How to Set Up a Shadow Catcher in Blender

Blender Shadow Catcher is a feature in Blender that allows objects to receive shadows from other objects in a scene, making it appear as if they are casting shadows onto a transparent or reflective surface. It is commonly used in animation and visual effects to add realism to a scene by incorporating cast shadows into a virtual environment.

For example, when compositing a 3D model onto an image or video. A shadow catcher hides the floor on which the 3D model is standing while retaining shadows cast on it.

How to set up a shadow catcher in Blender’s Cycles render engine

Follow these steps to set up a shadow catcher in the Blender cycles engine.

• Add a plane to the scene. This will act as the ground.
• Place your model on top of the ground plane
• With the ground plane selected, go to Object Properties > Visibility
• Tick the Shadow Catcher box in the Visibility tab
• The ground plane is now transparent while retaining shadows

• Adjust the ground plane material to get desired reflections on your 3D model
• If you plan to place your render on another image, you will require to render with transparent background
• To render your model as an image with transparent background, follow this ‘How To Render Transparent PNG Images In Blender’s Cycles And EEVEE Render Engines’ tutorial
•  To render your model as an animation with transparent background, follow this ‘How To Render Transparent Animation Videos In Blender’s Cycles And Eevee Render Engines’ tutorial

How to set up a shadow catcher in Blender’s EEVEE render engine

• Add a plane to the scene. This will act as the ground.
• Place your model on top of the ground plane
• Select the ground plane switch to the shader editor
• Setup the shader nodes as shown in the image below

• With the ground plane selected, go to Material Properties > Settings. Check Backface Culling. Switch Blend Mode to Alpha Blend. Uncheck Show Backface.

• It is recommended you use the sun as the source of light in the scene for the best results

How to set up a shadow catcher using Product Rendering Tools addon

Product Rendering Tools help you create product renders easier and faster in Blender. It can also be used on other blender projects as well.

Follow these steps to set up a shadow catcher using Product Rendering Tools addon.

• Add a plane to the scene. This will act as the ground.
• Place your model on top of the ground plane
• With the ground plane selected, go to the Product Rendering Tools panel and tick the box labeled ‘Turn Selected Object Into A Shadow Catcher’