render only the shadows in Cycles Is it possible to create a matte shadow material in Blender Cycles?  For example, both 3DS Max and Maya have a preset material that only renders the shadow on the mesh.  It is great for applying to your floor when rendering to composite onto real footage.  I know that when you set up a tracking scene in Blender it automatically creates a node setup that composites the render on the real footage by using background and foreground layers.  But I have had problems with using that setup.  It would be simpler to be able to just apply a material that only renders the shadow on the mesh.  

Is it possible to create that kind material in Cycles?
As David already mentioned in the comments, there are plans for this in the future. As for now you will have to go with the compositing method described in various answers here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?q=render+only+shadow

The most comprehensible tutorial that I have watched about this topic is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7gKzgvFiGM