Jay from SimplyMaya.com takes a look at the Use Background Shader in Maya, which will allow you to control some surfaces of you Maya scene for compositing, such as catching reflections, specularity, and shadows without actually rendering the object itself.

Simply Maya – Use Background Shader from Simply 3DWorld on Vimeo.

“This week Jay explains how you can incorporate a 3d model onto a 2d background with Maya’s use background shader. The method shown here will allow you to cast shadows onto an image and make the model sit more realistically in a composite. We take look at alpha channels, isolating shadows in a render and how the appearance of shadows can be controlled within Maya using the shader node itself, as well as how to gain a higher level of control in post applications.”

– Compositing 3D Models onto 2D Backgrounds
– Use Background Shader in Maya
– Alpha Channels
– Isolating Components within Renders
– Controlling Shadows

This tutorial was created to help you get started with our January Challenge – Before and After, which can be joined here simplymaya.com/?forum/?showthread.php?t=34886.

You can also download our free tutorial “Ambient Occlusion Render Layers” to learn to composite renders together in Photoshop simplymaya.com/?autodesk-maya-training/?free-tutorials/??cat_id=23?_cat=0

5 comments

  1. anuj

    thanks for help me…..

  2. david

    Great tut mate helped me loads, cheers 🙂

  3. iruthaya

    first of all thanks for this tutorial, i get lot much, still i have problem with use background
    when i render it the use background plane little bit stay on the ground which means it defer from other area how can i rectify this

  4. cheers man, this is what I needed 🙂

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