MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-USING FLASH Use Manual page 232

Applying a drop shadow
The Drop Shadow filter simulates the look of an object casting a shadow onto a surface, or
cutting out a hole in the background in the shape of the object.
Text with the Drop Shadow filter applied.
To apply a drop shadow to an object:
1. Select the movie clip or text object that you want to apply a drop shadow to.
2.
Select the Filters tab in the Property inspector.
3.
Click the Add Filter (+) button, and select Drop Shadow from the Filters pop-up menu.
4.
Edit the filter settings on the Filter tab of the Property inspector:
Drag the Blur X and Y sliders to set the width and height of the drop shadow.
Drag the Distance slider to set the distance of the shadow from the object.
Click the Color box to open the Color pop-up window and set the shadow color.
Drag the Strength slider to set the darkness of the shadow. The higher the numerical
value, the darker the shadow.
Enter a value to set the angle of the shadow, or click the angle selector and drag the
angle dial.
Select the Knockout check box to knock out (or visually hide) the source object and
display only the drop shadow on the knockout image.
Select the Inner shadow check box to apply the shadow within the boundaries of the
object.
Select the Hide Object check box to hide the object and display only its shadow. The
Hide Object option lets you more easily create a realistic shadow. For more
information, see
Select the quality level for the drop shadow. Setting the quality level to High is
approximate to that of a Gaussian blur. Setting the quality level to Low is
recommended to maximize playback performance.
232 Using Filters and Blends (Flash Professional only)
"Creating a skewed drop shadow" on page 233.