Book III Chapter 11 Working with Transparency and Special Effects Tools 355 The Symbol Sprayer Tool You can also choose between two orientation options: ✦ Align to Page: Orients the blend perpendicular to the x-axis of the page. ✦ Align to Path: Orients the blend perpendicular to the path. You prob- ably won’t see a difference when changing orientation unless you’ve edited the blend path. You can easily access the Blend tool options by selecting a blended object and double-clicking the Blend tool in the Tools panel. If you’re feeling adventurous, try changing a smooth blend (such as the one you create in the preceding step list) into a logarithmic blend. In the Blend Options dialog box, choose Specified Steps from the Spacing drop-down list and change the value to 5. This change creates the blend in 5 steps rather than in the more than 200 steps that may have been necessary to create the smooth blend. Here are a few more tips to help you become more comfortable using blends. You can ✦ Blend between an unlimited number of objects, colors, opacities, or gradients. ✦ Edit blends directly with tools, such as Selection, Rotate, or Scale. ✦ Switch to the Direct Selection tool and edit the blend path by dragging anchor points. A straight path is created between blended objects when the blend is first applied. ✦ Edit blends that you created by moving, resizing, deleting, or adding objects. After you make editing changes, the artwork is blended again automatically. The Symbol Sprayer Tool The super Symbol Sprayer tool is one you must experiment with in order to understand its full potential. In a nutshell, it works like a can of spray paint that sprays, rather than paints, symbols — objects that, in Illustrator, can be either vector- or pixel-based. Each symbol is an instance. Exploring the symbol tools Illustrator comes with a library of symbols ready for use in the symbols panel. (If the symbols panel isn’t visible, choose Window➪Symbols.) Use this panel as a storage bin or library to save repeatedly used artwork or to create your own symbols to apply as instances in your artwork, like blades of grass or stars in the sky. You can then use the symbolism tools, described in Table 11-1, to adjust and change the appearance of the symbol instances. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 35534_607466-bk03ch11.indd 355 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM 356 The Symbol Sprayer Tool Table 11-1 The Symbol Tools Icon Tool Name What You Can Do with It Symbol Sprayer Create a set of symbol instances. Symbol Shifter Move symbol instances around; can also change the relative paint order of symbol instances. Symbol Scruncher Pull apart, or put together, symbol instances. Symbol Sizer Increase or decrease the size of symbol instances. Symbol Spinner Orient the symbol instances in a set. Symbol instances located near the cursor spin in the direction you move the cursor. Symbol Stainer Colorize symbol instances. Symbol Screener Increase or decrease the transparency of the symbol instances in a set. Symbol Styler Apply or remove a graphic style from a symbol instance. Press the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key to reduce the effect of the sym- bolism tools. In other words, if you’re using the Symbol Sizer tool, you click and hold to make the symbol instances larger; hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key to make the symbol instances smaller. You can also selectively choose the symbols you want to effect with the Symbolism tools by activating them in the Symbols panel. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Ô-click (Mac) multiple symbols to change them at the same time. Just about anything can be a symbol, including placed objects and objects with patterns and gradients. If you’re going to use placed images as symbols, however, choose File➪Place and deselect the Linked check box in the Place dialog box. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 35634_607466-bk03ch11.indd 356 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM Book III Chapter 11 Working with Transparency and Special Effects Tools 357 The Symbol Sprayer Tool Creating and spraying symbols on the artboard To create a symbol, select the object and drag it to the Symbols panel or click the New Symbol button at the bottom of the Symbols panel. Yes, it’s that easy. Then use the Symbol Sprayer tool to apply the symbol instance on the artboard by following these steps: 1. Select the symbol instance in the Symbols panel. Either create your own symbol or use one of the default symbols sup- plied in the panel. 