Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3 (MAC OS, German Version)
• Difficulty Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30-60 minutes

Step 1

Use the Pen Tool (P) to create a 2-point-path. The handle of the lower anchor point has to be horizontal and the handle of the upper anchor point 45°. Activating the Magnetic Guidelines (Command + U) will help you during this tutorial. The length of the handles affects the look of the rope and can be varied.

Step 2

Duplicate the path, rotate it 180°, and move it until the two paths connect. Use the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the two overlapping anchor points, and join them (Command + J).

Step 3

Duplicate the complete path again, but this time it has to be mirrored (either horizontally or vertically). Connect the two paths and join the overlapping anchor points as you did in Step 2.

Step 4

Duplicate the complete path again to extend your rope even more. Connect and join the anchor points. This curve will be the basic element for the climbing rope.

Step 5

Duplicate the complete path again, but this time the two paths have to overlap 50%. These two paths will be essential for the correct distribution and alignment in Step 6.

Step 6

Paste the basic path several times in-between the two existing ones. Don’t worry about the horizontal alignment. The number of curves will affect the look of the climbing rope and more curves will make it look thicker. I used a total of 13 curves in this tutorial.

Step 7

Select All and distribute horizontally centered. It almost looks like a rope now!

Step 8

Convert all the outlines to filled objects (Object > Path > Outline Stroke), create one shape from it (Pathfinder – Add to Shape Area), and release the compound path (Object > Compound Path > Release or press Alt + Shift + Command + 8). You might use the Outline View (Command + Y) to check the result.

Step 9

Remove the outline and everything but 2 rows. Now it’s time to connect certain squares to get the typical look of a climbing rope.

Step 10

Use the Outline View (Command + Y) to remove certain parts of the squares.

Step 11

Reconnect the squares as seen below by selecting and joining the equivalent anchor points (Command + J).

Step 12

Duplicate all and move it to the right. Use the Magnetic Guidelines (Command + U) for the perfect distance. To do so the movement has to be performed in two smaller steps. Now it’s time to choose the colors of the rope.

Step 13

Extend the rope even more and group everything (Command + G).

Step 14

Duplicate the group and paste it in the background (Command + B) for the new outline. Choose a black outline with rounded corners and convert the outline to a filled object (Object > Path > Outline Stroke).

Step 15

Select all and group it (Command + G). Draw a rectangle and make sure that the left and right side lock at equivalent anchor points of the climbing rope.

Step 16

Select all and create a Clipping Mask (Object > Clipping Mask > Make or press Command + 7). Then use the Pathfinder to remove the hidden parts (Pathfinder > Trim).

Step 17

Select all and create a Pattern Brush (Brushes > New Brush > New Pattern Brush). Use the settings shown below.

Conclusion

Now you can use the Brush Tool (B) or Pen Tool (P) with your created Pattern Brush. Add a drop shadow (Effects > Stylize > Drop Shadow) for a more realistic look. Repeat the tutorial and experiment with the parameters (shape of the 2-point-path, number of paths, colors, outline thickness, etc.) for additional climbing ropes. Have fun creating your own versions!

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Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes

Introduction

Recently I was making a map in Adobe Illustrator that included a rail track and a road. I had to create the dynamic effect, so that both objects could easily change direction. Therefore, they should have constituted one path each. Of course, my first thought was to create brushes.

Still, I thought it would be quite a challenge to make a road and a rail track using no brushes or overly relying on effects. I wanted each one to consist of one editable path. After about 15 minutes the work was completed. I found a great way to create these objects with the help of the Appearance palette and multiple strokes applied. Can’t wait to share this information, so let’s get started!

Part 1: Road

The road is easy to create, so let’s start with it first. Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document (Command + N), make it 1000px by 600 px, in RGB mode.

Step 1

We need an initial path to start with – so let’s create a straight line (\). Once the effect is ready we’ll save it and apply it to any other path later. Now the important thing is to imagine how your road looks from above.

We will create it with multiple strokes only, so the wider stroke will be at the bottom of the stack, all the others will be added above with the thinest one on top. Let’s make the base first: make your line no fill with a 100 pt wide stroke. Also, give it medium gray color (#666666 or K=60%). This will be the main road width.

Step 2

Now we need to make the road border. Select the line, go to the Appearance panel (Shift + F6), and here you’ll see all effects applied to it. There are only fill (none) and one gray stroke that we just applied.

Select the stroke now and drag it to the New button (or choose Add New Stroke in the flyout menu). The new stroke will appear on top and it will be selected. Change its color to lighter gray (#999999 or K40%) and change its width to 112 pt. Finally, drag the new stroke below the first one – here is the border.

Step 3

Let’s create a markup now. With the road selected, add a new stroke in the Appearance panel. Change it’s color to white, and give it 10 pt width. Now go to the stroke palette and check Dashed Line. Make the stroke 80 pt with a gap of 20 pt. The road basis is ready.

Step 4

Although the road looks recognizable, I think it really lacks realism. So let’s add some volume. Select the line, go to the Appearance panel and add a new stroke. Make it 114 pr wide, #666666 color (or K60%), uncheck the Dashed option and drag it to the bottom of the stack. Now this stroke is the outer side of the road border.

Step 5

For now you will have four strokes in the road’s Appearance panel. For the inner side of the border, choose the stroke which is 112 pt wide (second from the bottom) and drag it to a New button (do not forget to select the road here!). Give the new stroke a darker gray color (K=70% or #4d4d4d) and 104 pt width. This stroke is right on place, so we don’t need to move it.

Step 6

If your purpose is simple navigation or icon design, this road looks OK for it. Still I’d like to add some texture. Again, you know what to do, select the road, go to Appearance panel, choose our main gray 100 pt stroke (it is the second from the top) and add new stroke again. This is the last one – I promise. Now do not change it’s width. It will be the texture covering our main road surface.

With this new stroke selected, go to menu Window > Swatches Library > Patterns > Basic Graphic > Texture. In the pattern library select any irregular texture like Mezzotint Dot. The effect might look too harsh, so just go to the Opacity panel and reduce the stroke Opacity to 15%. You may also want to try other textures from this library, like Mezzotint or Intricate Surface, just choose what looks best for you.

Step 7

Finally, (with the road selected of course) change your top-most markup stroke’s blending mode to Overlay so that the texture shows through (or you may want to just reduce it’s Opacity to about 70%). For now you’ll have 6 strokes as you can see in the picture below.

Step 8

For those of you who want more realistic results I suggest you create your own pattern with irregular texture and replace the Mezzotint stroke with it. I made mine from a gray square run through Raster Effect of Texture > Grain, then expanded, ungrouped, live traced and saved it in swatches panel. Then select the road texture stroke and choose a new pattern swatch. You may also want to adjust the new pattern stroke opacity (I made it 30%).

The road is ready! Now you can save the resulted effect as a graphic style and apply it to any path. You can create anew curvy road with the Pen Tool (P), Ellipse Tool (L), or any other shape or path.

Part 2: Rail Track

As you may have guessed, the road was quite simple compared to what’s next – the rail track. It is rather hard to create without brushes or effects for those who are not familiar with Illustrator’s secrets. The tricky part lies in the double line of the rails. But I’ll show you how to make it with multiple strokes only.

Step 1

Again, draw a line (\). Let’s first make a basic shape of the rail track. Give your line a medium brown stroke color (I used #a67c52 – anyway, we’ll replace it with texture later) and assign it a width of 100 pt. Now go to the Stroke palette and make it dashed with 10 pt stroke and a 10 pt gap. Okay, so these are our future wooden sleepers (which is a rectangular object used as a base for railroad tracks, also called cross ties).

