jockeying the z-positions was going to be my next suggestion… or maybe precomping the what appeared to be groups of icons and people sow the entire precomp would be casting a single shadow, but i wasn’t sure of your comp structure.
anyway, i’m glad its working now.
3d isn’t exactly ae’s strong point, they seem to have a few things to iron out. cs3 may make things better.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW