Light and Shadow
Light and Shadow
Overview
What is it we like so much about creating designs with three-dimensional elements? It seems that we can't get enough of 3D work, but why is it so eye-catching? After all, we see in real 3D every day of our lives! Some find creating 3D objects fun or neat, whereas others feel it is a way to express thoughts or ideas we may be familiar with in everyday lives. We like the idea of creating something that we've never seen in real life, such as a dinosaur or a spaceship. Seeing such a thing in 3D tricks your brain, even if for only a split second, that it might be real.
3D is fun because when we see this type of object, whether it be some kind of elaborate sci-fi spacecraft, a fantastic gel button on a website, or an animated 3D cartoon, we attempt to visualize what it would be like to actually have the thing in our hands or actually be in the same make-believe 3D environment. You can almost imagine what a gel button, for instance, would feel like. Is it smooth, squishy, or solid?
Of course, you realize that we are not quite talking about
creating
Flash is traditionally known as a 2D vector animation tool, but
it has grown up over the
Seeing the Light
Before we dive right into the vector 3D world, let's take a moment to examine the key signatures of 3D objects. 3D
It's just that: a circle. Or could it be a ball? It doesn't look like the kind of ball that we are familiar with. It's just a flat, lifeless, blue circle. Looking at this "ball" we have no sense of placement, depth, or texture, or even the fact that it is indeed a ball at all.
Now let's take a look at that same circle with some texture, light and shadow (see the image at right).
It's obvious that this is the number 4 ball for a pool table. What made the simple blue circle into a shiny blue pool table ball is light and shadow and, of course, the telltale number 4 in a white circle. But more important, the light and shadow really define the ball. The light is coming from the top-right section of the ball, highlighting it. This light produces both the highlight and the shadow at the same time. The area of the ball not getting as much light is obviously darker, and the 3D solid form of our sphere casts a shadow. Looking at the circle, we get a natural sense that it is three-dimensionally spherical. This is because the top half of the circle is lighter than the bottom, but more important because the areas where the
Now look at the pool ball again, this time with some hints (see the image at right).
You can see that the shadow does indeed have a
Most objects that we see in the real world have some
There's hardly anything there! This represents the scene with very little light source.
Here is the same picture again, except with much better light this time:
This is a simple but effective explanation of how light is important in creating 3D effects. It's clear this is a picture of a
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