Gradients - complex shape - Illustrator

Question

Hoping someone can help as this is driving me mad.

I have an initial opaque shape, which will be filled in a light grey:

I'm using a duplication of the shape to fill with gradients to lay on top. I want to create a very subtle gradient along the edge of the shape all the way round using a slightly darker grey, to create a subtle depth to the shape.

I've tried using multiple linear gradients on the same shape using the appearance panel. As follows, this is what happens which doesn't look right as the gradient doesn't follow the shape edge:

I've tried playing around with the freeform gradient tool, using both points and lines. Lines doesn't work because it only curves (a lot?!) and won't follow the outer edge of the shape. Plus the gradient would run along the line from opaque to grey which wouldn't create the subtle rounded cylindrical tube shape look I am after:

I can't see a way in which to use the 'points' option on the freeform gradient tool, as this means assigning each 'point' to the darker grey colour, but I can't see how to make the middle of the shape transparent (I'm planning on having text running along the first opaque shape that shows through the transparent middle of the duplicated gradient-filled shape):

The best work around i found that gets close t the look I am trying t achieve was to use the freeform gradient tool and the 'lines' option to draw lines around the edge of the shape assigned to the darker grey shaded colour, and to then create more 'lines' using the freeform gradient tool along the centre of the entire shape and assign the points to 0% for transparency. Here's this highlighted: And the finished effect:

I posted the same question on the Adobe forums but the answer that came back was to create a gradient along a path to use as a fill for the shape, which doesn't work because a path does not replicate the altering angles of its edge of the shape as it curves in different directions.

Was what I did the best/only way? It seems complicated and not very accurate or professional!

Thanks for reading and your patience.

Example for Luciano:

Answer 1

I would simply create a thick stroke and apply the gradient to the stroke....

Then, if shapes are needed, it can be expanded to a Gradient Mesh object.

If you require the slight corner rounding, then merely stack 2 objects. A shape to include the corner rounding, then a stroke slightly thinner than the shape with with the gradient. When colors are the same, the stroke will visually blend to the shape and be indistinguishable.

You can even do this with a transparent-color-transparent gradient on the stroke. So that, to alter the object color, all you need to do is change the flat fill color of the underlying shape.

For me, the stacked gradient stroke method offers the easiest editing and optimal control.

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See here: Complex gradient object with transparent center if you are unfamiliar with adding transparency to gradients within Illustrator.

Answer 2

Try with Blend.

• Delete the end paths

• Blend the two resultant paths (they must have the same amount of points and no fill)

• Expand the blend and blend again each path separately

• Use the Direct Selection Tool to select each path and change the stroke color

Answer 3

The most flexible solution is a Pattern Brush. This is what joojaa meant with "the gradient does not need to be that path" - the gradient is simply a pattern applied to the path.

1. because Illustrator doesn't accept gradients in brushes, you need to create a blend object. Draw 3 rectangles and fill them with the colors of your pipe + shadow profile.
2. Blend Tool (W) and click on each rectangle in sequence, like this:
3. Drag the blend object to the Brushes panel (F5 if it's not open) and select Pattern Brush
4. Adjust the settings for the corners
5. draw a "spine" for your pipe - a single open path with no fill
6. Select the brush on the Brushes panel to apply to your pipe:

Advantages:

• you can easily change the colors of the gradient later
• you can easily change the shape of the pipe afterwards
• you can apply the same pattern to other objects

Answer 4

One month after this question there has been follow-up problems and none of the original answers is accepted. Maybe more is needed. This is a simple one:

I guess a slight extrusion only is wanted, because the corner roundings are selected so that it cannot be a bent round pipe. If it was a bent round pipe the outer corners would be less sharp than the inner corners.

Illustrator's 3D effect Bevel&Extrude can create quite plausible apparent thickness. Unfortunately there's no rounded bevel available.

Your own attempts have no beveled ends. If that's needed, you can slice off short pieces at the ends by applying a clipping mask.

Another problem is controlling the color, brightness and contrast. The 3D effect affects them, adjusting will be tricky.

Your own attempts hint that the next (=rounded bevel) could be useful:

It's built of L-shaped pieces. The next cartoon shows how the L-shapes can be made respecting your corner curvatures:

1-2. Draw two 90 degrees angles. You can for example place 2 rectangles to a L-shape (=blue) for guidance and click with the pen to get the black paths or you can join straight lines. Delete the guide shapes.

3. To get the upper edges of the bevel make a 4 intermediate step blend. Expand and ungroup the result of the blending.

4. Delete 2 mid steps, insert separately effect Stylize > Rounded corners or use the corner tool to get the needed roundings. In my example I entered the next rounding radiuses:

A=2mm, B=1mm, C=7mm and D=5mm

5. Expand the appearance of the rounded angles. Then join A and D to get the outer L. Join B and C to get the inner L. Remove the strokes, insert fill colors. Joining =select the halves, press twice Ctrl+J.

6. Bring the smaller L to front. Make a smooth color blend between the L-shapes.

Make rotated and reflected copies of the L. Build the final shape. Exact placing is tricky because they easily snap wrongly. Select one L. Drag with the direct selection tool one corner point onto another L. It snaps to an anchor if you have Smart Guides and Snap to points =ON. Move with arrow keys, if needed.

The shown "rounded bevel trick" has a fault: It's 3D-like shading looks non-realistic. Practical ligh conditions are never right for it, the light is always more or less tilted. The Extrude&Bevel example was realistic in that sense.

if your apparent thickness can be quite low, also Inner Glow with black creates an acceptable round bevel shading. The next image shows how:

There's a solid grey L-shape with a rounded corner. It has got Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow > Edge. The blending mode of the glow color is normal, but the shape has got blending mode = Lighter color. This makes combining easy, you only place rotated and reflected copies.

If the ends cannot have the dark glow, stretch them longer with the direct selection tool and shorten with a clipping mask.

You may need a solid black copy of the shape in the bottom if this overlaps light other shapes.

If you can accept bitmap (=raster image) shapes, you can use Photoshop's layer style Bevel&Emboss. In the next image a solid grey shape with no effects is copied and pasted into an empty quite high resolution (1200 x 750) image layer. Layer style Bevel&Emboss is applied:

The dialog allows a wide variety of different shadings from matte and plastic to glossy and metallic. A good one should be saved as PNG or PSD and placed to Illustrator document to retain the transparency. Copy&Paste inserts a background, so it's less useful from Photoshop to Illustrator.

The result can be used only as a bitmap shape, it isn't vectorizable properly.

Answer 5

I found that when creating a chevron circular flow diagram the easiest way to get the center highlight on the shape was to draw the two outside (base color) and one center (highlight color) line. Then I selected all three and applied a smooth blend.

This allows you to change the colors of the lines to achieve the gradient you desire.

Hope this helps.

Ginger