Shadow Node

With the Shadow effect, you can turn a drawing into a shadow. It doesn't matter if the drawing layer is a fully coloured character. The Shadow effect will render it into a grey, semitransparent, slightly blurry silhouette. You must connect your layer a second time to the your Composite node to see the original image displayed on top of the shadow. To see advanced usage of the Shadow node such as drop-shadow, see Creating a Drop Shadow.

Refer to the following example to connect this effect:

NOTE If this effect is connected below a Composite node set to Pass-Through, the effect will be applied to each element connected in the Composite node individually. If some of these elements are overlapping, the effect will also overlap.

Properties

Parameter	Description
Enable/Disable	Allows you to enable or disable the node. When disabled, a node has no visible effect on the rendered image, nor on the preview in the Camera, Perspective, Side and Top views.
Colour Swatch	Sets the colour of the layer in the Timeline view and of the node in the Node view.
Name	The name of the node as it appears in the Node View and the Timeline view. Each node must have a name that is unique to its containing group.
Truck Factor	Activated by default, this option readjusts the blur when the elements undergo a change of depth or scale. When disabled, the effect's values will remain unchanged regardless of depth or scale changes. It is recommended that this option be disabled when multiple drawings are composited and attached this effect.
Blur Type	Allows you to choose between the following blur types for the effect: Radial: The edges of the matte are blurred evenly around points that make up the edge of the matte. Directional: The matte is blurred in the direction configured with the Directional Angle and Directional Falloff Rate parameters.
Radius	Enter a value for the size of the blur. The larger the value, the greater the blur effect. The blur radius is affected by the drawing scale and camera position.
Directional Angle	If you set the Blur Type to Directional, this sets the angle of the blur. The value goes from 0 to 360, with 0 meaning west, and angles going counterclockwise. For example: 0: Blurs the image to the west. 90: Blurs the image to the south. 180: Blurs the image to the east. 270: Blurs the image to the north.
Directional Falloff Rate	The distance where the blur fades from the edge of the image. Select a decimal value between 0 and 1. For example: 0: Makes the blur fade out slowly, distributing the blur evenly from the edge of the character to the farthest edge of the blur. 1: Makes the blur fade out quickly. The blur is heaviest closer to the edge of the image.
Invert Matte	Inverts the matte used to generate the effect. By default, the effect is applied to opaque areas of the drawing. When this option is enabled, the effect is applied to transparent or empty areas of the drawing.
Use Source Colour	Instead of using the colour in the Colour parameters, this uses the colours in the source drawing to generate the effect. NOTE The effect of this parameter is only visible in Render View mode.
Multiplicative	Multiplies the colours of the effect with the colours of the background. This intensifies the effect.
Colour
Red	The amount of red to subtract from the colour in the background image. To obtain a shadow effect, this value must be negative.
Green	The amount of green to subtract from the colour in the background image. To obtain a shadow effect, this value must be negative.
Blue	The amount of blue to subtract from the colour in the background image. To obtain a shadow effect, this value must be negative.
Alpha	The alpha value of the effect.
Colour Swatch	Opens the Colour Picker dialog, in which you can visually select a colour for the effect.
Intensity	Allows you to set the factor by which to multiply the intensity of the effect. This parameter can take a decimal value between 0 and 1. At 1, the effect is fully applied. At 0, the effect is not visible.