Creating A Shadow

Welcome to another one of my tutorials. Today we will be making a Shadow, like from a western style movie, how they stand in front of the sun and it makes them look cool......

Lets get started.

1. Create a new document, Say 500 x 200...

2. Now we want a good background, For example i used a gradient, white to #d6d6d6

3. Now create a new layer, and choose your font, Brush, or anything that has transparency. Make it fairly small, and in the middle of the top..... Example:

4. Now Duplicate the layer, CTRL + J. This should now have 2 layers identical.

5. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical - You should now have the identical layers, with one flipped.

6. Click your Move tool, then press down until the upside down layer, is at the bottom of the first.

7. Change layer 2's transparency to around 10 - 30 %. It doesn't look like much but it gets better.

8. Go to Edit > Transform > Skew - and Stretch the bottom left and right to the sides then press enter. Example:

Voila Your new shadow is complete. This can also be used to do reflections, just skew it to either side.

Finished Product

Click to enlarge