I’m trying to set an object as a mask that casts a shadow but doesn’t render. I need this type of object so that I can composite the 3d elements onto a video but I just can’t remember what setting I need to change for the masks.
Here is a previous scene I made that I’m trying to replicate.
I checked the materials but they are set to the default BSDF shaders and under the Object Properties > Visibility, the setting seems to be the default as well. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks for the replies. I figured it out this morning. It was a combination of the Shadow catcher and setting the Film Transparent.
Here is a screenshot. The right image shows the basic geometry and with the sides of the garage shadow catcher. And the left image is a cycles view that i’ll render and composite over my footage.
In case anyone is interested… here is the result of rending the footage. The movement 3d and footage don’t match that well. I shot this with a handheld camera and then motion tracked it in Blender and modeled the scene around that motion tracking. I think next time I’ll stabilize the footage in After Effects before bringing it into Blender. I think this will help keep things lined but and then I can always add the camera shake back in with After Effects.
What kind of camera exactly? Did you need to enter any very specific technical details about the camera into Blender in order to get a successful track? Have you had any success tracking footage taken with a phone? I ask because I have had zero success tracking anything and all I have is an old phone. I have downloaded source videos from various video tracking tutorials and failed to successfully track those as well
So, i shot this on a full frame A7II. But I didn’t input any info about my camera or of settings into Blender. It did take me a while to get a decent track but eventually I got it under a 0.5 solve error. Checking the tracking graph really helped me identify motion paths that didn’t align with the rest of the scene.
Ian Hubert has a great video on tracking if you haven’t already checked it out.
