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I got a cube with some reflective material applied to it, behind it is a plane which has shadow catcher nodes set up. From an angle I can see the shadow behind the cube, but in orthographic camera view I cant figure out how to position the sunlight to get the drop shadow. I've attached an example how I have positioned the light. I tried various angles and positioning on the Z axis but I cant get it to appear.

thank you.

enter image description here

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Things to note, probably including ones you already know:

  • The location of a Sun lamp makes no difference - it's infinitely far away, and its rays are parallel. Put it somewhere convenient, and adjust only its orientation
  • The 'angle' setting in the lamp's Data tab > Light panel will harden or soften the shadow
  • If your World has an HDRI, or is making a contribution through its color, the the sun's shadow will be somewhat filled by the ambient light.
  • Shadow Catcher is a Cycles-only feature, and only useful on transparent film.. Corrected! See edit.

EDIT:Thanks to @blenderbreath, who tells me there's a shadow-catcher for EEVEE, which I've never used .. Here it is:

enter image description here

I would suggest giving the plane an ordinary diffuse white material during adjustment, to make sure it can be seen at all, before switching its setting to Shadow Catcher

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi Robbin, all points taken which you stated. But there is a shadow catcher for eevee which fakes the shadow using a plane. $\endgroup$
    – blender breath
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 13:38
  • $\begingroup$ @blenderbreath Oh... thanks so much! I'm behind the times. Do you want to edit the answer? $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 16:15
  • $\begingroup$ Sure, no problem, here's the node set up as seen in a tutorial on YT for EEVEE shadow catcher: ibb.co/9G9XVST $\endgroup$
    – blender breath
    Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 2:17
  • $\begingroup$ @blenderbreath .. Thanks! inserted. I'll delete (now) surplus comments after a while.. $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 5:23

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