TUTORIALS FOR VFX & MOTION GRAPHICS
Free After Effects Tutorials & More Hosted By: Andrew Kramer
August 02, 2008
• Cast 3D shadows onto live action footage
• Use shadow diffusion and special material options
 
 
TUTORIAL NOTES:
When working with lights be sure to change the composition to Adaptive Resolution instead of OpenGL. You may also try using a Spot Light instead of a Point Light.
Running Time: 6mins.


WATCH MORE TUTORIALS:
Real world projects
1,014,499 Views
893,773 Views
989,093 Views
1,004,577 Views
345 RESPONSES TO "3D SHADOWS"

by jeremylimanto 11/02/2009
WOW,great,
I never taught that AE could do this 3D realted things.
I used 3DsMax to do this,but with your tutorial,
...GR8... thanks a lot
by mango 10/26/2009
Thanks Andrew. Another short and helpful tutorial.
by Mansoor 10/21/2009
I think you are the developer of Adobe After Effects.

Which university do you go to and what course do you do?
by Paul 10/19/2009
Hei man! I just have a word to say: COOL!!!!!!
Thx from Brasil!
by jeremy mayhew 10/11/2009
um, ok, hands down the ONE tutorial I soooo needed and not only was it quick and easy to understand, but also pretty entertaining....i'm telling the world boutcha!
by david 10/08/2009
awesome tut thanks you are the man! Tnx from Puerto Rico
by luis 09/18/2009
Hi andrew. thanx for all your tutorials, theu help me a lot!

by ada 09/01/2009
hola Andrew you sound so nice, gracias for your tutorials they are so helpfull.
I have a ? tienes novia?
by Aftab Ahmed 08/18/2009
Thank You!!

Wovv excellent Greetings from Pakistan!
Can you help me in text animation..

Thanks

Aftab Ahmed
Graphic Designer
by DarkEntity 07/25/2009
Ha,ha...pretty cool..Thanks a lot Sir Andrew!
by chris minter 07/19/2009
Hi, for some strange reason I follow this step by step and as soon as i turn accept lights off for my white BG grid, the shadow dissapears. Any suggestions?

by Debojyoti 07/03/2009
hi, Andrew
another AWESOME tuto from u

Thanks man , U r the Best

this is Debojyoti form India
by Ryan Wekwert 05/26/2009
I like this effect its used a lot in newer TV shows and I was also wondering if this applies for Text over videos and if it applies to something like that. I want to put this over video. If I watch this another time I may know it word for word. Should I just try it with video and tweak accordingly?
by Jacob 05/24/2009
Thanks great tut :) :) :)
by louie 05/16/2009
Love it. Love all your tutorials. Great explanation and quality. My most favorite website ever! And funny humor!
by freddy 05/07/2009
Hi Andrew..!!!Nice Tutorial..
Do you have any tutorial about convert 2D pics in a 3D animation? Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brgJHkqkdcY
by Cespur 05/07/2009
Hahaha, I laughd haha "Nah, nevermind. That's a horrible joke."
Anyway, nice tutorial!
by Woody 05/05/2009
Great tutorial! But I thought it was going to be on a moving image, does anyone have an example of one of those?
by fher 04/16/2009
You are the best, thx from Bolivia
by Stacey L. 04/10/2009
AWESOME as always!! I've seen a few commercials with people walking through the 3D text like the one in this tutorial. Would you be able to do a future tutorial on how to do that? Thanks so much Andrew!!
by Shimoda 04/10/2009
Andrew! When i shut off the Accepts shadows on BG leyer, shadow is lost. Why? I open your project and shasows is lost too. Please Answer!
by Senthuran 03/31/2009
thanks a lot.... form Sri Lanka
by shrijith 03/30/2009
i used to ask my self how to do this stuff when i see on tvc's
by sharing knowledge u gain knowledge , thats how it works..u r one in a million .
thankyou.
by John Bo 03/21/2009
Awesome place.Thank you andrew.
by barnabas 02/20/2009
cool everything is interesting on this site andrew
keep up...
by arfhddpro 02/15/2009
owwww you are great man tanxxxxxx arafa from TANGER
by PJ 02/09/2009
Haha Gunnerson
by lee 02/03/2009
thanks

you are my god...haha

you have many korean fan~~you know that?
kk

by Charles Campbell 01/30/2009
Dude I live on Gunnerson!!!
by Klas 01/22/2009
Great stuff!!
by aaron 01/10/2009
How do you make The text 3D in After Efects
Awsome tutorial
by Brodie 01/04/2009
Ur last joke may not have been funny, but u made it funny by admitting it. This tutorial has helped, thanx tonnes...
by Kevin 12/20/2008
My god! You're just great! You've helped me learning everything I need to know about After Effects for pro work. thx a million times.
by reggeaton 12/20/2008
wow, thanks another great tutorial andrew
by Basonis 12/14/2008
thx from greece...great tutorial...thx for all tutorial
by mcciff 12/09/2008
hahaha your dry humor in this one is hilarious! haha your tutorials are amazing, keep it up!
by sweden 12/03/2008
your awesome man, great tutorial!
by jonathan suero 11/25/2008
See, I've got After Effects CS3 (so it shouldn't be some issue with an old version) and I just don't get any shadows. I tried making my own at first, didn't get shadows. So I downloaded your project file and tried that: no shadows. Sort of strange. Every other tutorial of yours (well, all that I've tried, though for some I miss a plug-in) works fine. Any solution to this problem?
by jonathan suero 11/25/2008
great tutorial ,,, i t was asome.
can u make a tutorial that show us how to make text come for behind a person in a normal clip( no green screen)
please...thanks

