How do I make material design shadows

[mannyc]

Hello all!

I'm trying to make shadows that follow Google's Material Design (Like in the lightning logo attached). I know to make a curve with a darker color, but I cant get it to snap perfectly- with the same diagonals, etc. Another picture below is something I'm trying to make, but as you might be able to see, the diagonals from the bottom part of the plus and the top part are not the same. Let me know. Thanks!

[Gabe]

Hi mannyc, 

 

Welcome to the forums. 

It would be a lot easier if you attach a full-size image, as the one you posted is only 300px and it's hard to see what you describe. The .afdesign project file will help as well. 

 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[Alfred]

I think the OP is saying that the top and bottom edges of the shadow should be parallel. If that’s the case, this is fairly easily achieved by rotating and skewing a rectangle nested/pasted inside the circle.

[Dave Vector]

@mannyc ,

Here is a visual of what @αℓƒяє∂ is saying.  instead if skewing I used Node edit to alter the "shadow" rectangle:

[mannyc]

5 hours ago, GabrielM said:

Hi mannyc, 

 

Welcome to the forums. 

It would be a lot easier if you attach a full-size image, as the one you posted is only 300px and it's hard to see what you describe. The .afdesign project file will help as well. 

 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

Here they are

PLUSAFDESIGN.afdesign

[mannyc]

1 minute ago, Dave Vector said:

@mannyc ,

Here is a visual of what @αℓƒяє∂ is saying.  instead if skewing I used Node edit to alter the "shadow" rectangle:

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed!!

[A_B_C]

I remember there also was a funny method using Power Duplicate … I don’t know who had posted this originally, but it is nice to remember, even if it is a bit rough … 

[firstdefence]

Step 3 variant 1 makes sense. 

[Nivrams]

These simple "shadows" are no problem. What we are waiting for is a vector morph/blend that creates a shadow that fades in the contour of the original. This would help make the lightening bolt shadow more convincing. In any case, while the results look interesting and attractive, they look like extrusions rather than shadows which is OK. But this will improve when AD is able blend vector shapes. That's something Macromedia's Freehand could do. One day, AD will be able to also.

[firstdefence]

45 minutes ago, Nivrams said:

These simple "shadows" are no problem. What we are waiting for is a vector morph/blend that creates a shadow that fades in the contour of the original. This would help make the lightening bolt shadow more convincing. In any case, while the results look interesting and attractive, they look like extrusions rather than shadows which is OK. But this will improve when AD is able blend vector shapes. That's something Macromedia's Freehand could do. One day, AD will be able to also.

Add transparency to the shadow

[Rocketdrive]

1 hour ago, Nivrams said:

These simple "shadows" are no problem. What we are waiting for is a vector morph/blend that creates a shadow that fades in the contour of the original. This would help make the lightening bolt shadow more convincing. In any case, while the results look interesting and attractive, they look like extrusions rather than shadows which is OK. But this will improve when AD is able blend vector shapes. That's something Macromedia's Freehand could do. One day, AD will be able to also.

You can add a transparency gradient. Also, create a blurred version of the shadow and gradually fade it out. The real fun starts when You start to push the tools already available to You.