Letters/shapes cut out of paper effect

[Claire]

I'm looking to create an effect that looks as though some letter-shaped holes have been cut out of a piece of paper, and a light is shining through from behind the paper. The closest example I can find is this... can anyone help? Thanks! 

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.
I’ve attached a very-quickly-drawn example.
I’m sure that much, much better results can be obtained but it’s something to look at and experiment with for starters.
Try looking at the Effects Panel to see what’s going on.

cutout-basic.afdesign

[Pšenda]

Using the inner and outer shadows does not produce the desired effect - the shadow is too uniform, and don't simulate wavy paper. I'm afraid, that to achieve the desired effect it will require manual addition of other shadows and glow.

[GarryP]

Yeah, like I said, it was very-quickly-drawn and doesn’t look a lot like the original.
However, the original isn’t particularly realistic to me. For example, why are there shadows to the left of the letters if the shapes have just been cut out? There’s nothing to cause a shadow. Also, how are the ‘anti-holes’ in the letters A, P and R being held up?
My example exhibits the same problems but I was using the original as a cue.

One good way to see what it should look like in reality is to actually make it, which should be too much trouble in this case. Cut the letters out of a sheet of card and use some plasticine or blu-tac (or similar) to lift the sheet a little way off another sheet. Then use a portable light source (bedside lamp?) to create some shadow. Once you have it made in real life you can either take a photo of it and you’re done, or use that to figure out what you need to add to the digital copy.

[Pšenda]

8 minutes ago, GarryP said:

the original isn’t particularly realistic to me.

 

On 11/21/2019 at 10:49 PM, Claire said:

The closest example I can find is this

 

[GarryP]

Not sure what I can do with two quotes by themselves with no exposition.
Would it be possible for you to explain what you mean?

[Pšenda]

15 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Not sure what I can do with two quotes by themselves with no exposition.
Would it be possible for you to explain what you mean?

OP writes, that he gives the closest "example" of what he needs and what he has found. Thus, it is not expected that this "example" will correspond exactly to the desired effect.

Personally, I conclude from this example that OP requires a shadow, that is caused by the waved paper.

[firstdefence]

This is the video, it's very convoluted and actually looks nothing like the poster at the start of the video.

 

[Gear maker]

I gave it a fairly quick try.  I used some inner and outer shadow but then augmented it with a blurred stroke in certain places with a varied pressure profile.  Then added a little inner glow from the center to give it a cupped shape.  It's not perfect but it might be a start.

Paper.afdesign