Action - Shadow Cast and GMasks

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1

I’m throwing a quick animated action comp together and getting some odd behaviour i am struggling to fix.

I’m using 3d Text with no depth to create the words, a gmask to reveal those words and a Light with Shadowcast node to give some subtle dropshadows.
Problem is the Gmasked and invisible text is still casting a shadow, as can be seen on the screengrab.
How do i stop the Light from ignoring the GMask?

thanks
adam
Screenshot 2021-06-08 at 14.02.10

2

Two options:

  1. Duplicate the BG that is receiving the shadows and set the duplicate’s “Shadow casting” to “off” (it’s on the surface section, down in the bottom middle), then have a gmask cut through both the type layer and the cast-upon layer, leaving the “shadow casting off” layer below it all.

  2. Build the text in a separate action so the alpha is already animated when coming into the shadow-casting action.

3

Thanks Andy…it was a variation on your suggestion that i used…two outputs from action, one with and one without, then do the gmask before a comp node.

Had a feeling it was one of those odd gotchas that required more than just hitting the right button.

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