Shadow Studio
Real shadows, real light, real depth — for Adobe Express
Shadow Studio brings a full lighting rig to Adobe Express. Seven shadow styles — basic, drop, dual, long, 3D perspective, inset and contact — driven by a draggable light source that moves the shadow in real time. Grab the 3D shadow itself and lean it, stretch it, or flip it in front of your subject when the light sits behind. Then export as a still, an animation, or a shadow layer that composites itself.
Intro and tutorial video
Key Features
Seven shadows, one light
Every style responds live to a draggable light source, and 3D and contact shadows can be shaped by dragging directly on the preview — angle and length for 3D, size and squash for contact. Layered styles run up to 240 layers deep with per-layer blur and opacity falloff, and colour comes flat or as a multi-stop gradient built in a drag-and-drop editor: click the bar to add a stop, drag to balance, double-click to recolour.
Any image in
Upload, drag-and-drop, or import your page straight into the panel. One-click background removal isolates your subject, vector files rasterise cleanly at import, and soft, feathered edges render correctly through every shadow style. Halftone and noise textures apply to the full shadow, so patterns continue behind your subject.
Animation without keyframe pain
Capture a start frame, adjust, capture an end frame — Shadow Studio interpolates between them with your choice of easing, previewed live with play, pause and restart. Export as MP4 at up to 1080p.
The shadow layer trick
Export just the shadow as a video on white, and it lands in your design with Multiply blending already applied — place it behind your image, above the background, and the shadow darkens whatever sits beneath it. The classic compositor's technique, automated.
Presets that show themselves
Save any setup as a preset with a live thumbnail rendered through the real engine — what the thumbnail shows is exactly what applying it produces. Stills export at SD, HD or 4K across five aspect ratios, with a shadow-only option for layering under your own elements.
How it works
Bring in an image (or start with a shape), pick a shadow type from the icon bar, and drag the light. Fine-tune with the sliders, add a texture if the design wants one, then press Add to design. For animation, capture two frames and press play; for the shadow layer, tick one box.