As simple as it sounds, making a rain drop in Illustrator isn't super easy, unless you try this method! Start with drawing a circle, hold down shift while drawing to create a perfect circle. With the Direct Selection tool (A), select just the top point of the circle. With just the top point selected, DON'T use the mouse to move the point. Instead, hold SHIFT and then the up arrow on the keyboard to move the point up. This moves the point perfectly vertical, forming an egg shape. And if you want an egg, you are done! With that top point selected, go to the Control Bar and chose the Convert Anchor Point to convert the point to a Corner Point. This will remove the handles on the point and give the shape a pointed top and a perfect droplet. To add a highlight to the droplet, use the Arc Tool to draw a 1/4 circle. Add a stroke weight to the arc, then choose a light color or even white. You can cap the ends using the Stroke Panel to get a round cap on the ends. Then scale it to fit the droplet. Congratulations. You have a droplet with a highlight noodle!
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The Expand feature works the same (on a line or path) as the Object > Path > Outline Path. It takes the line and outline it into an editable shape as shown by the blue highlighted path. Here is a quick over view of the 4 states; shown in Normal View Mode and then in Preview Mode to compare. 1: Line 2: Line with ZigZag Effect applied 3: Line with the Expand Appearance applied 4: Final Expanded or outlined Line. That should shed some light on the matter of Expand Appearance, Effects, Expand and outline commands.
Happy Illustrating. 25 years of Adobe Photoshop. 8 experts (me included) take a look at the beginnings of Photoshop 1.0. I started using Photoshop at version 2.00 which soon after offered the 2.5 update. Huge update at 2.5, as it offered SOFT brushes. Yes, before 2.5 all the brushes and eraser were hard-edged. No smoothness, just hard pixel edges. And no layers. And no multiple undos either. And I still loved it then and even more now. Not to give my age, but I started using Photoshop in 1990, 3 years after it came out. In this video, many of these experts had not started using it until version 6.0 or later! For the last few years I have enjoyed TED talks immensely and lately I listened to a rerun of a Podcast on creativity, and it still was inspiring... as so many TED talks are.
Here is a list of several TED talks about creativity I found to be inspiring, uplifting and just plain amazing. https://www.ted.com/playlists/20/where_do_ideas_come_from |
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