Step 2

Now we need to make the rails. With the line selected, go to the Appearance palette and add a new stroke. Give it gray color (#4d4d4d or K=70%), make it 60 pt wide and uncheck Dashed in stroke palette. This will be our rails. I know, it looks bad now, but be patient and move to next step.

Step 3

To actually make the rails, add another stroke to the line. Make it pink (or any other vivid color) and 40 pt wide. It should be on top. This stroke will serve as a kind of mask in the Appearance palette, and it won’t be visible. I only made it pink to quickly choose it later in the Appearance panel.

Step 4

Here comes the tricky part. Make sure the pink stroke is selected (it has to be after the previous step) and go right to the Opacity palette (or press Shift + Command + F10) and reduce its Opacity to 0%.

Now go back to Appearance panel and select the top-most line that says Path. And now return to the Opacity panel and click twice on the Knockout Group option so that it’s checked. Ta-da! The rails are ready! The pink stroke is a mask now knocking out all strokes below. Now you can put this rail track on any background and it will show through!

Note: You may notice that the ends of lines don’t look great. To fix it change the pink stroke’s cap style to Rounded the in Stroke panel.

Step 5

Unfortunately, the mask knocked out our sleepers as well, so we need to add them above. Duplicate the bottom brown stroke, drag it on top of the stack and change its width to 40 pt. For now you’ll have 4 strokes in the Appearance panel: brown 100 pt (bottom sleepers), gray 60 pt (rails), pink 40 pt (mask), and brown 40 pt (top sleepers). Congratulations, the basic rail track shape is ready!

Step 6

Now we’ll add some realistic details. Let’s improve our sleepers first. Select the bottom brown stroke of the rail track and duplicate it. Now select the bottom one of the same two strokes and change their color to dark brown (#42210b). Now change it’s width to 102 pt.

Finally, go to the Stroke palette and change the values of the dashed line to 11 stroke and 9 gap. Now all you have to do is make a copy of this stroke and drag it 3 strokes above to position it under your top sleepers. Of course, change it’s width to 40 pt.

Step 7

The rails lack realism as well, so let’s select the gray stroke in the middle of the Appearance stack and duplicate it (the copy appears above). Change it’s color to a darker gray (#333333 or K=80%) and make it 44 pt wide. This is the inner side of the rails. Duplicate it to make the outer side and drag it below the main rail stroke. Change its width to 64 pt. Now you have 8 strokes.

Step 8

This step is unnecessary, but you can do it to add one more detail – the joined rails. Duplicate the basic rail stroke (the gray one with 60 pt width). Give it a darker gray color (#1a1a1a or K90%) and make it dashed in the Stroke palette with a 1 pt stroke and 200 pt gap.

To add joint bars that fix rails, duplicate the new stroke and drag it below the main rail stroke (2 stokes down). Make it 68 pt wide and change the order of dashes to 11 stroke and 190 gap. The idea is to keep both newly created strokes together, so the sum in their stroke/gap numbers must be equal (1+200 = 11+190). This way rail joints and joint bars have the same position.

Step 9

OK, for now you’ll have 10 strokes, and that’s enough for our rail track. The only thing we need now is wood grain for the sleepers. Unfortunately, there are no default wood patterns in Illustrator, but we’ll find it anyway.

You can use any method of creating wood patterns, but I’ll tell you the easiest way. Go to Window > Brush Libraries > Border > Borders_Frames and open the brushes library. There are a few wood brushes here that might suit our sleepers.

Grab the Oak brush and drag it into your document (make sure no shape is selected, otherwise the brush will be applied to it). The group of shapes will appear – select it and press Shift + Command + G to ungroup. Now delete the corner part of the brush – and you end up with a simple wooden texture. Rotate the wooden group by 90 degrees (I just like it better this way) and drag it into your swatches palette. Double-click the new swatch and name it “Wood.”

Step 10

All you have to do now is select the rail track and replace the light brown strokes in the Appearance panel with the new wooden pattern. Select the stroke of the sleepers (second from bottom 100 pt) and click “Wood” in the Swatches panel. Do the same with the top-most stroke of 40 pt width. Well, your rail track is ready, and you can save it as a graphic style and apply it to any curve now!

Step 11

You will end up with 10 strokes for the rail track and 6 strokes for the road. We used 100 pt stroke width, but once you understand the idea, you can create the same effect for any stroke size. Still you’ll be able to scale current effects if you check Transform Strokes and Effects in the flyout menu of the Transform palette (Shift + F8). Don’t forget to save these stroke combinations as graphic styles to re-apply them later to any path.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we made a multi-layered effect of road and rail track using predominately the Appearance palette in Adobe Illustrator. To achieve it we used multiple strokes of different width, color, and type. We also exploited the knockout effect of the opacity panel for masking. Objects created with this technique can easily be edited, as the result consists of one path.

The method described above is great for creating any type of roads. On the example below I created 7 lines and applied various graphic styles that I made for rail track, road, wider street and boulevard. Every road is actually a single editable path. I hope you liked the effect and it inspires you with some great new ideas. Be creative!

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Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Illustrator CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 – 2 hours

Reference Images

First we need to find some reference images. Search though image web sites for a nice gold chain reference. It can be any size, all we’re doing is looking for a chain to reference for its shape and shadows. This chain image is a good reference, it clearly has shadows and highlights that we can duplicate.

Step 1

Place your reference image, File > Place. Double-click layer one in the layers palette, then name the layer "chain reference." Check Template and Dim Images To: 70%. You can chose to dim your image to any percent, this is just my personal preference.

Step 2

Create three new layers and name them: “Highlight,” “Shadow,” and “Midtone.” Make sure they are in the same order as below. Keeping your layers well organized is a great habit to have, it tends to make things run smoother.

Step 3

We’re going start with our midtone layer. Select the Pen Tool (P) Then select a yellow #EFD225 fill and deep brown #332E15 stroke. We are going to trace the chain in two sections. With a fill and stroke selected we won’t be able to see what we are doing so we need to switch to outline view. Select View > Outlines (Command + Y). Now trace two paths. Make sure you trace the two sections of chain that meet in the middle. Where the two paths meet keep them on the same path or as close as possible.

Step 4

Now we can look at what we have so far. Select View > Outlines (Command + Y). Select the two sections hold Alt + drag to duplicate. Make sure to hold Shift so the sections don’t move up or down. Select the right bottom section and send to back (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key).

Step 5

We need to separate our fill and stroke. Select all four sections of the chain, then go Object > Expand > Stroke. While the four objects are still selected, apply Object > Ungroup (Command + Shift + G).

Step 6

Now we need to place the fill and stroke on separate layers. Select all the expanded strokes. Make sure not to select the fills. Copy the expanded strokes Edit > Copy (Command + C). Delete the expanded strokes after they have been copied.

Step 7

Create a new layer, name it “Trapping.” Select the “Trapping” layer and Edit > Paste in Front (Command + F).

Step 8

We need to get rid of the excess brown that is over lapping. There area a number of ways to do this, but in this case the Knife Tool will be the quickest. Select one section at a time and use your Knife Tool to break apart the excess brown.

Step 9

Now the excess brown can be selected on its own. Select the excess brown sections and delete them.

Step 10

Now you should have an image similar to this. A midtone layer containing only the yellow fill. A trapping layer containing the expanded stroke. Make sure you are saving after major steps.

