There are only 5 (6 if you include no shadow) heights, I've whipped up a .psd to demonstrate each. For the sake of working in Photoshop, each shadow is actually made of two shadows (on separate layers), as you'll be able to see in my .psd.

Here's a preview: http://i.imgur.com/pEevcJ5.png

Here's the .psd: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjupzyizfiinko2/material-z-height.psd?dl=0

I wrote this up in a bit more detail on my blog: http://blog.omgmog.net/post/creating-material-design-shadows-in-photoshop/

This is exactly what you're looking for: http://knizia.biz/mcg/#/

Otherwise, try Spectrum for Mac and use the monochromatic tool to create a palette.

More info/source: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/37520/how-does-one-generate-a-palette-similar-to-the-ones-in-googles-material-design

Hmm. I hadn't noticed this until now, but they appear to have removed a chunk of the Material Guidelines which actually explicitly stated the shadow values. You can still find posts that reference the section with screenshots taken from the guidelines: https://medium.com/@danerossenrode/a-unified-model-of-on-screen-depth-ae96561b6094 and https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C-BFrMtT-cw/U6tNB2jQe4I/AAAAAAAAEHU/8JbHc_7vkLQ/w480-h480/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-06-26%2Bat%2B00.28.09.png

On Android, however, the shadows are calculated based on a z-value, so the shadow will only ever be used for a mockup, never for implementation. It just needs to look close enough.

I'm actually still struggling to get these shadows right. More specifically, according to the latest spec on elevation and shadows, different UI elements are in fact elevated anywhere from 1dp to 24dp (https://www.google.com/design/spec/what-is-material/elevation-shadows.html#elevation-shadows-elevation-android-)

In other words there are 24 elevation steps. Given that some of these steps have no UI elements currently (e.g. there are no elements raised 23dp currently), you'll need to adjust your shadow for each of these steps.

There should be a straightforward formula / way to derive the shadows if you have the elevation (in dp) I would assume? Does anyone know if this exists?

Thanks!

As Evan has pointed out, the relevant part from the Material Design spec is now missing in it's current incarnation.

The Internet Archive to the rescue!

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627054059/http://www.google.com/design/spec/layout/layout-principles.html#layout-principles-dimensionality

Google once had the shadow values in the new guidelines on www.google.com/design but they've removed them and I don't know why.

damn, I've been wondering this myself....hope to see an answer here as well :)