Steve Fulghum takes a look at how we can use Houdini’s Paint API to paint a complex shadow.
See the Pen Simulating Drop Shadows with the CSS Paint API by Steve Fulghum (@steve_fulghum) on CodePen.
🎩 Houdini, ain't that a magician?
Houdini is a set of low-level APIs that exposes parts of the CSS engine, giving developers the power to extend CSS by hooking into the styling and layout process of a browser’s rendering engine. Houdini is a group of APIs that give developers direct access to the CSS Object Model (CSSOM), enabling developers to write code the browser can parse as CSS, thereby creating new CSS features without waiting for them to be implemented natively in browsers.
It really is magic, hence it's name Houdini. I'd recommend this slidedeck and this video to get you started
If you’re interested into making your first Paint Worklet with Houdini, you can easily follow along with the article/tutorial.