Step 11

Lets add some detail. Only focus on the middle link. The two side links are place holders, we will be deleting them later. Using your reference image as a guide, add some details to the “Trapping” layer, as I have done below. You can add more or less depending on your image.

Step 12

Now add shadows (#B09132) and highlights (#F6ED55). Be sure the correct layers are selected.

Step 13

Now we can delete our place holders. Select the two outer sections and delete.

Step 14

Select the entire chain link and Alt-drag. Hold Shift to keep it from moving up or down. While the new chain link is still selected use Object > Transform > Transform Again (Command + D) two times. Now you should have a total of four links.

Step 15

This will be the overall appearance of our chain. You can add more detail here if desired. At this point save this as a separate file. Keep it as your working file in case you ever want to come back to it and make alterations. Now we are going to place our guide lines where the chain will repeat. Make sure you place the guides in the same spot on each end of the chain.

Step 16

Now we are going to create a clipping path over the chain. Select the “Trapping” layer. Now use your guides to create a box over the chain.

Step 17

Select > All (Command + A). Then go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Command + 7). When you create a clipping mask it will put everything on one layer. That is why we saved the file with layers as a working file.

Step 18

Now using the pathfinder select Divide.

Step 19

Drag the entire chain into the brushes palette and select New Pattern Brush.

Step 20

Select OK.

Step 21

Now you can use the (B) Brush Tool or (P) Pen Tool to create a seamless chain.

Final Result

Now you have the skills it takes to create pattern brushes in Illustrator. Have fun making your own!

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Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator
• Version: CS3
• Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Introduction

Most of you are probably familiar with the Average command in Adobe Illustrator. This is not a very popular tool though, as it is mostly used only for specific needs. However, today we will explore the math behind it and use it for creating some surrealistic swirly shapes. The technique is rather simple, but we’ll spend some time for theory – as I am a teacher and I like explaining and making everything clear.

The “Average” Theory

Let’s spend some time on the theoretical part first. This way you will better understand the mechanism of the “Average” tool and the three integral laws of the “Average Smooth Abstract Swirls” (ASAS) technique I recently invented. However, if you just don’t like much theory, you can move right to Step 6.

Step 1

When do we usually use the Average command and what does it do? I am sure most of you know the answer. The “Average” command is hidden under the Command + Alt + J shortcut, or in the Object > Path menu, and its job is to bring the selected anchor points… right, to the average point between them. Sounds rather simple, doesn’t it? In practice, this command sometimes becomes an irreplaceable helper.

For example, I have few open paths that I want to unite in one single shape, but they don’t exactly touch each other (for those who want to repeat the shape: create a rounded rectangle and delete the two bottom points. Now Press R and Alt-click below it, then enter 72 degrees. Copy and enter Command + D three times to rotate, as shown below.

In this case I cannot just move 5 shapes towards each other and join (Command + J), as the symmetry will be lost – but the petals of this flower has to be perfectly equal, composing the exact angle. If I join the paths now, the program will draw straight lines between open anchor points, which is not what we need.

Step 2

To get the perfect composite shape, first we need to place all five paths correctly so that open points touch each other. That is when the Average command comes in handy! We just grab the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the endpoints of two neighboring paths and choose Object > Path > Average. In the window select both, press OK, and voila – the points are at the same place now!

All we need to do is join them (Object > Path > Join). Now we can repeat this step four times for every pair of endpoints: selecting with Direct Selection Tool, then apply Average and Join. But in order to save a couple of seconds, I would recommend you to combine these two commands into one single shortcut: Command + Alt + Shift + J.

Step 3

Now we know that the Average command brings anchor points to the center between them (what a surprise!). Well, you may think it is rather obvious, but let’s go further. Let’s try this command on various objects.

I created a rectangle and tried the Average command on it (the shape has to be selected). What do we get? Trying all three options of the command, we get different outcomes: Horizontal axis brings vertical points to the center, creating a horizontal line; Vertical axis does the same with horizontal points; both axes options result in one center point, bringing all points to the center.

The same outcome you will get with a hexagon or star. It does not actually look interesting, but it helps to understand how this tool works. Let’s break these down into rules.

Rule 1: The shapes with corner points only will always result in either line or point! Even if you draw an irregular asymmetric shapes with the Pen Tool, as long as it has corner points only – the effect is the same.

Step 4

Let’s draw an ellipse and do some experiments. Make two copies of it and try the Average command on them, again, all three options. As you see, now the outcome looks more interesting, creating some curvy lines. This happens due to the smooth anchor points on Bezier curves, where the final curve direction is controlled by handles.

Rule 2: For smooth curves we need smooth points, and handles are very important in achieving that smoothness!

Step 5

Rule 3 for the Average Command: The anchor points of shapes should not be situated symmetrically, composing horizontal or vertical lines.

To illustrate this principle, let’s take an ellipse from the previous step and rotate it by 30 degrees with the Rotate Tool (R). Select your ellipse, press R and enter the value of 30. Now, let’s make the same manipulations – copy twice and run the Average tool.

See the difference? Both axes options did not change much, but the horizontal and vertical options created some nice curvy shapes. This result is caused by the positioning of anchor points. In the previous step the points in the ellipse formed vertical and horizontal lines, and now they created asymmetric crossing.

Abstract Swirly Shapes

Well, enough theory for today! I’m sure you understood the three Rules of ASAS (Average Smooth Abstract Shapes). Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice now.

Step 6

Let’s create a new document in Illustrator, 800px by 500px, in RGB mode. Create the background using the Rectangle Tool (M). Fill it with a radial gradient that goes from white to light gray (#e6e6e6). Name this layer “BG,” lock it and create a new one named “Swirls.”

Step 7

OK, let’s start making the ASAS! We know that Both axes options of the Average command bring all the points in the center creating small shapes. So, let’s focus on the horizontal or vertical direction for curvy swirls. However, we still need the basic shapes to work with. What we want is an asymmetric shape with smooth anchor points. There are numerous ways of creating them.

Let’s start with a simple 5-ended star with no fill and a black stroke. To quickly convert its corner points to smooth ones lets apply Filter > Stylize > Round Corners, 10 pt will be enough. It’s still not the right time to apply the Average command, as the points of our star all lie at the same distance from the center (although the outcome may look interesting already).

Step 8

With your star selected, grab the Wrap Tool (Shift + R) and deform it slightly to make it asymmetric. Try to make it a little wider at the same time. Now you can press Command + Alt + J to bring up the Average window, then choose horizontal axis. Voila! Our first swirl is ready!

Note: You may want to try the vertical axis as well and choose which looks best. But we do not need “both axes” options now!

Step 9

Now let’s create an ellipse (L). This time to make the shape asymmetric we’ll use the Twirl Tool. Leave all options intact, and just touch your ellipse a few times to turn it into an amorphous shape. And now, run the Average command and pick horizontal axis.

Step 10

For the last shape we’ll use a simple method. Take the Pencil Tool (N). Again, the tool options don’t matter, we’ll just draw an asymmetric shape with it. To close the path when drawing, hold down the Alt key and click. And again: Object > Path > Average > Horizontal. Now you have three nice swirly shapes.

Step 11

Now we’ll make a few adjustments and save our shapes. For all three shapes apply a medium gray stroke with no fill. To make a shape longer, duplicate the first swirl and rotate the copy 180 degrees with the selection arrow (hold down the Shift key while rotating), then align both parts to form a single longer swirl and group them. Do the same with the second swirl.

