I’m working on a logo and trying to give the logo shape a 3D’ish depth effect. Here is what I currently have:
Regular size:
Larger size:
The way I’m currently achieving this effect is by creating the diamond shapes with regular flat color fill and then I have another ‘paste in place’ diamond shape that’s a gradient with the opacity being ‘100% overlay’. Like this:
I’m not a graphic designer so I really don’t know if this is the ‘right way’ to go about achieving this effect. I do find that with the second layer you can kind of see some hard edges on the triangle, I’ve seen it be more pronounced when printing it as well.
My question is, is there a better way to achieve this effect or even create a better more 3D’ish effect? Also, how do I go about making sure the logo is crisp and doesn’t have any hard edges or imperfections?
My apologies if this is a rather ignorant question, I’ve never had any format graphic design training, figured this out just by playing around with Illustrator.
Answer
The 3D approach
If you think of this as an actual 3D object (something like a pyramid) and consider how a light source would interact with it, you’ll begin to see why your treatment is a little odd. How would you end up with the even gradated shadow from the top point around all sides? Consider your light source and then reevaluate your approach (a physical model may help).
Update in response to your comment …
The thick white lines are killing your desired effect. If the gaps are desired, they’ll have to be maybe half the thickness (even less in the larger format). The playful realism will be even better if you lose them altogether.
Instead of building the overlapped triangles, try building the planes of the cube in perspective. With layer blending modes (overlay perhaps) and/or transparency, you might start to see the overlapping effect you have in mind. Illustrator’s 3D effects may be an easy way to get things correct, at least as a starting point or reference.
Or just for flair
Regardless of the accuracy of your effect, I think your treatment looks quite nice, especially for a non-designer. If you’re going for completely stylistic (not necessarily convincing 3D), try some of these alternatives and adjustments.
- Soften the transition of your current treatment: Make the dark to light transition less dramatic by extending it’s length or making the color stops closer in hue and brightness.
- Apply the gradient directly to each segment, aligning the gradient with the out-facing side of the triangle.
- Apply the gradient as radial within a perfect circle, centered to the object as a whole.
- Move this into Photoshop as a smart object and do the gradient there with some dither applied to it or a film grain effect. A little “analog” applied to your vectors can be quite nice.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : M.A.X , Answer Author : plainclothes
