Animating Shadows

[Yianni Papanicolaou]

I’m new here so take my advice with pinch of salt….

Are you using AE Text as a 3d layer with a light casting your shadows?

If you’re not and you are using the drop shadow layer style or plug in then turn that of, make your text a 3d layer and apply a light to the comp making sure the ‘cast shadows’ checkbox is ticked in the light options. Make sure your ‘solid’ that your wanting the shadow to fall on is also a 3d layer and make sure it has the ‘accept shadows’ box in its ‘materials options’ ticked or saying yes (can’t remember which) the shadow will animate with the rotation of the text on the background layer. Also make sure the text layer has ‘cast shadows’ ticked in its ‘materials options’ as well..

If you are doing this already then I’m stumped…

Y

[Michael Szalapski]

How is this shadow being created? Is it a layer style, drop shadow, created with AE’s 3d space and lighting?

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Kurt Wulff]

Thanks for responding Michael. I created the rotating text using CC Sphere, adding a light to cast the shadow on the background. I rendered the outside of the text so it seems to rotate around the background layer. Since the rotating text never really “disappears” behind the background what can I do with the shadow to make it more animated?

Thanks.

[Darby Edelen]

Use the 3D text animation preset I mentioned previously. The text will behave as you expect with ‘real’ 3D After Effects shadows.

Photo attached.

Darby Edelen