Hi,

 

I have been making some fake shadows by simply duplicating a layer, squashing it, stretching and changing levels and adding some blur effects.

 

I would like to now fade it from dark to transparent, linear, so that it softens out the further away from the origin of the shadow. In my example the wheel of a cartoon fire truck.

 

I tried this 4 point gradient but it doesn’t work as it’s not doing a linear gradient, also this effect doesn’t fade to transparent, only to color.

 

Another thing I would also like to know, the wheel is rotating as the truck is moving forward, how can I make the dublicate copy (Ctrl+D) shadow also rotate accordingly? Rotating it normally will not work because the squashed wheel shadow will rotate in 2D rather than in the fake 3D shadow plane. Is it possible to have it rotate correctly without using 3D layers? (the point of using fake shadows rather than actual 3D was to quickly get shadows without setting up as 3D layers with lights etc. and render speed.) I usually do actual 3D but for this video it will be easier with faked shadows.

 

Thanks

Anders