Step 12a

With the last swirl, again make the same manipulation as with the first two, duplicate, rotate, and align. We will also add some dots. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a small circle while holding down Shift key. Make it a medium gray with no stroke and position it near the swirl as shown.

Step 12b

Duplicate the circle several times and position it around the swirl to end up with about 10 circles surrounding your shape. Now select all circles, while holding down the Shift key, and go to Object > Transform > Transform each (Alt + Shift + Command + D) and enter these values:

• Scale: 40% horizontal, 40% vertical
• Move: 15 pt horizontal, 5 pt vertical
• Random: checked
• Preview: checked

If you like the result, press OK. If not, then try to change some settings, like scale or move. Your result should be something like the image below.

Step 13

Now when our swirls are ready, we’ll make three brushes out of them. Select the first swirl, go to the brushes palette (F5) and drag-n-drop the shape on the palette. Select Art brush in the window you see next. As your swirl is horizontal, in the art brush options choose horizontal for the direction (however, if you made a vertical one, choose vertical direction of course). Select the Hue Shift colorization method. Name this brush “Swirl 1″ and save it.

Now your newly created brush will appear in the brushes palette. Do the same with two other shapes, naming them “Swirl 2″ (for this one enter 80% for width) and “Swirl 3″ (enter 150% for width and check Proportional).

Building the Composition

Now we come to the most exciting part of this tutorial, building our final composition.

Step 14

Let’s now make our type. Lock the “Swirls” layer and create a new one named “Type.” Grab the Type Tool (T) and type your text. It’s better to use a round sans-serif font (I used Century Gothic Regular) and the font size should be really large (mine was 130 pt). I chose the phrase “I LOVE VECTOR,” so I typed “I VECTOR,” as I’ll later add a heart symbol.

Step 15

Let’s convert the text to a path (Command + Shift + O) and ungroup it. Now, rather than working on the entire text, we ‘ll adjust only one letter first. Choose letter “I,” make it no fill and 1 pt black stroke. Click on the first swirl in the brushes palette. Oh, at last we start having some effect!

Step 16

Now, with the “I” still selected go to the Appearance palette (Shift + F6) and in the flyout menu choose new stroke. With new stroke selected, go to the brushes panel and select “Swirl 2.” Now the letter looks even better!

Step 17

Go ahead and add the third stroke of the last swirly brush, the one with dots. Now you can tweak the settings of either stroke if you want. When you reach the effect you are happy with, go to the Graphic Styles panel. With your letter selected, create a new style named “Black swirly type.” Now you can select the rest of the text and apply the same graphic style on other letters.

Step 18

Our type looks OK now, but you may notice some choppy areas created by corner points. You must remember that corner points are not good for swirls, so we’ll fix it. Select the entire text and go to Filter > Stylize > Round Corners, with a radius of 10 px will be enough. Now your type should look much prettier!

You may want to adjust the kerning now by moving letters a bit to look more harmonious. Also move the “I” letter to the left so that you have enough room for the heart (don’t forget to press Shift while moving to keep the letter properly aligned to the baseline).

Step 19

To make the heart, turn on the rulers (Command + R) and drag a vertical guide between the “I” and “V” letters. Take the Pen Tool and let’s draw the right part of our heart first, choose no fill and a pink 1pt stroke.

Click on the guide to make the top point and drag the handle to the left while holding Shift to create a loop, then click on the right side to create the right anchor point. Finally, click on the guide to create the bottom point and drag a handle to the right while holding Shift for perfectly horizontal handles. See the image below for reference, now you have the right half of your heart created.

Step 20

With a shape selected, grab the Reflect Tool (O) and Alt-click on the guide, choose Vertical and click Copy. Now the heart is ready. Delete the guide now. I have decided to join two halves in the bottom point only: select two neighboring bottom points with Direct Selection Tool (A) and press Alt + Shift + Command + J.

Step 21

Now we’ll repeat Steps 16-17: add strokes to one part of our shape in the Appearance palette and apply swirly brushes to it. For the heart I’ve chosen three 1 pt strokes of pink, yellow, and blue with all three brushes applied.

Step 22

To add a nice detail to the composition, I’ve decided to put three smaller copies above our heart of each color (pink, blue, and yellow). Although it’s possible to simply copy the object three times, transform it and delete unneeded strokes, I wanted to keep all the heart copies as one object. To do it, select a heart and choose the first stroke in the Appearance panel. Now go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and enter these values for the first stroke:

• Scale: 20% horizontal, 20% vertical
• Move: -30 pt horizontal, 35 pt vertical
• Rotate: 20 degrees
• Copies: 1

For the second stroke do the same with the following values:

• Scale: 15% horizontal, 15% vertical
• Move: 30 pt horizontal, 40 pt vertical
• Rotate: 340 degrees
• Copies: 1

And for the third one enter following:

• Scale: 10% horizontal, 10% vertical
• Move: 0 pt horizontal, 60 pt vertical
• Rotate: 5 degrees
• Copies: 1

Now you have a nice detail, and the small hearts are actually effects applied to the major one!

Moreover, you can save the effects applied to the heart shape as a graphic style just like we did with the type, and name it “Colored swirly heart.” This way the same style can be easily applied to any shape with just one click!

Step 23

Finally I made some minor adjustments like tweaking brush settings for both the type and heart and adjusting strokes to my liking. This is what the final result looks like.

And this is the one for those of you who’d like to add more swirls – you might like the frame I created. Create a rounded rectangle almost covering the whole canvas, cut it into four corners with the Scissors Tool (C) and apply the graphic style you created for the type.

You can adjust the brush settings a bit (I removed the third brush stroke). And guess what I put into the corners? These asymmetric flowers are very simple to make. Take any shape we used to make a swirl from Steps 8-10, and run the Average command with Both Axes option chosen – and copy the shape to put it in every corner!

Conclusion

In this tutorial we’ve learned the power of the Average command in Adobe Illustrator and used it to make a nice swirly type effect. I hope it gave you some inspiration, as this effect can produce interesting and unexpected results. Just be creative and have fun experimenting!

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Introduction

Digital printing is by far one of the most exciting developments in the textile industry. Not only does it open up endless opportunities for customization, small run printing, prototyping and experimentation but it also puts textile printing within the budget of your average illustrator.

Digital textile printing can reproduce unlimited colors and shades but – as with most forms of printing – what you see on screen is not necessarily what you get back.

After a long process of trial and error I’ve developed a streamlined process for creating files for digital textile printing. This is the perfect tutorial for people wanting to learn basic file preparation and color management. The skills learned from this tutorial are easily transferable to more complex designs and are simple enough for absolute beginners to start producing patterns quickly with little (to no) Illustrator experience.

Final Textile Print Preview

Below is the print we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Programs: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
• Version: CS4 (preferable)
• Difficulty: Easy
• Estimated Completion Time: 1-2 hours (10mins with pre-prepared artwork)
• Advanced users may want to use their own illustration style.

You Will Learn

• How to prepare a basic vector file for digital textile printing.

You Will Need

• Drawing tablet (preferable)

Step 1a – Set the Workspace

Since we’re making a basic repeating tile, the workspace should be set as a square. I like to use 10×10cm tiles, increase the size of your square for larger repeats.

Step 1b – Set the Color Swatches

When working with files for print it’s best practice to delete all unused Swatches, Gradients, Brushes and Graphic Styles. Doing so makes it easier to manage and save colors later on. To delete all unused swatches simply click Select All Unused in the Panel Menu then click Delete Swatch. If any unused swatches remain, simply select and delete them.

