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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects custom alpha with drop shadow

  • custom alpha with drop shadow

    Posted by Michael Bernard on September 20, 2012 at 10:43 pm

    I’ve got a layer I need to render as an alpha. Sounds easy enough. My problem is, the layer has a drop shadow, and is also under another drop shadow. It’s sandwiched in the middle of about five layers, inside of a precomp, which is animated in 3d space. Is there any way to make a layer buried this deep into an alpha channel and keep all of my drop shadows? Thanks!

    Michael Bernard replied 13 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Joseph W. bourke

    September 21, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    I would save off a copy of the project first, so you can get back to where you were. Depending on how the drop shadows were generated, you can usually turn on a switch that says “drop shadow only” – this will turn off the layer, but leave the shadow. You don’t say whether there is already an alpha with the main layer you want, so I’ll assume there is. You may also need to work in your precomp, if that’s where the shadow layers are – the Solo button in the comp might come in handy as well.

    Joe Bourke
    Owner/Creative Director
    Bourke Media
    http://www.bourkemedia.com

  • Michael Bernard

    September 22, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    Thank you Joseph. I was unaware of the drop shadow only switch. That helps a lot.

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