CSS Fake Lighting With Gradients and Shadows

Awhile back I thought it would be interesting to add some quick fake lighting to a personal project of mine - that for lack of a better description is a windows management system.

Here is a screenshot of the windows management system with lighting turned on:

Here is a video of me using the system:

I whipped up this prototype (don’t mind the jQuery)

There are really two keys that make this work. Getting the shadow in place and adjusting the gradient. All we really need is the angle and distance from a given `div` in relation to the “light”:

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let calcAng = function(x, y) {
  let lightPos = light.position()
  let dx = lightPos.left - x;
  let dy = lightPos.top - y;
  return -Math.atan2(dy, dx) / Math.PI  * 180;
};
 
let calcDist = function(x, y) {
  let lightPos = light.position()
  let dx = lightPos.left - x;
  let dy = lightPos.top - y;
  return Math.sqrt(dx * dx,  dy * dy);
};

Standard `atan2` and the pythagorean theorem get us this. Once we have those - we can use them to set our gradient and shadow values:

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// warning (apparently this function is slightly speed coded)
let calcShade = function(x, y) {
  let angle = calcAng(x, y);
  let dist =  calcDist(x, y);
  let sx = dist * Math.cos(-angle * Math.PI / 180) * -1;
  let sy = dist * Math.sin(-angle * Math.PI / 180) * -1;
 
  sx = Math.min(20, Math.max(sx, -20));
  sy = Math.min(20, Math.max(sy, -20));
  let blur = Math.min(100, dist);
  let hBlur = Math.min(50, blur) * 0.5;
  // consider distance in the eq?
  return {
    bg: `-webkit-linear-gradient(${angle}deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4) ${blur}%)`,
    shadow: `${sx}px ${sy}px ${hBlur}px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15)`
  };
};

There are more videos of the windows management system on my youtube channel. Here’s another from a much earlier version of the system.

Maybe I’ll post more about that in the future…