Create fake character shadow using decals

[Ekveel]

Hi,
I’m trying to create a fake shadow for my character using decals.
In my character component I have a SceneCaptureComponent2d right above the head of the character, looking downwards.
I’ve also created a render target. I’ve also disabled the “atmosphere” flag for my SceneCaptureComponent2d so that it only captures the character.
I’ve also created Material with a texture sample like this:

The result looks like this:

The decal component is part of my character blueprint. I’ve moved a bit to the left to showcase the issue here.

1. I need to remove the black background and only show the character
2. The character needs to be a blackish/grey to resemble a shadow

Any ideas on how I could achieve this?

[baobao4435]

hi,not sure if it works,but try it anyways:

if it doesn’t work you could open the texture to show the RBGA channels one by one.

[jblackwell]

Saturate the texture to get a mask and feed it into opacity like they said. Then flip the color values and see if you can find a gaussian blur node to apply over the texture.

[Ekveel]

Hi, this solution works as well! Thank you!
I’ve gone with the 1st option now however I dont know if there are any drawbacks in using one over the other.

[Ekveel]

Hi, this works too! Thanks for your help!
Short question…this also works if I put either green or blue into the Opacity slot.
Whats the reason for that? Like why does it work when one color channel is put into opacity?

[baobao4435]

well,each channel contains alot 0-1 values all over the picture.
see that black area? black is 0,white is 1.
and :
Opacity 0 = display nothing at all.
Opacity 1 = totaly displayed
greay area(0.1-0.9) will be transparent.

i can’t explan it well,because im also new to materiel too.lol