Adding drop shadows and outlines in Video by Zaweba

A logo floating over footage, a cut-out of a person from a green screen, a picture in picture window in the corner: all of these can look flat and lost against a busy background. A shadow, an outline or a glow separates them from what is behind. Video by Zaweba has four effects for the job: drop shadow, outline, outer glow and roughen edges.

The four effects

Drop shadow casts a shadow behind the shape of the clip, offset as if lit from one side. It gives depth and makes a picture in picture window feel like it sits above the background.

Outline draws a line round the edge of the clip's shape. On a logo or a keyed person, that gives the popular sticker look. On a rectangle clip, it acts as a border.

Outer glow spreads a soft light outwards from the edge. A dark glow behind white text works like a soft shadow on all sides. A bright coloured glow gives a neon edge.

Roughen edges breaks up the edge of the shape so it looks torn, painted or hand cut, which suits scrapbook styles and collage animations.

Why the sizes stay right

These effects are set in pixel sizes, which raises a question: pixels of what? Your preview may be showing a scaled down picture, and you may export at a different size from the timeline. Video by Zaweba handles this by giving the sizes at 1080 lines and scaling them, so the preview matches the export. An outline that looks three pixels thick on a 1080 picture will be the same proportion of the frame in a 4K export. You set it once and it looks the same everywhere.

Jobs they are good for

Picture in picture is a classic. Place a clip in a corner with the quick corner button in the Inspector, then add a drop shadow and a thin outline. The window now reads clearly against any background.

Keyed subjects benefit too. After removing a green screen, an outline turns the person into a cut-out sticker for a playful, social media style. A soft outer glow can hide small flaws in the key edge.

Logos and graphics on varied footage often disappear when the background changes colour. A subtle shadow or dark glow keeps them readable in every shot without a solid box behind them.

Shapes and text built in Video by Zaweba have their own outline and shadow settings in titles, so for text you may not need these effects at all. They are most useful on clips, pictures and graphics that don't have those settings built in.

Using them with other tools

Effects can be applied to a whole track from the track Inspector. If you have a logo track that runs through a whole video, put the shadow on the track and every logo clip gets it. Settings can be keyframed, so a shadow can grow as a picture lifts towards the camera, which works nicely with a scale animation.

You can also save a look you like as an effect preset, so every picture in picture in a series has the same border and shadow.

Mistakes that look amateur

Heavy, hard shadows are the main one. A soft, slightly transparent shadow looks natural. A thick black one looks dated. Keep the offset small and the softness generous.

Mixing light directions is another. If shadows point one way on a logo and another on a picture in picture window, the frame looks confused. Pick a direction and stick to it across the project.

Outlines on fuzzy edges can look jagged. If a keyed edge is noisy, tidy the key or soften it before adding an outline.

Used with restraint, the shadow and outline effects in Video by Zaweba make overlays look deliberate and finished.