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Everyone, this has been a lively discussion with a lot of great ideas. I've not had time to check them all out but I will.

I want to make sure I understand the impact and possible application each one has on the idea of Shadow Creation.

Based on what I've seen so far, Affinity Photo almost has the ability to create exceptional shadows quickly and with a lot of simple post creation adjustments. With the right adjustment capabilities in place (I think think it will require Free Transform) a Macro can be created by anyone wanting this ability.

I believe that the ability to create shadows that are reasonably accurate and do it in a rapid fashion is a very important part of composite creation. As @R C-R pointed out, these shadows will not replicate true shadows. Based on what I've seen in the marketplace, this is a non-issue and those that think a perfect shadow is necessary  (following all the bends and curves) will create one no matter how long it takes.

To reiterate, the idea is to be able to select objects in a composite and run a Macro that creates a shadow of that object that can be repositioned and adjusted quickly.

Unless someone had some additional ideas on something that could be done, it is likely we should move on to something else.  (My next idea is having a Macro that enables (Color Matching). I bet this one can already be created in a Macro and I'll follow up with a demo shortly.

It is my understanding that someone at Affinity reads all of these posts. There is little else that can be done without the input from Affinity Photo. This idea may not be on their radar or they have a "Mind Blowing" idea on how to do this some other way.

Thank you so much for all your input. 

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3 hours ago, Dennis Nisbet said:

It is my understanding that someone at Affinity reads all of these posts. There is little else that can be done without the input from Affinity Photo. This idea may not be on their radar or they have a "Mind Blowing" idea on how to do this some other way.

Since this amounts to a feature request, to make sure the right people see it, you should post a topic to the Suggestions for Affinity Photo on Desktop forum about it. Make sure you give the topic an informative name & describe in detail what you want & how you would like it to be implemented.

P.S. You really don't need all that bold, underline, & other emphasis. A little goes a long way, but too much of it weakens the impact of what actually needs additional emphasis to make something clear that otherwise might not be.

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@R C-R Thank you for this input. I'll look at writing it up and reposting it.

In my other life, before I retired, I wrote a number of simplified manuals for our customers that had purchased very expensive equipment and had difficulty following the manuals that accompanied the machines. Our equipment manuals were like the manuals you get with a camera. You had to go to several places to find out what you wanted to know. Even though the manuals had a lot of highlighting in them it was still confusing. Most of the customers were individuals just starting a new business who had invested as much as a quarter of a million dollars. By boiling down basic procedures and providing sufficient highlights, they were able to learn much faster.

So, the OLD DOG is having a difficult time learning a new trick.

I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate all the input I have received from you and others. Thank again.    

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On 2/1/2019 at 3:38 AM, R C-R said:

Some of this is probably doable in a macro, but I haven't tried that yet.

And now I have. :)

Still a work in progress, but somewhat promising. This is what the macro steps look like:
374802230_createshaowmacrosteps.jpg.863ae3e7ddd67b058cf82ad7b1e0a4c8.jpg

It is intended to be run with the object to be shadowed already selected, so if you want to experiment with it, make sure you do that. For now, it is the only macro in Shadow Macros experiments.afmacros, which should make it easy to add to the Library & delete that category later if it doesn't work for you.

If you have any ideas for improvements, please share them with the rest of us.

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Wow C R-C, and I thought I was persistent!:) Thank you for this.

I am doing something wrong and the Shadow isn't being created. The shadow layer is created but it is empty and can't be selected.

Looking at the Macro Editor, I did see that the Fill Opacity was set to zero. Does that have anything to do with this?

Would it help if I sent you a video?

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1 hour ago, Dennis Nisbet said:

I am doing something wrong and the Shadow isn't being created. The shadow layer is created but it is empty and can't be selected.

Looking at the Macro Editor, I did see that the Fill Opacity was set to zero. Does that have anything to do with this?

Did you select the layer that you wanted to create a shadow for before running the macro? If so, can you select the "_shadow" layer on the Layers panel? If you can do that, check the location (x & y coordinates) of that layer in the Transform panel. It may be located completely off the canvas, due to the way macros record transformation steps.

Setting the fx fill opacity to zero is critical to this method -- it is the only way I could find to make the shadow layer independent of the original layer. 

If you still can't get it to work, please post a screenshot of the Layers panel after applying the macro, with all layers fully expanded & the _shadow" layer selected there, plus a screenshot of the Transform panel with the Move Tool selected so we can see the location of that layer on the canvas.

EDIT: Also try this:

  1. Right click on the macro in the Library panel & select Edit Macro
  2. In the Macro panel, untick the last two Transform steps & run play the macro.

The shadow layer should be created, but it will be the same size & position as the original layer, & behind it, so you will have to skew & lengthen it manually. 

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@Dennis Nisbet Try zooming out, the shadow will likely be there but off canvas and probably much larger, maybe off to the right ¬¬

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Have you considered using the lighting live filter to blacken the duplicate, just drop the Ambient and distance settings to 0%,  

The perspective filter to distort the shadow and then the other filters already mentioned to give the distance diffusion.

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12 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

@Dennis Nisbet Try zooming out, the shadow will likely be there but off canvas and probably much larger, maybe off to the right ¬¬

Yeah, it is the last two transform steps in the macro that are causing that. I think it is because of how macros store transform steps based on the size (& position?) of the object when the macro is recorded. I considered making the values in those steps adjustable as part of the macro (using the gear wheel & ticking the eye icon in the pop-out) but I was trying to keep it simple for the first build of the macro, & I'm not sure how much help that would be anyway.

