bevels and drop shadows

[photobubby]

Hi there! I am a new user pse4 and this is my first post. I'm having trouble applying a bevel and drop shadow. I made a colored background and a different colored circle in the center. (I selected the circle and then inversed the selection.)I then stroked the outside edge and circle with a white outline. When I applied the bevel and drop shadow they only work for the outside edge and not for the circle. What did I do wrong?
Thanks so much,
Photobubby

[GaryK]

Hi

Welcome to the forums.:)

I just did a quick try with PE5 and got the same results.

What are you trying to do.. maybe there is a workaround.:)

[karen donnybrook]

Welcome to our corner of cyber world.

Karen :)

[Wendy]

Hi Photobubby ..

... and welcome to the forum :)

Did you put yout circle on its own layer ?? ... you need to if you want things like a drop shadow and a bevel to apply to it.

If you didn't then just create a new layer Layer>New>Layer before you make your circle :)

Wendy

[photobubby]

I did what you said and it worked, but I have another problem. I made a background and filled it with a color. Then I made a bunch of shapes and inserted pictures. After that I stroked all the shapes. Then I made all the shapes onto a new layer and I tried to apply a bevel. For the life of me I can't figure out why it won't work. If it worked with one circle, why won't it work on a bunch of shapes? Thanks so much for your time.
Photobubby

[Wendy]

Hi ...

Go into your layers palette and just make sure that the individual shapes are indeed on their own layer ... and that they are above the original layer that you created .. :)

Wendy

[photobubby]

I merged all the shapes together into one layer. Otherwise, how would I select them when they are all separate?

[Wendy]

Hi ....

OK when you merged them all ... do you have all the shapes on one layer but with transparent aread around them ??

Just turn off the background layer eyeball to check that :)

Wendy

[Cmcburnett]

Photobubby, welcome to the forum. Looks like Wendy is giving you step by step help. Hope you figure it out and your project ends up the way you want it to without too much stress.:)

[photobubby]

Thanks for being so supportive. The frustration level gets pretty high. This is the only place I can get an answer. I was following a tutorial, but they don't bother with the details. Just stroke all the shapes and bevel them. So thanks for your support.
Photobubby

[photobubby]

Wendy- Hi. Yes, I did just that, and I still could not get the bevel to work. I tried with the background and without, with the stroking and without. Only the marching ants, but that didn't work either, I think I need to have at least a white fill inside the shapes. Thanks so much for trying to help me. I hope you can figure it out. This is the second time I'm doing this, and I don't remember how I did it the first time.
Photobubby

[Wendy]

Hi ...

OK lets take this slowly and start again :)

First thing is that you need to have filled area to apply a bevel to it ... try this:

Create a new file File>New>File (1000 pixels x 1000 pixels, resolution 72, RGB and a white background)
Now create a new layer Layer>New Layer
Change your foreground colour to any colour you like (excep black of white :) )
Get the Elliptical marquee and use it to make a circle
then do Edit>Fill (foreground colour)

Now apply a bevel to it ... and then try adding a drop shadow ..

It should work OK for you .. :)

Wendy

[photobubby]

Wendy, I was playing around and discovered something. When I merge all the white shapes on their own layer, the bevel works. However, it's not the white shape I want to bevel, it's the stroking around each picture that is in the shape, that I want to bevel. ( Also, once I put the pictures into the white shapes they will also not accept the bevel.)I tried putting the strokes only on their own layer, and they also would not accept the bevel.
Thanks so much for your input.
Photobubby.

[photobubby]

It looks like you posted this before you got my next post. Yes, I can do it to one circle. But when I stroke the circle, how do I get the stroke (or the frame) to bevel?
Thanks so much. I could never manage this without you Wendy.
Photobubby

[Wendy]

Hi ...

If you want to get the broke to have a bevel then you need to do the stroke on its own layer ... to do that is quite easy.

Just Control Click on the shape in the layers palette to regain the selection
Create a new layer above the "shape" layer
Then do Edit>Stroke

... you will then be able to apply the bevel to the stroke :)

Wendy

[photobubby]

I tried to do this exactly as you said. I put all shapes on one layer, selected them and stroked them on a new layer. Now all I had was the strokes and transparent all around, but the bevel wouln't work. I tried inverting the selection, but that didn't help. I really shouldn't have to select anything at all, because when I had shapes on a layer it worked without any selection.
Thanks for helping me to figure out this puzzle.
Photobubby

[Wendy]

OK ...

Are you sure that you have the stroke on its own layer ...

If so then applying a bevel to that layer should work just fine :)

Wendy

[GaryK]

Just curious.. would the stroke need to be wide?

[Wendy]

Gary ...

Oh I never thougt about that :eek: ... yes it would need to be wide enough for the bevel to show :)

Wendy

[photobubby]

I made the strokes 50 pixels wide. Is that enough? It still doesn't work, and yes I definitely did put it on its own layer.
Photobubby.

[GaryK]

Hi

50 would likely show something .. I just tried it on a photo I have and I was able to see a change, although it didn't look like a very good bevel.

Just for fun try a new blank layer, drag out a selection and stroke it 100, then apply the bevel. Also the stroke colour may have some bearing on it.:)

[photobubby]

I am just going nuts with this. There's something about my file that's blocking it. In fact the layer shows that there's a style on it with that little f icon. When I started a new file and made a few shapes and stroked them the bevel worked. Maybe I will have to start all over and discard this one. What a shame. I spent so much time making the shapes.
Photobubby

[Wendy]

Hi ...

There isn't anything blocking it ... it all depends on the size of your image, the resolution of your image and the size of your stroke.

On a large, high resolution image a 50 pixel stroke will look small.

On a small, low resolution image a 50 pixel stroke will look large.

Think of it as using a thick marker pen on a piece of paper ... the larger the piece of paper the smaller (in relationship) the marker stroke will look.

Wendy :)

[photobubby]

My image is an 8x10 with a resolution of 300. My stroke is 50 pixels.

[photobubby]

I forgot to say- I made 9 shapes inside this 8x10 which I am trying to stroke and bevel.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

The number you have really doesn't make any difference to how it looks ... I just tried it out on one and this is how it looks using a simple inner bevel :

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/195SjBsdGVO9VobMnS3V2pCVuEP1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=195SjBsdGVO9VobMnS3V2pCVuEP1)

Wendy

[photobubby]

I wish I could just send you my file.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

Just save your save and then post it to Pixentral with a link here... and if you take a screen shot of your layers palette and post that too then that will be a big help :)

http://www.pixentral.com/index.php

Wendy

[photobubby]

Hi Thanks for all your trouble. I started all over and everything worked. There was something wrong with my file. I think I had saved it and when I reopened it , it wasn't the same anymore. It was uneditable. I was still able to see my layers, but I couldn't add a layer style. Does that make sense?

[Wendy]

Hi ...

Sounds like something had gone wrong there :confused: :confused: ... bit so glad that a new file has sorted out the issue :)

Wendy