Accept the default settings, which are:
- A color of black and a Blend Mode of Multiply.
- An Opacity value of 75 percent.
- An Angle of 138 degrees (already established as the global
light direction). - Distance and Size values of 5 pixels.
Click the OK button to create a slight drop shadow. The foreign
object fits right in.
- Place a Photoshop image. Choose
File→Place to import another file as
a smart object. This time, instead
of using vectors, we’ll place a pixel-based
cartoon by artist Jason Woliner. Select the
file named Germ.psd in the Lesson 07 folder
and click the Place button. The germ enters
our world big and scary, as in Figure 7-13. - Scale and position the germ cartoon. The
germ looks frightening, but he’s really too
big to hurt anyone. Once again, we’ll scale
and position the layer from the options bar.
Click the icon to constrain the proportions
and enter a W value of 25 percent. Change
the X value to 250 pixels and Y to 350 pixels.
Then press Enter or Return twice to com-
plete the transformation. Again, Photoshop
names the layer automatically and marks it
as a smart object. - Clone the Germ layer. Now the germ is the
right size, but there’s just one of him. He needs
some pals to form a proper infection. Good
thing he’s a smart object, the only function
in Photoshop that can give birth to an army
of clones that all reference a single source
image. To clone the little fellow, press the
Alt (or Option) key and drag the Germ layer
onto the icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel, as in Figure 7-14. Or press Ctrl+Alt+J
(�-Option-J on the Mac). Name the duplicate
smart object “Germ 2” and click OK.
Figure 7-13.
Figure 7-14.
230 Lesson 7: Sharpening and Smart Objects