2. Drag with the Symbol Sprayer tool, spraying the symbol on the art- board (see Figure 11-8). That’s it. You can increase or reduce the area affected by the Symbol Sprayer tool by pressing the bracket keys. Press ] repeatedly to enlarge the application area for the symbol or press [ to make it smaller. Figure 11-8: Using the Symbol Sprayer tool to create fish. Note that you can access all sorts of symbol libraries from the Symbols panel menu. Find 3D, nature, map, flower, and even hair and fur symbol col- lections by selecting Open Symbol Library. If you want to store artwork that you frequently need to access, simply drag selected objects to the Symbols panel or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) the New Symbol button to name and store the artwork. Retrieve the artwork later by dragging it from the Symbols panel to the artboard. In fact, you can drag any symbol out to your artboard to change or use it in your own artwork. To release the symbol back into its basic elements, choose Object➪Expand. In the Expand dialog box, click OK to restore the defaults. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 35734_607466-bk03ch11.indd 357 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM 358 Transparency Transparency Using transparency can add a new level to your illustrations. The transpar- ency feature does exactly what its name implies — changes an object to make it transparent so that what’s underneath that object is visible to vary- ing degrees. You can use the Transparency panel for simple applications of transparency to show through to underlying objects or for more complex artwork using opacity masks, which can control the visibility of selected objects. Choosing Window➪Transparency opens the Transparency panel, where you can apply different levels of transparency to objects. To do so, create an arrangement of objects that intersect, select the topmost object, and then change the transparency level of the object in the Transparency panel, by either moving the Opacity slider or entering a value of less than 100 in the Opacity text field. Blend modes A blending mode determines how the resulting transparency will look. To achieve different blending effects, you choose different blend modes from the Blend Mode drop-down list in the Transparency panel. Truly, the best way to find out what all these modes do is to create two over- lapping shapes and start experimenting. Give the shapes differently colored fills (but note that many blending modes don’t work with black-and-white fills). Then select the topmost object and change the blending mode by selecting an option from the Blend Mode drop-down list in the Transparency panel. You see all sorts of neat effects and might even pick a few favorites. We define each blend mode in the following list, but we’ll say it again: The best way to see what each mode does is to apply them — so start experimenting. ✦ Normal: Creates no interaction with underlying colors. ✦ Darken: Replaces only the areas that are lighter than the blend color. Areas darker than the blend color don’t change. ✦ Multiply: Creates an effect similar to drawing on the page with magic markers, or like the colored film you see on theater lights. ✦ Color Burn: Darkens the base color to reflect the blend color. If you’re using white, no change occurs. ✦ Lighten: Replaces only the areas that are darker than the blend color. Areas lighter than the blend color don’t change. ✦ Screen: Multiplies the inverse of the underlying colors. The resulting color is always a lighter color. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 35834_607466-bk03ch11.indd 358 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM Book III Chapter 11 Working with Transparency and Special Effects Tools 359 Transparency ✦ Color Dodge: Brightens the underlying color to reflect the blend color. If you’re using black, there’s no change. ✦ Overlay: Multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the base color. ✦ Soft Light: Darkens or lightens colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the artwork. ✦ Hard Light: Multiplies or screens colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a harsh spotlight on the artwork. ✦ Difference: Subtracts either the blend color from the base color or the base color from the blend color, depending on which has the greater brightness value. The effect is similar to a color negative. ✦ Exclusion: Creates an effect similar to, but with less contrast than, Difference mode. ✦ Hue: Applies the hue (color) of the blend object to underlying objects but keeps the underlying shading, or luminosity. ✦ Saturation: Applies the saturation of the blend color but uses the lumi- nance and hue of the base color. ✦ Color: Applies the blend object’s color to the underlying objects but preserves the gray levels in the artwork; works well for tinting objects or changing their color. ✦ Luminosity: Creates a resulting color with the hue and saturation of the base color and the luminance of the blend color. This mode is essen- tially the opposite of Color mode. Opacity masks Just like in Photoshop, you can use masks to make more interesting artwork in Illustrator. Create an opacity mask from the topmost object in a selection of objects or by drawing a mask on a single object. The mask uses the gray- scale of the selected object as its opacity mask. Black areas are transparent; shades of gray are semitransparent, depending on the amount of gray; white areas are opaque. Figure 11-9 shows the effect of using an opacity mask. To create an opacity mask, follow these steps: 1. Open the Transparency panel menu. Also, be sure that the Blend Mode drop-down list is set to Normal. 