In iC5, we had floor and wall drop shadows, which would display a shadow that landed on them, but were otherwise invisible.  Normal objects, like a bed or couch, would display shadows, but you would also see the bed.

We lost the drop shadows in iC6.

Now in iC7, you can assign any object to be an invisible shadow catcher (not just planes), meaning you see the shadow but not the object.

If you open an old iC5 project that contained drop shadows, you merely have to add a plane where the floor or wall drop shadow was, and click the box that says it's a shadow catcher.
Shouldn't take more than a minute.
Add plane... position it... mark as shadow catcher... done.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
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As I go through the many uncompleted animations I imported from iClone 5, it seems the problem is indeed the fact that "drop shadows" simply don't exist in the current version, as opposed to the problem being lack of a floor surface. I noted the following:
1.  One animation did come through with the shadows intact, cast by the character onto the bed upon which she is sitting, but I am thinking this is either a "Wall" shadow, or maybe self-cast shadows from the character can land on a bed?
2.  Two animations I made with my character placed in the 3D volcanic (Diablo-looking) scene also came into iClone 7 with no drop shadows, which really makes me think the problem has nothing to do with a floor surface.

As I go through the many uncompleted animations I imported from iClone 5, it seems the problem is indeed the fact that "drop shadows" simply don't exist in the current version, as opposed to the problem being lack of a floor surface. I noted the following:
1.  One animation did come through with the shadows intact, cast by the character onto the bed upon which she is sitting, but I am thinking this is either a "Wall" shadow, or maybe self-cast shadows from the character can land on a bed?
2.  Two animations I made with my character placed in the 3D volcanic (Diablo-looking) scene also came into iClone 7 with no drop shadows, which really makes me think the problem has nothing to do with a floor surface.

iClone 5 was the last version to offer "Drop Shadows".  iClone 7 comes with "Shadow Catcher" Props that can be added to a scene to do something similar as the old Drop Shadow. iClone 7 now only offers the equivalent to the iClone 5 "Self Cast Shadow", but with a lot of improvements. There is more in the Online Manual. 

Information on using the Shadow Catcher is in the Manual here.


Gerry

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Yeah, I think that's the answer, but what a huge pain in the a**  to fix my imported animations!  I'm going to finish the ones I began in iClone 7, as well as the ones I imported from iClone 5 in which shadows aren't important, then I'll check out the remainder one by one, and probably end up discarding most of them.

Going to try this in a moment, but I think that is the issue, because I just noticed that one of the projects I imported from iClone 5, in which the character is sitting on a bed (prop), does have drop shadows casting onto the bed.  I have really never made use of "dummies".  Will this render?

Try this:
Go to "Create" ---> "Dummy" ---> "Shadow Catcher Floor"...


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guy rabiller | GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS
"N.O.E." (Nations Of Earth) Sci-Fi TV Show, Showrunner.

I generally just drag in a 2D photo as the background, so, really, the only 3D anything in the project is the character.  This was not a problem for the drop shadows in iClone 5.  Do I have to bring in a "floor" or something in iClone 7?

So when you render it the shadows don't appear either?

You might have to post a project (trimmed down if you want to just the essentials that aren't showing) for folks to help.

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Mike "ex-genius" Kelley