Drop shadow?

[ander]

I'm trying to create a drop shadow in Paint.Net.

At first, all I found about doing this was a long, involved tutorial on doing it manually. This is such a universal effect, I was quite surprised it wasn't considered a standard thing and built into the app.

Now I've found the Drop Shadow effect (http://users.telenet.be/krisvandermotte ... fects.html), downloaded it, and unzipped it to my Effects subfolder. But when I try to use it, nothing happens. (In other words, it has "no effect"---har, har.)

I'm using a rectangular image. I just want to add the shadow to its right and bottom sides.

I enlarged the canvas by about a third, to the right and bottom, to make room for a shadow. Then I selected the image area (assuming the effect is applied to a selected area, right?), opened Drop Shadow, fiddled with the settings, and tried to apply it---but nothing ever appears. Am I missing something obvious?

I've now read that the image must have transparency for this to work. (Don't know why, though; I used Paint Shop Pro before this, and it could apply drop shadows to anything.) So I've saved the JPG I was working with as a PNG instead (which has transparency, right?). Still no luck. Hints?

And wouldn't it be a good idea to include a few simple instructions with these kinds of things?

[david.atwell]

It only applies a drop shadow to an object all by itself on a transparent layer. Try it that way.

I assure you, that's how it works in every program. Some just hide it. :-)

[ander]

Okay, so you add a transparent layer? How do you do that? (No clues on the Layers menu or in Layer Properties.)

Then you copy the image to that layer, select the part you want to apply the shadow to, and apply the effect? Or am I still making wrong guesses?

Considering how often people must want to do this, it'd be great if there were some simple, clear instructions. (Oh, I already said that, didn't I?)

[david.atwell]

It actually doesn't come up as often as you might think. :-P

Select what you want to have shadowed. Copy it (Ctrl+C) and then create a new layer (with this button: :AddNewLayer: ). Paste it onto that layer (Ctrl+V) and run the drop shadow plugin.

[ander]

Okay, a new layer being "transparent" because it has no background color... I get it.

Select what you want to have shadowed. Copy it (Ctrl+C) and then create a new layer (with this button: :AddNewLayer: ). Paste it onto that layer (Ctrl+V) and run the drop shadow plugin.

Nope, still doesn't work. I'm missing something. When you say "run the drop shadow plugin," could there be more to it than I realize?

Unfortunately, I've run out of time. I just captured a drop shadow from someone's webpage and used that.

I must say I don't see the point of creating a plug-in that requires people to what kinds of images it'll work on, and whatever else they need to know to get even the slightest results. I've even searched the forum and started a new thread and everything---much more than many people have time for---and I'm still in the dark. Something's wrong here.

It only applies a drop shadow to an object all by itself on a transparent layer. Try it that way. I assure you, that's how it works in every program. Some just hide it.

It seems to me that the key bit there is "it works." Thanks anyway, for trying to help.

[david.atwell]

I'm so sorry- I left out one key bit of information. You need to deselect it first (Ctrl+D) before running drop shadow.

[Ash]

I don't see what's so hard to understand.

Object on transparent layer.

Run plugin.

Try this to "understand" how drop shadow works.

Add new layer, use to make a big dot. (Let say Red color)

Run drop shadow plugin. (Use black color)

Bam! drop shadowed.

Yeah, and like David said: Not many people, if any. have had problems with drop shadow.