Shadow box

Tutorials, PI resources , Backgrounds, PSD files, Presets, Masks Gradients, Newbies tutorial list Links

Please sign my guestbook. It would mean so much to me to know what you thought of my pages.

Shadow Box

For this tutorial, I am using a portion of a photo from the Photo Impact User's Photo Gallery that you will find on page 5 of the waterscapes by Joanne Moore, titled North Carolina Sunset 2. Thanks Joanne!

Additional note: Many people have wondered how to imitate the cutout effect that PSP creates. I myself labored over how to recreate it in PI. It was only in working on this tutorial, that I realized how PSP creates a cutout. It is actually a double shadow; one is black and the other is white with the light coming from a different angle. In Pi you cannot apply a double shadow in one step, but you can split the shadow and apply another shadow to recreate the effect. This tutorial utilizes that method to get the right effects.

	Open the picture, and size it appropriately. I'd say 250 pixels wide or less. It is necessary to use a narrow width to keep the image from taking up all the room for writing when used as stationery. If you want to keep your copy of the original, click Ctrl D to open a duplicate of your image, and close the original. For this example, I used the Standard Selection tool, Mode rectangle, and fixed size checked. The dimensions were 225 pixels wide and 300 pixels in height. The soft edge was 0. Then I clicked on the image to select the portion of the image showing the sun on the water. If you click in the wrong place, remember you can use the arrow keys for precise positioning. After the portion of your graphic is selected and the selection is positioned correctly, click the crop button in the attribute tool bar or press CTRL R.
	Go to selection and make sure there is a check mark beside "Preserve base image." Beginning of repeated steps Press the space bar. Click on edit /expand. Type in 15. The expand color should be a color that is not around the edges of your graphic. For this example, I used white since it is a good contrasting color to the dark colors of the image.
	Click the selection tool and hold down on it until the other choices pop out. Click on magic wand. You should not have a problem with the selection bleeding into the image if you used a color that contrasts to the colors around the outside of your image. However, if you do, it may be because your similarity is set too high. Try reducing the similarity in the attribute tool bar if this happens.
	Now click on the expanded region with the magic wand. Chick edit/fill. fill with your desired background color. You can right click the color box and click on eyedropper to use a matching color from your image. I clicked on the cloud to the left side of the sun streak to get this color of R 181 G 127 B 36 You can enter these numbers in the boxes to the right side of the eyedropper dialog box if you wish to follow along exactly. Click ok.
	Remember to use the color tool bar to get the colors as you like them. You may want to make some minor adjustments at this point. At this point, it is wise to click the eyedropper tool, and right click on the color you filled your expanded region with, to set it as the background color, because when you buttonize an object, PI borrows the color of the background to fill in the edges. If you don't, you will get the wrong color around the edges.
	Click web/button designer/any shape. Change the bevel size to 5, and the smoothness to 0. Light angle 135, Light elevation 50. Click in the box in front of outer to place a check mark there. Click the bevel tab, and click the second button. Click ok.
	Your expanded region is now an object.For the second and third frames only, do this: Change to the pick tool (the arrow) and click the bring to front button. You will not be able to do this the first time, because then it will already be on top.
	Right click, and click shadow. Your color should already be set on black, and the first shadow type on the left should be selected. Change x offset and y offset to 2. Change transparency to 15. change soft edge to 4. Click ok.
	Right click, split shadow. Right click again, and click shadow. Change the color to white. For the shadow type, click the third button from the left. Change x and y offset to 1. Change transparency to 10. Change soft edge to 2. click ok. Press space to select the background.
	Now go back to the first part where you expand, and repeat the previous steps 2 more times.
	Right click and merge all. Copy your image. Press CTRL N to make a new image for your strip. Click the circle in front of active image. Add 20 pixels to the height, and change the width to 1152. Right click in the box beside canvas, and click background color. Click ok. Right click and paste into new canvas. Arrange the piece as you want it, and right click to merge all.
	If you want to add texture, Use the selection tool, still set on fixed size to select the image part of your piece. Use the arrow keys to arrange it correctly. Right click and invert.
	Click effect, texture/texturizer to open the dialog box for the texturizer. If you want to use a different texture than what comes with the texturizer, you can click load texture and browse the the folder where you have stored your psd files. If you don't have any psd files, you can get some I made here, or read the directions on how to make your own psd files on the same page. The texturizer will only recognize psd files. Click here to see the full size example.