Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting talk by Storyteller and Richard Seymour at TED. In this talk you will ponder the questions, how do we tell that something is beautiful? And why does it matter so much to us?

Valentine’s Day is almost here and what better way to express your love for design than to send a letter? This Quick Tip explains how to create an envelope icon, you’d love to click!

Most of us have experience using the Adobe Suite, but how much do you know about InDesign? This powerful program has an entire host of features that you wont find in Illustrator or Photoshop, it’s for this reason that it has remained one of the most popular programs for graphic design and typography. The thought of learning InDesign may seem daunting to some, but there’s some really useful functions that are easy to learn and will save you hours of work. In this tutorial you will gain experience working with the page palette and special characters to make a basic page numbering system. You will also learn a few shortcuts that will help you work faster with InDesign.

May of 2010

Step 1

Open the multipage document you wish to add page numbers to. Go to your page palette, if it is not visible you can activate it by selecting Window > Pages.

Step 2

Within the page palette double click on A-master (you can do this by clicking on the text or page icon). You are now working in the master page.

Step 3

Select the text tool from your Tools menu (T), if the tool bar is not visible you can activate it by selecting Window > Tools.

Step 4

Position the cursor where you want your page number to sit. Click once and drag to draw a text box wide enough to hold the required amount of numbers.

Step 5

Select Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. Once you have completed this step a capital "A" will automatically appear. The capital " A" represents the " A" master page. You can select, Command + A, and edit the character to any font, size, alignment and color to match the style of your document.

Step 6

We are now going to create the adjacent page number. However we need to switch back to the selection tool first (Escape + V). In my document I have set the left hand page up first. So, instead of going through the steps again, to place the right hand number we will simply copy (Command + C) and paste (Command + V) the text box you have just formatted.

Step 7

Position this text box on the right hand page, go to the paragraph palette and change the alignment to align right.

Step 8

You can now switch back to your main pages, you will find that every page is numbered. You will also notice that it is not possible to edit the numbers, this is because they are located on the master page and not the main document. To edit the number go back into the master page and use the techniques outlined in steps 1-6.

Step 9

By default number 1 starts on the front cover. Traditionally you wouldn’t need the cover numbered. It’s possible to remove the number without disturbing the rest of the page numbers. Click once on the page icon you wish to edit, in this case it is the first page. Select the options menu for the page palette, which located in the top right hand corner of the palette and scroll down to Override All Master Page Items. Now click on the page number/text box you want to remove and delete it.

Step 10

To start page number 1 on the second page of the document go back into the options menu for the page palette and make sure that ‘allow document pages to shuffle’ and ‘allow selected spreads to shuffle’ is not selected. To deselect highlight all of the pages by clicking on the first page, hold down shift and then click on the last page in the document. Go back into the page options menu and deselect.

Step 11

Click on the grey of the palette to deselect all of the pages, then click once on page 2 > page options menu > numbering and sections options. Select ‘Start page numbering at’ > ok.

Conclusion

There you have it, how to easily number pages in an InDesign document. Once you learn this feature you will love it. Auto numbering takes the stress out of proof reading and editing documents later and will leave you with more time for the things you do best… creating!

Sometimes using a highlighted effect text gives a stronger emphasis and style to your design. In this quick tip we are going to achieve that effect by utilizing Paragraph Rules in Adobe InDesign. Let’s begin!

Step 1: Insert text

Create a new document at any size you want. Then insert the text that you are going to highlight. The font I use is Calibri. Change the font size to 48 pt.

Step 2: Disable Hyphenation

It is not good to have a short text with hyphenation. To fix this, click the text frame and then open Paragraph panel (Command + Shift + T). Remove the tick mark before Hyphenate on the panel to disable the hyphenation.

Step 3: Create New Paragraphs

In order to highlight the text later on, make each line in the text frame into a new paragraph. The process is pretty simple; by the beginning of each line, except the first line, press Backspace to remove the space that links the previous line.

Press Enter to put the sentence after the cursor into a new paragraph. Repeat the same process for the next line.

The text structure looks the same with the previous step, but this time the text has three paragraphs. You can check it by using Type > Show Hidden Character (Command + Option + I). You will see a character like a reversed P which indicates the end of the paragraph. It means that the line below the character is a new paragraph. The # character means the end of the text/story.

Step 4: Change Text Color to White

Change the text color to white to make you easier to adjust the Paragraph Rules later. Double click the text frame and then select all paragraph (Command + A). Open Color panel (F6), click the "T" icon on the panel, click the Fill icon which is represented by the square. Set all color values to zero to turn the text color to white. Press Esc when you’re finished changing the color.

