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Shadows Over Rough Surfaces

Creating the illusion of shadows cast over the ground is a simple process. Just follow these steps.

1. Duplicate the layer of the object casting the shadow.

2. Lock its transparency, fill it with black, and lower its opacity.

3. Distort the shadow (Edit > Transform > Distort) to simulate the shadow being cast across the ground.

4. If the ground has a rough-textured surface, then you must displace the shadow to follow the texture.

5. Separate the file and make the ground surface the only layer showing.

6. Save it.

7. In the file with the shadow, duplicate the layer of the shadow.

8. Select one of the layers with the shadow and choose the Displace filter (Filter > Distort > Displace).

9. In the dialog box that opens, press OK.

10. A second dialog box will open, asking for a Displacement Map. This is the file you created with the ground texture. Choose it and press OK.

11. The shadow will now distort to follow the texture of the ground.

12. If part of the ground has no texture, the shadow should be smooth in that area. This is where the second shadow layer comes in.

13. Select the smooth area of the ground and put it in its own layer.

14. Put the layer with the distorted shadow behind the layer of the smooth ground.

15. Place the layer with the smooth, undistorted shadow above the layer with the smooth ground and convert the layers into a clipping group. Press Option + Alt and click between the two layers in the layers palette.