HEYYYY ^_^ It’s yozora here :D

Okay, since a few people asked me how to create shadows, I made a short tutorial ^^

Okay! Let’s get started :D

 (credits to InDesign for the ulzzang render)

Things you’re gonna need:

1. PS (any version)
2. Some person’s render.

Okay, so this is what the end result is gonna look like :O~   :

So, START!

Step 1. Open a reasonably big canvas size on PS. I used 600x600. But it depends.

Fill the background with white. But this depends too. If you’re going to use a background picture (like, a road or a bridge), you can place that on the canvas ^^

(all the images are resized, so you can drag them to a new tab to see what's being done clearly ^^)

Step 2. Okay, time to bring in the person. Cuz I was too lazy to render, I just quickly borrowed an ulzzang render from MusicChibi’s resource gallery. (CREDITS GO TO HER). Place the ulzzang on the canvas.

Step 3. Okay, now it mainly depends on how the ulzzang is posing. This ulzzang guy is standing sideways. And I’m assuming that light is falling on him from the left. So his shadow needs to be to his right ^^ get it? (You can assume the light to fall from any direction though ^^ It’s up to you)

Now make sure there’s enough space to create his shadow. Done? Okay ^^

Step 4. Duplicate the ulzzang’s layer. You can rename it “shadow” or something. If you want LOL xD.

Step 5. Make your foreground and background color black. Now, selecting the shadow layer, press CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE. You’ll see that the layer became filled with black. Got it? Done?

Step 5. Blur the layer. That’s Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Choose any value from 3 to 5. Now it’s blurred. Done?

Step 6. Now this is slightly confusing, so listen carefully alright? :O~ We need to make it look like it’s on the ground, right? So we need to DISTORT it. Distorting is a part of a technique called ‘Transforming’.

So carefully, do this:    (We’re doing this for the shadow layer, so make sure you’re selecting that.)

Edit > Transform > Distort.

Now you’ll see a box with some small squares. Select the top, middle square. And pull it down like I’ve shown :O~

Position it the way you want. But while you’re doing it, just make sure that the shadow starts from the feet. Cuz sometimes when you’re distorting, the shadow won’t be connected with the feet. Fix that by moving it around LOL xD

Now drag the shadow layer below the ulzzang’s layer. (You can actually do this from the very beginning LOL xD)

It’s gonna look like this :

Step 7. Now reduce the opacity of the shadow to around 70 to 78%. I used 75% ^^.

Step 8. Duplicate the shadow layer. But reduce the opacity of this layer more. Around 30-40% will be good ^^

Step  9. Select the copy of the shadow layer (the one you just created now). Now make it bigger than the original shadow. (sometimes, making it bigger won’t make it coincide with the original shadow. So rotate it and make it coincide, more or less). Adjust the position of the ulzzang if you need to.

So now it’s gonna look like this! ^^

ERASE THE EXCESS.

WAHHH we’re almost finished. >O<

Okay, there’s an additional step actually. But it’s optional, you can do it if you want though :O~

Step 10. Lighting.

So we assumed that light was falling from some direction and made a freaking shadow…. BUT WHERE IS THE LIGHT?? O_O! I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING!

So here’s where lighting effects come in xD It’s actually fun, but sometimes it’s hard -_- WAIT O_O! NOPE, DON’T GET SCARED >o

Select the ulzzang’s layer. Now go to > Filter > Render > Lighting effects. Okay? Now a dialogue box will open up. And you’ll see this …. Circle-like-thingy. If you move it around, you’ll notice that it creates light. See?

But this light isn’t enough. So to fix that, we’re gonna make the circle-thingy um… LARGER. So, drag down the bottom dot. It becomes longer. Now drag the dot on the right to the right. It becomes more… circly xD

This means more light is falling. Now we need more light to fall on his face than his lower body. So just position it properly, and click OK at the very top (it’s a blue button).

AND YOU”RE DONE xP!

Temme if this helped guys ^^

AND SHOW ME YOUR WORK :O~ ^^!

^_