ok I changed the dropshadow funciton to this:
public function dropShadowFilter(dropShad:Object, addShadow:Boolean):Object{
var _myShadow:DropShadowFilter = new DropShadowFilter();
//var _filterObject:Object = new Object();
if(addShadow){
_myShadow.distance = 10;
_myShadow.color = 0x000000;
_myShadow.blurX = 10;
_myShadow.blurY = 10;
_myShadow.quality = 3;
dropShad = _myShadow;
dropShad.alpha = 1;
}else{
dropShad = _myShadow;
dropShad.alpha = 0;
}
trace("dropShad = "+dropShad);
return dropShad;
}
and the dropShad variable is each object I want to have the filter applied to, and it seems to work. Thanks