Step 5: Open Paragraph Rules

Make sure the text frame is selected, open the Paragraph panel (Command + Option + T). Click on the small icon on the top right corner of the panel and then choose Paragraph Rules (Command + Option + J)

Step 6: Paragraph Rules Set Up

Activate "Preview" to see the live result of the adjustments and then set up the paragraph as follows. Choose Rule Below, and activate Rule On box, Weight: 50 pt, Color: Black, Width: Text, Offset: -13 mm, Left Indent: -3 mm, Right Indent -4 mm.

Press OK when you are finished with the set up. That’s it! You have created the highlight for the text!

Conclusion

You can use this technique for short text like title, quotation, and captions in your layout design to give them more style and emphasis. Experiment with the text size and Paragraph Rules options for different variation.

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, you will learn how to create a vector golf illustration. It includes creating a golf hole scene, complete with numbered flag for the hole and a cutout section of turf where the golf ball has landed. You’ll also learn to illustrate some dynamic text that fits well with the illustration’s theme. If you are looking to take your skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

Tuts+ Premium Members can login now for instant access to this tutorial. Membership to Tuts+ Premium gets you access to hundreds of exclusive premium tutorials, top selling ebooks, in-depth courses, member forums, and much more. To learn more about Tuts+ Premium, Take the Tour or Join Today.

Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!

Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials

• 

  Create a Pimped Out Truck Using Photoshop and Point and Shoot Photos

  Making modifications to your car or truck in Photoshop can be a lot of fun. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a pimped out truck modification using photos taken with a simple point and shoot camera, with no advanced lighting setup. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Create an Elephant Sundae Using Photo Manipulation Techniques

  Photoshop is great at seamlessly combing photos to create an entirely new scene. In this tutorial we will create an elephant sundae using several stock photos. Let’s get started!

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• 

  The Incredible Digital Art of Michael Oswald

  In this article we will be featuring the work of Michael Oswald. Oswald is a digital artist with a unique style. His technique involves a combination of photo manipulation and digital painting techniques and the results are often stunning. Let’s take a look!

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Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials

• 

  Sublime Text 2 Tips and Tricks (Updated)

  Sublime Text 2 is one of the fastest and most incredible code editors to be released in a long time! With a community and plugin ecosystem as passionate as this one, it just might be impossible for any other editor to catch up. I’ll show you my favorite tips and tricks today.

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• 

  An In Depth Analysis of HTML5 Multimedia and Accessibility

  In this tutorial, youll learn how HTML5 helps to provide you with several ways of presenting your media content to users. As a result, youll increase the availability of your media to users with different
  needs and requirements, making it more accessible.

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• 

  Writing an API Wrapper in Ruby with TDD

  Sooner or later, all developers are required to interact with an API. The most difficult part is always related to reliably testing the code we write, and, as we want to make sure that everything works properly, we continuosly run code that queries the API itself. This process is slow and inefficient, as we can experience network issues and data inconsistencies (the API results may change). Let’s review how we can avoid all of this effort with Ruby.

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Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials

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  How to Illustrate a Microscope in Illustrator

  The microscopes is a symbol of our civilization. Throughout this tutorial on how to illustrate a vector microscope you’ll take advantage of numerous Illustrator tools. You will learn how to use blends, art brushes and 3D rendering in Adobe Illustrator. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Create a Picture Gallery in Illustrator

  This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Alexander Egupov. We have used 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks, making this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points. Learn every step in how to create this picture gallery work.

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• 

  Important Resources for Learning How to Design Typefaces and Full Fonts

  If you’re serious about creating a typeface design, then you’ll need some solid resources to get started. Learn effective typeface design workflows, how to take an initial spark of an idea from sketch, through Illustrator, into Fontlab, and then work your creation into a complete and custom font design. Here are multiple tutorials that show you how to create fonts in Illustrator and Fontlab, and you can also dive into articles that describe the foundation of quality type design with ample inspirational examples.

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Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials

• 

  A Beginner’s Guide to Pairing Fonts

  Pairing fonts can be a challenge. Selecting two or more fonts which work well is one thing – selecting two which work together to achieve your typographic aims may have you reaching for the aspirin. Let’s see if we can alleviate any headaches. This guide will help you get started with font pairing for the web.

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• 

  Design a Series of Smart Banner Ads in Photoshop

  With the continuous growth of the Internet, online marketing has gotten bigger every year, and along with it, the advertising industry. One major factor in all this craziness is buying and selling ads.

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  Twitter Bootstrap 101: Introduction

  Twitter’s Bootstrap is an excellent set of carefully crafted user interface elements, layouts, and javascript tools, freely available to use in your next web design project. This video series aims to introduce you to Bootstrap; taking you all the way from downloading the resources, to building a complete Bootstrap-based website.

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Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials

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  HDR: Love it or Leave It?

  There are few techniques in the photography world that divide our community as much as HDR. High dynamic range images, or HDR images, are a special type of composite image that combines several images at different exposure settings in order to create an image with increased dynamic range. The look provided by HDR is loved by many, and disliked by perhaps just as many. In today’s article, we’re going to take a better look at what HDR is, and get some opinions from photographers using HDR.

