OTOY Forums

Hi,

Often I use a ground plane with diffuse material set to 'matte' to create a shadow catcher effect.

With the latest version of the plugin the matte function no longer acts as a shadow catcher. I've checked my old scenes that use this method and they all appear to be broken.

Please help!

Thanks

Hi,

I'm testing this feature here and it seems to work fine. Anybody else has problems with the diffuse material matte option?

If you want to share a scene with this problem, I could test it here to see if I can find the problem.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

Hi Juanjo,

I'm using the latest build and want to use a matte object to occlude the alpha channel.

I apply it to an object, but a ghost of the object remains in the alpha (see below).

I thought the matte object would leave no trace in the alpha channel, or have I got it wrong?

Thanks,
Carlo

---------------------------

....but when I activate 'Alpha Shadows' in the Kernel (PT) the ghosting is reduced, but not eliminated.

Are you talking about the "Matte" option available in the diffuse material? Probably this parameter should have been renamed as "Shadow catcher" a long time ago, because this is how it works.

To fully control the object visibility including the alpha channel, you should try to work using render layers, as you can see in the docs:
https://docs.otoy.com/Lightwave3DH/Ligh ... Layers.htm

Thanks,
-Juanjo

Yes, exactly.

For comping, it would be helluva useful to have a switch in the Diffuse material that one could switch on and the object would be 'cut' out of the alpha channel.

The matte object switch is 99% there, it's a far faster work-flow than going into layers.