Working With Layers in IllustratorWorking with the layers palette isn't quite as important in Illustrator as it is in Photoshop, but understanding how layers work in this program can improve your workflow.
- Open the layers palette by clicking Window-->Layers
- Rename a layer by double clicking on the name of the layer. This will open the Layer Options dialog where you can change the name, color of the path, and other details.
- Add a new layer by clicking on the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the layers palette.
- If you click on the little arrow on the layer, you will be able to view all of the individual sublayers. Each individual object will be on an individual sublayer.
- To instantly select all objects within a layer, click on the circle that should be to the right of the layer's name.
Width Tool
Keyboard Shortcut: Shift-->W
Illustrator's Width Tool allows the user to change the width of strokes created with the drawing tools, shape tools, or various brushes. You may find it especially helpful when you are designing your organic patterning for project 3 because this tool will let you go back and manually adjust a path that you already created in order to make it look more like flowing calligraphy. Once you've edited a path with the Width Tool, you can also drag that path to the Stroke Panel and save it as a profile that you can instantly apply to other paths.
Before you start, you should have an already existing path that you'd like to alter with the Width Tool. Unlike with a lot of techniques in Illustrator, you do need to make sure the object you're changing is already selected. Instead, just click on the tool and then hover over the object to highlight the path. When the path is highlighted, you should be able to see a series of small hollow diamond shapes, these are the width points, they occur naturally, at any spot where there would normally be an anchor point. You should also notice that there is another width point that appears and disappears anywhere on the path that you hover your cursor.
To edit this path, just click and drag to widen the stroke around that point. As you drag outwards, the width will increase equally on both sides. You can click and drag from anywhere on the path to instantly create and edit from your own width point, or you can click and drag from one of the automatic endpoint width points.
Editing with the Width Tool:
- If the width points are apart from one another, using the Width Tool will make the path gradually widen, or become narrower from one point to the next in a continuous curve. However, try placing multiple width points right on top another and you'll get a sharp break instead, kind of like an arrowhead.
- You can open the Width Point Edit dialog by double-clicking on an existing width point, or the path it's on. Then you can adjust each side of the width point numerically.
- You can edit both sides of width points by clicking and dragging the width point. You can edit only one side of a width point by clicking and dragging one of the width point's handles while holding down the option key.
- You can edit multiple width points at once by shift-clicking the points and then dragging a point, or handle.
Custom Stroke Profiles and the Width Tool:
Once you've become comfortable using the Width Tool in an intuitive way, here are some other things you can do:
- Using the Stroke Panel With the Width Tool: Before working with the width tool, open your Stroke Panel by going up to the top menu and selecting Window-->Stroke. Now go ahead and use the Width Tool on a path. Towards the bottom of the Stroke Panel, there is a drop-down menu called Profile. You should notice a change in the Profile drop-down menu as soon as you use the Width Tool. It should now list a custom profile as your choice. This is because when you use the Width Tool, that edit is temporarily stored in the Stroke Panel as a profile. This is great because it gives you the option to then apply that edit to as many paths as you would like.
- Saving Width Tool Edits as Custom Profiles: If you want to, you can save your temporary custom stroke profile permanently! To save a width custom profile, you should already have your Stroke Panel open, and have used the width tool, so that the temporary custom profile is visible in the Stroke Panel. Then click to open the Profile drop-down menu; when the menu opens, you should see three small icons at the bottom. Click on the icon that is next to the trashcan, this is the Add to Profiles Icon. Then you can name and save your custom profile; it should now be listed in the profile menu for whenever you need to use it.
Drawing Modes: Draw Behind and Draw Inside
Keyboard shortcut for switching between Drawing Modes: shift key-->D
There are three Drawing Modes in Illustrator. You can easily miss the drawing modes icon, it's very tiny, and at the very bottom of the Tools panel. The three modes are Draw Normal, Draw Behind, and Draw Inside. Your default is Draw Normal, this is what you're usually using. To change it, find the Drawing Modes icon. Hold it down to select your mode
Draw Normal - This is the default.
Draw Behind - Once you select select Draw Behind, everything you paste or draw will automatically be the bottom object on your artboard. If you already have an object selected when you switch to this mode, everything you draw will be placed directly behind the selected object. The same thing will happen if the object isn't selected, but you're in Isolation Mode.
Draw Inside -You must have an object already selected in order to use this drawing mode
Gradient Mesh
While you may find many uses for standard linear, or radial gradients while working in Adobe Illustrator, there are probably many instances when you would like to have a more control. Applying a gradiant mesh to shapes will allow you to apply color far more selectively. To work with a gradient mesh, follow these steps:
Create and select the object that you want to work with.
Go up to the top menu and select Object--> Create Gradient Mesh. This will open a dialog menu.
First check the preview box so you can see what you're doing. This should make a grid appear over your shape, along with points at each intersection and around the outside of the shape.
First, in the dialog menu, you can choose how many rows and columns you want in the grid.
Next, select the appearance drop-down menu, and pick one of the three options. If you don't have a fill color already applied to the shape, these choices won't change anything, but if you do, then this option will determine what kind of gradient your shape starts out with. You can pick Flat to keep the fill color as it is, To Center to start out with a gradient that has a highlight at the center and gets darker closer to the edges, or To Edge to start out with a gradient that has the highlight at the edges and gets darker at the center.
Finally, you can enter a percentage for the Highlight option. The higher the percentage, the more extreme your highlight will be. Zero percent highlight will give you a flat solid color even if you have To Center, or To Edge selected for appearance.
Once you're satisfied, click OK. You have now applied a gradient mesh to your shape and you can start working on it.
Select the Mesh Tool. (keyboard shortcut: U) Now you can either select one (or more if you hold down the shift key) of the points on the gradiant mesh, or you can click elsewhere at any spot on the shape to create a new mesh point.
Once you've selected a mesh point, simply click on a color swatch to apply that color selectively where that point is. Keep clicking on points to apply the same colors to more spots. You can select a new color to apply at anytime.
Symbols
Creating and working with symbols can help keep your file sizes small, in addition to letting you duplicate a shape consistently. Also, if you've used a symbol many times in one piece, editing is great because you can simply
Symbol Sprayer Tool
There are th
Effects
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