Tutorial: Adding a Background & Creating Drop Shadows

Welcome to the newest tutorial! Aren't you excited! I know I am. Hee.

Last week, we discussed how to properly remove a green screen from a Second Life snapshot, leaving you with only an avatar and a blank background, free and clear to do whatever you please. Today, we'll be discussing what to do with that blank background, as well as how to create drop shadows for your images. What's a picture without an intereting background, right? Right, then!

A couple of things you'll need before we move on in this tutorial:

1. A snapshot, cleaned up of green screen, ready to have a background put into position. You may download the one I'll be working on (as well as the other files used in this tutorial) here if you'd like to follow along.

2. Photoshop or GIMP (a free alternative to Photoshop - downloadable here).

3. Imagination! Your background can be anything you want it to be. It is up to you to make it that way! I will simply be showing you some basic attack tactics. :)

Now, let's begin, shall we?

Which tutorial would you like to read? Photoshop | GIMP

Creating a Drop Shadow, in Photoshop; Step-by-Step:

1. Open the photo you will be working on. Be sure that any and all green screen has been removed and your avatar is on its own individual layer. If you need help removing your green screen, you may refer back to the green screen removal tutorial from last week. (Click here to download the PSD file that I will be working on this week, already cleaned up).

2. Duplicate the avatar layer. This is a good step to begin with when working on ANY image file, in order to preserve the original layer. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will need a duplicate to create the drop shadow. To duplicate the avatar layer, right click on the layer that has your avatar on it, click "Duplicate" and "Okay". You should now have 3 layers, the duplicate avatar layer, original avatar layer, and the background.

3. Let's hide the duplicated layer for now so that we can focus first on creating the black silhouette we will be using to make the drop shadow. Hide the duplicated layer by clicking the eye icon to its left. Now you should still have 3 layers, but only be able to see two of them - the background layer and the avatar layer.

4. Click on the avatar layer from your layer's list (the one beneath the layer we just hid) and select Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation from your top menu bar.

5. Move the Lightness slider all the way to your left, to -100. This will turn the image to a solid black silhouette.

6. You may now show the hidden duplicated layer again by clicking the eye icon to its left. Now, you have 3 layers showing again - the duplicated avatar layer, the black silhouette, and the background.

7. The silhouette will be serving as our shadow, however, it is currently hidden behind the now-showing duplicated avatar layer. We will need to change that. Select the black silhouette layer from your layer list in the layers tab and press Ctrl-T to enter "Free Transform" mode. You may also enter free transform mode by selecting Edit > Free Transform from your top menu bar.

8. By entering free transform mode, you will notice that a black outline with several outlined squares now displays around the image. Click and drag the top center square down to just above ankle height. This will "shrink" your black silhouette, giving it the impression of a cast drop shadow. Press enter to apply this transformation.

9. One thing you should always keep in mind when working on images is light direction. Where is the light coming from in your picture? If you are following along using the image I provided, you can see that the highlighting on the upper legs indicates that the light in this image is coming from the left. This means that we will need to shift the black silhouette to the right a bit to further imply the correct direction of light. To do this, we will need to skew the black silhouette slightly to the left. Select Edit > Transform > Skew from the top menu bar. This will put you into Skew mode. Click the top center square again and drag it slightly to the right, just until you feel the cast shadow is in the proper location. Once you have done, press enter to accept the transformation.

10. Yay! It is really starting to look like a drop shadow now, right? Coming along nicely. Now, there is one more step to be done before we can move on -- the shadow opacity. Shadows aren't this dark, right? No, of course not. To adjust the opacity of your drop shadow, select the black silhouette layer from your layer list. At the top of your layers tab, there is a small Opacity percentage box. Change this percentage to be about 20-40%. I find that 40% typically works great for me in most cases.

Congratulations! Your drop shadow is now complete.

You could do several things at this point to adjust the drop shadow to your own liking... blur it a bit to make it less sharp, add a black and white gradient to give it the impression of fading out... it is all up to you and your needs!

Now, what to do with that white background...

