Using the Gaussian Blur effect

…When creating shadows an highlights on an illustration,…I at times want to diffuse the shape…of the shadow or highlight, so it doesn't have a distinct hard edge. To do this…I use the gaussian blur effect. This allows…me to select any vector shape, an blur…it while retaining its vector editing capabilities. Let…me show you how this feature can be leveraged…to help you create authentic results in…your illustrations. So the first example we're going…to go back to the vector professor illustration…shown here and sometimes when I create shadows…if you look at the shadows under his glasses, these are hard edge shadows. And…I wanna create a shadow under his mustache.…

Since his mustache is hard edge, I wanna…bring a little more authenticity, even though this isn't…realistic at all, I wanna bring a little more subtle…use of shading under his mustache, and I've created…my base vector shape. You can see that selected here.…And actually, I'm going to go ahead and zoom…in just a little bit so you can see this…a little better. And what I'm going to do now…