I am using Cycles and I have 3 point light setup. All three lights are Meshes with Emission. Can’t find any way to disable shadows for 2 of the lights. Basically I want all objects in the scene to have just 1 shadow, rather than 3.
If I was using lamps, I could achieve this easily by unchecking “Cast Shadow” for 2 of the lamps.
Searched whole internet as much as I can, but couldn’t find an answer.
I don’t know for sure if its possible,
but you can try to place the 3 lights in 3 different Passindex and check the shadow pass in the Renderlayer settings.
In compositor edit the shadow pass for 2 of 3 and put them off, but still use the light (maybe with one of the options in the mix node).
So that the 2 of 3 meshes with emission cast light but not shadow
Sounds complex… I’ll try to do that and let you know. Thanks for the help.
I think you could use the light path node to make the shadows invisible by linking the “Is Shadow Ray” and Mix Shader. Perhaps you have to make mesh light. I will post a screen shot of the node setup quickly if its possible…
I had tried with the light path node, linking the “Is Shadow Ray” and mixing with transparent BSDF, but it seems to not affect the shadows cast by other objects.
If you are able to do it, please share the node setup if possible.
Thanks.
It’s not possible for mesh lights. When you want to control if the light casts or does’t cast shadows - use light objects, not emitting meshes. Lighting from emitting meshes is calculated differently, more physically correct, so you have less control over it. It’s like trying to tell the real physical lamp in your room not to cast shadows…
Different tools for different purposes.
The solution with light path node doesn’t work with mesh lights, because shadow rays are not generated for mesh lights (as far as I understand how it works. Please correct me if I’m wrong).
@BartekSkorupa Thanks for a concrete answer… I’ve seen many of your tutorial videos and it was very helpful 