At this point, your background is still just a blank canvas dying to be filled in by something. Anything! Who likes to be left alone in a white void of space? Let's take this avatar on a little trip. I dropped into my favorite pub in Second Life, the Crown & Pearl, and took a quick snapshot for the purposes of this tutorial. You may download it here.

A couple of things you should keep in mind when adding backgrounds to your images:

1. Scale and Perspective. Is your avatar the right size for the background? Do you need to make him/her smaller or larger? One of the most important things in making your photo look realistic is scale. If your avatar's hand is bigger than a palm frond they're standing next to -- you will probably need to scale down!

2. Lighting. Is the light coming from the same direction on both your desired background and your avatar? What about your drop shadow (if you have one)? Is it pointing in the right direction? Is the lighting the same COLOR between the background and your avatar images? These are all things you should think about when searching for or creating a background for your snapshots.

Now that we have our avatar, our cast shadow, and our background, let's put all the elements together to create our final picture.

Adding a Background, in Photoshop; Step-by-Step:

1. Open the image of the background you'd like to use. Press Ctrl+A and Ctrl+X to cut the image out.

2. Now, let's go back to the image of your avatar. Select the Background layer (or the layer beneath your drop shadow), and press Ctrl+V. This will paste the image you just cut below both your avatar and drop shadow layers.

3. Use the hand or arrow tools to move the background into position. Because this image and the avatar all appears to be of accurate size, we will not need to do any size adjusting. Yay! However, there IS a small problem with the lighting! The light on the background appears to be coming from the right (see how the wooden boards are much lighter on the right sides?) whereas the light on the avatar appears to be coming from the left. We can fix this by flipping the avatar horizontally.

4. To flip your avatar and her drop shadow, first, select both the avatar and the drop shadow layer from your layers list. To do this, hold down the Ctrl key and click both the avatar layer and the drop shadow layer. This will highlight both layers in your layer list, indicating that they are both selected.

5. Next, press Ctrl+T again to enter Free Transform mode.

6. Now, right click on the outlined avatar and select "Flip Horizontal" from the menu. This will flip your selected layers (the avatar and her drop shadow) so that they are facing right. Your drop shadow is now in the correct location, and the lighting on your avatar now seems to be in place with the background lighting.

Congratulations! You have added a background to your previously white-background snapshot!

That wasn't so hard, was it?

Creating a Drop Shadow, in GIMP Step-by-Step:

1. Open the photo you will be working on. Be sure that any and all green screen has been removed and your avatar is on its own individual layer. If you need help removing your green screen, you may refer back to the green screen removal tutorial from last week. (Click here to download the PSD file that I will be working on this week, already cleaned up).

2. Duplicate the avatar layer. This is a good step to begin with when working on ANY image file, in order to preserve the original layer. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will need a duplicate to create the drop shadow. To duplicate the avatar layer, right click on the layer that has your avatar on it, click "Duplicate Layer". You should now have 3 layers, the duplicate avatar layer, original avatar layer, and the background.

3. Let's hide the duplicated layer for now so that we can focus first on creating the black silhouette we will be using to make the drop shadow. Hide the duplicated layer by clicking the eye icon to its left. Now you should still have 3 layers, but only be able to see two of them - the background layer and the avatar layer.

4. Click on the avatar layer from your layer's list (the one beneath the layer we just hid) and select Colors > Colorize from your top menu bar.

5. Move the Lightness slider all the way to your left, to -100. This will turn the image to a solid black silhouette.

6. You may now show the hidden duplicated layer again by clicking the eye icon to its left. Now, you have 3 layers showing again - the duplicated avatar layer, the black silhouette, and the background.

7. The silhouette will be serving as our shadow, however, it is currently hidden behind the now-showing duplicated avatar layer. We will need to change that. Select the black silhouette layer from your layer list in the layers tab and press Shift-T to enter "Scale" mode.

8. By entering free transform mode, you will notice that a black outline with several outlined squares now displays around the image. Click and drag the top center square down to just above ankle height. This will "shrink" your black silhouette, giving it the impression of a cast drop shadow. Press "Scale" to apply this transformation. (Note: You can also reach all of the transformation tools discussed here by clicking on the canvas and selecting Tools > Transform Tools from the menu.)