Step 1c – Open the Color Library.

The easiest and most cost effective way to color match a project is to use a Color Library. All major printing companies have their own color libraries available for download. These libraries are composed of swatches that fall within the printers gamut range. If you don’t have a color profile be sure to use colors that aren’t too bright or saturated. If you have downloaded a library, then load it by going to the Panel Menu in the Swatches pane and select Open Swatch Library > Other Library then navigate to your file and click Open.

For this tutorial I’ll be using Spoonflower.com as my printing service. There are many other print bureaus out there, but for the purpose of this tutorial Spoonflower stands out, as it has no minimum order and international shipping. You can find Spoonflower’s color Library for Adobe Illustrator Here.

Step 1d – Make a Color Group

Once the color library is loaded into Illustrator you can choose the colors you want to use. I like to brush the colors next to each other so I can get an idea of how they will sit together in an image. I do this using the Blob Brush (Shift + B) but filled shapes work just as well. Once you have a selection of colors that you’re happy with, drag the Swatches from the color Library into the Swatches Pane. This is why we deleted all the swatches in Step 1b.

Note: Notice that the swatches used here have a white corner on them. This means that they’re Global colors. Global Color Swatches are swatches linked to the fills and lines that use it. If a Global color Swatch is changed, then every color in the document that uses that particular color is also changed. This is extremely helpful for editing a document, such as a pattern, that’s reliant on accurate color management. To change a standard color Swatch to a Global swatch, double-click on the color in the swatches pane (being careful not to have any objects selected) and select Global, then click OK.

Another way to keep track of your colors is to make a color Group. To make a color Group select the colors in your swatch pallet (Command-click) then click the New color Group button at the bottom of the Swatches pane, this will open a dialogue where you can name your color Group. You can also save these swatches for later use by going to the Panel Menu in the Swatches pane and select Save Swatch Library ASE – Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE swatches can be used with other adobe programs such as Photoshop).

Advanced: If you’re working from a pre-existing vector file you can create a swatch pallet by selecting your image and clicking the New Color Group button at the bottom of the Swatches pane, this will open the New Color Group dialogue. Name your color group and check Convert Process to Global, then click OK.

To change a color Swatch to make it suitable to print, simply double-click the swatch and change the CMYK values accordingly. If your color is out of gamut (Printable color range) a warning should appear in the Swatch Options dialogue – either manually change the color values yourself or click the yellow alert triangle to change it to the nearest color value that’s within gamut.

If you’re still unsure of how your document will print or want greater accuracy of color I would suggest replacing each swatch with swatches suggested by your printing service. You can do this by loading the printers color library and choosing the colors you want to use. Replace the old swatches by holding down Alt and dragging the new color swatch on top of the color you wish to change. This is where it’s important to have the swatches set to Global, as each of the colors in you image will then change to be the colors you’ve chosen from the library. Easy!

Step 2a – Lets draw!

We now have a set of colors to use in our pattern it’s time to draw. For the absolute beginner – the quickest way to start drawing in Illustrator is to use the Blob Brush (Shift + B). I’ve used the Blob Brush to draw three different objects using the Color Group I defined earlier. To change the settings of the Blob Brush such as size and accuracy, double-click the Blob Brush icon in the Tools Pane.

The basic features of the Blob Brush are Size, Fidelity and Smoothness. Size is self explanatory. Fidelity is how accurate the line is, the higher the value the smoother and less accurate the line will be. Smoothness is the amount of smoothing applied to your stroke – the higher the percentage, the smoother the path.

Note – Advanced Users: You can either draw your own pattern in any method you like and skip to Step 3 to learn how to test your repeat OR if you already have a working repeat pattern you can skip to Step 5 for instructions on exporting your file for print.

Step 2b – Copy and Reflect Objects

Here are four images I’ve drawn using the Blob Brush. As you can see they’re fairly complex. To make the objects easier to work with – select the image with the Selection Tool (V) then press Command + G to group it together, repeat this for each object. Because this is the quick and easy version of how to make a repeating pattern I’m going to copy these four objects to save myself having to draw more.

To do this select the objects you wish to copy, select the Reflect Tool (O) and Command-click on a blank area of the artboard, this will open the Reflect Dialogue. Select Vertical and click Copy. You should now have a reflected copy of your four objects.

Step 2e – Re-Color

We will now re-color the copied objects. Since each object is grouped, this should be fairly easy. Double-click the object you wish to re-color, this will take you to the object’s isolation mode – from there you can re-color your object without accidentally changing the other objects.

To change every instance of a color to another color you can use the Magic Wand Tool (Y). First, double-click the Magic Wand icon in the Tools Pane to bring up its settings, change the Tolerance to 0 – this way you will only select exact color matches. Once the color you wish to change is selected using the Magic Wand, click the color you wish to change it to in your color Library. To exit isolation mode double-click outside of the isolated objects. Repeat this process with each mirrored object.

Step 3 – Arrange

Now that we have our objects, it’s time to arrange them on the artboard – as you can see I’ve added a few hearts, stars and signatures to fill the blank spaces. This layout is looking pretty good to me, but before I export it for print, I want to test my pattern. To do this first draw a square the size of the artboard with the line and fill set to None, then select the square and send it to the back (Object > Arrange > Send to Back).

With the transparent square at the back of your image, use the Selection tool (V) to click and drag a selection box around your artboard. Take the selection and drag it into the Swatches Pane. You should notice a new swatch is created, this is your pattern.

To test your pattern, draw a rectangle anywhere outside of the artboard and fill it with the pattern swatch. Remember to make the rectangle large enough to repeat the pattern a few times, this is better for detecting anything that needs to be changed.

Step 4 – Save As PDF

This is the tricky part. Once your happy with the positioning of the elements save the file as a PDF. One of the most popular file types (and recommended by Spoonflower) is an 8-bit, uncompressed TIFF in the LAB color space, as it’s impossible to export LAB color directly from Illustrator we have to save the image as a PDF and open it in Photoshop. I use PDF as it preserves color values so all the hard work choosing swatches isn’t ruined on export.

Go to File > Save As > PDF (Command + Shift + S). This will open the Adobe PDF Dialogue Box. Go to Output and set the color Conversion to No Conversion, then click OK.

Step 5 – Open PDF in Photoshop

If you haven’t already done so, open the PDF in Photoshop (go to File > Open and select your saved PDF). This will bring up the Import PDF Dialogue. Choose the following settings to import your image: Page Options as Crop to Bounding Box (this will import only what’s inside the artboard) Resolution as 150 pixels/inch (this is the optimal resolution as specified by Spoonflower, other printers may differ – be sure to check.) color Mode as LAB (I will explain LAB color in a moment.) Bit Depth as 8 (again, this is specified by Spoonflower), then Click OK.

LAB color, unlike RGB or CMYK has tones and colors separate so one adjusts without affecting the other. L is light, A and B are color – so if A+B is red you can subtract L to make maroon or add L to make pink.
LAB color is also the only device independent color-space in Photoshop, which makes it perfect for digital fabric printers as they work with color differently to a standard commercial print machine.

Step 6 – Save as a TIFF

Each printer has their own recommended file types, some like jpg some like gif, Spoonflower asks for TIFF (8-bit, uncompressed). I personally like to use TIF because its a lossless file type, which means there is no quality loss due to compression. To save your art as a TIFF go to File > Save As > then choose TIFF – make sure the image compression is set to None, then click OK.

Conclusion:

You should now have a print ready file with (almost) foolproof colors, all you need to do now is go to spoonflower.com, or your preferred printer, and upload the artwork to print.

