I wrote this for beginning PSPers in mind. There are several tips sprinkled thru the tut that can be applied to other projects. This is a guideline for HOW to do it, not a cut and dried 'do it this way.'

You'll need a ding font or a tube for your image - and any 'fat' font you want for this exercise.  If you use a tube, make sure that it's opaque and the colors are sharp and clear. Misted images probably won't work for this tut.

My materials for the horse shadow:

For the horse, I used "C" - Fabeldyr-3.ttf   (ding font)

For the text - Forte.ttf - found here: This is a commercial font. 
This font installs with Microsoft Office, so it is likely already in your Windows fonts.

Let's get started!

If your layer palette is not open, press F8 to open it.

I am going to be using my example, so the screenshots will coordinate with the font and image I used. You can use any settings you want.  I find it easiest to work large and resize my images later.

Open a new image, 600 X 600 pixels, transparent.

You can floodfill it with white to see your work better or leave it blank for now.  I prefer to leave it blank, but this is a matter of choice.

	Set your material palette by clicking on the boxes and selecting your colors. Foreground - Black Background - #d4c8bd
	Set your background to Gradient, using these settings. Style: Linear Angle: 90 Repeats: 12 Invert: Doesn't matter

Text:
Create as: Vector
Font: Forte
Size: 120
Stroke width: 2
Alignment: Right
Anti-Alias: Sharp

Type your text and position it to the left or the right of the canvas, depending on where you want to put your accent image.  While your text is still a vector, you can stretch or scrunch it to please your eye by grabbing the corner or side nodes [little red squares] and dragging them in or out.

Once your text is sized and scrunched the way you want it, right click on the Vector Layer in the layer palette and choose: Convert to Raster Layer.

The Horse: Font: Fabeldyr-3 - Upper Case "C" - a lovely horse, but the font leave holes in the body.  It won't work well for a tut about perspective shadows. You will have to do some 'tweaking to the image. Type the letter using the same settings as your text. Resize it if necessary so it looks good with your text. Convert to a raster layer.

Hide the background layer and the text layer while you work on the horse.
Make sure you are working on the 'horse layer'. Zoom to 200% or higher

Lasso Tool
Selection Type: Point to Point
Mode: Add (Shift)
Feather: 1
Smoothing: 1
Anti-Alias: Checked

Draw a rough outline around the inside of the horse's body. Don't try to do it all in one selection.
Add Mode allows you to add more selections, to make it easier to select the little isolated patches in the hooves, head, etc.

Add a new layer and move it below the horse layer. Floodfill with the color of your choice.

Layers > Merge > Merge visible.
Selections > Select None

Unhide your text layer. Use the mover tool to position your image and text the way you want it. Make sure that the bottom of the text and the bottom of your image are aligned. Layers > Merge Visible.

Layers > Duplicate
Image > Flip  (The upside down layer will be the top layer in the layer palette.)
Layers > Arrange > Move Down

Select the mover tool and click on the upside down layer. Tap the up-arrow repeatedly to move the 'shadow' layer back up to the image, so that they are barely touching. If you have to, move the bottom layer up a pixel or two beyond the bottom edge of the top letters... (boy, does that sound confusing.) In the example below, notice that the C and H covers the top of the lower letters just abit .

Again, hide the top layer.
Select the shadow layer in the layer palette.
Selections > Select All
Selections > Float
Selections > Defloat

Layers > New Raster Layer.
It will be above the shadow layer.
Floodfill with #4b4b4b.
Set the Layer Property to Multiply.
Select the Shadow layer.
Effects > Blur > Gaussian blur 4.

Select > None

Layers> Merge > Merge Visible.

Unhide the top layer.
Now you have a nice logo with a duplicate shadow beneath it.

Use the raster deform tool to stretch and add perspective to the shadow. Click and drag the node in the bottom middle of the bounding box until your shadow is stretched to a distance where you want it.

Hold down your control key, grab a lower corner and drag outward to stretch the shadow for perspective. I pulled the node off the canvas, making sure that the image did not go past the edge of the canvas.

If you want a shadow that skews to the left or right, hold the shift key and drag the bottom node in the direction you want your shadow to fall. To shorten/lengthen the shadow, holding the shift key, use the nodes on the side of the bounding box and move them up and down. Almost done.

If you are creating a .jpg image with a background:
Lower the opacity of the shadow layer to between 70% and 80%. Very few shadows completely blacken the ground beneath it.

With only the image and its shadow visible,
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.

Unhide your background layer.
Save as a PSP file to use later.

You can export the file as a transparent gif now.  My preference is to add a background layer that will match the background of my webpage or stationery.  This is due to laziness, as I don't like fighting with the jaggie and fuzzy or solid edges that come with exporting a gif file. 

For a fun effect, copy your layer over a background of your choice.

Export as a .jpg.

I hope you enjoyed doing this tut.  I enjoyed writing it.

vetch