9. One thing you should always keep in mind when working on images is light direction. Where is the light coming from in your picture? If you are following along using the image I provided, you can see that the highlighting on the upper legs indicates that the light in this image is coming from the left. This means that we will need to shift the black silhouette to the right a bit to further imply the correct direction of light. To do this, we will need to skew the black silhouette slightly to the left. Press Shift-S to enter "Shear" mode. Click the top center square again and drag it slightly to the right, just until you feel the cast shadow is in the proper location. Once you have done, press "Shear" to accept the transformation. Next, press the M key and click and drag the shadow layer to move it back into position under the avatar (if the Shear step moved it out of position, you will need to do this step).

10. Yay! It is really starting to look like a drop shadow now, right? Coming along nicely. Now, there is one more step to be done before we can move on -- the shadow opacity. Shadows aren't this dark, right? No, of course not. To adjust the opacity of your drop shadow, select the black silhouette layer from your layer list. At the top of your layers tab, there is a small Opacity slider. Change this percentage to be about 20-40. I find that 40 typically works great for me in most cases.

Congratulations! Your drop shadow is now complete.

You could do several things at this point to adjust the drop shadow to your own liking... blur it a bit to make it less sharp, add a black and white gradient to give it the impression of fading out... it is all up to you and your needs!

Now, what to do with that white background...

At this point, your background is still just a blank canvas dying to be filled in by something. Anything! Who likes to be left alone in a white void of space? Let's take this avatar on a little trip.

I dropped into my favorite pub in Second Life, the Crown & Pearl, and took a quick snapshot for the purposes of this tutorial. You may download it here.

A couple of things you should keep in mind when adding backgrounds to your images:

1. Scale and Perspective. Is your avatar the right size for the background? Do you need to make him/her smaller or larger? One of the most important things in making your photo look realistic is scale. If your avatar's hand is bigger than a palm frond they're standing next to -- you will probably need to scale down!

2. Lighting. Is the light coming from the same direction on both your desired background and your avatar? What about your drop shadow (if you have one)? Is it pointing in the right direction? Is the lighting the same COLOR between the background and your avatar images? These are all things you should think about when searching for or creating a background for your snapshots.

Now that we have our avatar, our cast shadow, and our background, let's put all the elements together to create our final picture.

Adding a Background, in GIMP; Step-by-Step:

1. Open the image of the background you'd like to use. Press Ctrl+A and Ctrl+X to cut the image out.

2. Now, let's go back to the image of your avatar. Select the Background layer (or the layer beneath your drop shadow), and press Ctrl+V. This will paste the image you just cut below both your avatar and drop shadow layers. It will appear as a "Floating Selection (Pasted Layer 1)". Right click on this layer and select "New Layer" to make it a new layer. Then, click and drag this layer down beneath the two avatar layers (your avatar and your drop shadow) so that it displays behind the avatar and its drop shadow.

3. Use the hand or arrow tools to move the background into position (press M if you are having trouble). Because this image and the avatar all appears to be of accurate size, we will not need to do any size adjusting. Yay! However, there IS a small problem with the lighting! The light on the background appears to be coming from the right (see how the wooden boards are much lighter on the right sides?) whereas the light on the avatar appears to be coming from the left. We can fix this by flipping the avatar and the shadow horizontally.

4. To flip your avatar and her drop shadow, you will need to flip each layer individually. First, click the shadow layer in your layer list. Then, right click on the shadow on the canvas. Select Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontally to flip the layer. Repeat this process with the avatar layer. Once finished, both layers should be flipped to the proper direction. (Note: Don't forget to reposition your drop shadow should you find the need to do so!)

Congratulations! You have added a background to your previously white-background snapshot!

That wasn't so hard, was it?

There are many more elements to this kind of work -- color adjustment, perspective correction, depth of field... but for now, play around with this technique, and see what you can come up with! Where will you make your avatar go?