rendering objects w/ only shadows
hello everyone. I'm quite new to Maya but I wasn't too sure if i should have asked this in the newbie section. I'm pretty sure this was asked before. I have an object. Lets just say it's a cylinder. I want to be able to just render out the shadows of the cylinder and not the cylinder itself. Would anyone know how to go about doing this??? Remind you, I'm a beginner so if anyone could give me a hand or give me a link to a tutorial with the same situation. And if you say render in passes.. please explain.
Thanks,
Sonny