Blog Archives

Single Line Icon - Shower Head

3/23/2020

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Select all the shapes and use the Unite mode in the Pathfinder Panel to join them together as one unit.

Select the lower edges of the drips with the Direct Selection Tool to activate the Corner Widgets. Pull the corners in to round them.

Select the ends of the longest rectangle with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.

Select upper left and right corners of the largest rectangle with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.

Select the right end of the inside slit with the Direct Selection Tool and pull in the Corner Widgets.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Draw an oval, no fill color.

Select the oval and choose Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -25 and click OK.

This will create an oval smaller than the original.

Select the two ovals and duplicate them so the bottom of the outside oval touches the bottom of the inside oval

This will create two sets of ovals.

Select all the ovals and choose the Shape Builder Tool (Shift + M). Drag the Shape Builder Tool over the sections 2, 5 and 4.

Then drag the Shape Builder Tool over the sections 1, 6 and 3.

This will create 2 shapes that form the optical illusion.

Apply a gradient to one of the shapes.

Apply a gradient that is reversed direction to the other gradient.

Add a heavy stroke to the shapes.

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.

Start with a circle, add a fill and a darker stroke.

Draw an oval and fill it with a lighter fill color. Select both shapes.

Choose Object > Blend >Blend Options. Set the Spacing to Smooth Color. Click OK.

Choose Object > Blend > Make to blend the colors.

Create another oval and fill it with white.

With the Direct Selection Tool click on the bottom handle and move it up to round the bottom.

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.

Draw another oval.

Apply the same white to transparent gradient but change the gradient type from linear to radial, having it go from white to transparent.

Create 2 circles, overlap then with a slight offset.

Select the shapes and use the Pathfinder Minus Front Mode.

Fill the shape with white and place it on the shape.

Choose Effect > Blur> Gaussian Blur.

Set the Opacity of the shape to 45% to lighten the shape.

To create the connectors, create 2 rectangles one with a light fill, one with a dark fill.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the four outer corners to activate the corner widgets.

Pull the corner widgets in toward the center.

Select both shapes and choose Object > Blend > Make.

Choose the Free Transform Tool and select the Perspective Distort Mode.

Select the top part of the connector and pull the connector wider.

Put the connectors on the sphere, add other spheres and scale them to size.

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.

Move the paddles around the color wheel to change the colors of the spheres.

Add more spheres and connectors, change the colors as you see fit.

Create an oval, fill it with black.

Add a Gaussian Blur effect to the oval.

This will be the shadow under the connectors.

In the opacity window, set the Blend Mode to Multiply

Move the shadows under the connectors onto the sphere for the anchor shadows.

To create the look of data on the sphere, create some lines and shapes.

Choose Window > Symbols and open the Symbol Panel. Select the data shapes and drag them into the Symbols Panel. Name the symbol.

Draw a circle, stroke with not fill color.

With the Direct Selection Tool, select one side point and delete it, removing half the circle.

Select the shape and choose Effect > 3D > Revolve. Click the Preview Button. This will make a sphere.

Click the Map Art button. Choose the newly added Symbol from the drop down menu.

Scale and rotate the data set symbol to have it map to the sphere. Click the INVISIBLE GEOMETRY button to make the sphere transparent.

The artwork will map to the sphere but the sphere will be invisible.

The data bits will now look like a sphere.

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.

Use the Group Selection Tool (nested in the with the Direct Selection Tool) and select the outer rings of the sphere and delete them.

This will leave just the data. Choose View > Preview to go back to the normal view.

Scale the data to fit it to the sphere.

Select the data bits and apply the white to transparent gradient with a radial gradient. This will give the data a glow look.

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.

Create a rectangle and fill it with a black to white gradient in the Swatches Panel.

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.

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.

This will create a halftone effect.

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.

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.

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.

In the Properties panel (top) or the Control Bar (bottom) click the Expand button to convert the traced image into a vector shape.

Add a color fill to the halftone.

To distort the halftone, choose Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Warp… Choose from a list of warp modes.

Adjusting the warp type and setting will result in some fascinating results.

To Edit the warp options, choose Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope Options…

There are several warp effects that can be used.

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.

Choose from a list of Editing tools. Double-click on any of the tools to open the specific tool dialog box.

This is the Bloat Tool options. Set the size of the brush and the options.

Apply the specific edit tool (in this case the Bloat Tool) to the gradient to create interesting shapes.

The fun is limitless with the Envelope Distort features.

Add colors and have fun!

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Design Points n PixelS

Single Line Icon - Shower Head

Simple Optical Illusion

Space Molecules

Halftone Effects & Envelope Distort

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