3D Look vs. 3D Feel

I wrote a blog post a while back with a quick explaination on how to give a 2-dimensional image a 3-dimensional feel without giving it that clip-art look.  At the bottom of the post, you can download the images, including Photoshop PSD files, so that you can work with them.  Here is the how-to portion of that post.  The object (eagle) is duplicated and blacked out.  In this particular image, it is blacked out by a color overlay.  But, if your graphics software does not have that functionality, filling in the duplicate object with a solid black fill will give the same result.  Then the duplicate is stretched, skewed, distorted (whatever you want to do to it) to give it a different perspective.  Guassian blur is added (25) and then gradient transparency to provide the initial feel of distance.  Here is the secret to true 3D in a 2D image: The generic drop shadow!  Ironic, isn?t it?  Adding a white or pale yellow drop shadow to the object pulls it away from the shadow made from the duplicate object.  This gives a feeling of real, touchable distance.