I see a lot of shadow mistakes by eLearning Developers when dealing with cutout people images. How often do I see an ugly eLearning drop shadow? Often enough I made an infographic (below) to help you remedy the problem. Truth is… shadow mistakes have a simple solution — don’t make them in the first place!
Sounds easy enough, just don’t make these mistakes with your shadows:
- Too Dark
- Too Sharp
- Too Big
Start learning more about what drop shadow effects are available and why you would use them in eLearning. Here are three popular shadow effects you should know about:
- Spot Shadows: Used for grounding objects within an environment. Spot shadows used directly under an object visually tells they are standing on the ground. When spot shadows are lower than the object, they are made to look as if they are floating.
- Perspective Shadows: Used to create depth within an environment.
- Outer Shadows: This shadow has a dual purpose… (1) pop objects out of their environments and (2) make objects look more natural in their environments.
Now you know why you would use one drop shadow over another. I suggest taking a look at the infographic below and then practice Spot, Perspective, and Outer shadow techniques in your authoring tools. Here are the three common mistakes eLearning Developers make when using shadows: