Adding a drop shadow To add a drop shadow, follow these steps:
1 Choose Video Effects > Perspective to drag a drop shadow onto the top clip.
You may want to collapse the other effects in this panel to better see the Drop
Shadow options.
2 Change the Drop Shadow parameters in the Effect Controls panel as follows:
t Change Direction to about 320°.
t Increase Distance to 30 so you can see the
shadow (you might need to adjust the Select
Zoom Level menu of the Program Monitor
to see how this works).
t Change Opacity to 50% to darken the
shadow (since the background clip is rather dark).
t Set Softness to 30 to soften the edges of the shadow. Generally, the greater
the Distance parameter, the more softness you should apply.
3 Apply these same values to the other four PIPs by using Copy and Paste. Right-
click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the Drop Shadow effect in the Effect
Controls panel, and choose Copy.
4 Select the clip in Video 2, right-click in a blank area of the Effect Controls panel,
and choose Paste. This will paste the shadow filter to the selected clip. Repeat
this for the other PIP clips.
5 Render and play this sequence. It should look like the Finished sequence.
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Note: You want the
shadow to fall away
from any perceived
light source. In this
exercise, you set the
light direction for bevel
edges to about 320°. To
make shadows fall away
from a light source,
add or subtract 180°
from the light source
direction to get the
correct direction for the
shadow to fall.
