Colored background without bouncing color ?

Support Lighting and Rendering
1

Hello,

I’ve modeled and rendered an object. I put on only the basic diffuse white material and one light source and the world color is completely black. I’m very happy with the image but I’m trying to figure out one thing.

As the light shines only from one source with no bounces from the background the shadows on the object fade to black and the edges blend into the black background.

I’m processing the image in Photoshop afterwards and because the outline of the mesh fades into the background it isn’t complete and I can’t extract it from the background.

My idea is that if I can make the world a different color, lets say red, but somewhere disable light bouncing off of it I would get the same shading on the object but I could easily extract it afterwards. I don’t want the color of the world reflecting on the object itself.

Is there a way to pull this of that isn’t too complicated or maybe another better way ?

Any input is appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

For the world nodes, use a Light Path/Is Camera Ray (can be added to other rays) to control what feeds the background node (or a mix shader with two background nodes).

3

If you aren’t using bounces from the background and don’t really want the background, can you just make it transparent? In cycles, set Render/Film/Transparent; in blender engine, use Render/Shading/Alpha:Transparent ?