Hey people. I was making up a scene the other day, and to simplify it, it consists of three elements. First, the ground. Second, a cube that's been stretched and flattened, and had a gas texture applied to it for a fog layer. Thirdly, above the gas layer is an object with a light source. Problem is, the light casts the object's shadow onto the gas layer as well as the ground. How can I make the object's shadow appear on the ground but not on the gas layer? It looks okay on the gas layer, but I think it'd look better if the shadow was only on the ground. Thanks! TinMan

Was the shadow making the cube show up AS a cube? Thgat is, did it have an edge to it, or were the shadows being projected onto the gas in an undefined way? I had a similar problem yesterday, and I couldn't figure out what to do about it either. Maybe you could take a copy of the object that you want to have shadowed and flatten it and stretch it according to the angle of the light, and place IT underneath the cube, and give it a dark and fuzzy material to kind of simulate a shadow? And then figure out a way to light the original object so it's consistent with the shadows, but isn't actually casting a shadow down. I don't know if any of that would work or look real enough, but it's worth a shot. I couldn't find a way around my problem, and this just occurred to me. IO wish I didn't have to go to work now! Cheers, Mike

heyas; in reality, shadows are cast on fog/cloud things, if they're thick enough, so technically, vue is doing things properly. there is a way to have a material not cast shadows, but there doesn't seem to be a way to have a material not accept shadows. the closest i could get was by making the material additive. of course, this messes up the value of your colours, so you might not be able to get the gas to look the way you want it to. you can also try messing with non-shadow-casting lights, to try to lighten up the shadow on the gas. you might try using a plane, instead of a cube. if you angle it towards the camera correctly, you can get a misty layer look... and maybe you can avoid having it where the item will cast a shadow on it. and/or you might try turning up the ambient light on the cube, until it isn't shadowed anywhere. aha... okay, if you turn the ambient light to 100% and the diffuse light to 0%, it won't take shadows. huh, whaddya know! :) you're right, though, it does look funny with the shadow on top of the cube, but not cutting down THROUGH the fog to the ground. that's what's strange about it.

Yeah...what Bloodsong said...please get back to us and let us know what you tried and how well it worked! Cheers, Mike

Thanks everyone. Bloodsong, what you said works like a charm. Low, near zero diffuse lighting and high ambient lighting dampens the shadow right down. It looks a lot better now. Thanks all!

cool! :)

Cool, bloodsong...you just keep all that great Vue info rolling on in here! Please? Cheers, Mike

Just posted the picture in the gallery, you can see what I was talking about. It's called "Alien Relic". See yas, and thanks! Lynton

Good job, Tin Man.... I looked at it, and I think that mist is pretty cool..and I love the color of everything...looks like you got the shadow problem solved. Cheers, Mike