Perhaps using an opacity mask and a gradient mesh might be best for this idea.
yes opacity mask is good idea. use the luminance values of one object or image to define the transparent areas of another object.And the objects that define the transparency can be literally any type of object like solid objects, strokes, gradients, raster images, text or combinations of all of the above
It depends on what you need it for too. Different applications are capable of different effects. Flash, for example, cannot curve a gradient like this, however Illustrator can. If you need this shape in Flash vector, you’ll have to hack it. Krilnon showed an example of that. In the past I’ve also broken up a donut shape into different pie pieces and used a linear gradient on each following the curve. I’m sure different tools have different approaches to the same effect as well.
Yes it is, very much so. Especially with illustrator, but also in good old flash.
I have created something similar in about 1 minute just tweaking the gradient fills. With masks + gradients and a bit of work it should be a breeze.
SWF
Host probably farks the swf up a bit, its really 50*50 in size
