Layer Effects
Dateline: 09/14/99
Layer effects were one of the first things to catch my attention in Photoshop 5. There are six different layer effects to choose from, but by varying the options and combining effects, you can create a wide variety of effects. In previous versions of Photoshop, you would have had to go through a number of tedious steps, or use plug-ins to achieve these effects. One of the best things about layer effects, is that the effects are linked to the corresponding layers, which means they are automatically updated as you edit or move the layer contents. This makes them particularly useful for text effects, because the text can be edited and the effects correspond to the changes.
Below are screen shots of the six layer effect dialog boxes. The inset "E" shows you the results of the effect using the settings shown.
Drop Shadow
Inner Shadow
Outer Glow
Inner Glow
Color Fill
Bevel and Emboss
The Bevel and Emboss effect includes additional style options which you see highlighted in the dialog box above. The image below shows you the results of the four different styles using the settings shown above.
All the examples I've shown you so far use only one layer effect at a time. In the next image you can see where I have combined multiple effects and adjusted several options to achieve a wide variety of effects.
In my example, for the word "Multiple" I've applied a drop shadow, an inner glow (white), and the bevel and emboss effect with an inner bevel. By using the overlay mode for the shadow of the inner bevel, the effect was a more subtle bevel than if I would have used normal mode. The word "Effects" has an inner shadow and an outer glow. The dissolve mode gave the outer glow that speckled, grungy appearance around the edges of the letters.
I
won't go into all the options for the layer effects, because they are clearly
explained on pages 286-287 of the Photoshop 5.0 User's Guide. However, In addition
to the options, you can further fine tune any of the layer effects by converting
the layer effect to a layer. This is done through the layers menu (shown at
right), under effects > create layer. Keep in mind that when you convert
a layer effect into a layer, it is no longer editable through the effects dialog
box, and it will no longer update as you modify the original layer. Some effects,
when converted, become layers within a clipping group. The effects submenu in
the layer menu also allows you to copy and paste layer effects to another layer,
or to several linked layers at once.
As you can see, layer effects are a lot of fun... take some time to experiment with the wide variety of different effects that can be achieved.
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Also see: Photoshop Resources
 |
Sue Chastain |
Screen shots captured with Corel Capture 9.
