AgentGoodspeed

The way I read the OP's question is that he wants to get a black-and-white printout in order to carve an actual piece of wood.

FOUND IT!!! The video is here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/31895-ishis-not-so-fancy-pdn-gallery-updated-july-8-2016/&page=4#comment-518643

Thanks everyone. Still haven't found the video (and it's going to haunt me like Capt. Ahab) but so far Dipstick's method seems the most doable with my limited abilities. I shall try it out.

Afraid not. This is going to sound uncouth but I'm terrible with names, especially usernames, but the member with the Beatles-like purple avatar with the huge 70s mustache? I forget his name but he might have posted that video. It featured a girl standing on a wooden pier at night – that's when he made the nifty shadow. I remember a lot of (possibly freehand) stretching and distorting.

Instead of explaining what I want to do, here's an example from the Harry Brown movie poster. I want to be able to do this sort of shadow and then fill it with something cool. I understand for this particular example, it's been painted (or photographed in a way to create this shadow) but I've seen a video here on the forum how to do it and I can't find it anymore. The video was about another effect but the user (how I wish I knew his/her name!) finished things off with a shadow. They stretched it this way and that way, rotating it back so it looks like it was on the ground. It was glorious. I've tried the shadow plug-in but I lose too much because of the main subject. I tried TR's Distort This but it doesn't let me stretch it to make it bigger. I tried rotate/zoom and not getting what I need. If I could only find the video again! I get a feeling it was posted by MJW or Cc4FuzzyHuggles though. Maybe?

There are a gazillion ways to make abstract backgrounds. I personally like to put on some music for a movie and then just do random effects for half an hour. It's mostly because I don't know what I'm doing and also a way to learn how the plug-ins work. Start with random shapes or lines. Then head to the Distort section of the Effects and try stuff

Not sure how I feel so I won't complain until I've gotten used to this, but this was my first reaction when logging in

When doing graphic design – precision work – you can't reduce the size otherwise you could make mistakes or not get the desired result. And moving the windows constantly? Major hassle. As someone who does a lot of design in PDN, overscroll is amazing.

It's my understanding that plug-ins in Paint.net can only use TrueType fonts and not Open Type fonts. Your new Italianno font is probably otf...

My quirky bowling alley...

Oh man, I didn't know I needed overscroll until I tried it just now! Thanks for the great work

I have Windows 10 and Smudge, in Tools, works for me.

Looks great, Maximilian!

Nice plugin! I made a gradient then used this plugin with inverted colors, followed by Drop Shadow.

There is already a plug-in called Object Align, available in this pack: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=8375