#Shadows…
Mike,
>> ok… I don't have the book, can you give me the general idea? <<
hey, buy the book you cheapskate! I bought one of yours <g>. The chapter John
is referring to was mine in NRP's "3d Studio, special effects" and is far to
involved to describe in a posting on the forum.
However, I'll give you a couple of clues to work on. You'll need stand-in
objects which represent the objects in the photograph which you want to have
the shadow cast on. This is usually a ground plane and maybe some walls etc.
You make all these objects pure white. Make your object which will cast the
shadows a matte object and shine a very strong light on it. Use the resultant
images as a matte in video post to cast shadows onto the background photograph
between the fully rendered shadow casting object.
There's quite a bit more too it than that, but I'm sure you'll be able to
figure it out from there.