by Syby Abraham 11/22/2008
I too had the same problem with shadows...
When i switched off 'Accepts Lights' the shadow went away too...
but it worked great when i switched to a Spot Light!!
by KillGuta 11/20/2008
Was actually waiting for a tutorial like this, oh and I lol'd at "Gunnerson" :D .

YOU ROCK!
by welly 11/16/2008
great work man
by Rishi 11/05/2008
what a man you are...........
I realy enjoy with your tutorials
thanks a los..
by ilgaz 10/29/2008
needed that! right on time!
by Chris 10/29/2008
Thanks Andrew!
by Rodolfo Varas 10/24/2008
es muy bueno
by Jace 10/22/2008
First of all: Andrew you really are the best (well, at least when it comes to tutorials.) I've really never seen any tutorial that even comes close to your level. They're clear, you don't mumble, give a lot of extra information and the jokes. Oh, and you've got an awesome voice which sort of helps to make something that's in essence boring (well, yeah.. Tutorials don't give any euphoria or anything and I usually find them really boring (probably cause most people who make tuts always mumble and sound bored themselves and reading isn't very exiting either of course), a fun experience.



Anyway, to the point (: And I'm actually amazed nobody else has said this.

See, I've got After Effects CS3 (so it shouldn't be some issue with an old version) and I just don't get any shadows. I tried making my own at first, didn't get shadows. So I downloaded your project file and tried that: no shadows. Sort of strange. Every other tutorial of yours (well, all that I've tried, though for some I miss a plug-in) works fine. Any solution to this problem?
by Chris 10/19/2008
No Way. I was eating sweet n sour pork while watching this...
by Stalin Kapembe 10/11/2008
AUSUM Andrew. Thanx again.
by Jukka 10/08/2008
Thanks from Finland!
by oladapo 10/07/2008
sup Andrew,i'm really inspired by your work,and so much talk about you in Nigeria. we love you.
by Juancho I. Salao 10/06/2008
Ayos Pare! Ang galing mo!!! Translation (Ride On dude! You are the Best!)
by Chris T 09/28/2008
Hey,Andrew!

Your tuts are pretty much the best on the net i reackon.
Ive been on here a few times and i only had adobe after effects cs3 for about 2 weeks and im already understanding it slightly
oh and by the way im only 14 so yeah i guess im
quick learner =]
Anyways thanks forall your tuts man.
Keep it up!
by Mark Crane 09/25/2008
Hey Andrew!

Hands down to your tutorials, your like post production genius!

Im doing my final project at university in motion tracking, its an opening sequence for a film, I wanted to composite 3D titles onto the footage. What I was wondering was, can the principles used in this tutorial be applied for moving footage, as the tutorial is done with a still? Also, would you recommend using AE for the full of this project, or do you think it would be better done using 3D software and Motion Tracking software? Thanks for any help you can give!
by Oleg 09/25/2008
Hi, Andrew!
I love your tutorials! Everything you show, are as simple and useful as the work of a genius. Thank you for your time and effort from me and my colleagues from Russia.
by oluseun 09/24/2008
thank you very much.that's another wonerfull tutorial from you again.thanks
by Akai 09/23/2008
Thank you! ^_^
by xsszw 09/22/2008
THANK YOU
by Blackthunder 09/17/2008
Hi androw you are the best..
pls can you give us a tutorials about tv motion graphic
you now we need a demo about tv
pls can you give us like this tutorials and how could we get the idea for this thinks..
and my best wishes for you..
by Torley 09/17/2008
Re: Fringe titles influence, I reckon that's because Andrew worked on it! :D
by sdfsd 09/17/2008
wow, great
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=8gIbX6-6HZ8
by Charley 09/17/2008
Where can I get the Intrepid font?
by Menego17 09/17/2008
Great! I have The Bullet DVD and it's great like your tutorials!
Make more tutorials.... NOW!
by Zia 09/14/2008
thanx androw ur the boss.
www.djfile.blogspot.com
by pankaj 09/13/2008
hi

i have a problem and i saw thet it happened to other people too...

when i turn off the "accept lights" in the BG layer the shadows dissapere....

how can i fix it ?

please help

thanks
by Sonu 09/12/2008
You got some stunning stuff here Andrew. Always good to see people sharing their knowledge. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Thank you for the inspiration and for your tutorials.
by Dennis M 09/11/2008
Awesome stuff you got here! Taught me ALOT!

