Shadows

Shadows

Simple Drop Shadows to Advanced Lighting Effects:
Shadowing can be very complex. Vector drawing applications in the past have not been as good at shadowing as painting-bit map technology. EazyDraw brings both worlds together here. You get the precision of a vector based shadow with the composition effects and speed of a bit map representation. But you don't need to worry about all that, just check the "Shadow" box and it's as simple as that.

Drop Shadow:
Crisp edge (100%) or fuzzy edge, get the effect you want.
Pick a color-it "glows from under" the host graphic and fades to the background.
Aspect angle, bloom - all the control to generate photo-realistic shadows.

Affine Transform:
Use the Affine transform matrix distort and shape the shadow.
Use this to stimulate height and depth perception.

Text Shadow:
Simple drop shadow or advanced effects.
Apply to normal typeset text or contour flow text.

Image Composition:
Use for generating highlighting effects.
It is not necessary to even "show" the host graphic-great way to control exotic emphasis effects.
Exploit Anti-aliasing for interesting screen display interactions .

Affine Transform
Distort a shadow with an affine transform. Full control of all components of the transform matrix. Shear, offset, rotation--everything you need for depth effects.

Cut a Shadow Loose
Shadows are Bezier curves too. So we can easily separate the shadow from the host graphic. It then becomes a graphic on it's own. A very handy capability. This is a great way to interactively transform objects. Create the object, add the shadow, twist and distort the shadow, then disconnect-you have a new twisted and distorted graphic.

Handy For Cursors
Cursors require a contrasting outline. This is needed so they will show up when they move over similar colored objects. Without the outline the cursor can "disappear" on the user. The shadow technique makes this a snap with EazyDraw - pretty much just one check box and you've got it. Notice on the example how the one rectangle disappears over the dark region and the one with the contrasting white bloomed shadow does not. Look closely at your browsers cursor positioned on the edge to the black region - you should be able to see the effect.

Copy Special!
With one menu click you can precisely copy a shadow effect. This can then be pasted to other objects. This is a easy way to tie a scene together, giving the appearance of a single light source.