Most everyone in the field of computer graphics and animation will remember the movies like Terminator 2 - Judgement day and Jurassic Park. The very realistic computer graphics were partly due to the integration of the 3D animated footage with the environment (ie. the background). The backgrounds used in the movies was simply the footage shot on the location. In this small how-to we will concentrate on just a single static background image. If you want matching shadows of 3D objects in a static background or if you want to add a form of layering in a 2D background image for 3D objects so they can pass in front or in the back, please read on.
Drag you material to your platonic item under the objects window. Make another material of a different colour for the background. Hold down the add light object button, and select the add light object button.
Step 5 - Deselect the Sub-Object mode and open the Material Editor (m). Instead of Standard choose Multi/Sub Object. At the pop-up choose 'discard old material' because we are going to make new ones.