Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

How to create this shadow effect?


Recommended Posts

I'm following along in the Affinity Designer workbook. I'm in the core skills section trying to recreate the snooker ball. I can't get the shadow under the ball right. Even after downloading the sample file that comes with the book and looking at the ellipse that makes up the shadow, I still can't work out what the difference is between the book's example and my shadow.

The only effect I can see applied to the ellipse with black fill is a guassian blur with radius 1.9px, but it looks too solid and not much like a shadow.

I've shown my poor shadow below with the book's shadow pasted below it.

What am I missing?

 

image.png.67c344132ab0af312625288f6c26460d.pngimage.png.1f937acb3c89f3edfc1ddd430a0eabc8.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That shadow probably has an elliptical gradient with some gaussian blur fx added.

441626669_ScreenShot2020-06-14at22_43_35.png.f6ce02160b4d2ed507e6d1788b6ebaa3.png

1548852159_ScreenShot2020-06-14at22_44_13.png.620cd59a3cff1cfb8397d6753d9b0964.png

Ball and shadow.afdesign

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

That shadow probably has an elliptical gradient with some gaussian blur fx added.

No, it's something more special. It has a solid fill (no gradient, no bitmap) and has no effect noted in the layers panel.
I can reproduce it with a circle which first gets a gradient applied but then a solid fill afterwards > the gradient will remain but not be noted as its fill.
A stroke applied to such an object is hardly visible and slightly shifted up.

v183 gradient fill > solid fill.afdesign

1209544634_gradientfill.jpg.e9a0473737727346ec221d00ff23d62f.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arrogance aside,  I think my shadow is better 😉 my shadow has better falloff so looks more natural, in addition, the gradient mid point is movable so the shadow can be edited and faded or intensified, the workbook method seems overtly convoluted, what is the benefit of doing it that way?

1041752002_ScreenShot2020-06-15at06_48_03.png.fe49c6e9dc51faf2abcd81f971d1d2f6.png

I don’t have the Affinity Designer Workbook so I have no point of reference.

Just noticed, my shadow looks like a shadow of the workbook shadow lol!

v183 gradient fill > solid fill+FD Shadow.afdesign

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

> FD's most excellent shadow

Definitely! In particular the shadow of the workbook shadow! – However I think the workbook tries to explain specific workflows, not to show most excellent results. (to me quite a few items in the book aren't 'excellent' but it doesn't matter for the book's approach). I even would say it can be useful to try to achieve your own results exactly as they are in the book. That thoughts made me start creating the file above.

46 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

 the workbook method seems overtly convoluted, what is the benefit of doing it that way?

What does this mean? (I fail in English here). I posted the .afdesign with the workbook shadow because I did not understand how this was done. Or, with other words, the result feels buggy to me: visually showing a gradient but according to the UI having a solid fill instead, no gradient and no fx. – Isn't that weird?

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

Or, with other words, the result feels buggy to me: visually showing a gradient but according to the UI having a solid fill instead, no gradient and no fx. – Isn't that weird?

It's not a bug. The object has an elliptical transparency gradient created by the Transparency Tool (wine glass icon). That gradient is off-centre and so the rendered object is asymmetrical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you anon2, strange of me, I just didn't have the transparency tool (wine glass icon) in mind at all. It also prevents the appearance of the stroke because it affects the entire object.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the input on this. I remain confused by what precisely in the workbook creates the effect, but from all your discussions I've been able to recreate it no problem, I've also picked up on a couple of other enhancements from you and pleased with the outcome:

image.png.d509f1ad79a27770bedf76a404a26f8d.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, goose1987 said:

I remain confused by what precisely in the workbook creates the effect

As anon2 pointed out, it is the Transparency Tool which is used here for the shadow. In this chapter, the workbook does not mention the shadow under the ball at all. Therefore, the shadow, glow, and blur effects applied to the ball itself can confuse, and even prevent from using the transparency tool instead. The Transparency Tool, along with the color gradient, shadow, blur and 3D effect, has a few later pages in the illustration of the wine barell (pp. 248-255). It is in the nature of the workbook and differs from a reference manual: in each chapter you may find elements whose procedure is not a subject of this chapter while others may appear duplicated.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Tools/tools_transparency.html?title=Transparency Tool

 

 

 

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.