How do I make water look like it's lower than the ground in CC3?

[GamerRay]

I'm still fairly new to CC3 (today is day 3). So I apologize if this seems like an obvious question.

How do I make my water look like it's lower than the ground? I have a river next to some cement, but I cannot figure out how to do a shadow effect to show that the water is a foot lower than the ground.

I've seen it done on posted maps, but I'm at a loss for how it's done. I've tried going into my Sheets and messing with the shadows of water and floors, but the floor shadows don't go the right way and I'm not seeing an effect of the water's shadow.

Thanks so much for any help you all can give me!

[NeonKnight]

To make the water appear as if it is lower than the ground, you will need to ensure the following:

Make the water on a sheet that is underneath the ground sheet (so the water sheet needs to be higher on the SHEET list than the ground SHEET).

I need to run my kids to school, but I will return in around 15 minutes and show you how to do it when I get back.

[NeonKnight]

As promised here is a quick example of making the ground appear to be higher than the water.

In the first the ground looks higher than the water. In the second you can see I placed the WATER SHEET higher in the list (thus drawn before the FLOOR sheet). On the Floor sheet I applied a WALL SHADOW DIRECTIONAL effect. You could use a simple WALL SHADOW effect, but that is hard coded to always be from the Upper Left. I prefer the direction so I can change it, or if you prefer the WALL SHADOW DIRECTIONAL GLOBAL SUN (all shadows for any sheet with this effect come from a predefined Light Source you decide).

So, for this I chose a Light source as being 135 degrees (coincidentally the same angle as the default WALL SHADOW). Just remember that an angle of 0 means the Sun if Directly EAST, 90 degrees is directly NORTH, 180 is directly WEST and 270 is directly SOUTH.

[GamerRay]

Aha, changing its order in the list worked wonders!

1 last question (in theory); how do you get the 3d look to your floor edges? The shadowing on mine looks great, but there's no sense of depth to it. On yours, you can see that the serrated edging is above the water, but on mine it almost looks like a grey piece of paper sitting higher than a blue one.

[NeonKnight]

Aha, changing its order in the list worked wonders!

1 last question; how do you get the 3d look to your floor edges? The shadowing looks great, but there's no sense of depth to it. On yours, you can see that the serrated edging is above the water, but on mine is almost looks like a grey piece of paper sitting higher than a blue one.

Hmmm....without seeing your Sheets or Effects hard to say. Did you try making the opacity of the shadow darker (increase the percentage, mine is set for 75%)

[GamerRay]

That looks much better. Having it at 50%, in combination with having grid lines that were far too thick, was the problem.

Thanks so much for your help, Neon!

[NeonKnight]

You're Welcome

[Aval Penworth]

I need to run my kids to school, but I will return in around 15 minutes and show you how to do it when I get back.

Ah haha. Sorry, I've just got this hilarious image of a knight in glowing neon armour, dropping his kids to school.