3D Effect Shadow Transparency

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
November 9, 2021
5 replies
6856 views

Been playing with the new 3D effects on the Illustrator 2022. Is there a way to adjust the shadow transparency of the object? As it is now, it's way too dark, which works sometimes. But would it be possible to make it a little subtle?

Correct answer Monika Gause

This looks like you need to turn on raytracing in the 3D effect panel.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

What you need to do is turn on Raytracing, so shadows are calculated according to the lighting settings.

Then adjust the lighting.

Less light "Intensity" will also make a lighter shadow.

A higher "Softness" value will give you softer edges to your shadow and therefore make the shadow lighter.

More "Ambient Light" will make the shadow lighter as well.

Darker objects will also have a darker shadow (because less light reflections between ground and object)

Shadow and light cannot be separated from each other in this. And if you have an object with a high contrast, then it will look unrealistic when it throws just a slight shadow.

Vectorgeek@work

Inspiring

I just wish there were separate controls for the shadow opacity. If you increase the intensity it also affects the colors of the object.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

That's just not how shadow works in real life.

Vectorgeek@work

Inspiring

FYI: The apperance panel trick won't work if you have a grouped object with multiple colors.

A

AGMarcaidaAuthor

Participant

That's a real cool trick! Thanks!

E

eugeniosolisdeovando

Participating Frequently

The double fill?

You are welcome

E

Monika Gause

Correct answer

Community Expert

This looks like you need to turn on raytracing in the 3D effect panel.

runninghead_design

Inspiring

I don't understand why this is the correct answer.
Turning on Ray Tracing does NOT allow you to control the transparency of the shadow.
There is no setting in the ray tracing dialogue that allows you to do that and, for me, ray tracing simply burs the shadow but does not fade it at all.

Vectorgeek@work

Inspiring

I was wondering the same thing. You can turn on the shadow but it's set to almost 100 percent opacity by default. Seems like there should be a slider for that. For now your appearance panel method does the trick but it's a little clunky.