Why does opacity not have an effect (what am I doing wrong)? ANSWER: THE OP IS A MORON. SOLVED.

[nickbatz]

I want to create sort of a shadow - sort of - from a selection that I make in a Pixel layer by offsetting a copy slightly (and darkening it, among other thing).

So I Refine it and send it to a new layer, which is a pixel layer on top of the stack.

Why does Opacity not have any effect? What step am I missing?

I tried rasterizing it, no help.

TIA

[RichardMH]

Might need a screen shot of the layer stack to see what you've done.

[firstdefence]

Shadows are below objects not on top, shadows are generally set to Blend Mode: Multiply and as a starting point 75% opacity.

[thomaso]

12 hours ago, nickbatz said:

Why does Opacity not have any effect?

Are you talking about layer opacity, set in the layers panel for a selected layer? – It's unclear because you seem to move a layer meant to be a shadow in the foremost position of your layout. Thus a screenshot would really help.

9 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Shadows are below objects not on top, shadows are generally set to Blend Mode: Multiply and as a starting point 75% opacity.

This thread seems to be not about a Shadow Effect (fx) but rather an extra pixel layer as a handmade shadow (copy, offset, darken).

[firstdefence]

I get that but it should still not be at the top of a layer stack, it should be beneath the object it is behaving as a shadow to.

[nickbatz]

Thanks very much for the replies. I've been out, will post screenshots when I catch my breath.

Yes, I get that shadows are usually underneath. This is a little different.

 

[nickbatz]

Okay, so now it looks like there's something funny going on.

One minute Opacity worked, the next minute it didn't.

This is the original. Just as a test, I flood-selected all the light blue (will make this more than one post):

[nickbatz]

Next I flood-selected all the light blue (just as an exercise to figure out what's going on), pasted it, then made the pixel layer it's on a child to the main image.

Opacity works as it should:

 

[nickbatz]

STOP THE PRESSES.

I'M A MORON.

I was moving the color slider instead of the opacity one.

How embarrassing...

 

[Pšenda]

7 hours ago, nickbatz said:

I was moving the color slider instead of the opacity one.

The first screenshot shows that you have Opacity switched to Noise. You may have it on purpose, but if you don't and you don't notice, it could be another problem in managing color transparency.

[nickbatz]

Yes, thanks.