Gradient Lens Fills

After getting a few requests on how I created the Gradient Lens fills in the Wood Texture tip in the Tips Archive, I decided to recreate the technique below.

Be warned however, that this technique is not suggested for use in high-end print work. It would be more practical to create bevel edges on textured objects like I show below, using photo-editing programs.

Version: 8 and above

This technique came about because I wanted to create a bevel effect on a textured surface like the one shown above. I knew I could accomplish this in a program such as PhotoShop, but it presented a challenge in FreeHand™. Until Lens fills were introduced. See the Creating a Wood Grain Texture in the Tips Archive to learn how to create the above pattern.

First I create the texture filled object. Then I draw a rectangle that covers the right half of the object. I then Clone this rectangle and scale it horizontally so it barely covers the rightmost edge of the shape.

Now select both rectangles and Blend them together using as many blend steps you feel is right for the shape and size. Above I used about 30 steps. Now Ungroup the Blend, then Group it back together. This tells FreeHand™ that it is no longer a blended object and is instead, just a group of objects. We did that, because you can't apply Lens fills to Blends. Now remove any lines on the group.

While the group is still selected, apply a Lens fill. Use the Darken option and give it about 2%. You should see the gradient effect like shown above.

How it works: Above is what the effect would look like if it was 3-Dimensional and you were looking at it from the side. What you've done is overlapped many Lens fills that have a 2% Darken amount set. As they overlap each other, the intensity of the Darken amount increases by 2. This is why you blended a larger rectangle with a smaller rectangle to insure that they would overlap.

Next Clone the group of Lens fills, and mirror it to cover the left side of the shape. While this clone is still selected, give it a Lighten Lens Fill with about a 5% lightening amount like shown above. Select both gradient fills and hide them on a new Layer for now.

Now we want to create the bevel area to apply those Lens Gradients to. For this particular shape, I create two circles. One that is the exact size of the original circle, and the inner circle for the thickness of the bevel. Then select both circles and Join them together so they are a Composite path. Reveal the two Lens fill gradients and Cut them.

Select the Composite path and Paste Inside the Lens fills. Remove any lines that may be applied to the path. There, you have now created a Gradient fill over a textured pattern. You can set the light source by double-clicking on the clover bullet to select the Gradient Lens fills. Then just use the rotate tool to move them around.

Here's a challenge. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to create a Sphere using Lens fills and various other techniques. See if you can figure it out. It's pretty challenging to get the shadow to be darker on the edges and lighter in the middle.

WARNING

When exporting these multiple Lens Fill effects as EPS files, they get enormous. Take screen captures (zoomed in) and edit them in an image editing program like PhotoShop for exporting to the web. Also be aware that the art may take a long time to print or may not print at all if the illustration is very complex.

Again heed that warning when creating these kinds of complex Lens fills. As an example of how taxing these can get, I copied the sphere shape above and switched to GoLive by accident. It took over 5 minutes to convert the clipboard contents and I couldn't cancel out of it.

I'd stick with just using these techniques for fun learning exercises until the Lens fills are more optimized for everyday use.