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Ryan
Ryan

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Creating a Fake 3D Effect in CSS Using a Single Div

I recently came across an article titled Faking 3D Elements with CSS by Bradley Taunt. It's a very easy-to-understand article on how to create a fake 3D effect using not more than 2 divs.

I decided to recreate a similar effect using just a single div, and I guess the result seemed quite close enough. So, let's have a look at how we can achieve it.

As mentioned, we'll only require a single div. In your HTML, add a div and give it a class of circle.

<div class="circle"></div>

Now, let's start working on the CSS. First we'll add the below styles to the div with the class of circle

.circle{
  height: 400px;
  width: 400px;
  background: linear-gradient(#f00202 0%, #bd0404 10%, #7d0404 50%, #4a0202 100%);
  border-radius: 50%;
}

Add a few flexbox properties to the body to vertically and horizontally center the circle on the page.

body{
  height: 100vh;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

Now, we'll require one more circle that will be placed inside the main circle. This inner circle will be mainly responsible for producing the desired fake 3D effect. To create the inner circle we will be using the ::before pseudo element.

.circle::before{
  content: "";
  height: 360px;
  width: 360px;
  background: linear-gradient(#f06060 0%, #a30505 60%, #4d0202 100%);
}

Place it exactly at the center of the main circle by adding the necessary flexbox properties to the center class.

.circle{
  ...
  ...
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

By now, we have something that looks like this
Alt Text

For the final 3D effect, add the below two CSS properties to the ::before pseudo element.

.circle::before{
  ...
  ...
  border-radius: 50%;
  filter: blur(18px);
}

And lastly, let's give the body a background-color of #990000, which is a shade of red.

body{
  ...
  ...
  background: #990000;
}

Alt Text

Hold on. We are still missing one final thing - the drop shadow. We'll achieve it by using the ::after pseudo element.

.circle::after{
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 60px;
  border-radius: 50%;
  background: rgba(0,0,0,0.6  );
  bottom: -60px;
  z-index: -1;
  filter: blur(10px);
}

Notice that the ::after pseudo element has been given the position of absolute. Make sure that it is positioned in relation to the main div with the class of circle. So, give the main div a position of relative.

.circle{
  ...
  ... 
  position: relative;
}

And our fake 3D effect is ready. Pretty simple, isn't it?
Alt Text

Below is the final code

HTML

<div class="circle"></div>

CSS

body{
  height: 100vh;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  background: #990000;
}

.circle{
  height: 400px;
  width: 400px;
  background: linear-gradient(#f00202 0%, #bd0404 10%, #7d0404 50%, #4a0202 100%);
  border-radius: 50%;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  position: relative;
}

.circle::before{
  content: "";
  height: 360px;
  width: 360px;
  background: linear-gradient(#f06060 0%, #a30505 60%, #4d0202 100%);
  border-radius: 50%;
  filter: blur(18px);
}

.circle::after{
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 60px;
  border-radius: 50%;
  background: rgba(0,0,0,0.6  );
  bottom: -60px;
  z-index: -1;
  filter: blur(10px);
}

Top comments (16)

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shivang02 profile image
Shivang Dubey

This is so cool yet so simple!

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Yes, it is quite simple. The filter CSS property does most of the magic here.

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saravananks profile image
SARAVANAN. K.S

Came to know that filter property exists in css :)

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Yeah. One can do many cool things with it. Check out the various values that you can use. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

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farhangq profile image
Farhang

Thanks for sharing. I love filters. Backdrop-filter's also doing great

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Yes, backdrop-filter is a really cool property, especially for elements that contain text on a blurred background.

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Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Glad you liked it. Thanks πŸ‘

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Wow

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Hi Ben. That 'Wow' just made my day. Thanks a lot. πŸ‘

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maxart2501 profile image
Massimo Artizzu

Nice effect! Bravo πŸ‘

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Thanks. Glad you liked it :)

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craigdev937 profile image
Craig Johnson

I love practicing CSS, so that was awesome!.

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Yes, CSS is awesome. πŸ‘

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adzika profile image
adzika

Wow, that's awesome and straightforward. :)

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ryandsouza13 profile image
Ryan

Yes, it's pretty simple.