Sheared Shadows Please

[Sunset]

A number of ex-CA users are missing a very important feature, the ability to shear a shadow to the left or the right, and the ability to make the shadow smaller or larger than the original object. This is particularly important when creating a work that shows, for example, people walking or the shadows of buildings in the late afternoon sunshine.

 

The Outer Shadow is good at what it does, but appears to be limited in its options, there is no Shear X or Shear Y that I can find, and we miss the nodes to precisely position a shadow so that it falls on the ground at the side of a person, correctly positioned with the persons feet and shortened or lengthened to be commensurate with the angle of the sun, or other source of light, in the work.

 

I did create a passable effect by copying the object (a child running), applying 100% gaussian blur and changing the colour (I wanted a blue tinted shadow onto snow). Then I used the Mesh Warp tool to drag and shear the 'shadow' object down and to the left, positioning the shadow realistically under the foot. The result was passable, but it helped that I was placing the shadow onto a lumpy snowy ground so I could get away with imperfections.

 

Is there a way of fine-tuning shadows? If not, can I add it to the Feature List (I have looked through but didn't see anything)?

 

Hilary

[carl123]

If you select your object, apply an Outer Shadow effect to it

Then

Edit > Copy
Edit > Paste Special > Portable Document Format

You will get 2 new layers, one of the object without the shadow and another which is just the shadow of the object

You can then manipulate/distort the shadow layer however you want.

I believe this Edit > Paste Special > Portable Document Format option is available only on Windows versions of AP and AD

 

[Move Along People]

-

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, carl123 said:

I believe this Edit > Paste Special > Portable Document Format option is available only on Windows versions of AP and AD

It is not available on my Mac versions.

[Sunset]

Thank you all,

 

Haakoo: the gaussian blur etc is exactly what I invented for myself (so I'm pretty pleased that I invented something good!), I just didn't find it very easy to come up with such perfect shadows - a little practice and I suspect that I will find it easy, it's good to see such a good shadow as an example.

 

Carl123: the method you describe I would never have thought of in a month of Sundays! I have both Windows and Mac versions so I shall have a go at that; thank you also for such a great example. Thanks R C-R - I'll definitely try it on Windows then.

 

To the Powers That Be - we (a group of CA refugees, you'd know all six of us!) would still LOVE to have some extra options to the outer shadow Effect, our workflow would be greatly enhanced

 

 

 

[Sunset]

This was my work flow. I duplicated the object, applied the gaussian layer and changed the colour. Then I used the Mesh Warp but it crashed the program (separate thread). When I restarted the program everything was fine, so I used the Mesh Warp again to bend the shadow, applied some transparency, ditched the deer and added extra snow.  This was done on the Mac,

 

 

[R C-R]

Very impressive artwork!

 

Of dubious value, while I was testing the Mac versions for an Edit > Paste Special feature, I experimented with with a slight variation on Haakoo's method. Instead of duplicating the object, I made a 'marching ants' selection from it, added a new pixel layer, & filled the selection on that new pixel layer with a grey color using the Flood Fill (paint bucket) tool. I then applied the gradient & blur to that. The only benefit for this is if/when you might want to set the gradient & the FX fill to <100% opacity. Setting the gradient to <100% on a duplicate allows some of the duplicate's detail to show, which probably isn't what one would want for a shadow of an opaque object. 

[Sunset]

Maybe not for a shadow or opaque object, but could definitely be used for a reflection on metal or glass - what an interesting thought! I've just been looking through stuff I used to do in the 'scrapbooking' way and all the different skills and techniques we used and thinking that it's time to start doing wacky fun stuff again with photographs  You've just given me A Good Idea :

 

The artwork is not my own  it's from a scrapbooking kit by a very talented Lorie Davison, wonderful images to work with. I just have to pick and choose and come up with interesting layouts.

 

Thanks

[Alfred]

3 hours ago, Sunset said:

we (a group of CA refugees, you'd know all six of us!)

