Special Effects

Special Effects can add detail and pizzazz to your webpage. Several affects combined in one graphic will turn dull flat text into a work of art. The effects, and the settings I used for each are described briefly below. After we look at the basic filter, we'll examine how these effects can enhance your web site.

Special Effects settings: Drop Shadow Color black Opacity: 180 Blur:20 Vertical & Horizontal: 4	Special Effects Settings: Cutout Color: black Opacity:180 Blur:0 Vertical & Horizontal: 2
Special Effects Settings: Chisel Size 3 Transparent	Special Effect Settings: Buttonize Size 7 Transparent

Shadow Effect

One technique that seems to be causing a certain amount of difficulty is the combination of drop shadows and transparent backgrounds. We all have a tendency to open a new window with our favorite background color, most usually white. We create this masterpiece of text, add a drop shadow that is perfection, and then attempt to add it to a web page with a textured or colored background. The results are less than pleasing.

This obstacle can be overcome, however, quite simply. When you create your transparency, select a background color that is predominant in the background that you have chosen for your web page using it as the background color of your new image.

Open a new window in PSP and also open the graphic you've selected as the background of your web page. Using the eyedropper, pickup the color in your background and 'pour' it into the new window. Create your text, add your special effects, and save as a transparency, making sure that the background color is selected as the background color on the color palette.

To save as a Transparency:

Select save as
Save as type: GIF
Click on the options button
Select set the transparency value to the background color
Click 0k
Sub-type: Version 89a-Interlaced
Click Save

Test your new graphic by viewing it in your favorite browser.

Cutout

The cutout filter can be used to enhance and highlight images as well as text selections. Take for example this photo of a bride. The original photo had a "pink" hotwax coating added to it. Using the magic wand, tolerance set to 50, feather set to 0, an area was selected to apply the cutout to. The cutout attributes were fill interior- unchecked, shadow color- color palette background color selection, Opacity 255, Blur-0, Horizontal and Vertical 2.

cutout filter on image 2
And in this example, when the selection was made, the feather setting on the magic wand was set to 20. The blur attribute of the cutout was changed to 36, the horizontal and vertical changed to 4. The result is a hazy 'glow' around the subjects.

chisel

Chisel can be used to add greater depth to an image. To make the selection, the magic wand settings were adjusted to tolerance 50, feather 0. The selection was inverted, the chisel filter attributes were set to size=10, transparent.

Drop Shadow

Drop shadows add depth to an image as well as to text. For this example we used the magic wand, tolerance 50 feather 0. The drop shadow attributes were adjusted to color white, opacity 180, blur 20, vertical and horizontal 5.
shadow/chisel filter

Invert the selection and add the chisel effect from above to make the subjects jump off the page.

Hot Wax Coating

The hot wax coating filter produces varying results, depending on which color is chosen as the foreground color on the color palette. hotwax white

In this example, the foreground color was set to white...
hot wax red

...and in this one, the foreground color was set to red.
hotwax aqua

Note how the background of your image can be affected by the hot wax coating. When red was chosen as the foreground color the background turned black, but when aqua was chosen, the letters turned black. With a white foreground selection, the letters are outlined in black while the background color remains unaffected.

Buttons

Buttons are extremely easy to achieve using the button filter. Open a window exactly the size that you want your button to be. Add the text to it and without de-selecting it, apply a cutout to the text.

button 3 De-select your text and apply the button filter. For this example, the button attributes were set to edge size 7%, transparent edge.

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