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Infographic Series - Build a Tree

9/19/2016

Creating a cool tree infographic that can have a great look and have some data points or descriptions can be easy if you know how to master the background grid in Illustrator. This is a quick tree created by using the grid, adding some color, type and line ends to create an engaging infographic. Enjoy!

Start by turning on the background grid under the View menu>Show Grid. Also select Snap To Grid under the same menu.

You can set the grid size under Preferences>Guides & Grids. I set mine to mm, having a gridline every 10mm and 10 subdivisions, one every mm.

Draw a line, snap it to the grid. I made the line wide enough to cover 2 units of the grid to keep things nicely lined up.

Duplicate the lines and snap those to the grid as well.

Then duplicate those sets of lines, snapping them to the grid as well.

Change the color of the stroke if you want.

Select one line with the Direct Selection Tool. Then select the Pen Tool, click on that point to add to the line.

Using the pen tool, click 10 unit UP and 10 units to the side and click, then pull the Pen Tool to create a curve. Pull the Pen Tool until the handle comes out 10 units as well, creating a perfect arc.
Then, click on the end point again with the Pen Tool to pull in the handle on the right side.

Repeat the process again, 10 units over and 10 units up. Then pull the handles 10 units long.

You can use the Pen Tool to add straight segments to the lines as well.

Select the line with the Selection Tool, the open the Stroke Panel and add a round arrow head to the end of the line.

I set the size to 60% of the size of the line to keep it from being too big.

To create the dotted line around the head, create a half circle, then in the Stroke Panel, set the line weight to 6 pt. Set the Cap to rounded. Click on the Dashed Line check box. Set the dash length to 0 and the gap to 12. This will create a dotted line.

Rotate the dotted line into position around the head of the line.

Using the Star Tool, draw a Star and use the UP or DOWN arrows while drawing to add or subtract points on the star.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select all the points.

With the corner widgets selected on the shape, use the Direct Selection tool to pull in the widgets to round the ends of the lines. It doesn't require much movement. Don't pull them all the way in.

Then hold OPTION and click on a corner widget to cycle through the different corners. This is a flat corner that gives you a gear look.

Fill the shape with a color, no stroke. Then draw a smaller circle in the middle of the gear.

Select both shapes and use the Pathfinder Panel to use the Minus Front Mode to knock out the circle.

Change the color and drop it over one of the line ends to create a cool flower head.

Repeat the process of drawing line and curves on all the lines initially created. This in Outline mode, it shows the grid as dots instead of lines which may make it easy to count 10 units.

This is a close up of Outline mode. View>Outline or COMMAND +Y

This is the final with colors and some type added.

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Infographics Series - Puzzle Pieces

9/11/2016

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This tutorial is to a quick and easy way to create puzzle pieces from shapes, specifically from the Grid Tools in Illustrator. This covers both round and rectangular shapes and using the Shape Builder Tool to make easy work of puzzle pieces. Enjoy!

Lets start this off with the the Rectangle Grid Tool .

Draw a grid using the Rectangle Grid Tool. A quick shortcut is to draw (don't let go of the mouse while drawing) and use the up/down and left/right arrow keys to add rows and columns.

Another way to set the size of the grid is to double-click on the Grid tool and it calls up the dialog box to set the options you would like.

Next step is to draw a circle and place it over the dividers. about 1/3 on one side of the divider, 2/3 over the other side.

Duplicate the circles and place then randomly around the dividers, keeping the 1/3 and 2/3 overlap on all.

Next, select everything with the Selection Tool. Then Select the Shape Builder Tool in the tool Bar.
Shape Builder Tool is nested with the Live Paint tools in the tool bar.

With the Shape Builder Tool, draw through the shapes you want to add together. Starting with a rectangle, then going into a circle.

This is the end result with the pieces and the nubs on the ends. Then Select all and Ungroup the shapes.

You can then move, fill or stroke each shape as its own piece.

Now lets try the same thing but with a circle! Use the Polar Grid Tool (next to the rectangle Grid Tool) to draw a Polar Grid.
One thing to remember is to give the shape 1 EXTRA ring that you will end up deleting.

Select the Polar Grid and use the Pathfinder Divide to create separate shapes to use as pieces.

The outer rings WILL NOT divide correctly (no idea why, tried everything to solve this) so delete just the outer ring. Everything else divides correctly.

Next step is to draw a circle and place it over the dividers. about 1/3 on one side of the divider, 2/3 over the other side.
Then duplicate the circles to complete the pieces.

With the Shape Builder Tool, draw through the shapes you want to add together. Starting with a curve area, then going into a circle.

Select all, the Ungroup so each piece can be filled or edited individually.

Add fills, strokes to each piece as needed to create the puzzle.

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Design Points n PixelS

Infographic Series - Build a Tree

Infographics Series - Puzzle Pieces

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