Catcher Plus (3D Universe)
jjoyner
Posts: 622
Hello. I’m a dabbler/hobbyist with Daz Studio. Retirement allows me to explore stuff in Daz Studio more now. I bought 3D Universe’s fSpy (https://www.daz3d.com/fspy-project-importer-for-daz-studio) in November 2022 and Catcher Plus (https://www.daz3d.com/catcher-plus--shadows-and-reflections-for-iray) in December 2023. Although neither product comes with a user guide, fSpy does have the YouTube video to help me see how to use it and to try to accomplish the intended results with it. Unfortunately, there is no similar aid for Catcher Plus and I have been unable to get it to produce shadows on a background/backdrop image. Has anyone who has Catcher Plus been able to get it to produce shadows and if so, can you give me any advice on how to do so as well? One of the promo images is attached. Thanks in advance.
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I don't have this, but looking at the store page and File List (linked from the Readme), there should be an option to add a plane (to simulate ground/wall/ceiling) and then a script to add the catcher. Then settings for reflection and blur (possibly applied through the 'Tools' script.
Hopefully someone who has the product can give a more 'step by step' response.
I think you're misunderstanding the product. Shadow Catcher is designed to provide shadows of 3D items on to a 2D background, inside Daz, instread of trying to do so in 2D programs like photoshop.
Using Catcher Plus to create reflections is not the issue. I have been able to do that. It's shadows that I have not been able to do yet. From the store page,
Being able to recreate shadows and reflections in your 3D scenes enables you to insert 3D content into photographs and make it look like it belongs there.
Catcher Plus is a utility that makes it very easy to catch shadows and reflections leveraging the powerful Iray render engine. Floor and Wall planes can be easily created, and even existing geometry in your scene can be converted to catch shadows, reflections, or both.
I'm trying to do exactly what you stated - have a 3D object cast a shadow on a Daz Studio 2D background.
What lighting are you using? Do you see clear shadows on the default Iray ground plane (when it's turned on - 'Draw Ground' in Environment tab)?
If DAZ required that vendors had to produce a basic manual (in either PDF or video form), the world would be a far happier place, but unfortunately many of the PAs live on a different plane of reality and assume that the functionality and methodology used by their products will be completely intuitive to someone who may be more challenged technically when it comes to the murky depths of the software (ie: probably the vast majority of the DAZ user data base.) As it happens, I own this product and while I've never used it in conjunction with the f-spy product, I will agree that, yes, it's not very intuitive, especially given that DAZ has never put out decent documentation covering how a shadowcatcher works in Iray... (there is something there for 3DL, but that, of course, is completely useless.) Generally speaking, I find that Kindred Art's HDRI TOOLKIT is a better set of tools AND comes with PDF documentation, but Catcher Plus works well enough if all you're doing is producing seperate elements on PNG for use in Photoshop in post. For use in-render with HDRIs and straight photo backgrounds, however, it's generally a lot more trouble than it's worth given that 1.) you're dealing with an optical illusion created through forced persective and the manipulation of camera parrallax, so the slightest movement of anything can often completely throw everything out of skew, and 2., because the shadows generated can often be so soft that a just bright or light colored subject beneath them will completely wash them out... or the shadows generated will simply look very unnatural on a textured or irregular surface.. Because of this, I suspect that you may be getting a shadow generated and just aren't seeing it... a quick way to check is to select the floor pane created by the utility, go to Parameters/display, and switch "Enable Iray Matte" to OFF. If a black plane appears beneath your prop/figure, it's likely that it IS working, but the shadows may not be strong enough to see on top of the photo background.
Hi there!
I have the catcher plus and am able to get shadows to show up but they are not very strong and won't show up if I have the reflections on at the same time. I basically turned on all the settings for the plane in the options and then for the shadows went into the surface tab and turned the glossy from white to black and the shadows showed up for me. You may have to fiddle with the lumens etc under the Light in the parameters tab to get a stronger shadow though.
Elli
Having the reflections and shadows on the same plane is definitely not an optimal situation. You can run the script twice, once with reflections and once without, then adjust each with cutout opacity... but, again, that's a lot of tweaking for a product that's supposed to be simple to use.
I have used many lighting/Environment combinations in the past several days to the point where I can’t remember exactly which ones I used. I do know that I started with using only the default HDRI and then migrated to adding a distant light. A few minutes ago, I downloaded a 2D street scene and tried again and things seemed to work. I enabled all of the properties of the Catcher Plus Floor. Attached are three images. Environment Draw Ground if Off for all of them.
0. Downloaded image
1. Cube with default HDRI, no Catcher Plus floor and no other lights – no shadow as expected
2. Cube with default HDRI, Catcher Plus floor and no other lights – moderate shadow
3. Cube with no HDRI, Catcher Plus floor and distant light – dark shadow
I don’t know why I did not get anywhere close to these results in the past few days but I’ll continue to explore.
Generally speaking, I find that Kindred Art's HDRI TOOLKIT is a better set of tools AND comes with PDF documentation, but Catcher Plus works well enough if all you're doing is producing seperate elements on PNG for use in Photoshop in post.
For use in-render with HDRIs and straight photo backgrounds, however, it's generally a lot more trouble than it's worth given that 1.) you're dealing with an optical illusion created through forced persective and the manipulation of camera parrallax, so the slightest movement of anything can often completely throw everything out of skew, and 2., because the shadows generated can often be so soft that a just bright or light colored subject beneath them will completely wash them out... or the shadows generated will simply look very unnatural on a textured or irregular surface..
Because of this, I suspect that you may be getting a shadow generated and just aren't seeing it... a quick way to check is to select the floor pane created by the utility, go to Parameters/display, and switch "Enable Iray Matte" to OFF. If a black plane appears beneath your prop/figure, it's likely that it IS working, but the shadows may not be strong enough to see on top of the photo background.
It's not my desire to have both reflections and shadows enabled for the same plane.
A day or two ago, I did increase the intensity of a distant light that I had added to a 2D/3D scene and it seemed to have no effect. For today's results, I didn't change the distant light's default intensity at all. Go figure.
I downloaded and used your image on these test renders.
Image 1 Rendered using my default settings Dome and Scene no lights.
Image 2 Rendered Set Sun Disc Intensity to 0.50. Notice the Cube shadow is fainter.
Image 3 Rendered Kept the above setting but set Ground Shadow Intensity to 0.50. Notice the Cube shadow is now even lighter.
Image 4 Rendered Kept the above settings but changed the Sun Disc Intensity back to 1.00. Notice the Cube shadow darkens slightly.
Image 5 Rendered Kept the settings but changed the Sun Disc Intensity to 2.00. Notice the Cube shadow darkens slightly but now matches the burnt in shadow on the image.
We did include a detailed .pdf document in the product.
Thanks for correcting me. I have read the fSpy document but had not saved it as a standalone file for access outside of Daz Studio like I do with tutorial and user guide files. As a result, I did not see it in my tutorial/user guide folder. What I could use is a similar document or short video for Catcher Plus.
I reloaded Catcher Plus to be sure, but it looks like there was SUPPOSED to be a tip page of some kind as browsing to the folder shows a thumbnail, but there's nothing to go with the PNG so the PNG doesn't load.
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