That's also why the 'Set effect radius' step is present & named "Leave at 1024." Without that, the step sets the radius to some much smaller < 100 px value, I suppose also based on something in the document I used to create the macro, and/or because the slider only goes to 100 px when the inner shadow effect is used normally.

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Its a bit of a struggle with the macro system that is in place at the moment, a bit like trying to paint the mona Lisa with a mop lol!

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6 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Have you considered using the lighting live filter to blacken the duplicate, just drop the Ambient and distance settings to 0%,  

LOL! I'm having enough trouble just getting a simple inner shadow fx to work the way I want in a macro, so I haven't tried anything more complex than that, much less  a lighting live filter with all its many settings!

Of course, if you want to give that a shot ... ;-)

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Just now, R C-R said:

LOL! I'm having enough trouble just getting a simple inner shadow fx to work the way I want in a macro, so I haven't tried anything more complex than that, much less  a lighting live filter with all its many settings!

Of course, if you want to give that a shot ... ;-)

Actually I am but the mop head keeps falling off lol!

 

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Another way to get a shadow from a an object here is, to just Cmd/Ctrl-Click on the layer in order to get a selection of the object, then create a new layer, reuse the selection and fill that selection with black/gray etc. Afterwards dismiss the selection and drag the black/gray filled shadow layer below the initial object.

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@R C-R and @firstdefence

I am going to try Baby Steps on this so that I can better understand what is going on.

Running the Macro I did find the layer after I reduced the size and X-Y position. However, it was blank. 

I want to take another run at this a different way and I need to know how to do something.

In my original illustration, I have a cowboy that has been cut out and then copied into the background. I want to duplicate that pixel layer and then change just the cowboy into a gradient.

Can this be done?

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If you cmd click on the duplicate cowboy layer (The icon on the left not the name of the layer) you will make a selection of him, then select the gradient tool and drag up or down to fill the selection with a gradient

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15 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Another way to get a shadow from a an object here is, to just Cmd/Ctrl-Click on the layer in order to get a selection of the object, then create a new layer, reuse the selection and fill that selection with black/gray etc. Afterwards dismiss the selection and drag the black/gray filled shadow layer below the initial object.

It might be challenging to do that in a macro --- rather than the the mop head falling off, the mop might come to life a la Mickey Mouse's disaster in the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence in Fantasia:o

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Didn't tested for a macro here, aka if it is recordable and layers then moveable in some graceful way, but it's also quickly done this way manually at least for a sort of shadow creation.

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I figured I'd weigh in. I used a few non destructive techniques and layering to create this in a few minutes. Of course you'd have to adjust for elements in the scene but I'm happy with the look of the shadow. Also if you make any modification to the pose, or swap out the person the effect still applies which is nice. File is attached if you want to take a look. Might help those who are tackling macros.

CowboyShadow.thumb.png.971fd0c7d64a80cf4fdca1c3d8b364e2.png
CBCapture.PNG.44aa39ee5511d191cb84ea595379ec55.PNG

CowboyShadow.afphoto

sig2.png.950594012af1a9c5582236e0a457cd0a.pngsig1.png.975f263a1c12b5aec3f87a4541eb33ef.png

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19 minutes ago, Dennis Nisbet said:

Running the Macro I did find the layer after I reduced the size and X-Y position. However, it was blank. 

Temporarily hide the live Gaussian blur applied to the "_shadow" layer in the Layers panel (untick its visibility checkbox in the Layers panel) & see if the shadow layer becomes visible. If it does, double-click on the blur layer & set its radius to a much smaller value.

For things like this, it is always helpful to provide a screenshot of the Layers panel, showing all the layers.

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4 minutes ago, Dennis Nisbet said:

OK, folks, My next question is shown in the video.

You can change the shadow layer to be a Darken or Multiply type. (The drop down menu in the Layers panel, next to Opacity %) This will make it so that only the dark tone in the layer will affect the layers below it.

sig2.png.950594012af1a9c5582236e0a457cd0a.pngsig1.png.975f263a1c12b5aec3f87a4541eb33ef.png

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32 minutes ago, Dennis Nisbet said:

OK, folks, My next question is shown in the video.

How did you create the shadow layer in that video that resulted in the grey overlay look? Without knowing how you did that there is not much to say about how you could avoid that effect to begin with.

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Off topic but for a different 'perspective' (literally!) on this, a few minutes ago I was reading our local newspaper & noticed this in today's Comics & Puzzles section. :)

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I think although one can create a fairly realistic shadow, one of the main issue; for me at least, is the actual cowboy and the front lighting, it makes him look flat. In Dennis video if you look at the boots they have a slight halo which cuts in-between the shadow and the boot making the whole thing look fake, so no matter how well you create a shadow, there needs to be attention paid to the "The Mophead Kid" -  sorry couldn't resist, and the shading that would make him fit into the image better.

Re the white issue I think because you have reduced the opacity of the layer to 38% any grey you have becomes almost white. You probably need to use a darker grey, or a darker tone of the dirt, so maybe a very dark warm brown because shadow is rarely black or grey, it will always be a shade of the colour it is cast onto.

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