Today I emulated Meng To’s Clock from Experimenting With Colors And Concepts:
Here’s my clone…
What I Learned
The rectangles to the left look like they are etched into the surface. This is achieved by using 3 different shadows. I’ve seen Meng To using this technique before. Seeing it again, I think I now understand the logic behind how the shadows are put together.
Assuming that the light is coming from above, the top and bottom etched-in edges should have a highlight to simulate light reflecting off the edges. I am not sure if this is how it is in the real world, or if it is just a good enough illusion that tricks our eyes.
Recreating the knob to the right was too far beyond my abilities. I had to look very closely at what Meng To did by picking apart his layers. There’s a highlight aura above the button (reflected light?). The shadow below is made up of a primary shadow (darker and denser), and a secondary shadow (lighter and more diffused).
Perhaps what I learned today isn’t that useful. It feels like what I am doing is something that the software should be doing.
