O.K I have looked through past forum posts and through the tutorials and haven't found what I'm trying to do, although I will admit that I could have over look it.

What I'm trying to do is have two figures in an images, one figure that can be seen in the main part of the image and can be seen as reflection, and a second figure that is invisible in the main part of the image but will be seen in the reflection only.  Just so I know I'm being clear: Fig. A seen in reflection and main image; fig. B seen in reflection only but not seen in main image.

If it where not for the arrangement of the figures, the placement of the camera and the round shape of the reflective surface I would do this with multiple renders and assemble the image in Photoshop.

I'd really appreciate What ever help or thought you may have on my problem.  If you know of any forum pasts or tutorials that I may have over looked, then please let me know the author or some other way to quickly search for them.

Thanks

Moonwatcher

P.S. I'm using Poser 7

You can do some of this in the properties panel but not all so best to edit the CR2 file directly. Search for:-

castsShadow
visibleInReflections
visibleInRender

Set value to 1 to be visible
Set value to 0 to be hidden

Hope that helps.

I'm thnking that the cleanest way of handling this is in post work. Build your image twice: once with both characters and their reflections, once with just the one character and his/her reflection.

Then take the mirror part of the first image and composite it into the second.

Sean:

Thank you for takeing the time to read and respond to my post.

I have thought about doing several renders then cutting and pasting the parts together in Photoshop, but the placement of the fig. that is to be invisible is between the camar and the  reflective surface.

Moonwatcher

Crikey.

Any particular reason you want to give yourself a compositional headache like this? :)

Hmm. Okay, there has to be a workable solution here. Since your reflected character is inside the mirror, try this. Render with the "real" character the way you want him/her/it set up. As you position him/her/it, put your to-be-reflected character on the opposite side of the mirror wall -- dont worry that you cant see him yet. But place him the same distance away from the wall on one side as your other character is on "our" side of the wall.

Render.

Save.

Okay, now strip out everything but the to-be-reflected character. Adjust your lights to mirror their previous positions. Render against black with an alpha channel.

Save as a different file name. Export the image and the alpha.

Okay, now you have your reflection in the right place, and you can isolate it from the background. Put it into your image and start compositing.

Obviously, it depends on what else is in the scene, but if you place your reflection only figure behind the camera, it will still reflect in the mirror, but will be unseen next to your other figure.
The skeleton is placed behind the camera in this scene, yet is still reflected next to the main figure in the scene. The other problem then is placement in the scene in comparison to the main figure, but that would be trial and error.

The attached picture shows an example of what I mean. A reflected skeleton, yet only Ryan is visible un-reflected.

When you want reflections of an "invisible" figure be sure to have the smooth polygons  button checked in your rendersettings. Otherwise it won't work.

best regards,

Bopper.

You can do it for figure or bodypart.   The sample has head and chest not visible in raytrace.

Quote - Crikey.

Any particular reason you want to give yourself a compositional headache like this? :)

Hay what does not kill you, makes you stronger,

Again thank you all for your time, I'm in the process of trying some of your suggestions.

Moonwatcher