Can I freely position the ground plane.

[beefy]

Hello,

completely new to Keyshot, but have been playing with rendering in Blender / Cycles. I have some fairly simple needs at present. I will take photos of walls, patio areas, etc and put "virtual products" in these photos.

So the first thing I need is an invisible shadow catcher plane. From first looks I see KS has a ground plane that can do this. My main question is can I position this "ground" plane anywhere in any position, i.e. it is not locked to the ground so to speak. For example I may need to position it vertically "against" a wall, or even "sloping" against a wall. It's not sufficient to just use an image as a texture on the ground plane, I need the invisible shadow catcher plane to be independent of the background image.

Is this possible in Keyshot.

I'm using version 4 of Keyshot because the latest version 5.1 installs OK but crashes on startup everytime. I see someone else has the same issue (Windows 7) and I've reported it to support.

Cheers,

Keith.

[PhilippeV8]

The real default ground plane is fixed in space, but you can from the menu "add ground plane".  This adds a plane object, with ground material which can be moved, rotated, scaled as you want.  You can then turn off the default ground plane.

[beefy]

Thanks very much Philippe.

Since I posted, I've been playing with the default ground plane. I see I can position it anywhere very easily but could not find a way to change its position relative to the imported part. It appears "locked" to the imported part.

I'll try what you have told me now.

Cheers,

Keith.

[beefy]

Not having much luck.

I can not for the life of me find out how to free move this additional ground plane.

Nor can I find where the settings are for this additional ground plane.

This is what I did:

1.  Import a new part. Shadow is showing on the default plane
2.  Go to Environment and turn off ground shadows for the default ground plane. The shadow disappears.
3.  Edit menu, Add Ground Plane. A new shadow appears at the same position but I have no idea where this is turned on or off. I assume the tick box in "Environment" only applies to the default ground plane, it is not ticked.
4.  Under the Scene tab, I see the new ground plane has been added

How do I free move this new ground plane ?

Keith.

[PhilippeV8]

In the scene tab select the new ground plane, richt click on it and chose "move".  You should now get the gizmo on your render screen to move it around.  In fact, you move it around just like any other part in your scene tree!

[beefy]

Hmmm, I did that and nothing happened, so I thought I was doing something wrong.

I'll go and take another look.

I'm using the 2 week demo of version 4. I hope this capability is not disabled. I can't really demo the demo if it is.

Thanks again Philippe,

Keith.

[beefy]

I know where the problem is. The new ground plane comes in invisible so I couldn't see it moving. Applying the grid for visibility obviously only words on the default ground plane, but I thought it would apply to new ground planes.

So everything seems fine there, I guess I need to apply a semi-transparent material to the new ground plane so I can see it's position while I move it.

Cheers,

Keith.

[Gems]

Hi Beefy,

I'm having the same problem as you.  I've been using Keyshot for just under a year and have never managed to get a wall light fitting to look as if it's on a wall - I just have to do renders with them floating!

I'm just interested to see if you've got anywhere in the last week and have any advice? 

I've tried adding a new ground plane and I've managed to get it into position but there isn't any shadow on it, just reflection from a white material I'm using - I'm quite confused!

Thanks
Gemma

[guest84672]

I'm not sure what you are talking about. Is is possible to share a screen shot?

[beefy]

Hi Thomas,

I'll see if I can explain it first (my other computer has Keyshot, not this one).

I use a backplate image of a wall. These images are often not perfect. For example, two brick columns on the wall may not be vertical and parallel on the screen, due to the angle the photo was taken at. I'm calling that perspective.

The part (i.e. part to be rendered) I want to "put against this wall" is mainly flat. We'll say it's a hanging picture frame for ease of explanation. I wish to create the illusion that this flat part stands about one inch from the wall but parallel with it, just like a picture hanging on the wall would be (but standing one inch off in this case). To create the realism I want the flat part casting shadows "on the wall".

I can freely position the flat part and skew it to match the "taper" of the said brick columns, so the perspective of the part matches the perspective of the photo (I hope I'm using the right terminology).

Next I must position a "shadow catcher" plane behind and parallel to the flat part but offset from the flat plate.

That's pretty much it.

In a nutshell if I can condense what I've just explained, I want to put a flat picture (the part) lying flat against the wall (backplate image) but appearing to stand off about an inch, and casting a shadow on the wall (backplate).

I actually managed to get that far (almost), but had a weird problem where everything darkened / dulled when I put the ground plane behind the picture, and didn't really get any nice clean shadows. I got pulled away by other duties but have to get back to it when time allows and figure out what's going on. I'm going to be doing this one type of task quite a lot.

Maybe I need to try setting up my own lights instead of relying on the HDR lighting. I'm still a beginner at Keyshot.

One thing I find needs improving is the visability of the plane I created. Correct me if I'm doing something wrong but the default ground plane can be seen via a grid. On the other hand when I create new ground planes, all I get is a perimeter line. Depending on the size of the plane the perimeter line may not even be visible, I have to zoom out to see it. I was temporarilly adding a visible material just to see the plane. I take back my words if there is a way to enable a grid on added planes.

Keith.

[Finema]

Hi,
Why don't you use only Planes ?
one plane for the wall and several planes for the deco objects

[beefy]

Thanks Finema,

I'm afraid for a beginner like myself I don't quite know exactly what you have done, so let me have a guess.

Are you saying instead of a backplate, use a plane and use an image for the material (or texture) ?? Then a shadow can be cast on that plane.

If that is correct, that may not always work because of what I said before about the perspective of the image. That's why I want the "shadow catcher" plane seperate from the backplate but parallel to the 3D part (flat picture). I can then tilt/skew the shadow catcher plane and part to match the perspective of the backplate image. I can't do that if the image is on the shadow catching plane.

As for "several planes for the deco objects" I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.

The picture you have shown is exactly the effect I'm looking for but like I say I need a system that allows for the image perspective when the image doesn't seem perfectly normal (flat) to our view.

Cheers,

Keith.

[PhilippeV8]

Nothing stops you from doing this:

1) import a new ground plane
2) change it's size to 0.01 so that if you select it you see the outer edges, thus giving you more of a feel for it's position and perspective
3) change its material to defuse .. or even give it a grid texture ..
4) position everything where it has to be
5) change back the scale of the plane to ... big enough
6) change the material of the plane back to "ground" type.