Creating a shadow for multiple layers (Affinity Designer 2)

[tommy5050]

Hi,

When i want to create a shadow for a shape i create it with pencil tool with width at 0 then fill it black and reduce opacity. 

I place the shadow inside a shape then only the part inside the shape appears.

I would like to affect multiple layers at the same time.

I think the solution is blending mode similar to "Erase" because it affect multiple shapes (only inside) the problem is i can't add black to it

i think it would be a good way to create shadows. 

If someone have a better way, i would like to know about it

Thanks

Tom

[loukash]

Something like this?

[loukash]

As a shadow in action:

 

 

[tommy5050]

Yes,

That's a way if you don't have much shapes to do but if you have like 10 it's not really practical. 

Putting only one shadow layer at the top to affect all others layers would be much more efficient

[loukash]

1 minute ago, tommy5050 said:

but if you have like 10

… you make 10 symbol instances.

20 minutes ago, tommy5050 said:

only one shadow layer at the top to affect all others layers would be much more efficient

All right, then symbols the other way around, with Erase shadow on top:

 It is tricky to set up if you want to have a compound object being an interactive part of a partially synced symbol. Sequence matters, and the compound must exist as a symbol first. Then you can release it while an instance is unsynced, then sync again and the individual shapes will still remain in sync. Crazy stuff…  
Of course, you don't necessarily need symbols here, but they will make the design more flexible so that you don't need to adjust each object individually.

[lepr]

14 hours ago, tommy5050 said:

Putting only one shadow layer at the top to affect all others layers would be much more efficient

If rasterisation in an export is acceptable, then an Adjustment can be applied to the objects in a Group. For example an Exposure Adjustment with a mask to give it shape can produce an effect like a cast shadow. Here's a simple example with an editable vector mask on the Exposure Adjustment: Cast shadow.afdesign

[loukash]

37 minutes ago, ,,, said:

an Adjustment can be applied to the objects in a Group

As a side note:
There is an odd bug when you select the group with an adjustment inside, the group bounding box will be larger than the actual content. When you move the group, the bounding box will continue to grow.
You can only somewhat reset the box by deleting the adjustment layer and applying a new one.
It happens in v1 and v2.

[tommy5050]

Hi,

That's almost what i'm looking for !

I can't reproduce what you did.

 

[lepr]

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

There is an odd bug when you select the group with an adjustment inside, the group bounding box will be larger than the actual content. When you move the group, the bounding box will continue to grow.

Yes, I've seen a Group bounding rectangle's top-left corner wrongly be at (0, 0) when an Adjustment is a member of the Group.

Notice that the example I posted has the Exposure Adjustment mask-nested in the Group, although it also would have worked as a member of the Group.

[lepr]

2 minutes ago, tommy5050 said:

Hi,

That's almost what i'm looking for !

I can't reproduce what you did.

 

I attached the Affinity document as well as a screenshot. Did you explore the document?

[tommy5050]

Ok.

Yes that's what i'm looking for. Does  it creates rasterisation you said ?

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, tommy5050 said:

Does  it creates rasterisation you said ?

Any adjustment or layer blend mode (or layer effect, for that matter) will rasterize affected objects below.

From the examples above, only my first example with symbols inside each shape will remain vector e.g. on PDF/X-4 export for print.

[tommy5050]

 

Ok, i zoomed a lot and don't see pixels so i think it's worth it

Tried it with my 10 layers vector image and that worked well.

Thanks for the infos for you both!

[tommy5050]

Just want to specify when you add the shadow inside the Exposure adjustment you got to drag it on the circle so you will get a little square bottom right of the shadow so that it works and not if you drag on the name "Exposure adjustment"

[lepr]

1 minute ago, tommy5050 said:

Just want to specify when you add the shadow inside the Exposure adjustment you got to drag it on the circle so you will get a little square bottom right of the shadow so that it works and not if you drag on the name "Exposure adjustment"

Exactly. To make object B become a mask for object A, drop object B on the thumbnail of A instead of the name of A.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, tommy5050 said:

i zoomed a lot and don't see pixels so i think it's worth it

You won't see rasterized objects inside Designer.
You'll see them in your export document, e.g. when you export to PDF and then open (not place) the PDF with Designer again.

All that Designer can do is to show a preview of your document how it would look like if you would export it fully in bitmap format: View > View Mode > Pixels

[tommy5050]

Oh ok,

Thanks ,i understand now

But i created a vector image (a circle) and it show pixels when in View > View Mode > Pixels.

Doesn't it show pixels for all vector images ?

[loukash]

30 minutes ago, tommy5050 said:

it show pixels when in View > View Mode > Pixels.

Yes, that's a preview of how your design will look like if you export it for example as PNG.

But there's no preview to see which parts exactly get rasterized on export as PDF or SVG or EPS. You have to export first and then inspect that document by opening it in Designer again.

[tommy5050]

Ok thanks

[tommy5050]

i converted in SVG and zoomed 500% in Chrome and i don't see rasterized curves