How to generate realistic shadows on a shadowcatcher of a single object at a low elevation angle? I've been working on a Blender model (using Blender 2.79, but I've also tested in 2.91.2 and got the same result) with the goal of producing a realistic shadow image for an airplane from any angle. I'm using Cycles render engine, have imported my airplane model, and have a ground plane marked as a shadow catcher. I'm also using a Sun lamp with size 0 because I want crisp shadow edges. My lamp and camera need to be at the exact same location to generate the kind of shadow image I'm looking for.
My issue is that when I try to generate a shadow from a low elevation/grazing angle (around 30 degrees) I expect to see a long, stretched-out shadow on my shadow catcher. However, in reality I only see the shadow in places directly blocked by the airplane, meaning if I layer the outline of the airplane over the shadow image they are identical.
Does anyone know of settings I can change to get more realistic looking shadows?
Thank you so much for any help!
Answering the question from ZargulTheWizard's comments - since the sun lamp and camera were in the same location, no shadow with perfectly crisp edges would be visible to the camera. To get the shadow images from the specific angle like I wanted, I left the lamp at the specific angle to create the shadow and then moved the camera directly overhead (0, 0, height) the object to capture the &quot;stretched out&quot; shadow effect.
Again thank you so much everyone for your help!