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Participant
Aug 30, 2024 2:48 PM UTC
Needs More Info

Drop shadow duplication glitch

Hi everyone,

I've been using After Effects for years, and this is the first time I've encountered a glitch like this. Typically, to create a nice shadow quickly, I stack multiple Drop Shadow effects and vary their opacity, distance, and softness. However, it seems that now, when I add a new Drop Shadow effect, it duplicates the previous one, causing the second one to have 2 shadows instead of 1.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue or have any ideas on how to resolve it?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

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5 replies

Community Expert
Oct 4, 2024 2:38 PM UTC

This is not a bug—stack effects are rendered in order. If you want the second copy of Drop Shadow to add to the shadow created from the first effect try this. Before applying Drop Shadow, duplicate the layer. On the bottom copy apply Drop Shadow and set it to render Shadow Only. Now apply a second copy of drop shadow. The distances are going to add up, but you won't get three shadows from two applications of the effect.

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Maki1412Author
Participant
Oct 4, 2024 9:25 AM UTC

Hello there, 

I tired unsitalling and reinstaling again, and after a fresh intalation the problem still persists, please i need help 

 

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Maki1412Author
Participant
Sep 2, 2024 9:24 AM UTC

correction: it's nor working on all files

 

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Maki1412Author
Participant
Sep 2, 2024 9:19 AM UTC

here are the layer that i have, i wanted to check if there's something wrong so i made a new test comp to see and the problem is still there, i don't why, i tired it even on a new project and it's the same this, also when i go back to old projects where i have layered drop shadows, they're still fine and working as expected but but if i make a new object and layer dropshadow for it it doesn't work

 

 

 

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Aug 30, 2024 4:48 PM UTC

I can't see the timeline to know, but is there just 1 layer or 2 layers in your comp with 2 copies of Drop Shadow on each layer?

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