I have 2 Poser jobs (.pz3) which I have revived; I started them in November 2011. I now have Poser 11. In them, the backgound has large areas of nearly flat ground, and I get Poser objects and people to cast shadows on them by placing a one-sided square on the background's ground surface and setting its material to "shadow catch only" mode, and running in Firefly. (In November 2011 it ran OK.)

In one job, running in Ray Trace shadows and in Depth map shadows (as selected on the dominant light's properties panel), renders OK, and shadows of legs render sharply as expected.

In the other job, rendering in Ray Trace mode produces no "shadow catch" shadows, and rendering in Depth map mode produces "shadow catch" shadows only for large bulks and not for legs and similar, whatever I try.

Can you post examples of what you're seeing? I have a couple of ideas but I'd like to see your renders before I (yet again) stick my foot in my mouth.

Thanks.

Check your bias settings. Bias controls the minimum size an object must be to cast shadows.

Thanks. I got it to work. https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/?image_id=2688860

P.S. In the Poser 11 help, text-searching for information about IBL is not easy because the searcher keeps on hitting the word "possible".

Anthony, could you share you technique for this? I am sure there are users who would love to create similar imagery.

Render with ray-tracing set on in the "Render Settings".

In each of the lights' Properties panel/column, select "Ray Trace shadows".

Put a one-sided square on the background's ground surface (the right way up) and set it to visible, and set its material to "shadow catch only" mode, and run in Firefly. If the ground surface on the background is curved or bent, you may have to model a surface that shape. (Likely it would have to be vertical to catch shadows on a wall.)

And here. (I took the background photograph.)

Fantastic tip Anthony! Thank you for sharing this. For those who want to replicate this please keep in mind one shortcoming in Superfly is that it cannot do "shadow catch only". This is purely a firefly technique ... and a wonderful one.

Here is the link for bagginsbill's Shadow Catcher. https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/shadow-catcher

Wonderful image. The only problem I have with it is the lack of occlusion where feet are suppose to touch the surface. The figures still appear floating.

Since you are working in Firefly. OA can definitely be applied to the shadow catcher and the feet as well for that matter.

lack of occlusion: as well as a ground shadow plane, we need an invisible plane or surface, parented to object or character X, which would prevent Poser from rendering those parts of X which are on the wrong side of the plane.

One thing you have to take care about is the position of the scene light that creates your ground shadows - it should more or less match the position of the light in the background image.

In your photo, the sun is high and coming from front right (notice the shadow of the boat's prow on the right, and the balcony railings on the far left). But the scene light is set low (and further back on the right), so the submarine's shadow is long and the ground underneath it is fully illuminated. That shadow doesn't fit with the background.

lack of occlusion: as well as a ground shadow plane, we need an invisible plane or surface, parented to object or character X, which would prevent Poser from rendering those parts of X which are on the wrong side of the plane.

I think you may be misinterpreting what hborre meant by occlusion. All the parts of X should still be visible (they would only be invisible if buried in the 'ground'), but I think hborre meant there there should be some extra depth of shadow where X's feet are close to or touching the ground, for added 'believability'. (I'm not sure AO would do that on a shadow-catch only surface - I'd have to try it).

He may mean that the nearer the shading object is to the ground, the sharper is the shadow, because the real sun is not a point source but half a degree wide. Does Poser 11's shadowing system allow for this?

Anthony Appleyard posted at 9:34PM Tue, 07 June 2016 - #4271711

He may mean that the nearer the shading object is to the ground, the sharper is the shadow, because the real sun is not a point source but half a degree wide. Does Poser 11's shadowing system allow for this?

This is a different matter, but yes, it does. Let's assume that by "Poser 11's shadowing system" you mean Firefly, not Superfly (since you are using Firefly, and were asking about Firefly in your other thread). As in previous versions, you can still control shadow sharpness in Firefly using a light's "Shadow Blur Radius" parameter.

IsaoShi posted at 6:07PM Tue, 07 June 2016 - #4271771

.... As in previous versions, you can still control shadow sharpness in Firefly using a light's "Shadow Blur Radius" parameter.

But does the sharpness of those shadows vary with how near the shadowing object is to the surface receiving the shadow?

Anthony Appleyard posted at 10:03PM Wed, 08 June 2016 - #4271778

But does the sharpness of those shadows vary with how near the shadowing object is to the surface receiving the shadow?

Yes. I posted this example in the other thread too.

Edit: by the way, this example shows a very 'grainy' shadow - this is what happens when you blur them. To improve the quality, increase the number of Shadow Samples.