 

I can think of four including you and me, Hils, but I’m struggling to work out who the other two might be. 

[SrPx]

CA  users ?

Canadian people ?

Edit: Seriously, no idea what CA stands for here...

[Sunset]

11 minutes ago, SrPx said:

CA  users ?

Canadian people ?

Edit: Seriously, no idea what CA stands for here...

 

Craft Artist, the incredibly easy to use scrapbooking software that Serif sold previously. So there are lots of us out there happy to move to Affinity but, of course, there are a lot of differences. And, being human, we get uneasy when we can't work out how to do something "instantly" in Affinity because we're always on a mission, things to do, photographs to scrap, art pages to make...

 

Alfred, I've just checked and there are actually 13 of us, hidden away, a self-help group. With you there would be 14 -if you ever join that particular part of social media. We can't be found in any indexes just because there are plenty of places that are like that.

[SrPx]

I see... Affinity Photo and Designer are professional applications, a step quite big from a specific function application. But you will benefit from their flexibility. IE, in the shadows case, I knew the trick from doing it in Adobe PS, and also with a ton of extra realistic tricks that you can do when is not an automated or pre-made effect... . For example, a transparency gradation, so that the shadow diminishes as it goes farther, and/or a blueish very slight tone mixed with the shadows, as an almost transparent gradient (but use with caution!), as shadows tend to be colder, all depending in light surrounding, etc. Indeed, I also tend to do a gradation in strength of the application in the blur effect, as tends to affect more in the head (farthest point) in that shadow, than in the initial side borders near the feet, where is more solid and sharper, typically, in real life. Even sometimes if there's an extra lighting source from a side, it can produce extra lighting  over the shadow : A decreasing intensity from that side then, using another transparency mask (with a gradient), selection or whatever, then. For a not super realistic work you don't need all this. 

 

In general, the time lost in the rough first learning stages is only needed in more quantity at the start, later on the thing is quite smooth and practical.  (and actually, these UIs are pretty standard. My transition from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator habits was specially easy...)

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, SrPx said:

Edit: Seriously, no idea what CA stands for here...

Living in the US, my first thought was it stood for California. 

 

50 minutes ago, Sunset said:

So there are lots of us out there happy to move to Affinity but, of course, there are a lot of differences.

I am not sure how much it might apply to anybody else but the less I expect a new app to work like an older & more familiar one, the easier it is for me to learn how to make the best use of the new one.

[SrPx]

Yep, like in the thread where ACD Canvas is mentioned, basically do not try every application to behave like another one (even more if it is an older one), as that'd be a much harder path (doing so, trying to get its own philosophy, you get to enjoy the power behind a ton of applications that are very functional but have a different UI style). Is better to see "its ways" , get used to those, and see where reside its workflow advantages.   After a little more switching among applications, you see even very common ways between apparently different approaches; Each time, the switch gets easier, till a point is not hard, at all.

 

Like in most stuff in life, is best to remember what says that Japanese proverb :  " The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists " . 

 

 

[Sunset]

Thinking about it, the nodes that we used to morph the shadows previously are probably not unlike using the mesh warp, just packaged differently for the user. I do agree with you all - and I did ask for ways of doing it and you all kindly helped out! I never hesitate to ask for a feature that I think would be an improvement, though - who knows, my luck might be in!

 

New ways of working is why I like Affinity Designer and Photo, and I am very much looking forward to Publisher. The previous programs were looking dated and most people were using Adobe or Corel, neither of which I could really afford, but I was happy with Serif and delighted when Affinity arrived. I'm pretty good at working out new ways of doing things - and pleased that I had worked out how to do the shadows, your joint confirmation of the method means that I can perfect that method now with confidence. It was always possible that I was missing something obvious amongst the tools and, apparently, I wan't missing anything at all

 

Happy days! I wonder what my next question will be... ?

Thanks again