Elusive shadows

[Walter Soyka]

Technically, this behavior where layer styles break 3D intersections (and shadow-casting!) is not a bug, it’s by design.

Layer styles may look like effects, but they work like blend modes. Effects are rendered on the layer, then the layer is composited into the scene, but layer styles are different. They are blended directly with the layers below, almost as if they were a layer themselves. This allows you to do cool things like use different blend modes on the styles than you use on the main layer, but it also makes 3D intersections and shadow-casting meaningless.

This documentation applies to CS4, too:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/3d-layers.html#3d_layer_interactions_render_order_and_collapsed_transformations

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Eric Santiago]

[Walter Soyka] “Technically, this behavior where layer styles break 3D intersections (and shadow-casting!) is not a bug, it’s by design.”

Thanks Walter.
Next time I get a chance to inform students I shall use this post as a reference.
I don’t think I’ve ever read that anywhere in any form of document in regards to Layer Styles for After Effects.
I probably didn’t dig deep enough thus calling it a bug 🙂