2. Create a shape anywhere on the artboard or open a document that has artwork on it. We’re using a circle, but the shape doesn’t matter. Make sure that the artwork has a fill. A solid color helps you see the effect. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 35934_607466-bk03ch11.indd 359 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM 360 Transparency Figure 11-9: An opacity mask converts the topmost object into a mask that then masks out the underlying objects. 3. Open the Symbols panel (choose Window➪Symbols Panel) and drag a symbol to the artboard. In this example, we’re using the drums symbol. 4. Using the Selection tool, enlarge your symbol so that it fills the shape (see the image on the left in Figure 11-10). Figure 11-10: Creating an opacity mask. 5. Select both the symbol and the shape and then choose Make Opacity Mask from the Transparency panel menu (see the image on the right in Figure 11-10). The symbol turns into a mask, showing varying levels of the underlying box of the newly created mask, depending on the original color value. To delete an opacity mask, choose Release Opacity Mask from the Transparency panel menu. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 36034_607466-bk03ch11.indd 360 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM Book III Chapter 11 Working with Transparency and Special Effects Tools 361 Transparency Click the right thumbnail (which represents the mask) in the Transparency panel and a black border appears around it, indicating that it’s active. You can move the items on the mask or even create items to be added to the mask. The mask works just like the regular artboard, except that anything done on the mask side is used only as an opacity mask. To work on the regu- lar artboard, click the left thumbnail. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 36134_607466-bk03ch11.indd 361 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM 362 Book III: Illustrator CS5 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 36234_607466-bk03ch11.indd 362 5/25/10 12:23 AM5/25/10 12:23 AM Chapter 12: Using Filters and Effects In This Chapter ✓ Applying effects ✓ Getting to know the Appearance panel ✓ Discovering graphic styles ✓ Making artwork 3D ✓ Playing with additional fills and strokes ✓ Creating the illusion of space and distance with the Perspective Grid E ffects give you the opportunity to make jazzy changes to your Illustrator objects, such as add drop shadows and squiggling artwork. You can even use Photoshop filters directly in Illustrator. In this chapter, you find out how to apply, save, and edit effects; you also take a quick tour of the Appearance panel (your trusty sidekick when performing these tasks). Working with Effects If you’re an Adobe Illustrator user from any version before CS4, you might be wondering where the Filter menu is. (If you’re just starting to use Illustrator, you don’t need to know about, or even care about, this major change.) All items that appeared on the Filter menu are now on the Effects menu. Filters apply permanent changes to artwork, referred to as destructive changes, because after you save and close the file, you can’t undo the results for the filter. On the other hand, effects are quite different: They’re connected dynamically to objects. You can apply, change, and even remove effects at any time from the Appearance panel (choose Window➪ Appearance). Understanding the Appearance panel You can apply multiple effects to one object and even copy them to multiple objects, which is when a good working knowledge of the Appearance panel is necessary. If it isn’t visible, choose Window➪Appearance to open the 35_607466-bk03ch12.indd 36335_607466-bk03ch12.indd 363 5/25/10 12:26 AM5/25/10 12:26 AM 364 Working with Effects Appearance panel, shown in Figure 12-1, alongside an object with several effects applied to it. Figure 12-1: Discover how useful the Appearance panel can be. If you have no effects applied, you see as a default only a fill and a stroke listed in the Appearance panel. As you create effects, they’re added to this list. You can even add more strokes and fills to the list. Why would you do that? Because you can do incredible things with additional fills and strokes (which we show you in the next section). See Figure 12-2 for a breakdown of the features on the Appearance panel. Figure 12-2: Use the icons in the Appearance panel for effects. Applying an effect In this section, you see how to apply an effect. You can choose from many effects, and they’re all applied in much the same manner. In this example, we apply the Arrowhead effect. Follow these steps to apply an effect: 1. Create a new document, choose any color mode, and draw a line in your document. 