Pre-Comps casting shadows on each other but not on background!

[nijjar.p]

Hey everyone,

I'm kinda new to after effects, have done a few projects. But am fairly new to 3D and spot light stuff. I'm doing these end credits for a short film. They will eventually (hopefully) look like a corkboard with the main cast, director, producer, and writer each having their own post it note with their name and a picture as if it were taped to the corkboard. I did a test run and put all the sticky notes, tape pngs, and pictures into the main comp and made them 3D and put a spot light on just to see how it looked. The shadows were being cast nicely and everything but I thought it looked a bit messy. So, I decided to make a new project import everything in an orderly way. I ended up making pre-comps for all my sticky notes and pictures for each person (I have 10 pre-comps altogether). I made one more pre-comp for my background (I had to tile it for it to look better). Finally, when I had all my pieces in, I put a spotlight on (like I had tested before), I made the pre-comps 3D with all the proper settings (cast shadows: on, accepts shadows: on, accept light: on).

My problem is that the objects (sticky notes, pictures) would cast shadows on each other but wouldn't do it on the background. I don't know what I did wrong. But I tried different backgrounds and solids and nothings works. I've attached some screenshots below. (The poloroid png already had a slight black outline at the bottom, that is not a shadow being cast).

Thank you!! Sorry for the long post

[Mylenium]

Go through the pre-comps and check the same settings. Mismatches can cause weird behaviors. Likewise, check for anything that breaks 3D rendering order like layer styles or adjustment layers.

Mylenium

[nijjar.p]

I'll go through and check, thanks! What sort of layer styles or adjustment layers breaks 3D rendering? This is one of the first projects I'm doing using 3D, so I don't know the little tricks yet.

Thanks,
PJ

[Roland Kahlenberg]

All Layer Styles and Adjustment Layers break 3D Layer interactions. If you are still unable to solve the issue then provide screen grabs of your Layer Stack in the Timeline - ALL LAYERS. And if possible, display all effects too.