Web Development: How to Add Soft Shadow Effects to Cartoon Animation Using After Effects

How to Add Soft Shadow Effects to Cartoon Animation Using After Effects

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

Soft shadow lighting effects are essential for creating that sense of believability when adding objects or characters into a scene. In our last tutorial, we learned how to create soft lighting. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create shadows that interact with your character and the world around them. We will use Adobe After Effects to achieve this.

What You'll Learn in This Tutorial

Adobe After Effects has many different tools that allow you to create lighting and shadow effects in your animation project. In this tutorial we will show you step-by-step how to create soft shadow lighting effects to enhance your scene. You'll learn:

How to create soft shadows for your character in Adobe After Effects
How to create soft shadows for your props
How to create and transform 3D layers
How to tweak and adjust the look of your shadows using the transform options

What You'll Need

To follow along with this tutorial you will need Adobe After Effects and your own animation project. You can download ready-made scene from Envato Elements or use your own custom animation project. In previous tutorials, we showed how to quickly and easily create an animated characters using Cartoon Animator, which includes the character we're using in this tutorial.

Here's the scene we'll use: Layered Background Scene 'Teleport'.

1. How to Import Video Files into Adobe After Effects

Step 1

For this project we'll be using separate animated video files and objects. However feel free to use your own custom project or video to follow along.

Let's start by first listing out the video files we have exported from Cartoon Animator. For this example we have exported all the props within the scene manager, which includes the following:

Character (G3 Actor)
Background 1,2 + 3
Machine
Machine Screen
Machine Overlay
Wires 1,2 + 3

Step 2

In Adobe After Effects, import each of the videos by going to File > Import > File and selecting the .MOV video files.

When importing the files this will prompt a new window where you must decide how you wish to interpret the alpha channel. Select Straight - Unmatted and click OK.

Step 3

Once you have imported all the videos into After Effects you will find them located in the Project Panel, usually located on the left side of the screen.

2. How to Prepare the Scene

Step 1

Create a new composition by going to Composition > New Composition (Control - N).

Step 2

In the composition settings, use the following:

Composition Name: Render Comp
Width: 1920 px
Height: 1080 px
Frame Rate: 30
Duration: 33.20 seconds

Step 3

Use the mouse to drag and drop each movie file into the composition. Make sure that you layer all your props correctly. In this example we have layered the props in the following order:

Machine Overlay
Character
Machine Screen
Wires
Machine
Background

3. How to Add Moving Shadows to a Character in the Scene

Step 1

In order for the shadow and light effects to work, we need to make our layers into 3D layers. To do this make sure to check the 3D Layer box next to each layer.

Step 2

Duplicate the Character Layer by selecting it and then pressing Control - D on the keyboard.

Step 3

Rename the duplicate Character Layer and call it Character Shadow.

Step 4

Open up the layer Transform options and rotate the layer by 180° using the X Rotation.

Step 5

Use the Position option and change the vertical values so that the shadow appears underneath the Character layer. Try and move to a position in the timeline where your character's foot meets the floor. You can then align both feet so that they are touching.

move the shadow layer below the character layer

Step 6

Change the Opacity value so that it is 60%. You can reduce or increase this value so that the shadow works within your scene.

Step 7

Go to the Effects & Presets panel and type in "fill" in the search bar at the top. Select the Fill effect and apply it to the Character Shadow layer. You can do this by double clicking on the fill effect (whilst the character shadow layer is selected) or by clicking and dragging it onto the layer itself.

Once the effect has been applied, go to the Effect Controls panel and make sure the color is set to black.

Step 8

Go to the Effects & Presets panel and type in "gaussian blur" in the search bar at the top. Select the Guassian Blur effect and apply it to the Character Shadow layer.

Step 9

Once the effect has been applied, go to the Effect Controls panel and set the Blurriness to a higher value. In this example we have used 10.

Step 10

Ensure that the Character Shadow layer is in the correct order so that it doesn't look out of place within the animation. In this example we have moved the Machine Overlay layer above the Character Shadow layer.

Step 11

You can continue to adjust and tweak the look of your shadow to your liking by using the Transform options. In the example below we have adjusted the X Rotation to give the shadow a sense of perspective.

4. How to Add Soft Shadows to Objects in the Scene

Step 1

Select which prop you would like to add soft shadows to. In this example we are using the Machine layer.

Duplicate the layer by selecting it and then pressing Control - D on the keyboard. Rename the duplicate layer appropriately so that you can identify it as a shadow layer. Open up the layer Transform options and rotate the layer by 180° using the X Rotation.

Step 2

Use the Position option and change the vertical values so that the shadow appears underneath the Machine layer. Try and align the shadow layer so that the bottom edges are touching. This can sometimes be achieved by hiding certain parts of the shadow layer behind the prop layer. This is shown in the example below.

Step 3

You may also want to adjust and tweak the look of your shadow by applying a sense of perspective to it so that it fits the scene better. This can be achieved by adjusting the Rotation, Scale and Position values.

Step 4

Go to the Effects & Presets panel and type in "fill" in the search bar at the top. Select the Fill effect and apply it to the Shadow layer.

Once the effect has been applied, go to the Effect Controls panel and make sure the color is set to black.

Step 5

Go to the Effects & Presets panel and type in "gaussian blur" in the search bar at the top. Select the Guassian Blur effect and apply it to the Shadow layer.

Step 6

Once the effect has been applied, go to the Effect Controls panel and set the Blurriness to a higher value. The higher the value the more blurry it will appear in the scene. In this example we have used 12.

Step 7

Reduce the Opacity value to around 60%.

Step 8

Repeat the above steps to apply soft shadows to other props or characters that are included in your scene. Experiment with different transform values such as Scale, Rotation and Position so that the shadows fit within the over composition of the animation.

Awesome! You're Finished!

Congratulations! And that's how you can add soft shadow lighting effects to a cartoon animation project in Adobe After Effects and Cartoon Animator. Feel free to experiment with the different effect options such as the transform options to edit the look of your project. Using light requires some trial and error to figure out the best settings to use, so make sure to experiment.

In the meantime, I hope you've found this tutorial useful and I'll see you next time, on Envato Tuts+!