How to Create Realistic Shadows in Flash

Digital shadows are much more difficult than beginning animators think. You can't just fill selections with black or add automatic drop shadows. Realistic shadows blend with the objects in the background. Flash CS3 does support shadowing, but they aren't supported in older versions of the Flash player. With a little ingenuity you can make shadows compatible with any Flash player.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Place your animation objects onto the stage. You can import them from your hard drive or drag them from the file library. Place the shadow surface on the bottom layer, an object on the layer above and a duplicate of the object on the top layer.

2. Select the object on the middle layer. This will be your shadow.

3. Break the shadow object apart (Command + B.) The elements in the object will take on a dithered look. With the object still selected, change the fill and stroke (if any) to black.

4. Convert your shadow object to a movie clip. Choose "Convert to Symbol" from the Modify menu (F8.)

5. Choose "Alpha" from the Properties palette's Color pulldown menu. Adjust the slider until the shadow begins to blend realistically with the background. Set the Blend mode underneath to "Darken."

6. Arrange the shadow and object on the top layer to make the depth look realistic. You might want to enlarge or reduce the shadow size to reflect the object's distance from the background. The higher above the background, the smaller the shadow.

7. Add additional objects that cast their own shadows. The blend effects will cause the shadows from objects on higher layers to blend with shadows on lower levels to enhance the realism.

Tips & Warnings

• Study shadows in other images. It's impossible to create a realistic shadow if you haven't examined shadows in photographs and art. Pay attention to shadow edges, colors, and how shadows from different objects overlap.
• When positioning shadows, imagine the location of your light source. Place the shadow on an opposing diagonal from the light source (for example, light source top left, shadow bottom right.)
• The shadow effect will work against a background color set in the documents settings, although the effect isn't nearly as dramatic.
• Add perspective and depth with the "Distort" command (in the Modify menu.) You need to apply the distortion while the shadow object is still broken apart.
• Don't use the blurring filter to blur the shadow edges. Filter effects aren't supported in older versions of the Flash player.