How to Create Shadow Matte and Occlusion Matte in Maya Arnold | Tutorial

Hi! In this session we are going to talk how to create shadow matte and occlusion matte in Maya Arnold and also how to use them in Nuke!
I will be showing the technique and things to look out of when creating shadow mattes and also things that you do with them in post; in Nuke!
Benefits of shadow matte
- allows controls on the look of the shadow/ softness/ color
- minimize re-render of passes example; if a environment is for sure done and only the character is going through animation changes, what we can do is render the environment without shadows, then we only need to render character and shadow pass if animation has any new iterations
Things to note when using shadow matte
- if your environment has some reflective surface then u will need additional reflection passes to make sure your new animation is reflected correctly in the environment
Good to have
- occlusion pass
Bonus tips
Easy way to get all light groups AOVs
instead of custom aovs for all lights, you can add RGBA into aovs then select aov node in the dropdown menu, instead of global lights, choose light groups!
Thank you for watching and if you enjoy the content or want me to do more of such related content or have any questions, please feel free to drop them in the comment section. I will definitely look through all of them and reply them as much as I could!
Again, whatever technique used is solely based on my personal preference, it's by no means saying that this is the 100% right way of doing things and if you have a better approach, please do share it with me too!
Thank you!

[@prisquesada6856]

Was struggling so hard to understand everything about a particular assignment, and you completely saved me. Thank you so much for everything please keep going and never stop :)

[@TOILSTORY]

Thank you so much for your kind words! Glad it helps!

[@collinreichman-flores5692]

Just want to say thank you. I have been looking at your videos, and they have helped me in Maya with creating render layers (especially with rendering separate layers for volumetric lighting, you saved my butt). I am always learning a new technique from you. Looking forward to see your new posts :)

[@TOILSTORY]

Hey thank you so much for your kind words! It's really encouraging that now I know my videos are helping people out there! Thanks again!

[@justinbentvelsen9005]

damn dude you saved my life over this project..! Im working close with a compositor, so this is perfect!

[@TOILSTORY]

Glad it helps! Cheers!

[@eggZ663]

Bro you saved my life!! I was using batch render and nothing was coming out right, render sequence sorted it AND is like 5x faster!

[@TOILSTORY]

Glad it helped!

[@ShawarmaBaby]

Best tutorial on the subject

[@TOILSTORY]

Thank you! Appreciate the kind comment!

[@longinhhoang3922]

For AO, actually you don't need to invert the black and white in Maya. Just render it, then in Nuke, use the "Multiply" operation in Merge node. But, thank for your tutorial :D

[@TOILSTORY]

Thank you!

[@sivapandianreffreference]

Please make more Tuts, Its exactly useful. easy understood complex terms.

[@TOILSTORY]

Thank you so much for the kind words! Will try to make more in the future! Cheers!

[@mickmeenan]

Hey, just stumbled across your channel, man great tutorials, really are i would highly recommend you, you have explained things here very clearly , thank you

[@TOILSTORY]

Hey! Thank you so much for your kind words! It made my day that I now know my videos are benefitting artists out there! Thank you once again and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

[@Stublerito]

como quito el reflejo del shadow matte en otro objeto ayuda por favor

[@actionmaker8983]

You are a god my guy

[@TOILSTORY]

Glad you like it!

[@inuyasha561]

very nice tutorial thanks you so much...

[@TOILSTORY]

You are most welcome! Glad it was helpful!

[@berndhasch9293]

hi, where can you change the shadow. only the shade lighter or darker. Many Thanks

[@lizzygomuroxz]

thank you : )

[@TOILSTORY]

You are welcome!

[@Damich]

Hi, I tried to composite my image in nuke but when I use the grade node and tweak the multiply parameter my shadow stay white and don't turn black as in the video. Did I do something wrong ?

[@TOILSTORY]

Hello! Hmm it's tough to troubleshoot problems, but I suspect is there no alpha in your shadow matte?