casting a shadow?

Ok, I am going to ask a difficult question...How can a character in a scene cast a shadow? So that he looks actually part of the picture and not just floating there? I tried to create silohuette of the figure and flatten it as far as I could on the Z scale, moved to the floor, cutting out all lights to the 'shadow' figure. But it's proving more complicated than it's worth...Can a shadow be done? Say if the subject is outside in like a parking lot...
Comments
click on the "Lights and Cameras" tab, then select lights, there'll be a sub tab for shadows click on that, select the light you want, and set Shadows to either Deep shadow map, or Raytraced.
Remember to add a floor for the shadows to fall on, too.