Easy: Add a Cast Shadow to Text

Posted on by Jeff Riegel, Producer/Editor

by Larry Jordan

All it takes is changing one setting…

cast shadow. : a shadow cast by an object or figure in a painting or other picture.

Text, filled with a gradient, with a cast shadow effect applied.

You can add a cast shadow to any clip, however it is most effective with text. Here’s how to create it.

In my example, I created a text clip and filled it with a gradient. (The color settings are in the Text Inspector > Face.)

  • Select the text clip.
  • Go to the Effects browser > Stylize and apply the Drop Shadoweffect.
  • In the Video Inspector, change the drop shadow settings from Classic Drop Shadow to Perspective Back.
  • Finally, using the onscreen controls, tweak the shadow position and settings so it best matches your scene.

Voila!

Top 10 After Effects Shadows Effects You Must Know

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For two decades, Jeff Riegel was a former senior level Producer/Editor for the Department of Defense and various government contractors in Northern Virginia. Outside of the workplace, Jeff keeps himself busy with the creation of festival worthy documentaries "Tori Nelson: Fighting for Her Future" and once nominated and two time Emmy award winning "A Journey of Education and Remembrance." His short film "The Great Realisation" captured the eyes at 18 international film festivals with various winning honors; a poem that takes on heavy themes such as fevered capitalism, man-made ecological issues, digital addiction and, of course, the current global blight. Jeff is looking for funding investors and co-producing "The Lost Clipper," a two+ decades project about the first hijacking in U.S. history and the search for those 15 lost souls abducted in 1938, the true first act of war with Japan. Filming takes him to Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Canada, and locations across the U.S. He enjoys creating media-marketing social networking campaign for personalities such as 13-time world boxing champion Tori Nelson, Netflix's "Narcos" personalities Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, and renowned landscape photographer Frank Lee Ruggles. Jeff is eager to attack any project head-on. Jeff's Motto: think beyond convention...and consider it done! Jeff's Motto: think beyond convention...and consider it done!