: What's the easiest way to create to get this subtle 3D effect in an icon in Illustrator? I managed to make the drop shadow, and I think I know how to get the ~1px bright outline/stroke,

@Bryan765

By using mnxd's solution as a base, you can make this really manageable by using the Appearance palette.


select your shape;
give it a gradient with a light top and a dark bottom, just like in mnxd's solution;
open the appearance palette and select the existing fill;
choose Add New Fill from the palette options or click the duplicate selected item button:
select the top fill in the palette;
give it a non-gradient fill colour somewhere between the two gradient edges;
choose Effect > Path > Offset Path... and key in a negative value. The preview option will allow you to get your bearings for an appropriate offset.
re-select the top fill and add a blur to it with Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur...;
play around with the gradient to improve the effect.


Big pro of this method is that, once done, you can drag your object into the Graphic Styles palette to make the effect a style you can apply to any object.

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@Ann6370331

Two Objects, one has a gradient, the other one is slightly smaller (subtract the stroke outline from the original object to achieve this Use the Offset Path effect with a negative value) and has a feather effect.



Try out different different feather values to make the edge softer/harder

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@Karen819

The answer is (as Mark Read said in the comment) to use the Gradient Mesh tool.

Click where the points are shown in this image. You can then select them with the Direct Selection tool and set each points' individual color. The ones on the top has a lighter color, and the bottom ones is darker.

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@Looi7658678

How about this?


bring your duplicated shape to the front.
add black-white gradient to the shape.
change blending mode to soft light.

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