Beginner's "Shading Sheesh"

[shokan]

I love the movies, but something just hasn't sunk in.

I have a bitmap filled shape with no outline. I want to color on top of that bitmap with black or brown so as to make it look as if it is curled. I want to shade with precision in whatever area I want to perhaps give a folded look or a different curl orientation, whatever. The idea is to add 3D depth to it with light and shadow so it looks like slightly curled or folded paper.

The question is: Whatever black fill I put on over the bitmap just obscures the bitmap completely (and applying a transparent gradation of black just makes the bitmap transparent as well); so how do I do the most basic and most used (for realistic) illustration technique of adding subtle area shading over what's beneath? For me, demonstrating a little section of the cool microscope illustration would have been way better than the desert bitmap example in the "Create an Illustration" disc movie.

[shokan]

I love the movies, but something just hasn't sunk in.

I have a bitmap filled shape with no outline. I want to color on top of that bitmap with black or brown so as to make it look as if it is curled. I want to shade with precision in whatever area I want to perhaps give a folded look or a different curl orientation, whatever. The idea is to add 3D depth to it with light and shadow so it looks like slightly curled or folded paper.

The question is: Whatever black fill I put on over the bitmap just obscures the bitmap completely (and applying a transparent gradation of black just makes the bitmap transparent as well); so how do I do the most basic and most used (for realistic) illustration technique of adding subtle area shading over what's beneath? For me, demonstrating a little section of the cool microscope illustration would have been way better than the desert bitmap example in the "Create an Illustration" disc movie.

[shokan]

Now to try and attach the jpeg.

[shokan]

still trying to attach something

[shokan]

To create this I had to laboriously Freehand draw the two halves on either side of the crease, tracing along the crease and the outer outline for both. You can see where I didn't adjust with Shape Editor along lower left corner so you can see the lighter original bitmap underneath a little. Gotta be an easier way.

[jclements]

Not sure if I understand how you did the above. But, if you draw an object and copy it (ctrl-C), apply your bitmap fill to the original object, then paste (Ctrl-Shift-V) you will paste a copy exactly over the top of your bitmap filled object. Then give the pasted object a dark fill and a linear, elliptical, or whatever transparency.

If you need more subtle shading repeat the Ctrl-Shift-V process but slightly alter the transparency attributes and position. You may have to Repeat the Ctrl-Shift-V process a few more times to get the right effect.

This is one approach. Make sense?

[rheaton]

If I understand the question.

Though the underlying shape is a solid color, it should work the same way over a bit map fill. The watch band was shaded and given shape by cloning, filling with white or black, and then applying elliptical transparency.

[Soquili]

Hi Shokan,

Your question is a very interesting one. I've tried to get an effect of a partially crumpled piece of paper with a down turned corner.

I started with a rectangle filled with the Paper 7 fill from the fills gallery. I used the Mould Tool to get the general effect of one corner being turned down. I cloned the rectangle and filled the clone with the Folds fill and gave it a flat contract transparency. I drew a freehand line to slice the transparency and then gave the right hand part a linear fill using white and black. I applied a Stained-Glass transparency.

If this would help you to explore the effect your are wanting, I can post the .xar file.

Soquili