I don’t know if this would be possible, but I’d love to see an auto-shadow option. This is probably more a suggestion for Animate Pro.
This would be an option to rig lighting as you do in a 3D animation program, but adapted to 2D.
Eg. Once you have animated your scene, you can set the light source (including indicating the relative real-world distances between the light source and objects), and the software automatically creates shadow effects.
There could be additional options allowing the animator to:
- tweak individual shadows, including deleting shadows.
- select types of shadows, depending on the texture of the objects the shadow is falling on, eg. a shadow for grass, a shadow for a shiny floor.
- make shadows move up various surfaces, eg. vertical surfaces.
- use objects to block shadows, eg. if there is a tree which would ordinarily block sunlight, the auto-shadow might create an entire shadow of the tree, bu the animator could have the option to select parts of the tree which would allow light in, either manually (by painting in the areas) or automatically by selecting a certain colour or opacity which would allow light in.
Thanks