Let’s add another EFFECT to this fill! Go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. This will bring up a dialog box as shown below (Example I). Here we want to resize our gradient circle to about 85% using the scale sliders or typing the values into the horizontal and vertical values. We also want to move this circle's offset from the others to give it a more realistic lighting effect, as if the light was coming from an angle. To do this move the sliders to nudge this circle so its up on the left top corner of the other circles. You can click the preview button to see the changes as you make them. Once you click OK you will see this effect show up in the Appearance Palette as a subgroup under the top most fill, and it too can be edited later with ease by double clicking the Transform effect under the fill (Example J). You should also notice our circle showing more depth now. I was still not satisfied with the look so here I duplicated the orange fill layer with the Multiply blend applied. The top most fill layer is left with Multiply but I drop the Opacity down to 71%. Then, the middle of the the 3 orange fill layers is changed from Multiply to Color Burn and still 100% Opacity. I also got rid of the Transform effect by selecting the effect and clicking the TRASH CAN in the bottom corner of the palette. Remember, all circles in these files are vector objects. Study their Appearance Palette profiles if having any trouble.

Ok... is it starting to look 3D yet? The results may vary according to the colors used for the original circle and the gradient. Don’t forget we can go back and change any of those colors by selecting the object first, and then selecting the fill layer containing the color or gradient we wish to change. Then use the Color, Swatches, or Gradient palette to make your color changes.

From here you can add more fill layers to get your desired coloration. This is another good time for experimenting. Try layering fills with different transparency blend modes to create unique and complex looking results. Take a look at my pre-made buttons (Example L & M) to see all the different layers I used to get the final result in the Appearance Palette.

Let’s continue with highlights for a shiny look. I will be skipping the pics for these steps now. Create a NEW fill from the flyout in the Appearance Palette or DUPLICATE a fill. We want to make this either a white or a very light and bright tint of a color for the highlight, so set a new color for the fill. To get the one spot glow as my buttons show, you can choose 2 methods. You can use the transform effect again to resize the circle into a smaller oval as shown and nudge it into the upper left or right corner for offset lighting. But the soft edge effect can be done by applying a Feather effect to the fill or as my example, apply a gradient for the fill and change the blend mode to Screen. You might even take the Opacity to 95% or whatever works best for you.

Variations
If you wanted to produce a 3 oval effect that looks more shiny, simply create the same oval but do not feather as much or don’t use gradient for the fill and reduce Opacity to around 30%. Duplicate this highlight fill 2 more times but reduce and reshape the ovals to about an 1/8th of original highlight but increase their Opacity to around 90%. Then position them using the Move sliders in the Transform effect box (Example M).

To add a bevel to your button like the examples, just create new fill layers or duplicate fills and move to the bottom of the stack. From there, you can either enlarge the circle using the Transform function again or you can go to Effect > Path > Offset Path and define the width to expand. You can then fill with your choice of gradients or colors, but I chose to get a metal looking bevel with rounded edges (Example L). You can select the example button to see how I layered 2 metal looking gradients (1 radial and 1 linear) with Gaussian Blue effect added to top fill layer to blend with bottom fill layer in the Appearance Palette. You can see another type of bevel in Example M.

I hope this has been enlightening and helpful. I have found this to be great way to work with common elements. Using the Appearance Palette to build our FX allows us to save the combination of fill and stroke layers as GRAPHIC STYLES which can be used on other shapes and objects or save to a library for use later. Simply drag your object when the look is complete to the Graphic Styles palette. This will create a new icon in the palette that resembles the look of the object. Now its possible to apply this effect to other shapes or text. For some inspiration, try applying Warp Effects to the entire object as in my Examples N and O. You can also experiment with applying the effect to just one fill layer or stroke too. You may find that this give you a great start for an evil monster or weird button. And my final tip.... if you select text with the arrow tool, you can set multiple fill and strokes for the text. Move all strokes to the back of all fills to retain the weight of the font when stroking. Great for stacking larger and larger strokes on text.

- Tutorial written by Synthetic

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