Topic awaiting preservation: Gradient filter

Does anyone know if it's possible to make filters gradient. Let me try to explain what I mean. I want to blur an image so that it is really blurred at the top and the blur effect decreases so that the image is sharp at the bottom.

Lets say you want to make a drop shadow. The shadow would be sharp at the base of the object casting the shadow but very fuzzy at the other end (hope you understand)

Thanks in advance.

/Pl0pp

The way I accomplish such effects is to make a copy of the layer , apply the filter I want, then apply a linear gradient mask to it. The mask button is next to the layer effects button at the bottom of your frame. Black is transparent, the greys are semi-transparent, and white is opaque.

Did I earn a cookie?

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Moth... There also is a "fade" command that you can apply to undo some of your effects. (Edit>Fade [Last Command]) This may not be what you're looking for though.

For the drop shaddow problem, I think that it may be easier to do the drop shaddow by yourself. To do this,
1: Ctrl(Cmd)+Click the layer for the shaddow.
2: New Layer (Underneath the layer for the drop shaddow)
3: Fill the selection with black.
4: Ctrl(Cmd)+D to Desellect.
5: Now drag it along to where it should be, Such as down and to the right a little bit.
6: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur (To the point where it looks good.)
7: Now apply a layer mask (Which is on the channels pallet, at the very bottom near the (F) key. It looks like a small box with a white circle in the middle.)
8: Paint darker colors in the mask area where you don't want the shaddow to appear.

Hope this helped ^^

---
"The Mystery of Life"
Vol. 841, Ch. 26
"All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my beleif! ...at least for now." - Chrono Trigger
><>

Can you post up an example Moltas?
Here you go Moth

[muttley] frazen razen frazen, return key, razen [/muttley]


[This message has been edited by Taobaybee (edited 09-02-2003).]

Hmm.. Cookies!

Just for conformation, what the heck is a cookie?

---
"The Mystery of Life"
Vol. 841, Ch. 26
"All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my beleif! ...at least for now." - Chrono Trigger
><>

quote:

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Just for conformation, what the heck is a cookie?

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Ingredients


1 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Directions
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2 In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla and sour milk. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats, and your choice of additions. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3 Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For more exiting cookie recipes please visit Cookie Site






[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-03-2003).]

Hmmm... someones been making funny cookies and eating too many eh???

gimme one!

Oh the irony!

---
"The Mystery of Life"
Vol. 841, Ch. 26
"All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my beleif! ...at least for now." - Chrono Trigger
><>

Moltas: another way would be to enter QuickMask mode (press the "q" key); select the gradient tool, white to black (back for least effect, white for most effect); exit QuickMask mode (press "q" again) and apply your filter. Don't forget to deselect when you're done.

Thanks for all the response and not to mention the ingredients for the cookies =)

The tip to make double layers and use a mask is pretty close to what I want to accomplish but not quite. The effect you get with double layers is more foggish. You can see the sharp edge of the object disappering in the "fog".

If you look at this image: http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/shadow.gif (don't know what it is, just found it on the net)
You can see that the shadow is sharp near the base of the object but it's very "blured" at the far end. How do you do this in photoshop

I found a tutorial on "how to build better shadows" but I'd say it's far from good. http://www.photoshoptoday.com/Tutorials2002/Nov/PSBetterSpotS/default.asp

If you look at the last image it's quite easy to see that it's a fake shadow. http://www.photoshoptoday.com/Tutorials2002/Nov/PSBetterSpotS/images/screen_10.jpg

Anyway thanks for all the replies!

/Moltas

** If there is something wrong with this post please remove it. I'm still quite new to this forum **

Ok here is two examples on what I try to accomplish.



The left image has a more correct shadow the the right one. The shadow to the left was made using the gaussian blur and moving a selection up 10px between every blur. (It's dirty way of doing it but I can't figure out how do it in any other way.)
The right image is a composite of two layers with masks. Notice how the edge seems to disappear into the "fog".

Two other images done in the same way as the ones above. This time to simulate a low aparture photo.


There has to be some plugin for this?

Ouch !! did you say plugin ?

Whats wrong with using masks anyways ? I'm sure with a bit of work you could create an action script to do that same thing.

Sometimes, some things are best done manually, thats what separates the men from the mice.

Well I guess you're right. But it feels like such a repetetive task. It must be possible to automate in some way.

I have to face it, there are no short-cuts to a perfect shadow (Sokrates)

Thanks for all your replies.

Repetitive, damn, how many shadows ya got ?

I posted this tutorial back in 2000 http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Archives/Archive-000004/HTML/20000409-3-000017.html

If your shadows are on their own layer, the the above method should work nicely, but again, it a manual job

I'd have to agree, that was a beautiful manual job... show's paitence... [That shows the lack of spelling... *patience]

---
"The Mystery of Life"
Vol. 841, Ch. 26
"All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my beleif! ...at least for now." - Chrono Trigger
><>

Moltas : I tried Steves method (posted above) and I got the result I thought you were looking for.
Set up the quick mask first , then run the blur. (or make a selection and feather it alot, but the quick mask lets you see how it fades)
So, maybe I`m not sure what you are doing.

docilebob: I tried Steve method and the result is similar to the result I got on the objects to the right in the above example. The edge of the shadow disappears into a blured shadow. I want the result to the left (spot the difference?)

I might just have to do a tutorial =)

well, then start blurring sooner ;-)

Just like TP said, start blurring earlier. As you probably know, the nice thing about a mask is you can adjust it in any way you want. Just tweak the mask and I think you'll find that you'll get exactly what you're looking for.

quote:

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It must be possible to automate in some way.

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Well if you want to do it that way, that's what an action (which axleclarkuk hinted at) does. It'll do the repetitive BS so you don't have to.

Yea, I see the difference.
To change from one to the other, adjust the blur amount and/or adjust the levels of the mask, as TP and Raptor mentioned. Try Darken/multiply Layer modes and adjust the opacity. If you`ll notice, in the the left example, The shadow is not as dark as at the point of contact as is the right example. And both shadows are too wide at the top to come from the object casting it.

I did a quick test last night on how to create some relistic shadows and a fake out-of-focus effect. I was mostly playing around so there are a lot of details I would have done differently but still I am quite satisfied. Especially the cloth got quite good.

What do you guys say?

Apart from the confusion over the light source, it works for me.

Would a partial select work for what you're talking about? Basically make an alpha channel and draw your gradient there. Load the Alpha as a selection and you should have semi-selected pixels that are gradiented. From there, apply whatever filter you want to it.

This should theoretically work, unless I've missed something major.

Thanx for the tip, but it produces the same "foggy" effect as two-layers-with-layer-mask do. I think that there is no other way then manually moving your selection and adding effect as you go.

But thanx anyway!

/Moltas