drop shadow for Mac

Take a picture or other artwork. Define invisible color. Place above clip. Abracadabra! Everything that's not invisible casts a cool shadow on your clip. This plug-in is so cool that even we can't believe it. It has it all - a touch of chromakey, some masking, a good measure of gaussblur, and some rolling. Shake, stir, and pour liberally over your clip. Done is an effect that otherwise would take hours to create - not to mention five different plugs.

'Drop Shadow' is a highly effective, fun, and 'tres cool' plug-in for iMovie that lets you float any graphic above your clip - and cast a drop shadow onto the clip's surface. What's so special about 'drop shadow' is that it detects the artwork's shape itself, and draws the drop shadow accordingly. Add to this it's ability to 'gaussblur' the shadow, and controls to specify height and direction of the shadow, and you have one exciting plug-in that'll make Final Cut Pro owners green with envy (and no, this plug does not work with FCP. And yes, we continue our tradition of "ludicruously affordable" prices).

You may use any still graphic to be floated above the clip. The plug will automatically detect the background, and cut it out. What remains is a shape (with holes if you like) that casts a shadow on the clip below.

To achieve it's magic, this plug-in combines parts of our 'chromakey' plugs (invisible color detection, shadow strategies), simple mask (shadow masking), gaussblur (blurring the shadow's edges), simple canvas (composition), snow flakes (just kidding), and darken/brighten (darkening strategies).

Of course, this plug also supports 'live preview'. Users beware, however: gaussian blurs are known for their tendency to crush unworthy processors. If you engage 'diffuse' shadows, you'd better have a fast processor, or live tracking of changes will make chess look like an action title (since the shadow mask is generated only while placing and resizing the source, the effect is quite fast during application of the effect, however). We recommend that you set the diffuse parameter as the last step before applying it to the clip.

What should I use this plug-in for? Use this plug whenever you want to place some artwork above your clip that should cast a shadow. use it for

• watermarks
• logos
• titles
• annotations