Changing opacity for lots of shapes?

[southwestform]

I want to create lots of shapes at various levels of transparency to create different light and dark values on a subject. Is the best way to do this to select each individual shape and change its transparency via opacity in the transparency panel? Is there a way to do this in the layers panel?

Thanks.

[Monika Gause]

You can do it in the transparency panel, the appearance panel, the control panel or the properties panel. But not in the layers panel.

[Jacob Bugge]

southwestform,

You can select the relevant path(s) for each opacity level in the Layers palette (it may be managable if you know the structure of groups/paths/whatever, or you can select on the Artboard maybe using Alt/OptionClick with the Direct Selection Tool unless directly accessible.

If you have a number of paths with common characteristics you may be able to select one and then Select>Same or Objects to select all at the same time.

[southwestform]

This worked, now I'm trying to get the shapes to blend in better. I create a shape, fill it with black, lower the opacity, and I am just not happy with how it looks.

1. How can I soften the edges of the shape so it does not have a hardline?

2. I experimented with different layer blending modes, but did not seem to get anything from that. Is there something else I should consider doing?

Thanks again.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

southwestform,

You may use an effect such as Radial Blur which makes it woolly round the edges.