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Design Points n PixelS


INFOGRAPHIC SERIES - Creating Pine Trees with the Symbol Sprayer

12/24/2016

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Pine Trees, snow, mountains and cold. 'Tis the season. And since I am up in Alaksa writing this blog post at -8°F, what better inspiration is needed. This is a quick way to create in icon of a tree, turn it into a Symbol then use the Symbol Sprayer to create a whole forest full of trees. Enjoy!
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Create a triangle by using the Polygon Tool. Draw the Polygon and while drawing, hold the DOWN ARROW key to reduce the number of sides. Fill with a lighter green, add a heavy stroke of a darker green. Use the Stroke Panel to round the corners of the Stroke.
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Duplicate the first triangle, then increase the size and place it below the first triangle. Do not scale the stroke & effects while sizing; open the Transform Panel and make sure Scale Stroke and Effects is OFF before you scale. 
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Double Click on the the Blend Tool in the Tool Bar. Set the Blend Options to Specified Steps and choose 3 steps. Steps are what are added in between the first and last items. Click OK.
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With the Blend Tool, click the top triangle in the same location you click the bottom triangle so the blend is in line. (Shown by the red circles.)

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This is the result of the Blend Tool on the triangles. 
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Choose Expand under the Object Menu. Check ONLY the Object button so it breaks it the triangles out of Blend Mode. Click OK.
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Then, Ungroup the set.
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With all the triangles selected, use the Pathfinder Panel to Unite all the shapes into one tree.

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Copy the tree, tun off the stroke then duplicate it over itself in a slight offset as show. 
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Use the Pathfinder Panel Minus Front to leave just a sliver of the tree shape. Fill it with a slightly darker green. COPY this final shape.
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Select the tree, and Select the Draw Inside Mode at the very bottom of the Tool bar. You will see the dashed line around the tree (indicating a Clipping Mask). PASTE the sliver of the tree you just copied into the tree and set the opacity of the cliver to 50%
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Click back on the Draw Normal mode in the Tool bar to go back to normal drawing. 

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Add some horizontal lines with rounded (hot dogged) ends and throw in a circle or two for some character. Select the entire tree with the Selection Tool. 
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Open the Symbols Panel from the Window Menu. Drag the Tree into a free space in the Symbols Panel. 
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This will open the Symbol Options dialog box. Select the Type as Graphic from the drop down window. Set the Type as Dynamic, click OK. 
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A + in the selected tree will indicate that the tree is now a Symbol. 

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You can use the Symbol Tools to Spray the symbol and play with the other Symbol Tools. 
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Select the Symbol Sprayer and click and move the mouse around, "spraying" trees while you drag the mouse OR just click each time you want a tree to appear instead of holding the mouse down and dragging.
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This is what the bunch of symbols will look like when you are done. 
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Add the trees to any scene you create and you now have a winter wonderland!
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