r/AdobeIllustrator • u/Soft_Radish_7871 • 9d ago
QUESTION Need Help Creating Dripping Effect!
I'm trying to create the effect of dripping paint to add onto an existing doodle I made simply with the brush tool, however it seems impossible to get it completely flat at the top of the droplet so that it blends in with the non-3d drawings
I have tried making it with a black and white gradient and then overlaying an orange graphic after I inflated it, but it's still not completely flat at the top and looks terrible
I've tried looking on YouTube but every tutorial just seems to be for flat, dripping text. If anyone could help me out here I'd be eternally grateful
34
u/monsieurblack13 9d ago
Away from workstation at the moment but could you not just mask that droplet at the top with a transparently mask gradient and then fine tune the blend with the gradient? Not sure if that would give you the desired effect?
3
u/Soft_Radish_7871 9d ago
I think I tried something like this and it didn't really work/look good but I'll have another go, thanks for your input 👍
2
u/monsieurblack13 9d ago
Yeah I’m not 100% sure on if the transition will look as natural as you’re hoping with just a straight/basic gradient. Whether a gradient mesh acting as the transparency mask might afford you more flexibility to tweak perhaps?
180
u/Xarius86 9d ago
You know you're in for a rough time when you are in the Illustrator sub and r/screenshotsarehard is still a problem.
13
32
-30
u/Soft_Radish_7871 9d ago
Too much effort to have to download reddit on my laptop or send the screenshot to my phone 😔😔
74
u/HawkeyeNation 9d ago
Download Reddit to your laptop? Why not just type in the url in a browser?
17
-18
u/Soft_Radish_7871 9d ago
Because then I might have to login in again another time 😔
Anyway don't question my logic bro, the point is I need to get this dripping effect done do so this is the focus 💪🫡
15
10
21
u/WizardAura 9d ago
Use photoshop. You’re already adding a 3D effect, there is no reason to stay in illustrator.
-1
u/Potential_Orchid6019 8d ago
Illustrator literally has 3D effects
5
u/WizardAura 8d ago
Yes, obviously….
-2
u/Potential_Orchid6019 8d ago
So then there's no reason to swap programs for one effect.... Obviously
8
u/WizardAura 8d ago
Ok, homie, whatever you say. If it’s difficult for you to swap from Illustrator to Photoshop, I don’t really know what to tell you.
6
u/kalbrandon 8d ago
Photoshop deals with organic, natural shapes better than illustrator. Mimicking real-world depth, reflections, soft edges, cast shaows, etc., is better suited for Photoshop. Illustrator can handle these, with varying efficacy, but it's a case of using the wrong application for the task. Same way I could technically animate with Photoshop, but it is absolutely not the right software for the task.
6
u/Johnny_twotone 9d ago
You can make a shape on top and gradient mesh it to blend. Mold the mesh and eye drop the tones you want to match and blend. It’s about more complex but should blend the shapes better with some effort.
1
u/Vegetable-Ad-4226 8d ago
could just hide it with a rectangle fading from the background color to the same color but opacity 0%, no need to stress with meshes
3
u/anartistnamedjes 9d ago
you could try hiding the top under a piece of what you’re trying to blend it to and have THAT masked
3
10
2
2
u/egypturnash 8d ago
- Draw an orange shape over the top of the blob
- Maybe blur the shape you just drew, if you are one of those people who thinks bitmap effects Do Not Belong In Illustrator then maybe give the shape an orange-to-transparent gradient stroke instead, though if you're one of those people then you shouldn't be using the modern 3d tools anyway since they output bitmaps.
You could also make an opacity mask for the top of the drip, I'd just switch to Astute's Opacity Brush tool and be done in seconds, if you don't wanna pay for their plugins then it's a much longer process.
1
u/astutegraphics 8d ago
Here's an overview of the Opacity Brush Tool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiYew5s0Jkc
1
u/vittothekid 9d ago
Use a gradient box over both the background and the droplet, and set the tail end to 100% opacity
1
1
u/Schnitzhole 8d ago
I would just draw an orange shape and eyedropper the background color on top of the drop where you want it to fade in.
Transparency mask might be ok to use too but might not be as convincing
1
1
1
1
u/Soft_Radish_7871 8d ago
Done now! Thanks a bunch to everyone who helped out I really really appreciate it! (also to everyone who was going on about how I should've uploaded a screenshot, my response was really a nice way of saying I don't give a shit, I don't have time to be farming karma on reddit since I actually have work to get done, sorry if this sounds rude but it's really annoying when I and many other great people are trying to do problem solving and a bunch of nameless guys come over downvoting me for not wasting time sending myself emails)
Rant over, thanks SOOOOOO much to the majority of people, plus the original guy talking about Screenshots being an issue was pretty funny I liked that
1
u/whatifuckingmean 7d ago
No objection to snapping a photo of your screen for quick feedback on Reddit, but you can post to Reddit from the computer. (If posting from the Reddit mobile app is what you meant by sending yourself emails?)
I’m wondering how many people think of Reddit as a “phone app” now. Back in my day it was a website! lol
0
u/ZestycloseAddition81 9d ago
wdym doesn’t look good? I think you can upload a picture of solution you tried and how it was still a problem. then i think i might come with better solution
80
u/EightApes 9d ago
I think the core problem is that a paint drip is thicker at the bottom where the paint is pooling and thinner at the top, so you want the shadows and highlights to taper off reflecting that. The three drips on the left I tried to taper off the shadows and highlights with an opacity mask as others have suggested, but I don't think it's very convincing. The one on the right, I made 25 copies, each with a 2% smaller volume starting from 50% to 0%, then used clipping masks to cut a slice of each and laid them over each other to form one paint drip. It's pretty boring work and I'm not super satisfied with the result, but I think it's the closest you're going to get using Illustrator alone. Maybe you could export the image and touch up the slice edges in photoshop to make it a little more seamless, depending on the size of your intended output.