Nick Greenawalt shows how you can create reactive shadows in Ae using a Color Controller.

Adobe After Effects relies heavily on writing expressions to do a lot of heavy work. Even in the most straightforward workflows. Remember, though, that expressions don’t have to be that hard. In After Effects, you can pick-whip a lot of things to link and apply those attributes with expressions. Knowing this, it’s easy to make reactive shadows.

Create Dynamic and Reactive Shadows.

In a practical example for a lot of the pick-whip, is this new tutorial from Nick Greenawalt (Motion By Nick) who shows us how to create a dynamic and reactive shadow and highlight setup. The tutorial makes use of the Color Controller in After Effects. “Once you get it set up, it can offer a ton of flexibility and control over your animations,” Greenawalt says about the technique. The shadow and highlight effect is one that you can create with the inner shadow effect.

About Nick Greenawalt.

Nick Greenawalt is a Philadelphia-based motion designer. By day he works at an experience strategy and design agency called Bluecadet. By night I create tutorials, process videos, and all sorts of fresh content on youtube & instagram.