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Casting / Creating Shadows on PNG Layers
Hello,
I’ve searched the forums for shadows, and quickly was overcome with topics. In my search, I didn’t see what I was looking for so here goes.
I want to use a PNG that I have created from some .ai files that has our logo text and placements in it. This has been exported from illustrator as a PNG with transparency.
But I can’t seem to make the PNG layer cast shadows OR receive shadows from other 3d layers.
Text can cast shadows on my background just fine. And i’ve placed this PNG logo in a similar place under the lights but see no shadow cast. Nor can I cast a shadow on the PNG layer when placing the text over the PNG layer.
Is this possible? Can you take a picture layer and cast/receive shadows on it? Since the bevel effect worked perfectly on the edges of the PNG logo, I thought for sure it would cast shadows.
Yes, all layers are checked for 3d, and the lights are set to cast shadows. I don’t know what else to troubleshoot.
Thanks!
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5 Replies
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It should be by default, but is “Accepts Shadows” under Material Options, set to “On” for the layer recieving the shadows?
A quick test with two PNG’s works for me.
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Yeah, it is. Which is why it’s accepting the shadow from the text layer. I’m really confused as to why this PNG doesn’t cast a shadow. Even if I move its placement..
https://www.thekilobyte.com/dl5386/screenshot_01.jpg
Every 3d layer has accept shadow and cast shadow enabled. Just to be safe.. 🙂 The lights are set to cast shadows as well, evidenced by the text shadow. The text is above the Ixia logo as well. I believe it should catch the shadow the text should be casting, but it doesn’t. I’m thinking there has to be another format to import this logo which would behave better…
-steve
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Hey sjohnson,
Double-check the z position on the png file, just to be sure it’s pulled far enough away from the background.
Other than that I’m baffled, I did a quick test like yikes, with an ai to png w/transparency and it works fine. -
Ugh this is frustrating.. Yeah, They are aligned in z space appropriately. I checked that 500 times.. 🙂 I believe you can do this, but something is up over here. I’m baffled. I have no idea what’s going on. Even if I screwed up the transparency settings, I should have a square shadow around the png, but nothing. I’m going to try to re-import other images and play with it. I have a feeling if it doesn’t work here it’s not going to work with other formats, but you guys are getting it to work, so it’s gotta be something with the loose nut behind my keyboard.
steve
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My layer styles were killing this. I have a gradient overlay style applied to my otherwise black ixia text png image with alpha channel. Overlay looks really nice, but kills the shadow. Who’d thunk?
Bittersweet… I like the overlay, but need the shadow. Guess I need to precomp a bit more in AI.. 🙂
Thanks for the help. I knew something was up!
-steve
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