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Placing a realistic
shadow or glow along an effect's edge is easy. Such depth effects can:
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| Under 1st clip | Under 2nd clip | Border only |
How to Change the Shadow's Strength, Depth or Angle
To adjust the shadow's strength, adjust the Softness and Opacity sliders. A soft, partially transparent shadow offset to the lower right and fairly deep is SpiceMaster's initial default.
To alter the shadow's position or angle, drag in the Shadow Offset Handle next to the X Offset and Y Offset controls, watching the preview until you achieve the desired depth and angle.
To constrain shadow movement to only horizontal or vertical, Shift-drag in the Shadow handle. To make exact adjustments, enter values (from -100 to +100) in the text boxes. An X,Y value of 0,0 is no offset.
How to Change the Shadow/Glow Color
The default shadow color is black, but any color is possible, such as a bright color for a glow, white for special lighting effects, or a scene color for an abstract visual effect. There are two ways to change the color:
To match the shadow or glow to a color in your scene, click the Eyedropper in the Shadow/Glow > Color area, then click in the SpiceMaster preview -- or anywhere else on your monitor! To choose a color in the standard Windows color picker, click the Color palette, which includes an Other button for custom colors.
How to Apply a Glow
You can create glows easily by applying a soft shadow with a bright color, then eliminating any offset (thus centering the shadow). To center the shadow for a glow effect, click the adjacent Center button shown above.
To adjust the glow's style, choose Under 1st clip to create an inner glow, or Under 2nd clip to create an outer glow. If a thick border is in the effect, Border Only can visibly glow in both directions around a border.
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| Under 1st clip | Under 2nd clip | Border Only |
To adjust the glow's strength, adjust the Softness and Opacity sliders. Typically, high values for both
will be most useful. To adjust the glow's color, use the tips described above.
How
to Vary a Shadow/Glow During the Effect
To smoothly change colors during the effect, for example, keyframe Color over time. To make a shadow appear as if it is coming from a single light source
or subject in your scene, keyframe the Offset over
time. To pulse
a glow, keyframe Opacity and/or Softness over time.
To vary a shadow or glow over time, first click on the stopwatch icon next
to a Shadow/Glow slider you want to vary.
The keyframe graph for the above control will appear. Click on the keyframe
line -- or click the gray Add Key (+) button
at the top right of the graph -- to add a new keyframe, then drag the keyframe
where desired.
To add more keyframes, repeat as desired. To keyframe color over time, first click on the stopwatch icon next to Color -- it will turn bright. In the Keyframes area,
the keyframe graph for the above control will then appear. Click on the keyframe
line to add a new keyframe, dragging it right or left if needed until it is
at the desired frame (it will not drag up or down). Then use the Color control to set the color for the new keyframe. To add more keyframes, repeat
as desired.
Tips
• To access useful presets, click the FX folder icon at the right edge of the Shadow/Glow section.
• A hard shadow that is only slightly offset can add the illusion of thickness
to a flowing image or effect.
• While the SpiceMaster preview plays, you can adjust Shadow/Glow settings interactively.
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