Trouble with drop shadow filter

1

hello

i am working with a drop shadow filter class and for some reason i am un able to adjust the params of the DS after i set it up

this works

protected var commonDS:DropShadowFilter = new DropShadowFilter(2,45,4,.3,4,4,1,1);

but this doesn’t

protected var commonDS:DropShadowFilter = new DropShadowFilter();
commonDS.distance=2;
commonDS.alpha=.3
commonDS.angle=45;
commonDS.quality=1;

any ideas what im doing wrong?
:puzzle: