How to Add Drop Shadow in After Effects: Step-by-Step Guide

A drop shadow is a visual effect that makes an object cast a shadow behind it. This effect is common in text, titles, logos, buttons, and multiple types of objects in a scene or composition: drop shadows can be used for static images and videos to add depth and give them a 3D look.

Drop shadow effects can be animated and customized with different colors and intensities. You can usually adjust the orientation and distance of the projected shadow, among other parameters, to make the shadow unique and personalized to fit your projects and style.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to add drop shadow in After Effects in a video or image. We'll look at two methods using After Effect's built-in tools and one using BCC Drop Shadow, an effect included with Continuum.

Let’s dive in!

Add Drop Shadow in After Effects

After Effects provides two easy methods to create drop shadow effects to all the layers. I will show you step-by-step how to use both methods for your projects. Which method is best depends on your composition, the look you want, and the drop shadow properties you're looking for.

• Method 1: The Drop Shadow Effect

  This first method is one of the easiest: using the Drop Shadow Effect. This effect is built-in in After Effects. For this example, I will create a title with a drop shadow effect.

  • Step 1: Create a New Composition.

    Open After Effects creates a new composition. Add a new text layer by clicking the Type Tool or right-clicking the layer panel and selecting New > Text. Type the words for your title and adjust the size, font, and color.

    

  • Step 2: Add Drop Shadow

    With the text layer selected, go to the Effects menu and click Perspective > Drop Shadow. You can drag and drop the drop shadow effect to any layer from the Effects & Presets panel. The title will show a little shadow behind the text, but let’s customize it to create a unique drop shadow for your title.

    

  • Step 3: Customizing the Drop Shadow Effect

    Open the Effect Controls panel. You have a few settings here, but they are enough to make custom drop shadow effects.

    

    The first parameter to choose is the shadow color. Click the color box and select a color for the shadow. Make sure the shadow is visible against the background of your composition.

    Then, adjust the Opacity to change the strength of the shadow behind the text.

    The Direction parameter changes the angle of the shadow if you want it to the right or left, up or down, etc.

    If you want to see more of the shadow, increase the distance to make the shadow look farther from the text. It will move relative to the angle you set on Direction.

    A higher softener will blur the image, and fewer values will make the shadow sharper.

    Checking the "Shadow Only" text will make only the shadow visible.

  • Step 4: How to Improve the Drop Shadow Effect

    Once you add the drop shadow, you can enhance it by combining other advanced effects to the compositions and adding more layers. You can also use keyframes on the parameters to animate the shadow. Make the shadow move around the text, blur in and out, or make it appear and disappear by keyframing the Opacity parameter.

• Method 2: Drop Shadow Layer Styles

  This second option is the Layer Styles menu.

  • Step 1: Create a New Composition

    Start by creating a new composition and add a text layer to it. Type the text for the title and set the font type, style, size, and position of the title.

  • Step 2: Add a Drop Shadow

    Right-click the text layer, then click Layer Styles > Drop Shadow. More options, like the popular Inner Shadow and Stretched Shadow, will appear under the layer for Drop Shadow.

    

  • Step 3: Drop Shadow Parameters

    You have parameters similar to those of the Drop Shadow Effect, such as choosing the color for the shadow and adjusting the opacity, angle, and distance.

    The Drop Shadow from the Layer Styles allows you to change the Blend Mode, spread the shadow wider, change its size, and add Noise to the shadow.

Add Drop Shadow in After Effects with BCC Drop Shadow

This last method uses the BCC Drop Shadow filter from the Continuum plug-in. BCC Drop Shadow adds a shadow behind the text and objects from your video and can be animated to compose a more eye-catching sequence.

BCC Drop Shadow is easy to use and configure and features a preset library to inspire creativity.

You can follow this tutorial with the trial version of Continuum. Download and install the After Effects version.

• Step 1: Create a New Composition

  Start a new project in After Effects and add a text layer to a new composition. Type the text to add the drop shadow.

• Step 2: Apply BCC Drop Shadow

  Select the layer with the text and go to Effects > BCC Stylize > BCC Drop Shadow. Or search for the BCC Drop Shadow filter from the Effects & Presets panel and drag and drop to the desired layer or composition scene.

  

• Step 3: Explore the Presets Library

  Click the FX Browser button in the Effects Controls panel to launch where the presets are stored. You have a few presets you can apply to customize them. Or return without applying any preset to create a drop shadow from scratch.

  

• Step 4: BCC Drop Shadow Parameters

  The BCC Drop Shadow effect parameters are intuitive and simple to use.

  

  You start with the Source Opacity, which is the opacity of the original text, not the shadow. It allows for creative animation to alternate between the title and the shadow.

  To make the shadow look farther away from the source, increase the Shadow Distance.

  Shadow Intensity controls the opacity of the drop shadow effect. It's another parameter commonly animated to make the shadow effect appear and disappear.

  Use the Shadow Angle parameter to adjust the direction of the drop shadow. Use the values to set the shadow around the title or object in the timeline.

  Shadow Color allows you to change the color of the drop shadow. Click the box to pick a color, or use the dropper to select a color from the source image.

  For soft and blurry drop shadows, increase the Shadow Softness. Lower values create sharper, defined, and solid drop shadows. Then, you have more settings to control the blur effect. The Blur Quality provides options like Pyramid, Low, Medium, High Gaussian, and more.

  The last parameter is Gamma, which controls the gray values to make lighter shadows and reduce contrast or vice versa.

• Step 5: Fine-Tune your Drop Shadows

  Here are some ideas to enhance and make your drop shadows more impactful.

  • Animate the BCC Drop shadow effect by keyframing parameters such as the Source Opacity, Shadow Intensity, Shadow Angle, and Shadow Softness.

  • Apply other Continuum effects such as BCC Blur, BCC Multi Shadow, BCC Prism, and any other plug-ins included with Continuum.

  • Duplicate layers and effects.

  • Stack other text or video layers with different effects.

Final Words

Adding drop shadows in After Effects is a simple process. How you tweak the effect and play with its parameters makes the difference between basic shadows for titles and creative shadows for text and objects in a video.

Remember, the drop shadow effect works best with a solid background or when there is not much detail in the back of the object. Otherwise, it will get lost in the background and pass unnoticed by the spectators.

Get Continuum to create eye-catching drop shadows and expand your composition tools and visual effects. Explore and improve drop shadows with over 300 effects, transitions, and presets. Now, the pack features AI-powered tools to fix images, reduce noise, upscale videos, and more!

Good luck, and stay creative!