So I made the text a 3D layer in a previous comp, ray-traced 3D with light to give my text the look I want. I pulled the that comp into another comp and put that text on top of a solid layer with a light to give the shadow affect. I have the main comp set to classic 3D, tried the options on the solid layer to only accept shadows, changed the solid to mutiply, neither trick will make the solid layer disappear and keep my shadow on text. What am I doing wrong?
3
Replies
Set the 100% white shadow catcher solid so accepts lights is off, accepts shadows is on, duplicate the extruded text layer, set the duplicate to cast shadows only, Here's a comp with everything shown that is modified. BTW the C4D renderer is a better choice but the setup for Ray Traced is the same.
Now duplicate that comp in the project panel. Drop both comps in your Main Comp and open up both nested comps. Turn off the temp background in both layers, on the top comp (Comp 1) turn off the shadow catcher, on the bottom comp turn off the extruded text, set the top comp as an inverted Alpha track matte for the shadow catcher, then turn the layer back on, set the blend mode to Multiply and add your background.
If you did need to animate the camera in the main comp you'll have to add another camera, then tie its movement to both cameras in the nested comps using expressions. You can do this by arranging your workspace as shown then just using the pickwhip to the camera in the main comp.
That should solve your problem.
Personally, I would have converted the camera move, lights and text layer to a C4D comp, done my extruding and shadow catcher there, then use C4D Lite and Cineware to do the final composite. You have about 1000 X more control of the look of your 3D text and shadows.
Rick, I am trying to do just that in C4D Lite and when I try to create a shader "shadow catcher" isn't an option. Im guessing because it's the Lite version of the software. 
You need a reference layer in the original comp that you can edit in C4D using the material shaders. Open up the shader and enable transparency. Then make sure that the light that is imported into C4D is also properly placed.
You can't add a shadow catcher in the comp and then put that in your C4D file, but you can add a surface for the floor in C4D and adjust the shading there. It just requires a little reading. You need to do your homework. As you can see in this screenshot the shadow cast on the floor is only coming from the C4D file:
AdChoices