INFOGRAPHIC SERIES - UndersTAnding Illustrator Effects & The Appearance Panel

Understanding Illustrators Effect Menu and the how to edit these effects can be frustrating to many. Here is a quick overview and explainer on what they are, how they work and how this will make you less frustrated using both the Effects and the Appearance Panel. This tutorial is just one of MANY things you can do in the Appearance Panel. 

---

There are 2 sections in the Effects Menu. Illustrator Effect which are (mostly) vector based and can be turned into shapes and paths and be edited in Illustrator. The second section is ALL filters that you can apply in Photoshop; none of these are vector based and cannot be turned into editable shapes. Some of these options may have the exact same names but choosing from the wrong section can give you different results. 

---

Draw any shape. 

Go to Effects> Distort & Transform> Roughen. 

This is the result. 

---

Open the Appearance Panel. You will see the Roughen Effect applied ON TOP of the list. You will also see the stroke color, weight and opacity (which is all editable in the Appearance Panel) as well as the Fill color and opacity.

If the result from the Roughen Effect wasn't what you wanted, and you go back under Effect>Distort & Transform and try to "change" the effect, you will get this message. 

When you click Apply New Effect you are not actually editing the existing effect, you are APPLYING ANOTHER EFFECT on top of this one. The result is TWO effects. ​
​

---

If you truly want to edit the Effect, and not apply another effect, click on the Effect in the Appearance Panel and edit it there. 

TIP! The Effects Panel is built into the bottom of the Apperance Panel. No need to go to the Menu bar, click on the FX button and the entire Effects Menu is there. 

Why would you want to apply more than one Effect? Because you can get cool results!!
I applied a Pucker & Bloat Effect and a Warp. I got this.

---

I started with this shape. 

Added a Pucker & Bloat filter. This one is the Pucker to bring the points in. 

I added the Warp filter to this as well. 

---

I then added a Stylize Effect (Scribble) to get this. You can go on and on!

These are all JUST Effects. Which means the shape of your object is still the original shape you drew. It just gives the EFFECT you are seeing and the effect isn't directly editable as shapes. I am in Outline Mode. View>Outline to see the actual shape. 

If you want to edit the shape as if what you are seeing REALLY IS A SHAPE, you need to go under Object>Expand Appearance. This will take WHAT YOU ARE SEEING and make it an actual shape. 

---

After Expand Appearance is applied, this is what the shape looks like. Now what it looks like IS what the shape actually is, not just the Effect. 

If you want to learn more about Expand and Expand Appearance, here is a link to my blog topic HERE

There are LOTS MORE things you can do with the Appearance Panel as well. Multiple strokes as shown here. (This is only one shape with several strokes). Go HERE to see how this is done in the Appearance Panel.