35_607466-bk03ch12.indd 36435_607466-bk03ch12.indd 364 5/25/10 12:26 AM5/25/10 12:26 AM [...]... in the ai format The native Adobe Illustrator file format If you’re working with the programs in the Creative Suite, the best way to save a file is as a native Illustrator ai file For instance, the ai format works with Adobe applications such as Adobe InDesign for page layout, Adobe Dreamweaver for Web page creation, Adobe Photoshop for photo retouching, and Adobe Acrobat for cross-platform documents... selected If you don’t know which Adobe Postscript level you want to save to, leave it at the default 8 Click OK to save your file in EPS format The PDF file format If you want to save your file in a format that supports more than a dozen platforms and requires only Acrobat Reader, available as a free download at www .adobe. com, choose to save your file as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file If you can open... similar to the GIF file format Unless you have a certain reason for saving as PNG-8, stick with the GIF file format • The Shockwave Flash (SWF) graphics file format is a version of the Adobe Flash Player vector-based graphics format Because a SWF file is vector based, its graphics are scalable and play back smoothly on any screen size and across multiple platforms From the Save for Web & Devices dialog... 384 Saving Your Artwork for the Web also shapes and images, which can be animated and made interactive SVG is written in XML (Extensible Markup Language) You can choose to save Scalable Vector Graphics out of Adobe Illustrator from the Save for Web & Devices dialog box • Use the Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format (WBMP) format for bitmap images for mobile devices This format produces a blackand-white... areas still measure approximately 700 x 50 0 pixels When Flattening Transparency 3 85 choosing a size for your artwork, choose one with proportions similar to these For example, if you want an illustration to occupy about a quarter of the browser window’s width, make your image about 1 75 pixels wide (700÷4 = 1 75) If you notice that the height of your image is more than 50 0 pixels, whittle the height in size... Illustrator Editing Capabilities check box selected in the Adobe PDF Options dialog box Book III Chapter 13 382 Saving Your Artwork for the Web 1 Choose File➪Save for Web & Devices The Save for Web & Devices dialog box appears, showing your artwork on the Optimized tab (See Figure 13-3.) Figure 13-3: Use Save for the Web to optimize your images for the Web 2 Choose a tabbed view: Original, Optimized,... one of these formats: Adobe Illustrator, EPS, FXG (a vector-based file format that describes graphical elements), PDF, SVG, SVG Compressed, or Template We discuss all these formats throughout this chapter If you need a file format not listed in the regular Save As dialog box, choose File➪Export to see additional choices Using the File Export command, you can choose to save your files in any format listed... the document’s color mode by choosing File➪Document Color Mode 2 Choose Effects➪Document Raster Effects Settings The Document Raster Effects Settings dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 13-6 Figure 13-6: Choosing the quality of rasterized artwork 3 Choose the resolution you want to use by selecting an option in the Resolution area Select the Screen (72 ppi) option for Web graphics, Medium ( 150 ppi)... resolution, and uses other settings to preserve the maximum amount of information contained in the original document Before creating an Adobe PDF file by using the Press Quality preset, check with your commercial printer to determine the output resolution and other settings • Smallest File Size: Creates a low-resolution PDF suitable for posting on the Internet or sending by e-mail • Standard: Lets you... request • Compatibility: Makes different features available for different versions, such as the ability to support layers in Version 6 or higher For the most compatible file type, choose Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4) To take advantage of layers or to preserve spot colors, you must choose Acrobat 6 or higher 3 Click Save PDF to save your file in PDF format In the Adobe PDF Options dialog box, to the left of the preset . the appearance of the symbol instances. 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 355 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 355 5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM 356 The Symbol Sprayer Tool Table 11-1 The Symbol Tools Icon Tool. 36134_607466-bk03ch11.indd 361 5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM 362 Book III: Illustrator CS5 34_607466-bk03ch11.indd 36234_607466-bk03ch11.indd 362 5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM5/ 25/ 10 12:23 AM Chapter 12: Using. Shadow. 35_ 607466-bk03ch12.indd 3 653 5_607466-bk03ch12.indd 3 65 5/ 25/ 10 12:26 AM5/ 25/ 10 12:26 AM 366 Working with Effects 3. In the Drop Shadow dialog box that appears, as shown in Figure 12 -5, select