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Design Points n PixelS


Single Line Icon - Shower Head

3/23/2020

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Create icons can be made a lot easier when using a Grid. Illustrators grid is easy to set up, your creations can snap to the grid making icon create a quick and easy task. See how easily this abstract shower head icon can be created.
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Set up the grid structure that will appear behind the artwork. Go to Preferences > Grids & Guides. I use millimeters as they are base10 so easy to create content in units of 10. Set the Guideline every at 10mm. Set the subdivisions as 10.
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To turn the underlying grid on your document, choose View > Show Grid. Choose Snap to Grid so the shapes will snap to the grid automatically.
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Start you creation by creating a rectangle 10 units wide, 2 units high. Below that create a rectangle 6 units wide, 2 units high. Repeat both shapes again. 

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When you see the grid, you will notice that the main guides are a bit bolder and the subdivision are a bit lighter. This gives you a good idea of the block of 10 units and makes it easy to use that as a reference when creating. 
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Create a rectangle 46 units wide, 5 units high. Create another rectangle 46 units wide , 3 units high 2 units down from the upper rectangle. 
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Create "drips" using rectangles that are 2 units wide. Make each one a varied height to create the water drip effect. Start them 2 units in from the edge. 

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Add a 3 unit wide, 2 unit high rectangle at the far left between the two large rectangles. Make the lower large rectangle 50 units wide (2 units longer on each side).
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Select all the shapes and use the Unite mode in the Pathfinder Panel to join them together as one unit. 
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Select the lower edges of the drips with the Direct Selection Tool to activate the Corner Widgets. Pull the corners in to round them. 

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Select the ends of the longest rectangle with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.
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Select upper left and right corners of the largest rectangle with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.
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Select the right end of the inside slit with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.

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Select the top ends of the water drips with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.
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Select the outer ends of the threaded part with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.
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Select the inner ends of the threaded part with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.

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Select the line segment at the right middle and delete the line with the Direct Selection Tool. In the Stroke panel, round (hot dog) the ends of the stroke.
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Add a few circles 2 units x 2 units. Increase the stroke weight and add a color to the stroke. Done!
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Simple Optical Illusion

3/15/2020

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Here is a simple optical illusion. Just a few ovals and a gradient makes this happen. It is hard to comprehend but easy to build. 
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Draw an oval, no fill color.
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Select the oval and choose Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -25 and click OK. 
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This will create an oval smaller than the original.

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Select the two ovals and duplicate them so the bottom of the outside oval touches the bottom of the inside oval
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This will create two sets of ovals. 
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Select all the ovals and choose the Shape Builder Tool (Shift + M). Drag the Shape Builder Tool over the sections 2, 5 and 4. 

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Then drag the Shape Builder Tool over the sections 1, 6 and 3. 
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This will create 2 shapes that form the optical illusion. 
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Apply a gradient to one of the shapes. 

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Apply a gradient that is reversed direction to the other gradient. 
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Add a heavy stroke to the shapes. 
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Edit the colors in the gradient to change the color of the gradient. That simple!
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Space Molecules

3/8/2020

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Create these spheres with a simple blend and a few highlights, add some connectors and them some cool effects to make it look like data using the 3D effect. Futuristic cool.
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Start with a circle, add a fill and a darker stroke. 
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Draw an oval and fill it with a lighter fill color. Select both shapes.
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Choose Object > Blend >Blend Options. Set the Spacing to Smooth Color. Click OK.

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Choose Object > Blend > Make to blend the colors. 
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Create another oval and fill it with white. 
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With the Direct Selection Tool click on the bottom handle and move it up to round the bottom.

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Fill the shape with a gradient. Make on color stop white, the other color stop set the opacity to 0%. Apply the gradient to the upper shape with the white at the top, fading to nothing at the bottom.
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Draw another oval.
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Apply the same white to transparent gradient but change the gradient type from linear to radial, having it go from white to transparent. 


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Create 2 circles, overlap then with a slight offset. 
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Select the shapes and use the Pathfinder Minus Front Mode. 
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Fill the shape with white and place it on the shape. 

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Choose Effect > Blur> Gaussian Blur.
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Set the Opacity of the shape to 45% to lighten the shape. 
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To create the connectors, create 2 rectangles one with a light fill, one with a dark fill. 

