Composition placeholders for external images

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

Hello everyone

I am doing a render of multiple different sized planes above each other with some distance. Some of those planes drop shadows onto the lower planes.

I would like to add an external image on the surface of one plane in the middle. The shadows from the upper planes should still apply to it. Also, I want the image not to be rendered and influenced by the light of the scene. (So adding the image as material does not work)

I tried multiple view/render layers and insert my image in the composition as “alpha overlay”, but then the planes in the upper layers give no shadows to the planes in the lower layers.

Is there a way to make a middle panel as “placeholder” that receives shadows, but can still have an external image on its surface?

Greetings, Mech

2

I found an interesting (workaround) solution myself, just now.

You go with top / bottom view layers. But the trick is, your bottom layer contains also the top layer for rendering. You will get the shadows from the top layer. And then add the “extra” top layer on top of the image in the middle. (So the image gets overlapped by the “real” top layer).