Useful Links

• Spoonflower – Digital textile printing.
• Trueup – Fabric blog with lots of daily inspiration.
• Digital Textile Design: Portfolio Skills – The best book to date on digital textile design. Lots of tutorials.
• Vectortuts+ – Vectortuts+ has some great pattern packs available for download.

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Final Preview Images

Below are some examples of the effects we’ll be working towards in this tutorial. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour

Step 1

Create a new document of 500px by 500px size. Next, grab the Spiral Tool from the Tools Palette and click on the artboard to open the Spiral Options. Enter 115px for Radius, 90 for Decay and 200 for Segments, as shown below.

Stroke the Spiral with a black color and assign a weight of 0.1pt. Note: We could use any random or hand-drawn shape. For consistency and ease of understanding, we will use a Spiral here.

Step 2

Select the Spiral and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Enter 4 for Size and 30 for Detail. Select “Smooth” from the Points option and hit “OK”.

Step 3

With the Spiral still selected, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Tweak. Enter 30 for Horizontal and Vertical values and keep the rest of the values as shown in the red regions below.

Step 4

Select the Spiral and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Next, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Enter 6px for size and 6 for Ridges per segment. Select “Smooth” from the Points option and hit “Ok” to continue.

Keep a backup copy of this result, as we’ll use it later.

Step 5

Select the result and expand it again using Object > Expand Appearance. Next, with Selection Tool (V), resize the entire shape to approximately 1000px by 1000px size, so that it extends the artboard boundaries.

Step 6

The messy hair bunch is almost ready. To make it denser, duplicate the result and place it along the corners of the artboard. Try to play with stroke weight, color and size of the shape to make the result semi-realistic. In the result below, I have used 90% black for corner copies, and 100% black for the main copy. Finally, group everything (Command + G) and mask it within 500px by 500px clipping rectangle.

Next, we will proceed ahead for another effect.

Step 7: The “Spider Web” effect

Grab the backup copy of Step 4 and open the Appearance Palette using Shift + F6. In the Appearance Palette, double-click on Zig Zag effect.

Next, enter the values as shown in the red regions below and select “Corner” from the Points option.

Step 8

Select the object and expand it using Object > Expand Appearance. Next, with the Selection Tool (V), resize the entire shape to approximately 1000px by 1000px size, so that it extends the artboard boundaries.

Step 9

Next, change the stroke color to White and use this result on any contrasting background, so that it looks like a spider web. Below are some results of this effect on a contrasting background.

Step 10: The “Knife Scratches” effect

With the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle 500px by 500px and fill it with a linear gradient, as shown below.

Step 11

Grab the output of the Spider Web effect and place it above the rectangle. Next, change the Opacity of the “Spider Web” to 80% and blending mode to “Overlay.” The output should be something like below.

Step 12: The Grunge Effect

Select the output of Step 5 or Step 8 and click on “Divide” in the Pathfinder options (Command + Shift + F9). Next, ungroup all using Shift + Command + G.

Step 13

Select everything, remove the stroke and fill it with black. Next, go to Object > Transform > Transform each, and enter the values as shown below.

Hit “Ok” to continue. The grunge result will be something like below.

Conclusion and Scope

We have seen some quick and easy techniques to obtain the hair effect, spider web effect and the grunge effect. The results shown in this tutorial are a few possibilities of this technique.

We can create beautiful backgrounds, colorful threads, broken glass effects, torn papers, bacteria effects and much more using this distortion technique. Hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial.

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In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a wide range of custom swatches using the color blending methods. In the end, we will learn how to organize these swatches into Color groups. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Below are some of the swatches we’ll be creating in this tutorial. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour

Step 1: Understanding the Color Blending Methods

Before proceeding towards the meat of the tutorial, let’s have a brief look towards two different types of color blending methods.

Method 1. Color Blend Using Object > Blend > Make

This method blends two or more colored objects by generating a series of intermediate objects between them.

Method 2. Color Blend Using Edit > Edit Color

This method blends three or more colored objects by filling the intermediate objects with graduated blends. It does not create any new object; rather, it divides the color gradually between the selected objects.

For our purpose, we will use the second method in this tutorial. Let’s proceed ahead!

Step 2: Create a Dummy Swatch

Create a new document. With the Rectangle Tool (M), draw a rectangle of 15px by 15px and fill it with 50% K.

Step 3: Create a Swatch Card

Select the rectangle and go to Object > Transform > Transform Each (Alt + Shift + Command + D). Enter 20px for Horizontal move and click on Copy. Next, press Command + D thirteen more times until you see 15 rectangles as shown below.

Step 4: Discovering the Range Between Two Swatches

To find a range of colors available between two given swatches, color the first and last rectangle with those two master swatches respectively. For example, we want to find 13 color swatches between 100% Cyan and 100% Yellow. Color the first rectangle with 100% Cyan and the last rectangle with 100% Yellow, as shown below.

Step 5: Blending the Colors – Normal Blending Using Method 2

Select all rectangles and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Horizontally. You will find 15 different swatches ranging from 100% Cyan to 100% Yellow. You can broaden the range by increasing the number of rectangles.

Note that the middle swatch is not pure green. It is 50% Cyan and 50% Yellow.

Normal blending yields the swatches whose CMYK sum never exceeds the average CMYK sum of the master swatches. To understand it more clearly, let’s have a look at the example below.

To get full color range, in which the intermediate swatches are rich in color, we will follow another intensive method in next step.

Step 6: Editing the Swatch Card: Full Color Blending Using Method 2

Grab the swatch card that we created in Step 2. Next, we will specify three master swatches: First, middle and the last. The middle swatch should be the union of CMYK values of the first and the last swatch. To make it more precise, we will consider an example. If M1 has C=100, M=0, Y=0, and K=0, and M3 has C=0, M=0, Y=100 and K=0, then the middle swatch i.e. M2 will be C=100, M=0, Y=100 and K=0.

Tip: The Union of 100% and 100% is treated as 100%, whereas, the union of 30% and 40% is taken as their addition. i.e. 70%. All the additions exceeding 100 are treated as 100.

Step 7

Once the master swatches are defined, select rectangles from M1 to M2 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Horizontally. Next, select rectangles from M2 to M3 and blend them horizontally too. The final output will be a full color range from M1 to M3.

Note that the middle swatch (Green) is a pure combination of 100% Cyan and 100% Yellow. Hence, we get a full color range.

Step 8: Multi Color Blending: The Matrix Method

We have seen two different methods of discovering color swatches – The “Normal Blending” and the “Full Color Blending.” To expand more options, we will use the Matrix method. This technique involves the blending of pre-created swatch card with the third set of swatch card. We will use the output of Step 7 to blend with a third color, say, 100% magenta. For this, create six more rows of rectangle sets to form a matrix, as shown below.

Step 9: Define Master Swatches in a Matrix

Select all the rectangles of last row and color them with 100% Magenta. Next, we will define the master swatches for the “Full Color Blending” method.
Note: I will denote each rectangle as RxCy where R and C denotes Row and Column, whereas x and y denotes row number and column number respectively.

Step 10

Select rectangle R4C1 and assign it a CMYK union of R1C1 and R7C1. Next, select rectangle R4C8 and assign it a CMYK union of R1C8 and R7C8. Similarly, select R4C15 and assign it a CMYK union of R1C15 and R7C15. Once the master swatches are defined, we will proceed to blending.

