Particle drop shadow

hey all,
Due to my lack of knowledge on what these things are called I will define some terms I am going to use in my question.

Particle unit: one spwned entity of my particle emitter (in this case a graphic)

ok, now the question:

I have a graphic that I have turned into a particle emitter. Now I would like to be able to have a drop shadow for each particle unit - turning on drop shadow for the emitter treats all units as one object - thus when 2 units are overlapping the shadow is dropped to the background only, not from one unit to another.

Any thoughts on how to achieve the desired result?

Thanks!

Maybe slow down the emitter and placr another one on a layer underneath. That way, the overlapping could be from 2 different emitters...

hmmm, that would be great if you could modify the z-space to merge the two - the same thing happens - if you have an emitter it is treated as a layer they do not live in 3d space - even if you apply the 3d filter - that only effects the plain of the emitter - not the particles themselves.

Add the drop shadow to the source graphic, not the emitter. Now, every particle born using that graphic will have its own drop shadow.

-- Greg

Greg,
Great idea!

I evan sat with some of the "Guru's" in the Studio area of the apple store - they couldnt come up with a viable solution between 8 of them.

well done and thank you!

J