Noob here, shadow export issues in cc?

[kalbob]

So, the way i did shadows, is by making a new layer and making it transparent, which is where i drew all the shadows

but when i export it, it doesn't save the transparency and every shadow ends up being just jet black

Am i doing something wrong with exporting, or did i mess up all my shadows by doing them wrong...

I hope it's not the latter because that means a lot of work gone for me..

Any help is appreciated thanks in advance

[Colin Holgate]

How are you exporting the image? If you import the png into an FLA that has a white stage, is the shadow transparent?

[kalbob]

Not sure i quite understand ^^'' but if i export it as a png file, it does show the shadow fine, atleast for the single layer it exports

but what i have is an animation with many frames and layers, which i export into an swf file, and then that into an mp4 file

If that makes sense..? And by that point, the shadows are black instead of transparent black

sorry if that was a bad explanation, i'm a noob

[Colin Holgate]

When you export video you have the option to send it to Adobe Media Encoder. If you uncheck that you will just get an MOV file. The transparency in that should be ok. If the MOV looks ok you could take that into Adobe Media Encoder to make the MP4.

In your description you said you were exporting a swf and then making that into mp4. Are you doing that with other tools, or are you using the built in Export Video feature?

[kalbob]

i export to swf using adobe cc then i take that file and use an external program to make it into an mp4 file, is there a an option to export to mp4 directly? I never found it?

[Colin Holgate]

File/Export/Export Video...

[robdillon]

Is this a canvas or AS3 project? You say that you are making the layer transparent, how are you doing that? To change the opacity of a symbol on the stage you would normally select that object and then set a new value for the Alpha property. There is also a Drop Shadow filter that you can apply to symbols, although this is a bad idea for canvas projects as the performance of filters in html is just awful.

[kalbob]

I see.. it's an as3 project

where is this alpha property option situated...?

I thought just changing opacity of the layer itself worked

[ClayUUID · Accepted solution]

Layer transparency is an editor feature to let you see your work better. It doesn't actually change the transparency of anything. To make things render transparent you have to draw them using a transparent color if they're a shape, or if they're an object instance add an alpha effect to them using the properties panel.

[kalbob]

Oh. i see. that's a bummer...thank you for telling me

[Colin Holgate]

It's good that Clay can read better than us! It would be a nice feature to be able to export with layer transparency.

You have a few options for getting what you want, mostly involving filters or symbols. But another way to work would be to paint with a color that has transparency. If you select your current shadow and in the fill color swatch change the alpha value for that color into something other than 100. It should then look right even if you take away the transparency in the layer itself.

I will mark Clay's answer as correct, as it was the right answer to your question.

[kalbob]

ohh thanks for the explanation of how to fix it!

Thank you and the rest for your help i really appreciate it!