Lightning Brain Podcast: Click here to listen to "Fun with Drop Shadows in InDesign"

Example Files:

Click here to download sample script and sample document

Example result:



Rough Transcript of Podcast:

Hi, my name is Kris Coppieters from Rorohiko, and this is my second 'Lighting Brain' podcast - about having fun with drop shadows in InDesign.

Initially, I'll try to create a number of podcasts in fairly quick succession, as to build up some content on the Rorohiko blog, but in the long run I aim to release a new podcast about once every two weeks.

This episode I wanted to talk a bit about some fun experiments I did with drop shadows in InDesign. My brain seems to be a magnet for ideas - which would be fine, if only all ideas that pop up would be useful. Sadly enough, some of my ideas are rather silly, and this podcast is based on one of the silly ones.

The podcast will also delve a little bit into some mathematical aspects of my experiments. However, even if you are not mathematically inclined you should still be able to have fun with the example document and example script - so even if the mathematics gives you the blue shivers, don't worry! Just download the sample files and have fun!

My idea was this: assume there are a number of page items scattered over a page or spread. Why not coordinate all these drop shadows so they cause some visual effect to occur? Standard drop shadows are rather dull. They simulate what would happen if there was a light source at infinite distance throwing light on a page item floating at a particular height above the page.

What I was wondering about was: what would happen if the simulated light source was not at infinite distance, but instead somewhere else - for example, located on the viewer's head, close to the paper, like a head-torch, or if the light source was simulating one of those swiveling desk lights.

The other thing I wondered about was: what if the page items that are throwing drop shadows would be pretending to float at smoothly varying distances from the page - for example: page items near the middle of the page would float higher, and page items near the edges would float lower above the page.

So, I set out to do some experiments using InDesign and ExtendScript, and it turns out the results are interesting - interesting enough to share as a podcast.

I started with the following assumptions and limitations:

All distances are expressed in points

Pages and spreads have a coordinate system: an X-axis pointing to the right, a Y-axis pointing down. The origin of the coordinate system can be pretty much anywhere, but often it is somewhere in the upper left hand corner of the page or spread. In the script, I rather arbitrarily use X-Y coordinates relative to an origin that sits in the middle of each page.

I introduce a third axis - a Z-axis which is assumed to point out of the page towards the viewer. A page item that floats above the page will have a positive Z-coordinate. A page item that does not float but sits on the page has a Z-coordinate equal to zero. Because pages are considered to be opaque, negative Z-coordinates don't make much sense in this model, as they would simulate page items behind the page.

I assume there is a simulated light source hovering at some point above the page. The point has some X and Y coordinates (which express the point on the page above which the light source is located) and a Z coordinate (which expresses how high above the page the light source is hovering).

As far as the page items go: in addition to their X- and Y-coordinate data, selected page items are assumed to also have a Z-coordinate which shows how high above the page these page items are supposed to be floating (so they can cast a shadow).

I simplified things by representing each page item by a single point - the page item's center, which is easily calculated as the mean values of the bounding box X- and Y-coordinates.

To get an interesting Z-coordinate I used a mathematical formula that takes these X and Y coordinates and returns a Z coordinate.

One of the formulas in the example scripts gives a Z coordinate that has its highest values for page items in the middle of the page, and gets lower for page items near the borders of the page (for the mathematically inclined: an elliptic paraboloid).

To calculate the parameters of the drop shadow of each individual page item, I went back to some of my high-school geometry formulas. Using the (X,Y,Z) coordinates of the light source and the (X,Y,Z) coordinates of each page item's center, I calculated the amount of X- and Y shift to apply to the drop shadows.

To work the magic, I also assumed that the script would only affect page items that are located on a page layer - I called the layer "magic carpet" (all lowercase, one space). Only page items on this layer are affected by my example script.

Finally, to get some visuals, I decided to first create a page filled with a regular pattern of square page items. The script will of course work with any kind and any amount of page items on the "magic carpet" layer, but I expected the best visual effect with a regular spaced grid of page items.

I created a new document, created a layer "magic carpet". Then I used two step-and-repeat operations to sprinkle a host of small, colored squares all over the page (about 6 squares horizontally and 11 squares vertically, with a good gap between them). You first create a single square, and use step-and-repeat with a horizontal displacement of..., then select the row of squares, and do a second step-and-repeat with a vertical displacement of ...)

The I ran my little script - and suddenly I was presented with quite a nice 3-D effect.

The script and example documents I used are available for download from this blog (rorohiko.blogspot.com).

Step-by-step:

On InDesign CS or CS2, you install the file 'ShadowDance.js' into the Presets - Scripts subfolder of your InDesign application folder. The script uses .js as its file name extension instead of .jsx - that way the same script works on CS as well as CS2 and CS3.

On InDesign CS3, you install the file 'ShadowDance.js' into one of the script folders - I installed it in Scripts - Scripts Panel.

Launch InDesign and create a new document.

Create a new layer called 'magic carpet'.

On this layer, create a single square, about 60x60 points in size (about 20 mm x 20 mm); position it in the top left hand corner.

Fill the square with a color.

Use Edit - Step and Repeat... to create five or six duplicates of the square, with a horizontal offset slightly larger than the side of the square (e.g. 72 pt or 25 mm), and a vertical offset of zero.

Select the whole row of squares, and create 9 or 10 duplicates of the row of squares, this time with a horizontal offset of zero and a vertical offset slightly larger than the side of the square.

You should now have a page that is covered with a regular grid of square page items, all of which sit on the 'magic carpet' layer.

Bring up your scripts pallette (Window - Scripting - Scripts in CS, Window - Automation - Scripts in CS2 and CS3. In CS3, look under 'Application' if you installed the script into the Scripts - Scripts Panel folder).

Double-click the script 'ShadowDance.js'. You should get a result that looks similar to what you find in the example document 'ShadowDanceCS.indd'.

Till next time!