This is totally adorable!
Yes, colours usually obtain most strongly in the light, but I feel that the little bouncing guys are reflective enough to spill their chroma into their shadows. Also, I feel the shrinking shadow is an acceptably symbolic way to represent a thinning, spreading shadow, when no dither effects, &c., are desired (especially since the coloured spill in the shadow's core would actually shrink with distance). Perhaps technically inaccurate, but artistically representative of a greater, symbolic truth.
Plus, I like how convincingly the green guy rotates.
Shadows are colored because gray wasn't on the palette for the contest ;)
And yeah, I suppose you're right... But most emoticonists never make the shadow larger than the emote and if at all, only by a very small amount.
The shadows are cool, but they don't make much sense--they should get larger as the balls approach the light source, and they should never be smaller than the balls in any case. Also, they shouldn't be colored, but I'm guessing that's a stylistic choice.
This is extremely cute. The shadows are really well done and so is the animation. =)
i really like how the green one bounces