need help with infinite white floor

dale_5e04542c64

I have V4 and I am trying to pose her on a white floor with no other scenes or props with a cameral pointing a bit down at her. I have an Advanced Ambient Light set up and I'm happy with her look rendered in 3delight. 

But I'm trying to get shadows on the floor for her. I created a plane, put it on the floor, and added a white surface to it. If I scale the plane small (3 feet, etc), the edges of plane can be seen from lighting. If I scale the plane huge, the shadows darken the outer distance of plane. 

Is there a trick to creating an infinite white floor that shows the shadows only under the character being posed? Thanks for any help with this. 

SimonJM

From memory just the Advanced Ambient will not create sharply defined shadows by itself.  I'd suggest turning it's intesnity down to rounf 55 or 60% and also using a spotlight (an AoA one?) above, to one side and in front of, plus tilted to point at the figure to cast a shadw.  Set it's fall-off to be 'squared' and leave intensity as it is.  Do a trial render, re-position spot and adjust intesnties as needed, etc.

Dareshiranu

I'm doing somewhat the same thing, but in IRay with Genesis 3 figures. I'm creating a bunch of character presets and doing a test render of each that I thought I might use somehow as a thumbnail. 

Anyway, what I did was create a cube with a dimension of 10m on a side. I played with the surfaces a fair amount, tried mirrors on all of them (interesting but ultimately too surreal). Finally I ended up with white on all surfaces but one or two which I kept as mirrors because I enjoyed the effect, but you could just go all white. Depending on the lighting it just looks, well, white without a discernable background and while I'm currently using Ghostlights (an IRay product) But not unlike the above post just one above the subject and one in front of it. So I imagine that two spotlights in 3D might well have the same or similar effect. Plus the white walls will ultimately allow me to play with lighting color in interesting ways in the future. I'm thinking of making a set of various sized cubes for different scenes to see just how they might turn out. My own version of a skydome ;).

DigiDotz

https://www.sharecg.com/v/70391/view/21/DAZ-Studio/Shadow-Catcher-For-DAZ-Studio-4.5%2B

Maybe a shadow catcher would work? I admit I'm not sure for your lights.   Apply to a plane under your figure and then set environment type>backdrop - white

Fishtales

pwCatch does what you want.

SimonJM

Why go to the lengths of a shadow catcher? The plane the OP has created will 'catch' any shadows cast - they just need the lighting to do it!   Or am I missing something fundamental?

dale_5e04542c64

The shadow catcher looks like a good thing. Whatever I do with the plane, the shadows/light seem to show the edge of plane (which I don't want). Thank you for all the suggestions.

dale_5e04542c64

Is anyone more familiar with http://www.daz3d.com/pwcatch

I was thinking I could use the plugin to create shadows without creating a plane. But, does the plugin need a surface to cast shadows?

In other words, could I have Victoria in a scene with nothing but her (no floor, etc) and have shadows cast on the floor from her? Just trying to confirm this before I purchase plugin. Thanks for any help. 

dale_5e04542c64

I think I might have figured something out. I made the plane of floor huge. Then I added an Advanced Distant Light and turned the shadows off and turned the intensity way down. It seems to light the whole plane so I now have an infinite white floor with shadows under the figure (from the ambient light).