One day we’ll have a lot more control and variation in ProShow captions, but in the meantime, there are some nice little tricks, one of which is to use outline fonts with drop shadows to give depth:
Nothing more was done here than to use several different outline fonts, all of them set to white with a drop shadow added. “And” was enlarged so you could see the effect better.
Outline fonts are best used for titles. For regular text, you’ll want something that’s easier to read.
I recently helped someone get a cutout of Mickey Mouse to go from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen in lockstep with a second layer, both Mickey and the other layer starting and finishing at the same time. As easy as this may seem in concept, it’s actually the root cause of baldness, particularly with PNG files where we don’t easily see the problem. The illustration below represents two layers, one a small red square, one a larger green square, and dashes showing distance:
Notice there’s more distance between the edge of the red square and the edge of the screen than there is for the green square. Someone has a longer distance to travel–namely the red square.
Trying to get differently sized images like these squares to travel in sync across the screen is a nightmare…
One-third of the way across
Two-thirds of the way across
Awful, isn’t it? They’re each marching to a different drummer.
So, let’s say we have a small red square in one layer and a large green square in a second layer, and we want the left edges of each to be in perfect alignment as they travel from right to left. In the illustration below, notice the vertical dashed line, which represents a guideline. It was derived from butting up the green square to the right side, then drawing a line so it coincided with the left side of the square. The red square was then moved so its left side was also against the dashed line:
For this example and in an image editor, I made the dimensions of the green square’s file 1600 pixels by 900 pixels, which is a 16:9 ratio, and then moved the square to the extreme right edge. Then I dragged the red square into the same file so I had 2 layers. Using a guideline (which I forgot to show here, but which is just like the dashed line above), I placed it on the left edge of the large square and then moved the small square up next to that same guideline. Once that was done, I saved each layer as a separate PNG file. The images ended up looking like this:
With these 2 files, the rest was a piece of cake. In ProShow, I added the two files to a slide and moved the layers so the left sides of the squares were lined up on the left side of the screen just barely out of sight, making sure both layers had identical horizontal pan settings. I then sent both layers over to -100. They traveled as if joined at the hip. Job done, hair still on head.
Here are the results:
One-third of the way across
Two-thirds of the way across
Have you ever created a gradient in one slide that you’d love repeating in several other slides? Custom gradients can’t be saved, unfortunately, and so you have to use the Copy screen to repeat the gradient layer in, for instance, slides 8, 15, 20, and 32. If you hate the copy screen as much as I do, here’s an alternative, the instructions using the example given above:
Add a blank slide immediately following the one with the gradient.
The results are the same as when using the copy screen–the gradient will land in the top layer, and just as with the copy screen, you’ll move the gradient down to where you want it.
These directions take as long as the Copy screen, but it’s nice to have alternatives. I use Paste Into when developing styles, sometimes isolating a masking setup in its own slide so that whenever I need to repeat it, I can use Paste Into and bypass both the Copy screen and even the Options screen.
Someday we’ll be able to create truly 3-dimensional captions, but until then, there are visual tricks we can perform. Here are the results of one such trick, which you’ll have to see larger to get the full impact, so click on the image to get a good look at it:
Steps:
1. Add a Color Solid, making it something against which a drop shadow will show.
2. Add a white caption using Arial Black, centered, and set the size so it’s big.
3. Duplicate the caption.
4. Settings for caption #2 are a skew of 5, a horizontal position of 50.1, and a drop shadow:
5. Settings for caption #1 are Outline turned on and “Use Texture on Caption,” choosing an Image for the texture:
For the character/caption fill, you’ll have to test various images to see what looks good. I found a scan of fabric, and after testing, I settled on character fill because it happened to look better.
Depending on the colors you’re using, you may find that setting caption #2 to something other than white will look better.
This is a question I’ve been asked a number of times, and I’ve hesitated to post the answer here because the instructions are for Photoshop, not Elements, which it seems more of you use. Quite often, however, Photoshop instructions are easily translated by Elements users, and so in hopes this is true for these instructions, here’s how to turn a background into a full-screen frame behind which you can display your photos:
1. Open the background image in Photoshop along with a photo typical of what you’ll be using with the frame.
2. Turn the background into a layer (double-click it in the layers palette).
3. Drag the photo on top of the background, positioning the photo where you’ll want the opening in the frame to be. If the photo is too large, press Ctrl+T, and then while holding down Shift+Alt, drag one of the corner handles toward or away from the center to resize the image. Accept your changes.
4. Using the rectangular marquee, select the area for the opening, using the photo as your guide and keeping the marquee within the bounds of the photo.
5. In the layers palette, select your background image and press delete to create the “hole.”
6. Deselect, and in the layers palette, shift your photo layer to beneath the background image so you can see how it will look as you’re creating the frame.
7. Duplicate the background layer using Ctrl+J. (You’ll see later why this might be necessary.)
8. Double-click the top layer (the copy of the background) to bring up the layer style dialogue.
9. Click “Bevel and Emboss.”
10. Use “Inner Bevel,” changing the Size (try 29 px) and Soften (try 8 px). Click OK.
11. Select the photo layer and double-click it to bring up the style dialogue.
12. Select “Inner Shadow.”
13. Set the distance to 0, choke to about 42, and size to about 38. Then click OK. (This creates a vignette around the photo to give it depth.)
14. In the layers palette, right-click the line that says “Inner Shadow” and choose “Create Layer.”
15. The second layer will have an arrow symbol pointing down to your photo layer. Right-click that second layer and choose “Release Clipping Mask.”
16. Delete the photo layer. If you want to keep the beveling on the perimeter of your background image, go to Layer > Merge Visible, and Save As.
(OR)
16. If you want to eliminate the outside bevel (this is why you made a copy of the background layer), draw a rectangular marquee around the photo frame area, making sure the marquee is outside all the shadowing and highlighting.
17. Go to Select > Inverse.
18. In the layers palette, right-click the top layer and select “Convert to Smart Object.” Right-click again, this time choosing “Rasterize Layer.”
19. Press delete.
20. Merge the 3 layers into one layer and use Save As.
Take the time to explore all the options in layer styles. The frame design given in the above instructions is used only as an example.
