Quickie Tips: Illustrator

Illustrator is my most used piece of software for graphic design projects (never mind the Sims, I’m dealing with business). Web design projects inevitably turn into a Photoshop heavy ordeal, but somehow I still get to use Illustrator. Yes, sometimes it is easier just to layout an entire page in Illustrator, and I’m not the only one who does it; you know who you are. But it’s all good, unless you aren’t. Good at Illustrator, that is. What is one to do?

Well if you understand bezier curves, text boxes, and gradient mesh, this article is for you (you don’t have to know gradient mesh, but if you haven’t used it, try it out).

Work Smart, Not Hard

I’m not a really great at Traditional Art, so sitting down to draw some semi realistic object could take me some time. But, wait! There’s the shapes tool in Illustrator. Combine that with the line tool and you’ve got yourself a handy way to make some complex objects.

First we need to open the pathfinder window (Window > Pathfinder) if it’s not open already, locate the pallet that contains the pathfinder window (default: bottom-right; pictured). Hover your cursor over each button to familiarize yourself with its action.

Shape Modes: add to shape area, subtract form shape area, intersect shape area, and exclude overlapping shape area.

Pathfinders: divide, trim, merge, crop, outline, and minus back.

It is helpful to note that the Shape Modes actions do not permanently alter shapes, unless the expand button is clicked after having performed a Shape Mode action. All Pathfinder actions immediately alter the shapes.

Pathfinder In Use

Ok, so lets make a complex object out of shapes. Select the ellipse shape tool in the toolbar. Hold the shift key so you can draw a perfect circle. Atl-Drag (Ctrl-Drag Mac) to copy the circle. Do this a couple of times. Then align the circles so they overlap in places. I decided to create an overlapping crescent shape with six iterations (pictured).

Select all of the circles, or whatever shape you decided to use, and use the divide pathfinder action. This creates many more separate shapes where they overlapped. They are automatically grouped, so to adjust each one it needs to be ungrouped. Ungroup by using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + G (Cmd + Shift + G). Feel free to change the shapes’ color, reposition, and delete. I seem to have come up with a pretty interesting icon (pictured).

The Sky’s The Limit

By just using the pathfinder actions, one can create some complex looking drawings. But if you enjoy drawing with the pen tool, be sure to use the pathfinder functions. They will help you combing your pen drawn shapes into those more complex pen drawings. I, for example decided to draw Mickey Mouse (you never know when you might need that vector of Mickey). He is made up of three ellipses (his ears are a bit squashed). See if you can tell how I could have used the pathfinder tool. I did actually use a couple (divide, add to shape area, and subtract from shape area) about six times.