Drop-shadow gif tutorial
For anyone who has wondered how i make my drop-shadow gifs such as this
(warning: this is the first tutorial i’ve made, so i may make no sense whatsoever and use too many pictures. sorry, mobile people)
This tutorial requires the basic knowledge of various photoshop tools and how to make gifs in photoshop . If you don’t know how to make gifs, send me a request to make a quick tutorial for that or search google for one of the many great ones out there.
Things needed:
any recent version of Photoshop (most tools i use have been around for years)
a lot of patience
To start off, import in the frames you want to work with. For this type of gif, you want AS FEW FRAMES AS POSSIBLE!!! (i cannot stress this enough; don’t be like me and have 87 different frames to work with) Remove any excess/duplicate frames and set the frame delay accordingly (if you’ve removed duplicate frames, make sure to extend the delay or the animation may seem a bit wonky)
When you have the frames & frame delay set, now the fun begins.
Start off by adding a Color Fill layer as the background color (such as the pink above) and shove it all the way to the bottom of the layer list. Add another Color Fill layer to be the first frame’s shadow (black works fine for color) and put it below the first frame Layer but above the Background Color Fill
like so.
Add a Layer Mask to the first frame’s layer and use the Quick Selection tool to select all the parts of the frame that you want shown (i select the character rather than the background mostly so i don’t have to invert it). If the edges are being difficult to select (such as dark colors on a dark background), add in a temporary Brightness/Contrast layer with high brightness and super low contrast.
When you have everything you want selected, double click or right click - select&mask on the frame layer’s layer mask and the selection should attach itself to the mask
looking like so in the menu screen. I use the following settings for these types of gifs, changing Smooth and Shift Edge when the edges are more detailed
If all goes well, the layer mask should attach and you’ll be left with something like this:
You’ll need to attach this same selection mask to the shadow layer as well. The easiest way i’ve found is to hold down the ALT key (OPTION for Mac users, i think) and click-drag the layer mask to the shadow Color fill layer. the layers should end up looking like so:
To shift the shadow, disable the frame layer’s visibility and drag the shadow over (i drag them about 40pxl for a 720p source)
You’ll notice that the shadow may be super dark at this point. Reduce the shadow’s opacity to 20-30% and you should get something like this when you reactivate the frame layer’s visibility:
CONGRATS!! YOU FINISHED ONE FRAME!!!
This is where the patience comes in. You’ll have to repeat the entire process of adding in a shadow Color Fill layer below the next frame layer, Quick Selecting everything, layer masking, and shifting the shadow for EVERY FUCKING FRAME. Hence why i say to have a few frames as possible.
SIDE NOTE: After the first frame, when adding in Color Fill layers, they’ll cover any previous frames
like such. Simply select all the affected frames in the Frame Animation and disable the shadow layer in the Layer list.
When all the frames have been finished, you’ll end up with something resembling this for all your layers:
At this point, when all the frames have been given their shadows, that’s when i resize, sharpen, and add in color adjustments before exporting it out and cry in happiness because it’s over
So ends my tutorial. Hopefully it made some sort of sense. If you have questions or would like clarifications on certain things, just send me a message and i’ll get back to you.
