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How to apply shadow on multiple object layers (AD)


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Hi,

Say I'm drawing a character, who's made of several body parts, each being a vector object in a separate layer. Then I want to add self-shadow to this character, using yet another vector object (black with low opacity).

I currently have to apply the shadow to each body part individually, duplicating the master shadow and clipping it under each body part layer.

Is there a way to apply this shadow to the whole character in one go?

As I tested: it seems impossible to clip the shadow to a group of objects. When sliding the shadow below the group, it is added as a member to the group instead.

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Have you tried...

  1. Grouping all the elements together
  2. Duplicating that group
  3. Boolean adding all the elements together to create a shadow
  4. Place the shadow below the original group of elements.

Screen-Shot-2019-12-06-at-07-36-22.png

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As far as I can see you would need to Add all the elements of the figure to create a single curve. Then you can Clip the shadow to the figure:

 

Which doesn't help if you then want to move the individual body parts...

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Right that would work, but that wouldn't be practical. The example above is simple, but I'm talking in practice about advanced design with 100s of objects in different layers, transparency, masks and clips and they cannot be converted to a single shape.

I'm hoping there's a solution to clip an object to a group of objects.

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BenjiGameDev: That’s a shame. I tried putting all the layers in another group and then placing that document inside another document (which contained a coloured background) but that doesn’t work either. Neither does putting the ‘shadow curve’ inside the original group. Maybe it just needs more experimentation.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/6/2019 at 4:26 PM, haakoo said:

Duplicate the grouped figure>rasterize>apply shade as clipped object to the new pixel layer


Nice trick! The use of the rasterize is smart. It won't change with further modification of the parent shape though, but I guess it can do for now.

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The problem with compound paths in Affinity is it removes the individual properties of elements and homogenises them into a shape with singular properties.

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I think the complexity of the project is beyond the technical abilities of Affinity and a dedicated 2D/3D animation app would be more appropriate to the project. It would be interesting to see what @BenjiGameDev is actually working on, this would help focus the search for a solution more accurately.

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9 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I think the complexity of the project is beyond the technical abilities of Affinity and a dedicated 2D/3D animation app would be more appropriate to the project. It would be interesting to see what @BenjiGameDev is actually working on, this would help focus the search for a solution more accurately.

Thanks. Nothing too complicated. Here are examples of my work.I just want the shadow to be on the character surface--without hassle. I was hoping I could cast the shadow on a group like I can on a single object.

Bonnetarte.png

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I personally can't see a way round this, to shadow en masse, all of the components.

I think a shadow would have to be done per component and the shadow would be a translucent component in itself, either clipped or butted to the component the shadow represents.

Great characterisation by the way.

I'm having flashbacks to Capt Pugwash me hearty's lol!

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5 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I think a shadow would have to be done per component and the shadow would be a translucent component in itself, either clipped or butted to the component the shadow represents.

 

This can get quite tedious.

Here I'm applying the shadow on the head, which covers about 3 dozens of components. I may just decide to reshape the head differently and would need to re-do the shadow on all elements if it were applied on each separately.

More logically I want to group these elements in single component (the head) and apply a shadow to that group. Here, since I work with almost exclusively straight lines, I can butt nodes to one another and save the day. But working with curves would be more critical. 

So for now it's merging components in Boolean Addition. But Wouldn't it just be a lot cooler if a shadow could simply be masked by its parent group?

2020-01-02 (3).png

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Well I've tried several ways to shadow and or mask but the result never comes out as you would intuitively think it would. The problem is the shading becomes a component of the group which does make sense. You could group a group but the addition of the shading to a group with a group still does not clip the shading to the group below. The logic applied to groups, layer and compound paths just doesn't give you what you want. 

Using Layer FX and adding an inner shadow doesn't give the right look as it won't follow contours created by other shapes.

 

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A workaround may be, duplicate the group select everything in that group do a boolean add give the new shape no fill or stroke and create the shadow inside that shape.

Clumsy but it works

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