Acrylics and shadows?

[Heather Prins]

how do I add a shadow to an acrylic element?

[eryn]

Add it as normal, then right click the shadow layer and click 'create new layer'. This will move the shadow to it's own layer.
Now ctrl-click the element layer to get the marching ants around it.
Then click on the shadow layer and hit delete!
OR if you prefer a slight shadow under the acrylic you can set your eraser to about 20% opacity and erase that section of the shadow.
Make sense? It really is simple once you try!
hope this helps

[jend]

Cool trick Eryn... I have always just left them alone =)

[Heather Prins]

thank you!! I had done it before but for the life of me couldn't remember what to do after creating another layer, lol!!

[eryn]

no problem! It can be so frustrating not knowing how to do something..especially if you've done it before! lol

[GeekChic]

I also found another cool way to do it in a tutorial at Jessica Sprague- Shadows on Acrylic

Which is what I've been using, but the other way sounds a tad simpler!

[eryn]

I didn't realise you couldn't create a layer in PSE so my way wouldn't work. I can still think of an easier way than hers though!

Just CTRL -click the acrylic element to get the marching ants
create a new layer under the acrylic and fill with black (or other colour to match background)
now deselect the marching ants and move the black layer slightly so that it peeks out from your element.
Now blur the black layer (Gaussian blur)
CTRL-click the acrylic again and with the black layer selected hit delete
This will remove the 'shadow' from under the acrylic and leave only the bit peeking out.

This is how I used to make custom shadows before learning about putting styles on different layers.
As I said above you could also erase some of the shadow rather than deleting it.

[GeekChic]

I didn't realise you couldn't create a layer in PSE so my way wouldn't work. I can still think of an easier way than hers though!

Just CTRL -click the acrylic element to get the marching ants
create a new layer under the acrylic and fill with black (or other colour to match background)
now deselect the marching ants and move the black layer slightly so that it peeks out from your element.
Now blur the black layer (Gaussian blur)
CTRL-click the acrylic again and with the black layer selected hit delete
This will remove the 'shadow' from under the acrylic and leave only the bit peeking out.

This is how I used to make custom shadows before learning about putting styles on different layers.
As I said above you could also erase some of the shadow rather than deleting it.

Ohh, great tip! I'll have to pass that one along to my CT folk- most of them use PSE

[eryn]

happy to help! I taught myself PS and took a very long time doing it and now I wonder why on earth I didn't google??!!! So if I can help anyone with something I've learned then it makes me feel like it wasn't a complete waste of time! lol

[eryn]

oh I forgot to mention to reduce the opacity! I hope that was obvious! lol