Drop Shadow

[Marpel]

2 things -

How do I, or can I, maintain the side by side views full image (zoom to fit) during the D.S. operation? I am doing an image where a number of the shadows (and masks) are situated away from where the windows auto zoom into. This means for each application, I have to hit the zoom to fit button. As each image contains a gazillion different shadows, I am having to repeatedly hit this button.

And, I have (hopefully) attached an example of my next question. Is there an "easy" way to have the shadows act like the "object" is grounded and not representing a flat object floating? If the image contained a single shadow, I could putz around and use the clone tool, I suppose, to extend the shadow to the edge, but then I would further have to manipulate things to get the angle (represented by the angle entered in the dialogue box) emanating from the corner/edge of the object to actually look like a grounded object casting a shadow.. Long and tedious.

The example is a simple one where I did a grid on white, then made a mask of one of the grids, then did a drop shadow. As can be seen, the shadow does not extend to the two corners and are not angled away from each of those corners.

dsexample.jpg (16.08 KiB) Viewed 237 times

[jsachs]

Not sure I understand your first question.

As to making regular shadows instead of drop shadows, I can't think of an easy way to do this automatically. The only place in PWP which generates the kind of shadows you are talking about is in the Frame transformation which, for example, casts shadows from the frame onto the wall.

You might try doing a linear blur of the object mask and then subtracting the original object mask from it to make a shadow mask. This produces a mask that extends both towards and away from the light source, so you then need to remove the part that extends in the wrong direction. Finally you can use the mask to darken the original image. Attached is a workspace script that illustrates this -- just change the extension from .txt to .workspace and PWP should be able to open it.

[Marpel]

Thanks Jonathan for your reply. I will give the second answer a try (although at this point, I don't really understand the whole thing, but I will see what comes of it).

As to the first question -

When I wish to do a drop shadow on only a small portion of an image, I will usually already have a mask ready. I will open Drop Shadow, but because identifying the mask first causes the operation to start it's thing, I usually move the distance (Can't recall what it is named right now as I am away from my editing computer) slider to an approximate distance. I will then choose the mask. Initially, the side by side before/after window is showing each side, full image.

However, when the operation does it's formulations, it automatically zooms both windows in, so the entire image is not visible. If the area with the mask and shadow are outside that visible part of the image, I either have to scroll around to find it or hit the Fit to Window button. I prefer to take a look at the result prior to hitting the Okay button. If the windows remained showing full image, it is easier to evaluate the shadow (both distance and angle).

Hope this clarifies.

[jsachs]

I don't seem to be able to reproduce this here. I can't think of a reason the transformation would automatically zoom the images. Are you zooming the images to create the mask and then the transformation leaves the windows zoomed and you would prefer to zoom to fit?

[Marpel]

I had created "the image" , which was just a blank white image with a black grid, and the mask a day or two earlier. I had actually created a bunch of masks and saved them as images for the same project at that time. I subsequently closed all the images and the program.

A day or so later, I opened PWP, the image and one of the mask images. With the image selected, I opened the Drop Shadow transform, moved the distance slider, then chose the mask. As soon as I did this, both the two side by side versions, which had been showing full size, zoomed in, so I could not view the area which had the mask (and now drop shadow).

When I read your latest comment, I opened PWP and did the same thing, just to confirm to myself that I was not misunderstanding what I had done, and the same operation gave me the same zoomed in result.

[jsachs]

Still no luck making it happen here -- after opening the mask I see both images zoomed to fit side by side.

Just out of curiosity, when you click on the Drop Shadow settings menu, is the Clear Default Settings menu item grayed out or not?

[Marpel]

Jonathan,

Yes, the Clear Default Menu settings item is greyed out.

And because of that answer, the following may be moot but, a bit of clarification, as I mis-spoke about a single thing, which I doubt has any real bearing - I initially suggested the two side by sides are full view when I start, but actually the view is a single view of the full image. It is when I click on the mask which will be used that the screen goes to side by side zoomed in. I should also add, I just tried it again and the same zoomed in result occurred, however, I tried clicking the APPLY button and the right side went full view while the left side stayed zoomed in.

As stated, don't know if the greyed out Clear Default Menu is the issue and the last paragraph is then unnecessary....

[jsachs]

Any chance you are somehow holding down the Alt key when you select the mask? This would suppress the zoom to fit.

In any case, even though I can't reproduce this here, I made a few minor changes for the next release that hopefully will make the problem go away for you.

[Marpel]

No Alt key. However, pleased to report the update worked and problem is fixed.

Marv