Thanks GraphiX 
Ok, the render for Dad is done 
I won’t post this one on Finished since I’d hate to contribute to seeing this backdrop everywhere. I’m preparing something else for those of us who can appreciate it, hah
i really like the lenses, what reference did you use?
So very, very cool!
I love the model and render.
Could you make a mini tutorial how you use the backplate and HDRI? I just cant figure it out.
Oh and I love old Toyotas. I have a ´75 Land Cruiser 
Thanks a lot guys 
@kilbee, I found a few detail reference shots of the headlights, like this one, and also researched how the lens generally works (like the wikipedia article I linked to).
@Tomi_88, I was indeed planning to do a short tutorial on it, since I haven’t seen the method I used well described anywhere. When I find the time I’ll see if there’s a screencasting app for Windows 7, if I don’t find anything decent it’ll have to wait until I install Linux on this machine. But basically I
- added a small plane where the shadow goes,
- set the camera view background image to the backplate,
- projected the UVs of the plane from view, in camera view, and assigned the backplate image as texture for the plane,
- adjusted the rotation of the HDRI to match the backplate orientation as much as possible, and rendered (the car and the plane),
- composited the car and plane (plus alpha) over the backplate, and saved the image to disk,
- fixed it up in gimp. The plane will receive not only the shadow but also the lighting, so you’ll have to correct that for it to match the rest of the ground. I pretty much suck at gimp so my result could have been better, I’m sure someone with better post-pro skills can make this work a lot better.
Also yep, love the old Land Cruiser too My brother almost owned one actually, he was looking at either that or the Nissan Patrol some 10 years ago, he found a great deal on the Patrol but it could have gone either way
Very Nice, you exceed me in patience and I’m humbled… looks great.
looks very, very nice. One of the best car renders I’ve seen in a while, and for once not some italian sportscar in a showroom either.
Thank you!
Indeed I’m trying hard not to make the usual renders, so I appreciate that note Kemmler A new render will be up soon, and I already have some ideas for maybe a couple more, although they’ll take some time to come to life.
Hi Rushlord, thank you very much! This was actually done with Luxrender… I think meanwhile Cycles got a few additions that made the effect easier to achieve but I haven’t explored it yet. I probably will soon with my current project, so I’ll let you know if I manage to solve it.
Hey Fax. Been a year since you posted your comment? Did you try it again? I’d like to know if you found a solution yet ^^
Hey Rushlord, wow time does fly… I haven’t tried this meanwhile after all, I see we still don’t have a “shadow only” pass in Cycles but maybe it’s possible some other way?
What about using the Nodes to put a Shadow Pass to the Output instead of the Combined Image? Cycles in 2.68 is missing a Spec pass but the Shadow Pass is there along with a new Mist pass.
Hi there would you sell your finished ke20 model it looks great.