Houdini 22.0 Nodes Copernicus nodes

Drop Shadow Copernicus node

Composites a copy of a layer under the original to create a shadow.

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Since 22.0

This node creates an offset (shadow) of the original input that you can expand, streak, and blur. The shadow’s color either multiplies with or replaces the original input’s color (set by Multiply with Original). The node then composites the result under the original layer.

Before and after using the Drop Shadow node.

For example, use this node to create a shadow effect.

You can use the Font COP instead of this node when you want to add shadow and depth to text. You can use the Streak Blur COP instead of this node when you want to blur your layer in one direction to create a shadow.

Parameters

Signature

The layer type that the source accepts.

See Signatures for more information.

Mask

The amount of the new value to mix in with the original value. Higher values mix in more of the new value. Lower values mix in less of the new value.

The default value is 1, which means this node uses only the new value. See Mask for more information.

Border

The sampling behavior outside of the incoming layer’s boundaries. Automatically uses the layer’s border property.

See Border types for more information.

Units

The unit of measurement used to determine the size of the Offset, Distance, Expansion, and Blur parameters.

Image

Sets the parameters to use units of the image space.

Pixels

Sets the parameters to use units of the number of pixels.

Output Drop Shadow Only

Outputs only the drop shadow effect, which displays a preview of the effect. Turn this on if you want to make the shadow a separate AOV or configure the shadow further before you composite it on top of the source layer.

Tip

Turn this parameter on and use the Blend COP to put the shadow back over the original layer.

Drop Shadow

Mode

The direction in which to offset the shadow.

Offset

A two-component vector that represents the X and Y directions to offset the shadow.

Angle and Distance

An angle in degrees and distance.

Offset

The amount (based on the Units parameter) to offset the shadow to give the effect of directional lighting.

Tip

When Units is Image, click and then click a location in the image to set the Offset.

Angle

The angle by which to offset the shadow.

Distance

The distance (based on the Units parameter) along the angle by which to offset the shadow from the original input.

Color

The color of the drop shadow.

Tip

Click and then click on the layer to set the Color.

Multiply with Original

Multiplies the drop shadow’s Color with the original input’s color before offsetting. When off, the drop shadow’s Color replaces the original input’s color.

Shaping

Expansion

The amount (based on the Units parameter) to expand the shadow. Higher values spread the shadow outwards while lower values contract the shadow inwards.

Adding some expansion can ensure a strong shadow that blurring would otherwise wash out, especially for thin text.

Maximum Radius

Clamps Expansion to this value. When you increase Expansion past a certain value it slows performance, so this parameter attempts to mitigate this hit.

Streak

Streaks multiple copies in between the original input and the final offset copy. This smears the image along the distortion trajectory set by Streak Weight. When off, the node outputs only a single offset copy of the original input.

Streak Weight

When Streak is on, this ramp acts as a multiplier on the pixel values when streaking. The left side of the ramp corresponds to the start of the trajectory.

For more information about using ramps, see Ramp parameters.

Blurring

Blurring

Blurs the output shadow.

Filter

The filter to blur the image with. See Filters for more information.

Box

Creates a box around the pixel of which to take an average of.

Gaussian (default)

Take a weighted average of the pixels according to a Gaussian distribution.

Blur

Scale Size

Scales the blur radius for a specific axis.

Inputs

source

The original layer to which you apply the drop shadow effect.

mask

An optional per-pixel mask amount that’s scaled by the Mask parameter.

Outputs

dropshadow

The source layer with the drop shadow effect added. If Output Drop Shadow Only is on, this instead outputs only the drop shadow.

See also

Copernicus nodes