Is there a PDN plugin like GIMPs Perspective Shadow?

[refar32]

Well, I think the topic title gave it all away - I have to process a number of images each of which needs to have a perspective shadow generated.

Sadly, I've been unable to locate a plugin that offers this functionality in Paint.NET - is my google-fu just failing me or is there really no such plugin?

I found GIMP comes with this functionality included, but I loathe Gimp's UI and constantly fall into PDN shortcuts, so I couldn't be happier to find a way to do this step in PDN.

In case there's any doubt what the functionality actually does:

It takes a basic image like this

and adds a shadow in a configurable angle, like this:

Someone got a hint for me?

Thank you very much in advance.

-Refar

[BoltBait]

Try this plugin: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=1900

[refar32]

Ah well, sorry BoltBait, I forgot to mention that I actually tried the plugin you linked to and another one called "Drop Shadow".

The linked plugin seems horribly inefficient, is extremely fiddly to use and still doesn't produce quite the results I'm after.

Drop Shadow, despite - judging by the name - sounding like EXACTLY what I need doesn't seem to be able to drop shadows at all, just produce a blurry, shadowy background graphic.

Maybe my google-fu wasn't failing me after all? Hard to believe noone ever bothered to bring this feature to PDN, but maybe that's actually the case.

Is there a feature wishlist somewhere?

In case anyone can point me to something helpful after all, please do.

Oh, and BoltBait, thanks for replying.

-Refar

[pdnnoob]

the plugin boltbait linked to is, in fact, exactly what you are looking for. It may be slow, but it's a heckuva lot easier than trying to do it manually.

Drop shadow is not what you think it is. A simple wikipedia search proves that the effect does what it advertises.

If you don't like the shadow plugin, then what you are looking for is a way to skew a dark version of the original image like this:

Plugin needed: Oblique

1. Duplicate the object layer

2. Use the plugin above to tilt it sideways a little bit (use only the x adjustment).

3. Use the move tool to flatten it down vertically and move it so (if we use the stick figure as an example) the shadow's feet touch the object's feet.

4. Adjust the opacity of the shadow layer (in layer properties)

5. Blur the shadow slightly.

all done!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The linked plugin seems horribly inefficient, is extremely fiddly to use and still doesn't produce quite the results I'm after.

True the plugin is a bit slow, but it is easy to use and seems to produce exactly the results you're looking for. Did you note the section in bold in the plugin thread? Create a selection on the lower layer to define the 'bottom' of the effect.

I usually run it by duplicating the object layer, then running it on the lower of the two layers. Is that how you did it?

[refar32]

the plugin boltbait linked to is, in fact, exactly what you are looking for. It may be slow, but it's a heckuva lot easier than trying to do it manually.

Well, maybe you know better than me what I'm actually looking for than myself, but I'm pretty sure the Gimp feature works different and much better than that plugin.

I'm not trying to put any blame on the author of that plugin or complain about it, it did what he needed and he stopped working on it, that's fine.

Drop shadow is not what you think it is. A simple wikipedia search proves that the effect does what it advertises.

Obviously not, thanks for pointing out the ... err ... obivous. This is probably a language barrier thing - as you probably noticed, english is not my primary language and thus my in-mind translation thought: That's the plugin you need.

Well, I found out it's not, and once again, that's fine, my bad.

Plugin needed: Oblique

1. Duplicate the object layer

2. Use the plugin above to tilt it sideways a little bit (use only the x adjustment).

3. Use the move tool to flatten it down vertically and move it so (if we use the stick figure as an example) the shadow's feet touch the object's feet.

4. Adjust the opacity of the shadow layer (in layer properties)

5. Blur the shadow slightly.

all done!

I guess this almost does what I want, but you can't control the length of the "shadow", appearently? Also, pretty fiddly, I guess. Still, maybe I can use the plugin for something else eventually, thanks for pointing it out.

Did you note the section in bold in the plugin thread? Create a selection on the lower layer to define the 'bottom' of the effect

Where does the bolded part say something about creating a selection?

What I've been doing to get it to do something useful at all was moving the part that I want to drop a shadow to a completely new picture, move the shadow-dropper all the way to the bottom of the image and then apply the plugin.

And, yes, under these circumstances, I guess it kinda does what I want, except the operations neccessary are more work than doing the detour to Gimp. If there's a way to get the shadow to appear whithout moving what should drop it all the way to the bottom of the image, please tell, because then I've indeed been unable to figure out how.

Thanks for trying to help guys, guess I'll have to keep resorting to Gimp.

-Refar

[pdnnoob]

If that didn't give you what you needed, I guess I'm not understanding what the issue is. Sorry I couldn't help

[igaboo]

refar, if you want to control the ''length'' of the shadow just make the black copy of the stickman or whaterver taller... then you get longer shadows , you could also probably use the quadrilateral reshape on it to make the top slightly less wide to make the shadow get smaller but thats just my personal preferences XD

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Where does the bolded part say something about creating a selection?

In the first post of the Shadow plugin thread. Here is the relevant section:

As with the other shadow plugins, you need to be working on a layer with transparencies. The shadow is applied to all opaque pixels on the layer. Also, the bottom of the image is assumed to be the "ground" and the shadow is relative to that point.