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Nice spots, some good points..

I guess this is in a basement of a tavern or something, haha hence the big blocks...as for the floating got me on that one...but it is a mysterious scene after all :)

My best guess (which may not even be remotely close to what the problem actually is) would be oversized bounding box or something went a bit awry with the physics if you're using physics XD

If they were physically placed there to find it's possible they were just not placed quite on the ground, I've done that plenty of times with characters and not noticed they were walking sligthtly above the ground til render time and the shadows gave it away and then I'm all ... because I have to rerender XD

Combination of deliberate 'make bodies look like in different positions' and trial/error testing. More play time reveals answers I think..No sure on the oversized box, you might be on right track will ask roachey.

Cheers