters down to it). If you're using a prop, I can only suggest that you check that your character really is standing on it. The prop I use (link to my downloads) has edges on it, so you can easily use the orthogonal cameras (front, back, left, right) to adjust your character's feet to be on the ground. The other thing to do which improves shadows is to select a spotlight's shadow camera. This has to be done from the menu below the document window, and will give you a weird view, but if you zoom in carefully so that its field of view covers only the parts of your scene that will be shadowed, it will improve the efficiency of the shadow map rendering.

I experienced this also - with other lights, I never could figure out why. Sometimes rebuilding the scene from scratch helps, this was the only solution I found.

EnglishBob, Thanks for the link, first of all! Secondly, I DO use a floor prop of some sort now with all my renders for the very reason you state. And I am certain my character is ON the prop, not above it, so that's not it. I'll give the spotlight camera trick a try, tho. Mungo, I hope I don't have to go that far, esp. after completing a complex scene only to discover the shadows are wonky! Keeping my fingers crossed for other suggestions.

Spire and MungoPark, The problem you're both having is probably not related to the type of ground plane, but as bob says, to the shadow cameras. Here's some information from one of my product Help Files ----------------------------------- 'A shadow camera shows you what the light 'sees', and the shadow you get in a render will be made based upon this view. The general rule with shadow cams is to zoom in on your figure in the shadow cam view, and center it in the frame. There are 2 ways to adjust the shadow cam. One is to use the dials on the camera itself. The other is to first select the camera view, then select the light and use it's dials. Adjusting the light's parameters will change the shadow cam view, and the shadow quality in the final render. Try this experiment. Go to the camera menu below the document window, and select the correct shadow camera (the one for the light casting the main shadow). You will see a highly distorted view of your scene. Use the zoom and pan dials to center the main figure in the scene and fill the frame with it. Then go back to your main view and render the scene. You'll notice an immediate difference in the shadows. They become much crisper and more detailed' ----------------------------------- So, to cut it short, you should go to the shadow cam for your main light, then frame the figure or the part of the scene you're actually rendering. The shadows will improve immensely, and they'll be joined to the feet. mac

Thanks for that maclean - I had forgotten about the shadow cameras. They are a part of Poser 4 right? It seems I need an endless supply of clue by fours..... Unzipped

That's why we have forums like this... someone asks a question and several other people get helped, too. And it breaks the ice so that more questions get asked and answered. :) Note: when placing people or props, I'll use the orthagonal cameras just to be certain that feet are on the floor. The perspective views are better for rendering, but they can hide faulty placement until the shadows reveal the culprit. Carolly

Message edited on: 05/28/2004 21:10

Re post #5. Spire, there is a discussion on shadows that don't meet the character, in the thread linked above, unfortunatly no complete solution is provided. Here are some more threads touching on shadows: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1059682 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1714783 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1685692 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1361737 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1673996 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1100126 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1608372 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1268277 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1788466 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1731647 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1724574

Thanks guys and gals for the tips!