Shadows on objects that are not directly behind billboards

 

Aximmetry Broadcast DE 2024.3 with UE. Mixed Camera Compound. Virtuals off on all Cameras (Keying in Aximmetry).

I have some issues with the shadows Aximmetry generates for talent behind a billboard. They are reasonably realistic as long as the billboard is placed directly in front of the talent, but as soon as they take more  than a single step back the shadow detaches from the position of the feet and becomes completely unrealistic. Now unfortunately there is a small table in the set that needs to be there to present small real objects. As can be seen in the video link that stops me from putting the billboard where I need it to be, it will always be at least 1m in front of the talent so the table is not cut off at the bottom. Optically tracking the billboard does not really seem to work either.

So what can be done here? I know that there are physical limits, but how far can I expect to be able to work around this problem?


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/13rkms2s3xkeev7fz3chg/BB_Shadows_0001.mov?rlkey=hep1v5v2s6jlcmv23gf5s6pu5&st=eaicnzuh&dl=0


   Stefan Reck

 
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TwentyStudios
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Since the table is at one distance from the camera and the talent is on another, it’s just impossible to cast an accurate shadow from both. After all, the video is just a 2D plane, so how could that ever work? The optical talent tracking just tracks the lowest pixels of the keyed foreground, so that can’t work either when the table is in from of the talent, since that will always have the lowest pixels in the foreground. 
The best option is to just optimize your green screen and lighting to actually get real shadows and keep them after keying. You could also try modifying the camera blueprint to use a curved plane instead of the regular flat one. It’s still won’t make your 2D footage become 3D, but it can help with aligning the feet to the floor without having the table clipping floor plane. 
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