Attached Link: http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/8383/terpsichore011920x1400.jpg

Is there any way to keep figures and props from casting shadows on a background and still keep shadows such as a skirt casting a shadow on a characters leg? My character is supposed to be dancing up in the clouds and clouds don't really catch shadows. Is there any way to accomplish the effect I want? Help please! Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

You can turn off "cast shadows" in the light properties of the light that is causing the shadows. Have you tried this first? As I know little about the scene, it is rather hard to make any kind of call. any info you can give us as to how it is set up would be very helpful...

 

C~

Wrong answer. OP said " and still keep shadows such as a skirt casting a shadow on a characters leg?" Turning off cast shadows will not still keep shadows elsewhere - there will be no shadows at all. Lights should always cast shadows, otherwise things look like stupid Poser images.

Do not use the Diffuse_Color channel. Connect the image to Color if you're talking about the Background material.

If this is an ordinary prop being used as a background, connect the image to Alternate_Diffuse and set it to white. The Alternate_Diffuse channel is supposed to be where you plug in your own choice for lighting model. However, if you just plug an image straight into it, then there is no lighting model and the image will be self lit. Thus, it is not affected by lights, in which case it also is unaffected by shadows.

Set Diffuse_Color to black or Diffuse_Value to 0 to shut it off. Also set Specular_Value = 0.

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Attached Link: http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6342/materialroom.jpg

Thank you bagginsbill for your suggestion. I don't know if I did what you said correctly because it didn't work, but I still have a lot to learn and understand about Poser 8. The link is what the Material Room looks like for my background. I added a background plane then in the Material Room I connected the Poser Surface to an Image Map and then for the Image Source I selected a .jpg for the background. This is how I added my backgroud. Is it possible to keep this background from catching shadows? The background is clouds which would not in reality catch shadows. Thank you.

I did a quick test to see if BB's suggestion works, and sure enough it works (it always does if BB says it, lol)... Here's the image and the screen shot of the settings.

Here's the results :)

Attached Link: http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/2056/terpsichoreshadows1920x.jpg

Thank you icandy265 for the visuals they really helped me figure out what bagginsbill was suggesting.

And thank you again bagginsbill for you wonderful help.

This time it pretty much worked, most of the background shadow is gone. Only a little bit of shadows are on the background, but I can easily take care of them in Photoshop, they are very small as the pic link shows.

So, overall I finally got the effect that I wanted. Thank you guys, you are great. I really appreciate the help :) .

Your welcome... and I suppose BB could explain why there are still shadows on the bottom portion??

Anyways, that pic looks super good :)

I think there are still shadows because the floor has a fading mask. The shadows you still see are supposedly cast on the floor that fades into the background.

If you use PS anyway, you might also render without a background over a solid color and save the render as tif to get an alpha channel. I would use a light purplish grey and add the background in postwork.

There is another way too, under the file drop down menu Select import>background picture.  No shadows what so ever on it. Great for vista views in back of figure etc.

If you change your mind, use Display drop down menu and clear background.  Jan