Matte shadow

This page gives an overview of the Matte Shadow Render Element and how it may be used in compositing.

Overview

The Matte Shadow Render Element shows areas where light doesn't reach. Compare with the Raw Shadow Render Element, which gives areas of cast shadows. While technically not part of the Beauty render elements, the Matte Shadow Render Element can be used to lighten cast shadows by adding it to the Raw Lighting Render Element. It can also be used to assist in adding 3D elements to a background image or footage in the composite.

UI Path: ||Display Render Settings button|| > Render Elements tab > Matte shadow

To use render elements, select from the Available render elements column and click the Add button to add the passes you wish to generate at render time. When you render the scene, the added render elements listed in the column on the right, will also render, which can be viewed from the VFB window's channel drop-down menu.

For more information on the parameters on this dialog, see the Render Elements tab page.

Attributes

The parameters for this render element appear in the Attribute Editor under Extra V-Ray Attributes.

Enabled – When enabled, the render element appears in the V-Ray Virtual Frame Buffer.

Deep output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images

Filename suffix – The text added to the end of the rendered file, when saved as a separate file (e.g. myrender.matteShadow.vrimg).

Consider for Anti-Aliasing – When enabled, anti-aliasing is used where possible.

Denoise – Enables the render element's denoising, provided the Denoiser render element is present.

This render element is not supported with V-Ray GPU rendering.

Common uses

The Matte Shadows Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of shadowed areas in compositing or image editing software. Below are examples of its use.

Matte Shadows Render Element