Iray - shadows, invisible objects with, visible objects without

kaotkbliss

So I've finally completely moved back over to Iray and one of the scenes I had created in 3delight had a visible model that didn't cast a shadow, and an invisible model that did have shadows. Is there a way to create this effect in Iray?

 

It's like the scene in Brahm Stokers Dracula where the shadow from Dracula was of a completely different entity. In my scene is was a girl with the shadow of a demon.

fixmypcmike

Not in Photoreal mode, but I believe you can in Interactive mode.

KA1

Fixmypcmike said:

Not in Photoreal mode, but I believe you can in Interactive mode.

Interesting... could you maybe prevent things being reflected on a reflective surface in interactive mode then?

kaotkbliss

That was my next question after all, vampires don't have reflections

Tobor

Interactive mode has additional functions for turning shadows on/off. Reflections are still shown.

Really, unless you're doing an animation, it is *much* easier to do the mirror trick in post. Shadows only (also in interactive mode) can be done using canvases. Do a search in the forum for some discussions of how to enable the canvas feature. Some output canvases require the use of Photoshop or some other program that can composite HDR images. It is not straightforward.

Off topic, but here goes: Bear in mind that the lore in some cultures describes vampires with both reflections and shadows, and in those  cases, the reflections and shadows are usually of far more sinister and evil creatures -- like your demon shadow. Lacking a reflection is a little ho-hum, if you ask me (which you didn't!). It was, however, something very easy to do in old movies, so you saw it a lot. In Stokers' day, it was scary just to have a soulless being, where the lack of the reflection was a demonstration Dracula had no soul. Not sure that tingles the spine these days.

Of course, tell your story the way you feel best. In Stoker's version, good 'ol Drac has no reflection.