Ever wish you could do something to your image to make it pop out from the background? Or put some sort of lighter "glow" around your image?
There are several ways to accomplish this shadowing effect:
EFFECTS/BLUR
- First, choose a gif with a transparent background. Enter its url into your Find key. Note the width and height of the gif.
- At the Image Magick of your choice, make a white or very light colored plain (xc) or gradient background the same size as your gif.
- Click on Composite and enter the url of the gif into the box. Change Gravity to Center. Click on Composite.
- Click on Effects. On the next screen, enter into the parameters box 10x10 or 20x20 or 30x30. Click on Blur. Click on Effect.
- Now click on Composite. On the next screen, the url of the gif will still show in the box. The Gravity should still be Center. Click on Composite.
What you'll see will be the image of the gif surrounded by a fainter blur or glow. If you want the blur to show up lighter on a dark background, then in Step 2 make a plain or gradient background with black or dark colors.
If you want the shadow on the white or lighter colored background to be gray, then add another step before Step 4:
- Click on Colormap. Click on Gray. Click on Quantize. Then continue with Step 4.
"Red Fae"
Above is one of Becky's shadowed images. The shadow is a very light gray and is very faint, but just dark enough that the image seems to be lifted away from the white background.
"Koala Christmas"
Here above is another of Becky's images, this time showing the lighter glow effect against a black background.
ANNOTATE
To get a shadow effect behind the text on a banner, you can follow the steps below after you have made the background for the banner.
- Do the first annotation, using black or a dark gray, blue, or other color. Choose the text size, and font style. Use Fill color only. Ignore Stroke Width.
- Now go to Effects, enter the parameters for the amount of Blur you want and Click on Blur, then Effect.
- Click on Annotate again. Leave settings for text and font size the same. Change the Stroke and Fill colors and Stroke width to what the finshed text is to be. Change the Offset to something like -3-3 or -2-2. Click on Annotate.
- If the offset doesn't look right, use the Back key and change the Offsets until you're satisfied.
COMPOSITE/COLORBURN
For this next technique, you'll need to go to one of the IMs that has the new Composites, such as Arbor or Net 11.
You'll need two images, a background image (or make your own at IM), and a transparent gif. Put the url of the gif into your Find key.
- Input the background url and click on View.
- Click on Composite. Enter the gif url from your find key into the box. Change Gravity and Offsets to the placement you desire. Scroll down and click on Over, then select Colorburn and click. Click on Composite.
- What you should see is the background image with a black shape of the gif image.
- You can proceed by doing one of the following:
- Click on Resize. Enter 110% into the parameter box and click on Resize. Then click on Composite. Change the url to the background url and Composite, using Screen. Click on Composite once again, then use the gif's url. Composite again, using whichever one gives you the best results.
- Or, instead of or in addition to resizing, Composite the gif (instead of the background) using Displace, or changing the Offsets slightly and using Over.
Ghost of Colors Past"
With the above image, Flo did the Colorburn technique for shadows, starting with the one farthest to the left. She Painted that shadow, then changed the Offsets and made each of the other shadows, painting each a lighter color than before. Finally she Composited the gif itself, using Screen.
To see an image with a ghostly shadow, that used this Colorburn technique, click on Ghost at Sunset.
You can let your imagination run wild with casting shadows in your images. |
