Curving a shadow

[dcahall]

Spent a little more time with my example to clean up the shadow figure (removed a lot of shapes so that I had a single object to work with). Used a gradient fill, then applied some transparency, and finally I used the clone tool to bend it. Comes a little closer to what you did and I hope all of these examples show DaveC that there are ways to bend a shadow. Just not as straight forward as using the shadow tool by itself.

I am not the artist that some of you are but I have fun trying to accomplish some of the challenges you all set forward. IMO that is how I learn so when I want to do something for myself, I at least have better starting points.

[amoore]

Nice, dcahall, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out how the shadow gets onto a part of the sphere that can't "see" the figure. Seems to me the shadow would fade out by the time it gets to the the equator on the ball (the equator being the point at which the shape begins to curve under).

BTW, I particularly like the figure.

[dcahall]

I agree with you comments completely so I tried some adjustments. See if this one is better (this is fun to keep trying).

[dcahall]

After looking at it again, I see another problem. The highlight on the character is on the opposite side as the highlight on the ball. The highlight on the ball should be on the right side and the shadow should be on the left side based on the figure. I will have to try again later today to get things all in sync. At least that is what I see. I would be interested on other's comments.

[wizard509]

Good effort dcahall. Here are a couple suggestions for you. The shadow should reflect the surface color it is cast upon.

Therefore:
1. Either use black with some transparency or a darker color of the surface it is cast on with some transparency. Because if the shadow is too dark it can look like a hole in the object it is cast on. Shadows are transparent to some degree.

2. Think about how far the light source can reach around the object the shadow is cast on. In your example I would try and make the shadow visible only about 1/2 as long before fading out. I think you will be surprised how convincing the shadow will look. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

Shadows have a tendency to get blurrier and less distinct the further they are away from that which they are cast by.

[dcahall]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I am getting closer to what you are saying here. Check this version out.

[wizard509]

Yes you are getting there, good job. The only problem I see now is the shadow where it is fading out seems to be lighter than the ball.

Therefore I am posting an example which is more like your previous one in positioning. I hope this helps a little

[dcahall]

One more time

I am going to go off and finish the character. He is missing an arm and his feet. I was also planning on adding a couple more items of detail to his pants. Maybe I will put the updated character in this one and but it would not make a lot of difference. My real objective of this exercise was to demonstrate (as others have done - probably better) that with some work Xara will allow you to construct a curved shadow (albeit not with the shadow tool). But I think I have picked up some valuable tips about constructing more complex graphics including some shadowing techniques. I thank all who have helped guide me down a better path. It is one of the things I enjoy about this forum. There are always people who are willing to help you improve your skills. Heaven knows I am no artist but you people encourage me to keep trying/learning.



curved_shadow_example_5.xar

[wizard509]

Good job. I hope you post the finished boy result too

[dcahall]

OK - I finally finished the bronze boy and the curved shadow challenge. Thanks to what I have seen and feedback from others I hope I have finally accomplished the challenge with a somewhat professional touch. I freely admit that I am not an artist and cannot compare my work with many of you. I feel I have learned a lot in this venture. I have attached an example that kind of shows the process I went through to achieve the final results. I use can see it took me multiple steps/tries to get my final product. I think that is what learning is all about and wanted to share, in particular with DaveC, how I got to the final version. At the request of a couple of you, I am also sharing the "completed" bronze boy. I have also shared my .xar files if you want to get in and play around with them.

@DaveC, as was stated earlier, you cannot curve the shadow with the shadow tool but I hope you see there is a path if you have the time and are willing to experiment a little. As I said above, I learned a lot from this exercise. I did forget to include on the steps in the image that I applied some feathering to the simplified boy for the shadow as well.







I also need to give Gare Bouton some credit here. A few months back he had a "Clock Tower" image in one of his tutorials. I used the Shape tool to "trace" the boy in his image and change the color scheme to create the "Bronze Boy".

One Last Comment: Your critique is welcomed so I can continue to learn and improve my skills.