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I have a plane as the ground, and I am animating a character to walk across the plane. The plane is a shadow catcher, because I'm doing VFX and I want to add shadows to the ground in the video, to make it more realistic. When the characters food slightly goes through the shadow catcher, it makes a dark spot where the foot goes through the plane. I'd like everything that goes through the shadow catcher to be invisible, so when the bottoms of the feet slightly go through the plane, there won't be any shadow issues. (See Attached Photos) If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

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enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ You can do it via shader (dragon's material) if shadow catcher is just a plane or via Compositor that would be more complicated ... What do you prefer? $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 4:32

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If it is a plane...you can use this very simple basic setup: (thanks to vklidu for the modified version with more charm)

enter image description here

result:

https://youtu.be/TEEF467A4E0

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    $\begingroup$ Plug Texture Coordinates > Object directly to Separate XYZ node and use Shadow Catcher object as Z controller. i.imgur.com/zeaIaoG.png Since shadow catcher necessarily doesn't have to be on Z zero location it will respect exactly its position. $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 8:49
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    $\begingroup$ thanks vklidu, learnt from you!! ;) i changed my answer. But of course you could have used mine too if you just adapt the threshold to the z-value of the plane - but yours has more charm!! $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 10:23
  • $\begingroup$ Chris And Vklidu Thank you! Problem solved!! $\endgroup$
    – Ryan King Art
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 14:59

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