Long Shadow Issues

Question

I am new to illustrator and i am trying to make a long shadow in illustrator but no matter which tutorial i follow i keep ending up with problems.

My initial shape is basically a white refresh icon inside a blue circle.

If i try and do a transform off at 0.5 px i can get the long shadow but i can never remove the bit that hangs over like so:

In a video i watched it said to expand the shadow and then place an invisible circle over the blue circle and then right click and create a clipping mask but this option doesnt exist for me when i do this.

Ideally i wanted a long shadow that fades out so it looks more realistic but when i try to use a blend it ends up horrible like this:

Can anyone suggest how i should go about getting the faded shadow or if not then remove the overhang? I've been pulling my hair out for days on this one. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Copy and Paste the blue circle in the exact same place (Shift+Ctrl+V to paste in place), select the circle and the shadow and press Ctrl+7 (create clipping mask, you can also find the clipping mask under Object -> Clipping Mask -> Make).

Made a fast gif so you can see how it's done.

PS: To make your second try look better, adjust opacity and also tackle the blending modes of the opacity feature of the shape. In my example above, the shadow looks blue inside the circle cause I changed the blending mode from normal to Color Burn.