Big thanks from sweden!
by longer 09/09/2008
hi,Andrew! 69-71 can't watch.you'd butter check them.
by neilson 09/08/2008
Thank you!
(fROM bRAsIL!!!)
by shailesh 09/08/2008
that was very tricky..... and impressive.....
by DDPLAY 09/08/2008
why i cant watch the video,i am from China
by janak deep 09/08/2008
i love your job. this is great. thank you
by Trent Sprenkle 09/07/2008
Andrew, you are the ginchiest!

My problem with this tut is that no matter what I move (lights, camera, action)I can't get my shadows to meet up with my text! If I bring the text down to the floor...my shadow disappears! I tried different fonts and that made no difference. Is there something I'm missing here? Other than this, it all works great!!!

TS
by alex 09/06/2008
Hi i dont know if im the only with this problem when i turn accept lights off on the floor layer the shadows arent visible anymore, the shadows arent visible in the project file that you provided, im using cs3. any help thanks
by Tallise 09/03/2008
I love you
by vyper 09/02/2008
when are you going to do the next one ? :P
by Lownan 09/02/2008
"Thank you all the time for the time" We enjoy this "teachings" We have learned alot from all this tutorials and we still do. Keep doing what you do best.
by LANKumentary 09/02/2008
Ok I take that back - you guys are good for putting ANY tutorials out at all. I was having a bad day - sorry about that. Honestly - I'm a douche and I should not have written the comment above.
by Neptali 09/01/2008
Hi Andrew! Eversince I've learned about videocopilot, i made sure I'm not missing any of your tutorial. I was wondering if you could also make a sample tutorial from the bullet training. Like how do you integrate 3dmax with AE. Or, what file format should be used in rendering for AE to read the alpha channel of the rendered movie in 3D max. Many thanks!
by oscar 09/01/2008
bueno bueno y bueno, no tengo palabras, simplente decir que sois los MEJORESSSSS.

by Tim 09/01/2008
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/flashofgenius/

Nice to see this technique being used!
by siva 08/31/2008
good
by Rodrigo 08/30/2008
Thanks a lot!
Have you ever seen Fringe?
They use it too!
by adesigne 08/29/2008
You're great andrew thinks
by fan 08/27/2008
Amazing, thank very much
by Ricardo De Mauro 08/27/2008
Fantastic technique!!
by Ron 08/27/2008
You're simply awesome! I don't know what I'd do without your tutorials. Thank you so much!
by Spence 08/27/2008
I tried using this effect with motion tracked video and it ended up working out great. Thank you!
by Poul 08/27/2008
thank u Mr:andrew for this lesson u are great man
by Lefteris Betsis 08/27/2008
Very simply and useful tutorial!!!
Thank you very much, from Greece
by goore 08/27/2008
good
by mohammed mansour 08/26/2008
Hey man! Thnx a lot about your tutorials
by J@Rosales 08/26/2008
I Fixed the problem with the Shadows Using a Spot Light.

by choroloco 08/26/2008
great bro, like everything you do. Thx from Spain.
by Abdo 08/25/2008
You've got the best web site in the world and a creative mind
by kaem32 08/25/2008
Hey man! Thnx a lot about your tutorials! They're very helpful!;):D:D
by kamran 08/24/2008
hello Andrew Sir
its kamran from lahore,Pakistan
i m a big fan of urs and ur tutorials i learn this thing from ur tut and working on it pretty well

there is just 1 thing i like to ask is there nay short way to switch bitween the comps so i dont have to click on the comp all the time can u tell me plz

thanks

i ll be waiting for that plz tell us all abt that
by mario 08/24/2008
Andrew, you're just a great guy, thanks for all these tutorials.
by Tem 08/24/2008
Hey, nice tutorial I've learned a lot from you!

I made a little somthing about a year ago sort of similar like this. Bit it has more to do with projecting 3d shadows on an image, making it come alive. But the tecnique (obviously) works with moving footage too.

Check it out at:
http://www.dynamicdevil.se/index.php?page=a-remark-you-made

If you'd like to have some comps to see how I did it, let me know!
by Carlos 08/24/2008
Did you guys see the FRINGE pilot? the newest project of J.J Abrahams? The titles on the screens is similar with this tutorial. Very nice!

Currently showing 100 of 345 Comments.
Please Read
If you are having a problem viewing the tutorial or downloading a project file or preset, please start a new thread about it in the Website Support Forum. This section is for commenting on the tutorial, not posting problems. If you post a problem with the tutorial here, it will not get dealt with in a timely manner.
Leave a Comment
  Name (required)

  Email (will not be published) (required)



If you are asking for a certain plugin or are having a problem with the tutorial, please check the forum (button below) for an answer and if you don't find one, start a new topic with your question. If you would like to proceed with posting your comment, click Submit Comment.

Your comment is now in the moderation queue and should appear shortly. Thank you for your comment.