Step 11: Blending the Matrix

Select all rectangles from R1C1 to R4C1 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Vertically. Next, select all rectangles from R4C1 to R7C1 and blend them vertically.

Step 12

Select all rectangles from R1C8 to R4C8 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Vertically. Next, select all rectangles from R4C8 to R7C8 and blend them vertically.

Step 13

Similarly, select all rectangles from R1C15 to R4C15 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Vertically. Next, select all rectangles from R4C15 to R7C15 and blend them vertically. In the next steps, we will follow horizontal blending.

Step 14

Select rectangles from R2C1 to R2C7 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Horizontally. Next, select rectangles from R2C7 to R2C15 and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Blend Horizontally.

Step 15

Repeat Step 14 for each row until you reach to Row 6. The last row need not be blended. After successful horizontal and vertical blending, the end result should look like the one below.

Step 16: Creating Color Groups

Now that the Color Matrix is created, we can organize the swatches of similar kind into Color groups. For this, select all the rectangles of first row and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor with Preset > Color Harmony.

Next, select All from the Colors option and click on the New Color Group icon at the top. The newly created Color Group will appear in the Color Groups section with the name “Artwork Colors.”

To rename it, double-click on the name and enter the new name as “Nature.” Press OK to continue.

The “Nature Color” Group will appear in the Swatches.

Step 17

Using the same procedure, you can select the swatches of similar kind and organize them into Color groups. I have defined seven Color Groups from this Matrix. They are: “Nature,” “Corporate,” “Berries,” “Aqua,” “Kids,” “Forest” and “Valentine.”

Step 18: Using the Color Guide

Until now, we have created custom swatches and organized them into different Color Groups. We can further play with the harmonies of each Color Group using the Color Guide Panel. For this, select any Color Group in the Swatches panel and go to Window > Color Guide (Shift + F3). You will see harmony variations of the Color Group based on the current fill color in the Tools panel.

Note: There are only three options available for complete transition of the selected Color group with a third Color. They are: Tints/Shades, Warm/Cool and Vivid/Muted.

To get more transitions of a Color Group with custom colors, we can use the Matrix method of Step 8. In the example below, I have shown transitions of the “Nature” Color Group with White and Magenta using the Matrix method.

Conclusion and Scope

For browsing more and more color options, you can select any row or column from the color matrix and blend it with the third set of color using the procedure described in this tutorial. The “Normal Color Blending” is useful in finding shades of a single swatch, whereas “Full Color Blending” is effective in finding the multiplied output of two swatches.

The Matrix method is another effective procedure to broaden the possibilities. All these methods are experimented for on-screen view of CMYK colors only, and does not guarantee printing in a proper gamut. I will still follow Pantone color books when it comes to standard printing. I hope you like this custom technique of creating and organizing swatches!

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours

Step 1

Create a new document 11 inches by 8.5 inches. It can be CMYK or RGB, whichever you prefer. Before beginning, set up a color group of about eight different blues. I will refer to these colors as “1″ for the lightest, “8″ for the darkest, and the others numbered accordingly.

Step 2

Draw a square the same dimensions as your artboard, and fill it with a medium blue from your color group. Go to Object > Create Gradient Mesh, then enter 6 rows and 6 columns.

Step 3

Now manipulate the mesh points to create an amorphous, abstract background. Click individual mesh points and color them with different blues from the color group. It doesn’t have to be complicated. This will serve as an out-of-focus landscape or cityscape in the distance.

Step 4

Lock the layer with the background on it, and create a new one above it. Draw several circles of various sizes, and place them randomly above the background. Fill the circles with some of the lighter blues, and change the Opacity to 60% – 80%. These circles are meant to look like lights in the background.

Place lighter circles over the lighter areas of the mesh, and more transparent ones over the darker areas. Select all the circles and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter 4 pixels. Select a few circles and change the blur to 6 pixels.

This will give more depth to the “lights.” It’s okay if some of the circles fall off the artboard &mdash you can trim those later. The illustration should look like the image below.

Step 5

Lock the circles layer and create a new one above it. Draw an ellipse, and fill it with a four-stop radial gradient like the one below. Adjust the gradient so that the white is at the bottom edge of the ellipse. The Gradient Annotator in Illustrator CS4 makes this somewhat easier, but you can achieve the same result with earlier versions.

Step 6

Apply an Inner Glow to the ellipse, as below. Note: This step is optional. Raster effects may use more processing power, and thus slow things down. Proceed according to the speed of your computer.

Step 7

Draw a long, somewhat thin ellipse, and fill it with the lightest blue (Blue #1). Go to Effect > Warp > Arc, and enter the values below. This will be the highlight of the raindrop. Place the warped ellipse over the gradient-filled ellipse you just created.

Arrange it at the top and rotate it off-center. Enlarge or reduce it to fit the raindrop. When it looks good, go to Object > Expand Appearance. Apply a radial gradient to the highlight, as below, and change the Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 8

Duplicate the original ellipse, send it behind, and fill it with a subtle, dark linear gradient. Change the Blending Mode to Multiply and the Opacity to 80%. This will be the shadow of the raindrop.

Step 9

Duplicate the raindrop twice. Adjust the gradients on each; One will be a lighter version of the original, the other will be a darker version.

Step 10

Drag each drop into the Symbols panel. Choose Graphic as the Type, and name each new symbol if you like. I named mine “Droplet Light,” “Droplet Medium” and “Droplet Dark.”

Step 11

Now that you have the symbols created, tear of the Symbolism Tools by clicking and holding the Symbol Sprayer Tool (Shift + S). Move your mouse over the vertical tearoff bar, then release. This will make it easier to use the various symbol tools. Trivia: All the Symbolism tools start with the letter ‘S.’

Step 12

Select the Symbol Sprayer Tool, click on the lighter droplet symbol, and drag the cursor across the top third of the illustration. Spray a few symbols, then Command-click to deselect and start another group.

Loosely cover the top third with droplets. Do the same thing for the middle third, and the bottom third, using the respective droplet symbols for those sections (medium and dark).

Change the diameter of the tool, if necessary, by pressing the right and left brackets. You will end up with several symbol instances, and your illustrations should look something like the image below.

Step 13

Now select the Symbol Sizer Tool. Randomly click on the symbols to change their size. Hold down the Alt key to reduce the size. You want to end up with lots of different sizes of raindrops. It may take a few tries to get the hang of it. Try clicking directly on top of a droplet to change its size. To further randomize the symbols, use the Symbol Shifter Tool to move them around.

Step 14

You can duplicate individual symbol instances, and re-size them as a group. Try squishing some of the drops so they are longer than they are wide. It’s up to you how wet you want your window to be, so make as many copies of the symbol instances as you like, then rearrange them to look random and natural.

Once you’re satisfied with the raindrops, expand the Symbols by going to Object > Expand. This will result in individual symbols, so go to Object > Expand again to release the symbols to objects.

Step 15

You can now make final tweaks to the raindrops. Randomize the size and placement, and separate drops that overlap. Your illustration should look something like the image below.

Step 16

Now for some finishing touches. Make a new layer above the “circles” layer, and below the “drops” layer. Use the Blob Brush Tool (Shift + B) and draw a few loose drips, starting at the top of the page.

Fill the shapes with a dark gradient (Blue 8 to Blue 6), and change the blending mode in the Transparency panel to Soft Light. Adjust the gradients so that the drips fade into the window pane.

Conclusion

Press the right bracket key to enlarge the diameter of the Blob Brush and, if you like, draw other shapes or words on the window, as if you are making marks with your finger on a wet window. Finally, trim off the circles and drips that extend beyond the artboard, and you’re done!

