How to separate "Drop Shadow" effect from an object's appearance in Illustrator?

[arturs73452037]

Hi mates! Is there any way to create a different layer out of "Drop Shadow" effect in Illustrator? So, basically I need some shortcut way to have a shadow of an object separated from that object. Thanks in advance and have a nice day! (:

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Are you referring to expanding the appearance?

It will convert the shadow to a raster image and separate it from the object.

[Ton Frederiks]

If you want only the drop shadow and keep the effect live, try this:

[Ton Frederiks]

Maybe simpler, fill the shape with Black, Blur it and change the Opacity and Blend mode.

[arturs73452037]

This one (Ton's first comment) seems to be interesting, but I'm stuck on the third step, cause if I'm changing the Fill Opacity to 0% then all the shadows just disappear too.

[Ton Frederiks]

Maybe this explains it better:

[arturs73452037]

Amazing, I like it! Though I have no idea why it turns out that way, but it's a cool trick! Thank you!

[Ton Frederiks]

Glad to hear you liked it.

[joakimh94894050]

Hi,

Grateful if someone can confirm that this trick still works?

I seem to get to where arturs was in step 3 - when i make the fill o% opacity all shadows disappear.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes it still works, make sure that in step 3 the Drop Shadow item is above the Opacity 0% item.

[joakimh94894050]

Thanks, that did it. Didn't know you could move those around.

Cheers

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear you got it working.

As you have seen the order of the items in the Appearance panel is important and can change the entire appearance.

[spencerd60817698]

Definitely one of the most useful tricks I have heard about in a long time.

[Ton Frederiks]

Glad you like it, but you can get something similar in a less complicated way.

Just apply a blur to a black shape with a 75% fill opacity.

[Strahinja_R.]

I am so so sorry but I simply cannot achieve this trick for some reason. Is there a video tutorial for this somewhere because I can't recreate this effect. White object just stays there. I have layer, grouped it, applied shadow to both layer and it's group, upper one is set to Multiply and 0%, fill to 0% as well, object below is still there visible, white.

[Ton Frederiks]

You don't need to do anything with the layer, just work on the object.