This is a powerful technique that I use in 90% of the graphics that I produce with Microsoft Expression Design. A simple description of the technique is shown in this tutorial in order to get the point accross, but the results of what can be accomplished with this technique are evident in my Image Gallery.

Adding custom shading and highlighting to graphics is an important feature of graphics design software, and the techniques to perform it are not immediately obvious, but the capabilities in Expression Design are more powerful than might at first be apparent.


 To begin this tutorial, open up Microsoft Expression Design, and create a new document with a canvas area of 256×256 pixels.
…

On the canvas, draw a circle and reposition it to the center of the document. You should rename the layer according to the content you want in it. You can change the name of a layer by double clicking on its label and typing in a new name.

Create a new layer in the Layers panel.

Using the pen tool, click around a geometry that will represent a shaded area you would like to apply to the sphere. Do not drag the mouse as you click in this case. Dragging the mouse will produce curved lines whose curves are determined by control nubs that extend outward from the points themselves. Clicking and releasing at each point will produce straight-line geometry, which we want at this point.

Notice that each geometry in Expression Design is called a “Path”, and that the path has a beginning point and an ending point. The first point created with the pen tool determines the beginning point, and each subsequent point establishes a direction for the path, until the end point determines the end of the path. The directionality of the path is not important for this technique.

Using the “Convert Anchor Point” tool, click on each point of the shade region in order to change it to a smooth curve. Although leave the outermost edges, which I’ve indicated in the graphic with arrows. Those edges will remain sharp for this tutorial.

Notice that this use of the tool produces a different kind of curved geometry than would be created by clicking-and-dragging on each point. This produces a B-Spline geometry where the curves are defined differently. Notice that Expression supports those 2 different styles of curved geometry.

The “Convert Anchor Point” tool will change the points to B-Spline style points.

You can reposition the shade geometry.

NOTE: Since this technique does not require us to exactly match the contour of the circle, we are not doing so here. Those techniques will be explored in further tutorials, however.

The shape of the shaded area is adjusted as shown in the figure, and the color is changed to black.

With the shaded geometry selected, Scroll down in the “Properties” panel, and in the “Effects” section, add an effect by clicking on the “fx” button. Add the “Gaussian Blur” effect, and give it a radius of 4, which will increase the intensity of the shade.

We have now produced a nice custom shading effect which extends outward in all directions. However, we want to apply the shade only to the circle, so we will see how to do that in the next few steps.

To do this, go to the first layer, and select the circle. Make a copy of it, and paste it into the second layer by selecting the second layer in the “Layers” panel, and if necessary, click on the green box to select everything in the layer. Then, choose “Edit–>Paste in Front” to paste the circle to the front on Layer2.

Modify the copy of the circle so that it has no fill, and no stroke. NOTE: The “Edit–>Paste in Front” command is convenient, because it doesn’t change the position of the object when it pastes it. Therefore, repositioning of the object’s copy is not necessary.

This circle will represent the visible region of the shaded area. By using the “Paste in Front” command, we allow the new circle to superimpose exactly over the region of the original circle, without needing to move it around by hand or type coordinates at the bottom of the window.

We are reproducing geometry into the composition for organizational purposes. It becomes easier to work on and maintain the graphic if each element is organized into a separately-named layer.

Select both the invisible circle, and the shading effect in Layer 2 using the Layers panel or the canvas, by holding down the Shift key and clicking on each one.

With those objects selected, you can choose “ObjectClipping PathMake with Top Path”, which will produce a clipping region defined by the invisible circle.

The “top path” in this case is the invisible circle, which appears on the top in the Layers panel as well. We knew it would be the top path, because we chose the “Paste in Front” command.

The result, is a custom contoured shading effect applied to the object.

 

The same technique can be used to add a highlight. In this case, two highlights have been added. One large and slightly gray, and a second highlight inside of it which is much brighter.

The color of the main circle was adjusted to complete the appearance of a spherical object.

The colors of the highlights and shaded areas can also be adjusted. By expanding the clipping masks in the Layers panel, select the highlight or shade, and adjust its color ensuring to select the fill style first in the Appearance panel.