How to Create Smoky Brushes and Type In Illustrator CS4
Tutorial Details
- Program: Illustrator
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion Time: 30 minutes
Download Source Files
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
I’ve always been fascinated by smoke, and have experimented a lot with it. So in this tutorial, I explain how to create realistic smoke, make it into a brush and use it for type. Let’s light up our vector cigarettes and get started smokin’!
Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in October of 2009.
Step 1
Create a new document (Command + N) for print in A3 (297mm by 420mm).
Step 2
Make a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M) that covers the whole artboard and make it black. While the rectangle is selected go to Object > Lock > Selection (Command + 2), which will lock the object so that you can’t select it.
Take your Pen Tool (P) and make a vertical stroke (click to make a start point, then click somewhere over or under the start point while holding Shift to make a vertical stroke). Make the stroke white and the fill blank. Set the weight of the stroke to 0,05mm.
If your units are set to something else, like points or inches, make sure that you type in “mm” behind 0,05, or hit Command + K. Choose units and display performance from the drop-down menu and change the units to millimeters.
Step 3
While your stroke is selected grab the Selection Tool (V), then hit enter and type in 0,05mm for horizontal and 0 for vertical. Click copy and hold Command + D (Object > Transform > Transform Again) for around 20sec, which will perform the Tranform Again command multiple times.
Step 4
While all of your strokes are selected, set the blend mode to Screen and Opacity to 8. Then group it (Command + G).
Step 5
Take your Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape that looks something like that shown below.
Step 6
Now for the magical step! Make sure that the shape you just made is on the top and click it, then hit Command + Shift + Right Bracket key (Object > Arrange > Bring to Front). Select the path and the strokes and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Top Object (Command + Alt + C). Check that the Blend Fidelity is set to 100 (Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope Options, there you should set the Fidelity to 100).
Now that’s pretty cool, but if you take a closer look, you will see that the strokes are pretty clear. If you do not intend to make a stroke out of this you can fix it by clicking Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7.0px, but since we are going to make a stroke out of it, we’ll do that later (shapes you want to turn into strokes can’t have effects like this one added).
Step 7
Now drag your smoke into the brushes panel. If you can’t see it then hit F5. Check the New Art Brush and hit OK.
Step 8
Name your brush whatever you want to, set the Direction to Up, and Method to Tints and Shades, then hit OK.
Step 9
Now you have your brush, but do you have something to use it for? If yes, remember to chose Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 0.7px when you have assembled your brush. If no, continue reading.
Take you Pencil Tool (N) and draw some letters, one letter at a time. Group them, add the stroke and set the stroke weight to 0,5pt.
Step 10
Copy your smoky letters (Command + C) and paste them behind (Command + B). Set the stroke weight to 3 pt. Now go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7 px.
Yes, this is a Photoshop effect, so it will rasterize, but if you hit Command + K and check the Scale Strokes and Effects, then you’ll be fine when you want to scale it.
Final Image
I hope you learned something new, and that it will come in use sometime, if it does, I would love to see what you make out of it.
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By Mathias M. Stav
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Leo Blue86, it might be because you forgot to set the Group (vertical lines) opacity to 8. I forgot it my first time trying.
My problem… I got stuck on step 6. I can’t see any of the white/gray streaks in the smoke the way your photo is. If I use Gaussian blur after step 6, It kind of does look like smoke, but I really like the effect the way it is in the photo, how it’s stringy. How can I do that? I don’t know what i’m doing wrong.
Awesome tutorial. The only problem is its a monster on the cpu at the end, esp with gausian blur it takes a million years for my computer to do its thing. makes me want to get a phatter one so i can blow big clouds of smoke all over the artboard. 4 stars on the tut thou!
not able to convert as art brush….. error message is coming…..
I can’t convert it in art brush, maybe missed one step…
This is doable in CS3 also, isn’t it?
Great tutorial!
Very short and straight forward, but I am lost on step 10. How did you make that letters into smokey letters? and please tell me how to use the brush that you created?
Mission Complete! Thank you good information.
great lesson. i will definatly be finding a use for this.
Having BIG problems. I have been doing this over and over with the same results. In the end it just turns out to be a white blob with an appearance not even close to what it turns out…I am going to try and use this effect soon so I kinda need to know what I did wrong so I can fix it…
I agree. I followed the steps, but when applying the art brush to the letters, it skews terribly looking more like a unreadable blow. I tried everyway to adjust art brush, but nothing works. Definetly a step is missing here.
Thanks for this “tuts” – 2 things i noticed, 1: make the strokes (Step 4) not to long, as this will give a “giro sketch” feel and 2: if you are using CS5 DONT gaussian blur BEFORE you make it to a Art Brush. Hope is useful
albert
Well I feel like a dunce…
I had all the steps down except one small detail… DO NOT FILL THE LINE THAT YOU CREATE. Just add the stroke and set the transparency to 80%.
I was applying a fill to the line every time and got nothing but a blob.
DO NOT FILL THE LINE!!!
HI Thanks for sharing this…. I’ve had a bit of trouble with the ‘transform’ part of the instructions. You say ‘copy’ then transform (I’m in CS3 btw) but that doesn’t make lots of copies…. so I made them by hand by repeatedly copying and pasting. When I do the envelope distort thing i get just lines. I can’t blur them as the gausian blur option is greyed out…. hmmm. I’m dying to get this effect right. You’re a star for sharing…
Hey, I keep getting wire lines. Everything comes out as white wires, no smoke. Thanks.
Is there a way to make the smoke a different color, other than white?
Fantastic effect and a fantastic tutorial. Much appreciated!