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Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the four outer corners to activate the corner widgets. 
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Pull the corner widgets in toward the center.
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Select both shapes and choose Object > Blend > Make.

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Choose the Free Transform Tool and select the Perspective Distort Mode.
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Select the top part of the connector and pull the connector wider. 
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Put the connectors on the sphere, add other spheres and scale them to size. 

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To change the color of the spheres, select the spheres and choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. Click the EDIT tab and lock the colors together with the link in the lower right corner. 
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Move the paddles around the color wheel to change the colors of the spheres. 
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Add more spheres and connectors, change the colors as you see fit.

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Create an oval, fill it with black. 
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Add a Gaussian Blur effect to the oval.
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This will be the shadow under the connectors. 

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In the opacity window, set the Blend Mode to Multiply
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Move the shadows under the connectors onto the sphere for the anchor shadows. 
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To create the look of data on the sphere, create some lines and shapes. 

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Choose Window > Symbols and open the Symbol Panel. Select the data shapes and drag them into the Symbols Panel. Name the symbol. 
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Draw a circle, stroke with not fill color. 
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With the Direct Selection Tool, select one side point and delete it, removing half the circle. 

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Select the shape and choose Effect > 3D > Revolve. Click the Preview Button. This will make a sphere. 
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Click the Map Art button. Choose the newly added Symbol from the drop down menu.
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Scale and rotate the data set symbol to have it map to the sphere. Click the INVISIBLE GEOMETRY button to make the sphere transparent. 


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The artwork will map to the sphere but the sphere will be invisible. 
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The data bits will now look like a sphere. 
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Go into outline mode by choosing View > Outline. This will show the sphere and the data bits. Choose Object > Expand Appearance, the choose Object > Expand. 

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Use the Group Selection Tool (nested in the with the Direct Selection Tool) and select the outer rings of the sphere and delete them.
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This will leave just the data. Choose View > Preview to go back to the normal view.
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Scale the data to fit it to the sphere. 

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Select the data bits and apply the white to transparent gradient with a radial gradient. This will give the data a glow look. 
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Rotate the data bits for each sphere. You are done!
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Halftone Effects & Envelope Distort

3/1/2020

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This is a simple and quick way to create a cool halftone vector in Illustrator then edit it with Envelope Distort and the Bloat, Pucker, Twirl, Scallop, Wrinkle and Warp tools. 
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Create a rectangle and fill it with a black to white gradient in the Swatches Panel. 
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Choose Window > Gradient to pen the Gradient Panel. Click on the black color stop to open the swatch panel and choose 90% gray. Having the gradient go to black will create a hard edge at the end of the gradient once it is turned into a halftone. 
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Choose Effect > Pixelate > Color Halftone. Since the gradient is black and white, the angle will not make a difference. Set the radius to 20. A lower numbered radius
will create odd shapes when the halftone is created. 

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This will create a halftone effect. 
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To trace the effect and turn it into a vector, it has to be Rasterized first. Choose Object > Rasterize. Set the Color Mode to grayscale, resolution to Custom and 600 ppi and Background to Transparent. Click OK. 
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A larger rasterized file will give you this warning. It may take a bit of time to process the halftone as an image but will yield a better result. 

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Open the Image Trace Panel from the Window Menu. Set the Mode to Black and White. Threshold to 128 (the middle), Paths at 50%, Corners at 75%, Noise at 25% and click the IGNORE WHITE check box at the bottom. 
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In the Properties panel (top) or the Control Bar (bottom) click the Expand button to convert the traced image into a vector shape. 
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Add a color fill to the halftone. 
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To distort the halftone, choose Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Warp… Choose from a list of warp modes. 

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Adjusting the warp type and setting will result in some fascinating results. 
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To Edit the warp options, choose Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope Options…
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There are several warp effects that can be used. 

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To further edit the halftone once you are done with the distort, choose Object > Envelope Distort > Expand. This will convert it back to an editable vector shape.
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Choose from a list of Editing tools. Double-click on any of the tools to open the specific tool dialog box. 
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This is the Bloat Tool options. Set the size of the brush and the options. 

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Apply the specific edit tool (in this case the Bloat Tool) to the gradient to create interesting shapes. 
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The fun is limitless with the Envelope Distort features. 
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Add colors and have fun!
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