Better way to render shadows in cycles?

Hey, ya’ll. I’m somewhat new to blender and I’ve been having trouble making a plane receive shadows only. I found a few videos including this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIt7yXLoA8 . But I find it a bit cumbersome to have to go through all those nodes in order to get that shadow only option.

Even the blender internal renderer has that option, but not cycles. Is there a quicker and easier way to make the plane receive shadows only?

Here is a picture of what I’m talking about. Hope somebody can help me with this. Thanks in advance!


Try using the Diffuse Direct output in the Render Layers passes.

Steve S

What you’re trying to create is called a ‘shadow catcher’ a type of material with which Cycles currently has no native support for (DingTo might still code that functionality while his GSoC period is going, but no guarantees).

The best thing you can do now is enable the shadow pass and use Blender lamps (which will generate the shadow pass that will be applied through the compositor), but you will not be able to get any secondary or indirect shadows which will require the shadow-catcher material.

Found this tutorial :eyebrowlift:

How to Render a Shadow Pass in Cycles!

Thanks, Jakerlund and thanks everyone!

Hopefully, there will be a quicker solution for this. I appreciate you all’s input!