Expert: Amy - 8/3/2007

Question
I have created a swoosh shape with innerglows, bevels, inner shadows etc to give the effect of water (it has worked really well). but when I place the image into Illustrator cs2 I loose a lot of the defonition and highlights etc. (it still looks ok but not half as good as in photoshop).

I think it's something to do with the flatterning process because if I manualy flatten in photoshop the same happens.

Any advice would be a BIG help.

Craig.

Answer
Hi Craig,

Look at your effects at 100% zoom and you may see that they are not exactly as powerful as you thought they were.

I know exactly what you're talking about, though, it does seem like the oomph of the effects is lost when you flatten. Experts say that's just because PS's preview at other sizes is only a "guess."

The answer is kind of simple, sorry, but work at 100% preview and just compensate for that eventual flattening by going deeper with the bevel, darker with the shadow, brighter with the glow, etc.

I highly recommend doing your flattening in PhotoShop if and when you can.

You might want to ask a PhotoShop expert for advice on dealing with this flattening result... when I looked it up a while back because it was happening to me, the only answer was that it's perception and to work at 100% size display.

-Amy