Applying drop shadow and glow effects to menus
DVDit Pro provides a drop shadow effect (which can also be used to create “glow” effect) for menu objects.
Every project has a global style for drop shadows in menus. By default, all the menus you create in a project use the same drop shadow settings, and changes to the shadow in one menu affect every other menu. You can take individual objects out of the global style, so that you can change their drop shadows without affecting other objects and menus.
To change the global drop shadow or glow effect:
- Double-click any menu icon in the Project window. The menu appears in the Preview window.
- Click an object on the menu in the Preview window. The Attributes window displays its attributes.
- Click the Effects tab in the Attributes window.
- Make sure that the Global Style checkbox in the Drop Shadow section is selected. This ensures that any changes affect the global style.
- Adjust the Drop Shadow controls as desired:
- Drop Shadow On: Select this checkbox to apply the shadow to every menu that belongs to the global style. Deselect this checkbox to turn off the shadow effect.
- Opacity: Drag the slider or enter a value to change the shadow opacity.
- Angle: Drag the control or enter a value to set the angle of the apparent light source.
- To change the shadow color, click the swatch button and choose from the drop-down list or click Custom to define your own colors. Light colors create a “glow” effect instead of a shadow.
- Distance: Drag the slider or enter a value to increase or decrease the apparent distance of the button from the menu background. For a “glow” effect, set the Distance to zero.
- Size: Drag the slider or enter a value to blur or sharpen the shadow/glow.
To change the shadow or glow effect for selected menu objects only:
- Double-click the menu’s icon in the Project window. The menu appears in the Preview window.
- On the menu displayed in the Preview window, select the objects you want to adjust. The Attributes window displays the button attributes.
- Click the Effects tab in the Attributes window.
- In the Drop Shadow section, deselect the Global Style checkbox. This takes the selected objects out of the global style.
- Adjust the Drop Shadow controls as desired.
To re-apply the global style to selected menu objects:
- Double-click the menu’s icon in the Project window. The menu appears in the Preview window.
- On the menu displayed in the Preview window, select the objects you want to adjust. The Attributes window displays the button attributes.
- Click the Effects tab in the Attributes window.
- In the Drop Shadow section, select the Global Style checkbox. This re-applies the global drop shadow style to the selected objects.