SPECIAL EFFECT DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND SHADOW GENERATING METHOD

A virtual 3-D object video signal V1 is produced by performing a 3-D image transformation for a source video signal, and a 2-D objet video signal V2 for virtually representing the 3-D image transformation is produced by projecting the object video signal V1 onto an X-Y plane. Further, 3-D shadow signals V3 and V5 are produced by projecting the 3-D image transformed 3-D object video signal V1 onto a shadow plane, and 2-D shadow signals V4 and V6 corresponding to said 2-D object video signal are produced by projecting the 3-D shadow signals onto the X-Y plane. Therefore, a shadow signal for a 3-D image transformed object video signal can be produced by calculations.