Add Gloss in Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator was created in 1986 and has since become a very popular vector-graphics editing software. It is especially prized in graphic design firms for its aid in creating logos, 3D graphics and published documents. The user can add textures, typography or gloss to make the document multi-layered and 3 dimensional. Adding gloss or shine to an object allows you to mimic the way light hits the image. Just like looking at a photograph with a glossy finish, the light does not reflect upon the finish the same way in all parts of the picture, it has a shine or glare in a particular place where the light hits it directly. To recreate gloss, you need to understand how shadow and light hit glossy objects. Practice holding a curved or rectangular glossy object up to the light to understand how light hits it, and then use some Adobe Illustrator tools to help you create the illusion of shine and add more dimension to your object. This article will tell you how to add gloss in Illustrator.

Steps

  1. Open your Adobe Illustrator application.
  2. Open an existing document or create a new print or web document in the dialogue box that appears.
  3. Select the object to which you want to add a glossy shine.
    • If your object needs to be imported into your document, click "File" in the top horizontal Adobe toolbar and select "Place." Choose the file in the browser window. Embed it or rasterize it in order to make it part of your Illustrator document.
  4. Copy the object by selecting it with your cursor, clicking the "Edit" menu in the horizontal toolbar and then selecting "Copy."
  5. Create a new layer in your document above the top layer of the object. You can do this by clicking the "Add New Layer" icon at the bottom of the "Layers" box. If you don't see the Layers box, click the "Window" menu and select "Layers." Click on the new layer.
  6. Add a shape around your object in the new layer.
    • Select the rectangle tool on your left vertical toolbar if the object you want to add gloss to is rectangular. Draw a rectangle in the upper half of your object.
    • Select the pen tool on the toolbar, if the object you want to make glossy is a curved object. Click on the bottom left side of the object, and then click on the upper right side of the object. Now, move your cursor to curve the line. Once you have your inner line curved, click outside of the object to the top and left, to create a full shape. It does not need to be a clean shape outside of the object's barriers because you will be making it transparent.
  7. Scroll over to the right vertical toolbar, click the "Gradient" box and select the "Transparency" tab to the right of the gradients, or go to the Window menu and click "Transparency."
  8. Double click in the empty gray square to the right of the white box. A black thumbnail square will appear. While selecting the black thumbnail, click the Edit menu and select "Paste in Front."
  9. Select the text again. Change the opacity in the Transparency box to about 40 percent, or adjust the amount of brightness to your liking.
  10. Save your document to record the glossy finish you just added.



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