Why Drop Shadows Don’t Rotate and Scale
April 24th, 2008When you rotate an object that has a drop shadow (or an other kind of directional effect), the drop shadow doesn’t rotate! It stays in place. Similarly, if you scale an object that has a drop shadow, the shadow doesn’t scale.
Technically, InDesign is correct: It shouldn’t rotate or scale the drop shadow. Imagine a virtual light source casting a shadow on your object. You’ve already set the angle and position of the light source when you first made your drop shadow settings — size, offset, and blur. Just because the object is rotated X degrees doesn’t mean the light source changes, does it?
Well, actually, InDesign contradicts itself on this matter. The angles you choose in CS3’s Bevel & Emboss and Inner Shadow do rotate when you rotate an object. (Even if you use Global Light.) So you can get some wacky effects where the light source looks like it’s coming from two different directions (one causing a bevel and one causing a shadow). But scaling still doesn’t affect any effects, as far as I can tell.
Still, you’re the boss, and sometimes you really want the drop shadow to follow the object’s rotation and scaling. (For example, I recall making a book jacket cover. The title on the cover had a drop shadow. We duplicated that text frame, rotated it, shrunk it, and stuck it on the spine. But the shadow was all wrong!)
If you want the shadow to follow the rotation of the object, the only way that I know of is to convert your shadowed object into a PDF or INDD file that you can import. For example, you could select the object and use the LayoutZone script to convert it and place it exactly the same place as an InDesign document.
Or you could simply put that object on a blank page, export it as a PDF file, then reimport it to where you want it. Now the drop shadow is “burned into” the object, so it’ll rotate, skew, scale, and so on.
Note that this topic did come up a couple of years ago in a different context, and there is some other discussion on it here.
Couldn’t you change the angle of the light source by the number of degrees of rotation of the object?
Thanks for the tip David. Say, at what point in my InDesign usage am I allowed to not put any drop shadows on a piece?
Alex, Be Bold! Be Brave! You can drop the drop shadows any time you like.;-)
Jennie, yes you make a very good point: Of course you could always manually change the drop shadow angle (as long as you turn off Global Light first). That’s a hassle, but I supposed it’s not more hassle than what I’m suggesting!
So what we actually need is something similar to the “Scale Stroke and Effects” option of good old Illustrator.
David, would this be one of those “Dear Adobe” things? Please add an option checkbox to rotate the effect along with everything else. I can see that there are times you won’t want the effect to change, and other times you will.
Will this be a good place to bring up the strange behavior you get when using the new Gradient Feather tool on vertically flipped objects?
Just take an object, a simple rectangle will do fine, fill it and flip vertically. Now take the Gradient Feather tool, and apply the effect by dragging from top to bottom. Got nothing!!!
Now apply the effect again, starting at the top (or bottom) of the object, but this time drag outward, not into the object, but outside of it, to a distance of approximately the object’s height. Now it works!!!
Same thing with a different direction if you flipped horizontally.
What the %&#$^@???!!!
Actually Adi, Illustrator “suffers” from the same problem — and the “scale strokes and effects” don’t have any effect on anything other than Scale functions.
This is a pretty big problem for those who often impose artwork, or for those in package design (I always say, you can spot a package designer by seeing how well they read upside down text).
In Illustrator, you also need to either rasterize the shadow by expanding the appearance or by placing a PDF as David describes here.
You’re correct.
Let me rephrase.
What we need is a Transform Effects option added to InDesign’s transformation options.
Hey Mordy, I think the solution to the issue in Illustrator is simply to create a symbol with a drop shadow. Then as you place instances of that symbol, rotate, scale the drop shadow effects follows suit
I did some work with a packaging company and presented them with the solution. The power of symbols once again realized!
Create the object you want, then apply the drop shadow (yuck) then drag that object into the symbol library.
When you have it out on your document you can rotate and scale to your heart’s content.
The added bonus is that it can now be mapped to the surface of a 3D object. Think logo on a 3/4 view of a box…
Oh poop, I rushed to reply and just realize Adi was referring to the strange but predictable behaviour of using a gradient feather on a flipped object. It’s manageable, albeit annoying…
Check that you were replying to his post further up the list! LOL
Along a lateral line of thought, you could also scale and rotate prior to adding the drop shadow. Or delete the drop shadow prior to scaling and rotating and then re-apply it.
I’ve faced this problem for the last few years for some grocery bar advertisements that I do.
After I rotate the artwork 180 degrees, I just go in and change the direction of the drop shadow. It’s always been the quickest way.