Fading a shadow in...

[trailertrash]

I have an item [a png file] which I want to travel across the screen slowly and as it comes to a halt, I want to fade in a drop shadow. I cant find a way to do this as the minute I tick the shadow box [even at the last keyframe [[KF2]]the shadow appears in the file at the start [KF1]

Anyone know how to do this please?

Andrew

[davegee]

Create a PNG shadow in PS and give it the same KF's as the main PNG but add extra KF's to accommodate the fade in?

DG

[fh1805]

Andrew,

Dave's suggestion is how I would approach it, too. In PTE you can animate only objects. The "Drop Shadow" item is a "Property" of your PNG object and not an object in its own right.

regards,

Peter

[trailertrash]

You guys give me some work!!!! I'm gonna have to learn how to create a shadow now.

Thanks guys.

[fh1805]

Andrew,

Just a further thought:

Try using two copies of your PNG object: one with a drop shadow and one without. Fade the one with drop shadow out completely to start with and when you want the shadow to appear, fade this copy up.

regards,

Peter

[nobeefstu]

Andrew,

Peters suggestion is the course I would follow ... it does not require any external editor process and does not require any new additional images to make the shadow effect. Its all simply accomplished within PTE using a copy of the image.

Try using two copies of your PNG object: one with a drop shadow and one without. Fade the one with drop shadow out completely to start with and when you want the shadow to appear, fade this copy up

[trailertrash]

Thank you DG Peter and NBS, That works. I've never created a shadow or object in PS before so now I have a new skill.

Many thanks

Andrew

[xahu34]

I would recommend the use of the parent/child concept: Insert a rectangle (or any image) with the same aspect ratio as the image that you want to show, and give it a drop shadow. Highlight the object and insert the image that you want to see as a child, and it will exactly cover the rectangle. The shadow and all kinds of animation can now be configured via key points for the rectangle.

Regards,

Xaver

[fh1805]

Xaver,

I think Andrew might have a non-rectangular image. In his original post he spoke of a PNG file. I have assumed this to mean it is of an irregular shape and that Andrew wants the shadow to conform to this irregular shape. I agree that your suggestion is ideal for a solid (JPEG) image but I do not think it would give the best result for an irregular shaped image (PNG).

regards,

Peter

[xahu34]

Peter,

My main intention was to point out the use of the parent/child concept. In case of an arbitrarily shaped png-object you surely have to use the original image as parent and child.

BTW: Thanks for the information on PTE v7!

Regards,

Xaver

[xahu34]

An additional remark: All solutions considered here do not work well if the png-object has a significant semi-transparent border

Regards,

Xaver

[trailertrash]

Thanks guys, the object is indeed an iregular shaped object. Thats why I made it .png to preserve the luminosity around the edges.

What I did was to create a shadow .png and use a rectangle container containing the shadow at the places I wanted it. Then just used opacity changes to get it to appear when I wanted it to.

So all advice has been used and indeed has worked.

See...you guys can fix anything...

Andrew