#LONG DROP SHADOW AFTER EFFECTS HOW TO#
#LONG DROP SHADOW AFTER EFFECTS UPDATE#

Oh, and BTW, how do you like them interlocking Olympic rings? If you think I used Pathfinder to create those, think again. You can now rotate the artwork at will, and if you need to edit the art, do an Edit Original on the placed ID file. Then, PLACE your InDesign document INTO another InDesign file where you're doing your layout. Create your artwork element in a new InDesign document, add the drop shadow, and then save your InDesign file. However, there is a solution there as well, as long as you're using InDesign CS3. If you're in InDesign, you don't have symbols, so this solution won't work. Illustrator CS3 makes this almost too easy. If you ever need to modify the art or the shadow, simply double-click on the Symbol to edit it. When you rotate the Symbol, the drop shadow will now appear rotated correctly (in the example, I've been using, rotating the symbol will mean the drop shadow will be offset up and to the left).

#LONG DROP SHADOW AFTER EFFECTS HOW TO#

If you aren't familiar with how to create a Symbol in Illustrator, just select your art and press F8. Then, convert your artwork to a Symbol (if you use this artwork in multiple places, this is a good idea anyway). Here's a solution - create your artwork and add the Drop Shadow effect. For some purposes, the Drop Shadow layer style is preferable to the Drop Shadow effect. The quality setting of the layer affects the subpixel positioning of the shadow and the smoothness of the soft edges of the shadow. A workaround I've seen from folks is to use the Expand Appearance command (from the Object menu), but that means the effect is no longer 'live' and hence, the art can't be easily updated. Drop Shadow can create a shadow outside the bounds of the layer. The result is a drop shadow that may be set to offset down and to the right, but when the art is flipped, the drop shadow is still applied with an offset down and to the right (as seen below).įor those people who regularly do imposition, or those in packaging, this presents a huge problem, and often, these problems aren't detected until it's too late.

If you flip your artwork upside down, Illustrator (and InDesign) rotates the art and then reapplies the drop shadow to the art. The shadow isn't 'baked in' to the art, and so if the art changes, the drop shadow simply updates itself to match any edits applied to the object. A drop shadow is an effect, and is therefore applied to the overall object. Let's take a closer look at what is happening here.

#LONG DROP SHADOW AFTER EFFECTS UPDATE#

Drop Shadows are applied as live effects, meaning that if you update your artwork or move it, the drop shadow updates and moves as well.īut have you ever applied a drop shadow to an object, and then ROTATED that object so that it's upside down? Have you then taken a closer look at the drop shadow and realized that the drop shadow DIDN'T rotate? Even worse, did you ever see that problem AFTER your job was printed? What I describe happens not only in Illustrator, but in InDesign as well. Illustrator (and just about all Adobe apps for that matter) has the ability to apply the most over-used design effect of all time - Drop Shadows (look out Drop Shadows, reflections aren't far behind).

Long drop shadow after effects