Using the Gimp to make a shadow

Okay todays posting is a simple FAQ for how to use The gimp and make a shadow. This trick can also be applied to photoshop but I don't remember how photoshop does certain things so here we go then.

There is a simple shadow that is available in the gimp called drop shadow but that makes the image seem to be floating and that is not the effect I am intending to let you know about.  for this one we are going to do a perspective shadow. (don't ask I may have the name of this wrong but here me out.)

First a base image is required that you intend to have the object in, if the object is already in the image that is great then all you have to do is select it using the free select tool.  Make sure to take your time as you do this as the more points that you use, the more round the selected object will be and for this the more realistic the shadow will be.  Once you have your selected object fully surrounded you will want to copy and paste it twice in the same location that it started in and making sure that each new pasting gets it's own layer.  This is the important part here as you will need these two layers later.

pre-made parts displayed in the gimp, bonus points if you know what the image is from.

Now for intents and purposes I am sort of cheating as I had a pre-made image with transparency and an empty background. So here is where I am going to start. So I paste the two copies as layers into the background image.  THis can be easily done by hitting ctrl+v but that pastes it as a floating layer that will have to be anchored to a layer which takes longer so I just use edit > paste as > new layer. Make sure to do this twice as was mentioned earlier to have two of what you are going to work with.

Once that is done make sure that those new layers pasted where you wanted, if they didn't then you will want to use the move tool to position them. at this point feel free to move one of the pasted layers to the side so that you can more easily manipulate it separately from the other layer.

Next you will want to desaturate one of the new pasted layers.  This is done by the Color menu and then selecting desaturate.  this takes the color out of that layer and leaves you with a grayscale.  The styles in the dialog box of desaturization isn't really important for this so pick one and let it do it's thing.  For this example I used the luminosity option if you really wanted to know.  Moving on from there you will now want to go back to the color menu and chose "brightness-contrast..." this will bring up a dialog of brightness and contrast controls. (for more information on what this means follow this link,)  you will now take the contrast slider and bottom it out to the left.  This will result in a gray blob where your layer used to be. (see right) keep in mind that this is still a separate layer.  Now that we have that settled you will go to the side window which has the layers and you will, after making sure that your gray blob layer is selected, reduce it's opacity. Not to much as this will result in it not being seen. just enough that it looks like a shadow.  You will want to now position this "shadow" layer over your main object that you wish to give the shadow.  Positioning is important as you don't want the shadow to not be connected to it's host object (unless the host object is in the air in which you likely wouldn't be dealing with this sort of shadow)

Now come the part that will make it look like a shadow instead of a shading over your object.  You will be doing this by going to tools > transform tools.  Then you will select perspective for your selected shadow layer. This is where your own creativity comes into play, where do you want the light source to be from is one thing you will want to think about as you are doing this step.  in this example I am going to have the light source being the off screen setting sun that I am going to say is to the right of the image.  You will click on the corners of the shadow layer and move them around to adjust it's position to look like it's caused by the light source.  Once again this is your own creative point. Think about where you want the light source to be and make the shadow stretch in the opposite direction.the end result will be as follows

Now we are not quite done yet, as there is still one small issue... the shadow looks to be on top of the object instead of stretching from the bottom of it. This however is a simple fix.  At this point all you have to do is rearrange your layers so that the shadow is under your object.

Once you have finished with rearranging of the layers you will have a shadow stretching from an object.  Congratulations. You now know how to make simple but realistic shadows using The Gimp.  Hope to see some amazing art from you in the future.  Until next time.

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