Drop shadow and outer glow

[jdballou]

Hello Experts

I am working with a map.

I want to have an outer glow along the coastline and a drop shadow under the frame.

So I applied the outer glow to the Live Paint map then made a clipping mask the same size as the map frame to limit the glow just to the coastline. Like this:

But I still want a drop shadow on the map. The “white” area in the Live Paint is void. So when I apply the drop shadow to this I get this:

Looks like the drop shadow is applied to objects inside the Clipping mask of the Live Paint.

I just want the drop shadow around the frame in the above image.

How do I do that?

I have put the .ai file on DropBox if anyone wants to take a look:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yy43atv1mc2j4qy/Temp.ai?dl=0

Thanks for any ideas!

jdballou

[Monika Gause]

You could select the clipping mask with the direct selection tool and then apply a white fill.

[jdballou]

No. That doesn't work.

[Monika Gause]

In your demo file I can just select it and apply the drop shadow. I'm not sure what is wrong with it.

Could you perhaps describe. I don't get it.

[jdballou]

Ah! OK - but can you tell me exactly what you did?

[Monika Gause]

I just selected the thing and applied a drop shadow. I don't know if that is how you want it to look like. Your demo file also doesn't have the outer glow, so I'm at a loss.

[jdballou]

Hi Monika. 

But the image you sent me does not include the outer glow for the coastline.

Is there a way we can chat about this?

[jdballou]

This is the image I want to apply the drop shadow:

You can see that the drop shadow is inside the image

[Monika Gause]

If you select the black frame with the direct selection tool and apply a white fill to it, that should solve it.

I don't use chats.

[jdballou]

I understand.

I noticed that the .ai file in the DropBox does not have the outer glow effect. My mistake.

OK - I updated the DropBox link with the .ai file that has the outer glow applied plus the clipping mask.

It looks like this:

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

In the outer glow effect change the blend mode from Screen to Normal.

And then select the clipping mask object with the direct selection tool and apply a white fill to it.

And then you can apply a drop shadow to the complete object. You need to select it with the selection tool for that.

[jdballou]

Yes!  Thank you so much Monika!  Really appreciate it.

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome!

At first when I applied it in your test file I was also irritated and wanted to blame my dear live paint group 😄

But it's just the blend mode. They behave differently when there is an object below.