Illustrator gradient question
Tulip Wine (8 pencils) | Wed, 2005-06-01 09:49Hello,
I've been watching this blog for awhile, and i love it.
After not getting any further with searching in google, I hope you guys can help me out.
I have a problem with Illustrator,
I want a gradient that follows the curve of the object (1.)
I found (2.) in an illustrator file, but i have no idea how its done.
I know you can do it with the mesh-tool, but that doesn't work at the object that I'm working on
I hope someone has the answer
Greets
Tulip Wine
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
I found out you can do it using the blend tool, making two lines of a different color, and the blend tool will calculate all colors between the two lines
Actually I've wondered about this too. Can you be a little more specific in the procedure you followed? Thanks.
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog
you make two strokes, one dark blue one white, these are the two you want to make the gradient between, then you can either use the blend tool (w) and click on the two lines, or select the two objects and go to object>blend>make.
you can also adjust the settings object>blend>blend options
Tulip Wine
The individual paths in the blend remain editable. So you can tweak the shapes and colors, and the blend will automatically adjust.
Got it. Cool! Thanks for the info.
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog
This is the way you used to have to make ALL gradients (clicking two object points with the blend tool). I'm always suprised that the tool is still available, you would think they would have an easier way to do it by now.
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Veerle have a cool flash tutorial on this tool.
Check it out. She also have a list of other great tutorials on her site. Great resources.
http://www.duoh.com/varia/illustrator/
Thanks, a great tutorial
After watching that, I have another question.
I'm quite new to Illustrator and the pen tool is still tricky for me to use. I want to ask, after she made that first line, she then went a little further and then made a curve. I know that a curve is made my clicking and then dragging the pen but how did she like get it so accurate? Like she made that line first but then it disappeared?
For me, I can never get a line, a curve and another straight line so perfect. I know I'm missing something in the process.
Sounds silly I know, but hopefully someone understands.
In Illustrator's pen tool if you use "shift-click" you are constrain to draw a line either 0, 45, or 90 degrees from one point to another. So, with the pen tool selected, she probably "click" to establish the first point and then "shift-click-drag" for the second point, the drag gave her a bezier curve. I hope this helps.
Also, a great time saver with the pen tool is these keys when editing a lot of anchor points, or matching a complex graphic when auto trace won't do.
regular pen tool will automatically change when put on a selected path or anchor point to the other states of the pen tool. On the path it changes to ADD anchor point, and on a selected anchor point it switches to a DELETE anchor point - good for fast editing of anchor points.
but with the pen tool selected if you hit the ALT/option key it switches to a Convert anchor point (shrt-cut Shift +C). If you haven't used it it edits anchor points to allow them to revert to sharp corners, and easily rounding the corners out. And with the Ctrl/CMD key pressed switches over to the direct select key.
5, count'em five tools for the price of one.
It slices, it dices, it even juliannes fries.
PS i am a PC user by night.... so the keys start off with pc=>then to mac
Chris Brophy
Iklectek Designs
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