How can I contain the outer glow on the elements within my logo in Illustrator?

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I’m working on a logo in Illustrator where the pieces have black outer glows to give depth to a paper-fold style logo theme.

enter image description here

The shadows on the outside of the logo text are just a result of the effect needed to achieve what I want on the inside of the logo text.

I want to contain the outer glows so that they only appear within the bounds of the letters, not showing up against the background.

How can I do this?

For a fast, rough example of my goal, I took this into photoshop and pajnted over the shadows I want to hide:

enter image description here

In photoshop, I could just mask the edges of this properly, but I need it done in Illustrator, in vector.

Answer

You will want to use an outer glow, in order to retain the shadow effect. The best way I think to achieve this is to mask your shapes, so their effects don’t extend beyond the total shape. Proceed as follows:

  1. Copy all shapes and paste in front (Edit > Paste in Front or Ctrl / Cmd +Alt+Shift+V);
  2. With just the new shapes selected, unite them with the Pathfinder palette (the first icon);
  3. With the resulting shapes still selected, choose Object > Compound Path > Make;
  4. In the Appearance palette, click the ‘stop board’ icon to remove the path’s appearance (and mainly, the copy of the glow effect);
  5. Add your original art to your selection;
  6. Make a Clipping Mask by choosing Object > Clipping Mask > Make (or right-click > Make Clipping Mask).

You can edit the clipping mask as well as its contents separately by entering Isolation Mode.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : J.Todd , Answer Author : Vincent

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