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Step 1

Make a circle in Illustrator using the Ellipse Tool, then fill that circle with simple radial gradient.

Step 2

Now keep this circle selected and click on top menu Object > Expand.

Step 3

You will see the Expand Dialogue Box, just Select Fill and Gradient Mesh and then click OK.

Step 4

Now your circle should look like this. There is a Clipping mask on it, which we have to remove.

Step 5

Keeping your Circle selected, from the top menu click Object > Clipping Mask > Release (Command + Alt + 7) to release the clipping mask.

Step 6

Now right-click on your circle and click Ungroup (Command + Shift + G) to ungroup.

Step 7

Now deselect your circle by clicking anywhere on the artboard (white area). Now again select your circle and move it a bit away from its initial position. You will see another path which was actually the path for the clipping mask, just select this path and delete it as we don’t need this.

Step 8

Here you go! You have to make the radial, polar mesh in Illustrator. You can create it by adding some mesh points with the help of the Mesh Tool.

This concludes the first part of this tutorial, in which you learned the basic method of making a radial mesh. You can use this radial mesh to create many radial things like a CD, or if you put some more effort in you can create Alloy Rims for a Wheel too. For now I’m showing you how to create a CD out of this radial mesh.

Step 9

Now for making it a CD, select it with Selection Tool (black arrow) and fill it with a gray color.

Step 10

With the help of the Mesh Tool, put 4 mesh points as shown. These point should be exactly in the middle of previous points otherwise direction lines would be little bit twisted and then it will take time to straighten them.

Step 11

With the help of Mesh Tool, put some more mesh points as shown below. These points might not be straight as shown in the image, You have to straighten them with the help of the Mesh Tool. Using the Mesh Tool, click on direction lines and slightly twist them to make them straight.

Step 12

With the help of the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) select points as shown below.

Step 13

Now press the Shift Key and select lower points as shown (the Shift key helps you to select multiple points at once).

Step 14

As you have four points selected, put a light blue color with the help of the Color Sliders (please don’t select some dark colors, as it will not look good).

Step 15

Now select eight points symmetrically and add a light purple color.

Step 16

I put more colors following the same procedure as above; the result will be something like that shown below.

Step 17

Now make a copy of this circle. Just select it with the Selection Tool and drag it while pressing the Alt Key.

Step 18

Now make a circle of exactly the same size and fill it with a dark gray color.

Step 19

From the Transparency palette change the mode to Multiply for that dark gray circle.

Step 20

Now select the first mesh circle and dark gray circle and align them to center (both horizontally and vertically) and Group them by pressing Command + G.

Step 21

Now rotate this group by 90 degrees and scale it a little.

Step 22

Now select this group along with that copy which we took in Step 17, while keeping that copy on the top. You can arrange it and bring it to front.

Step 23

Align them Center horizontally and vertically.

Step 24

Now draw another Circle but small in size, then make a copy of it and resize that copy as shown below.

Step 25

Now select both of these small circles and align them center. Press Command + 8 (Object > Compound Path > Make), to make a Compound path of these two small circles.

Step 26

Now make one more compound path as we made in steps 24 and 25, but this time we need a thin ring. Then make a small circle.

Step 27

Align all of these center (the two rings and small circle), then finally group them by pressing Command + G.

Step 28

Now select all and align them to center.

Step 29

Now make two circles. One should be about the size of our CD and other small one should be about the size of the hole in the CD. Select both of these circles and align them to center.

Step 30

Now press Command + 8 to make it a compound path. We will use it as a clipping mask for our CD.

Step 31

Select all and align everything to Center. Press Command + 7 (Object > Clipping Mask > Make) to make a Clipping Mask.

Step 32

There you go. Our CD is Completed!

Conclusion

Now put some Drop Shadow by going to Effects > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Also, write some text and make a simple background. And our image is complete. Have fun applying radial meshes to other objects!

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator
• Version: CS4
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour

Step 1

Open a new document and select the Rectangular Tool Grid in the Tool Bar.

Step 2

First set the fill to black and the stroke to white. Then click once on the artboard and the Rectangular Grid Option window will pop-up. Apply the settings you see in the image below.

I chose an easy to divide size (100 x 500), so the grid we are setting-up will give us square fields. Choose 50 for Horizontal Dividers and 10 for Vertical Dividers. Check Use Outside Rectangle As Frame and Fill Grid, then click OK.

Step 3

This is what the rectangle should look like.

Step 4

Select the just created shape and open the Pathfinder Palette. Click the Divide option.

Step 5

Now we have squares with a white border and a black fill.

Step 6

Zoom in and grab the Direct Selection Tool (A). Click in one of the squares. You can see that each square has a white stroke and the black fill. If you want to add some windows, you can just change the fill to another color to give the illusion of a window.

Step 7

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to crete several shapes around the grid shape to make it look like a front view of a skyscraper. Fill them with a different color and stroke.

Step 8

Repeat Steps 1 – 7 and choose different colors. In the example below, I chose yellow and changed some of the squares to a lighter yellow representing windows.

Step 9

Let’s create another skyscraper with another easy trick. Create a rectangle and fill it with black.

Step 10

Create a small white square and duplicate it.

Step 11

Select both squares and open the Blend Options via Object > Blend > Blend Options. Choose Specified Steps: 6 and click "OK."

Step 12

Expand the blend (Object > Blend > Expand) and duplicate the row of squares. Repeat the Blend Options of Specified Steps.

Step 13

Expand the blend again. Now we created another skyscraper shape.

Step 14

Below you can see examples of the front views of the skyscrapers I created. Drag all of these shapes into the Symbol Palette. We will need them in the following step.

Step 15

Create a rectangle that is about the same size as the skyscrapers. Now open the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options. Apply the settings of the image below.

Step 16

Keep the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options open and click on the Map Art button. Since we dragged each skyscraper shape into the Symbols Palette, we can now chose one and apply it to the rectangle. You can find it under the Symbol tap on the left. Since we have a simple shape, we will apply it to the first surface. Click "OK."

Step 17

Select the new 3D shape and apply a Drop Shadow. This is optional.

Step 18

Repeat Step 15 to 16 and create several more skyscrapers.

Step 19

Keep adding more of the shapes.

Step 20

Layer them in front and in the back so it looks more like a tilted city.

Step 21

This is what you should have after several added and layered skyscrapers.

Step 22

Create a big rectangle and fill it with a radial black to white gradient. Place the highlight towards the top.

Step 23

Select all of the skyscraper shapes and group them (Command + G). Place them on top of the just created background shape. For my liking they look a little odd. Let’s give then a more surreal look.

Step 24

Select the skyscrapers and expand their appearance. ( Object > Expand Appearance).

Step 25

Then reflect them and duplicate them.

Step 26

Select the shapes and transform them by selecting E.

Step 27

Then click with the mouse on the right-bottom corner and press Command + Shift + Control and start dragging towards the left. This will skew the shapes.

Step 28

This is what it should like with the transform effect applied.

Step 29

Place the transformed skyscrapers onto the background.

Step 30

Repeat the transform effect with the other shapes.

Step 31

Now duplicate the skyscrapers and built up a small city street by placing them onto the background shape.

Conclusion

I created a few street shapes with the Pen Tool (P), a sign hanging from the top and a thin wire running across. Nothing special, nor complicated, but just a few more fun elements. I hope you enjoyed this beginner tutorial and successfully made your own vector city!

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