The Shadow Catcher object allows you to display shadows cast by 3D objects in a scene. It helps create realistic lighting effects by accurately representing the interaction between objects and their environment.

You can add a shadow catcher to the scene through Scene > Add Object > Shadow Catcher.

To create a shadow, you can use a custom mesh object. To add it, nest a mesh into the Shadow Catcher object in the Scene hierarchy. This image shows a street curb mesh parented to a Shadow Catcher object with Indirect Shadow enabled.

Learn more about Shadow Catchers in our quick guide.

Below is a complete list of settings found in the Shadow Catcher object.

Shadow Catcher Settings #

Setting	Description
Opacity	Sets the opacity of the received shadows.
Fade Texture	A texture to mask the fade effect over the surface of the shadow catcher.
Channel	Select which color channel from the Fade texture to use.
Edge Fade	Fades shadows out near the edges of the shadow catcher.
Fade Radius	Radius of the edge fade effect.
Fade Falloff	Falloff of the edge fade effect.
Sky Shadow	Enables receiving shadow from the sky light (ray tracing only).
Indirect Shadow	Enables receiving reflections and bounced lighting from nearby objects (ray tracing only).

Material Properties #

To achieve an even more realistic result, you can adjust the material properties of the Shadow Catcher, making it look wet or rough.

Setting	Description
Roughness Map	The texture used to specify surface roughness. White corresponds to a rough surface, while black corresponds to smooth surfaces.
Channel	Determines the channel of the texture from which to read roughness content.
Roughness	Specifies the maximum roughness value.
Invert Roughness	Inverts the output of the roughness shader. Useful for loading gloss maps in place of roughness maps.
Specular Map	The texture that will be used to set the color and intensity of the specular reflections.
Channel	Specifies color channel(s) to use in the specular map.
Specular Intensity	Sets the intensity of the specular reflections.
Specular Fresnel	Sets the intensity of the Fresnel effect, or how reflective surfaces are at grazing angles.