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• 

  Inspiring Images of Cars and Motorcycles

  Cars and motorbikes have been around for 100 years. Throughout the century, they have looked beautiful, satisfied our need for speed and become a symbol for thrill seeking. Today, we’ll look at photos ranging from brand new Ferrari’s to classic muscle cars.

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• 

  Quick Tip: GIMP Portable – Take Your Editing Software With You

  While a number of smartphones now offer photo editing basics (and a plethora of apps to expand things even more), the portability of a solid photo editing program has been hard to come by. Photoshop is a monster in regards to space requirements and its ability to work on any system where it is not expressively installed. Picasa can be fairly ‘lightweight’ but lacks many of the more advanced photo editing tools. So what about GIMP?

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Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials

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  Modeling, UVmapping And Texturing A Low Poly T-Rex In Blender, Part 1

  In the first tutorial of 2012 you’ll learn how to create an awesome low-poly dinosaur using Blender and Gimp. In today’s post artist Karan Shah will walk you through the entire modeling process step by step, and show you how to create an optimized model suitable for use in any game engine.

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• 

  Create A Realistic Explosion In Maya Using Maya Fluids

  Today you’ll learn to animate and shade fluids, understand all of the major attributes, learn how adding fields will allow you to gain better control over your simulation, and how to light and render the final animation.

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• 

  SpeedTree To UDK: The Complete Workflow, Part 1 Creating The Tree

  Due to the shear number of polygons often required to make believable 3D trees, creating realistic ones for use “in-game” can be a challenging, time consuming task. SpeedTree from IDV aims to change all that with it’s intuitive UI, ease of use and powerful toolset. Making believable trees and plants has literally never been easier!

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Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials

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  Dominoes” CameraTracker and Cinema 4d Case Study – Day 1

  In this tutorial we’re going to go over the principle functionality of CameraTracker from The Foundry, learning basic workflow, optimizing results, aligning the ground plane and exporting this data from After Effects to Cinema 4d.

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• 

  Make An Amazing Motion Reactant Flame – Tuts+ Premium

  Using just a few video elements of torch flames, we composite a burning hand by using a series of null objects and expressions to drive a time lagged displacement effect to simulate fire burning from a moving source. We use the Puppet tool for the distortion and throw on some tracked lighting effects and a displacement map for the Heat. This principle can be used to add realistic, fluid motion to any tracked object.

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• 

  Key Tips To Becoming A Successful Video Freelancer

  Youve watched thousands of tutorials. Youve put in countless hours and spent many late nights working on personal projects. Youve finally come to the conclusion that this may just be something you would like to do for a career. It can seem a little intimidating at first, because how are you going to convince someone to pay you to do this? Up until now youve been your only client. How do you get more? Im going to share my insight and experiences on how to successfully launch your freelance career this year!

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Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials

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  Free Professional Quality Audio Unit Plug-ins for Mac

  Lets face it, software is expensive. While there are hundreds of free plug-ins available online, more often than not two problems will arise: One, most of them are for PCs leaving us Mac users feeling left out. Two, most of them are vary poor quality.

  While I do agree with the saying, “The tools are only as good as the artist,” I also believe the opposite is true; that at some point the artist can only be as good as his tools are.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Drum Processing Part 4: Tips and Tricks

  This short series of quick tips is designed to give you a good overview of the audio processing techniques involved in creating a professional sounding drum beat for use in house, electro and breaks in Cubase. In this final part we will look at a few ways to add even more life to your drums.
  
  Here is a sample of the type of beat you could expect to end up with at the end of this series of tips:

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• 

  Quick Tip: Use the Doubling Technique for Quick Drums

  It’s 3:30 in the afternoon when your phone rings. The head of a music library is calling and she needs your help. They have a commercial for an A-list client that needs music, and they want you to submit an entry. You’ll get $10,000 if you land the gig.

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Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials

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  Create a Microphone-Controlled Flash Game: Code

  In this mini-series, we’re creating a spaceship game where the main control is via the microphone: shout louder to make the ship fly higher. So far, we’ve created all the required graphical elements for the game. Now, it’s time to work on our code. We’ve got a lot to do, so let’s get started!

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  Why Bother With jQuery? A Guide for (Former) Flash Developers

  If you, like many Flash developers, are looking into using HTML5 for your web apps, you’ll almost certainly have come across jQuery. It’s a very popular JavaScript library, used by a large percentage of the most visited websites – but what’s all the fuss about, and should you use it?

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  An Introduction to the HTML5 Gamepad API

  As HTML games begin to gradually increase in popularity, vendors are starting to introduce some exciting new APIs to make gaming that little bit sweeter for both us developers and our end players. One of these is the GamepadAPI, which allows you to connect your good old console gamepad into your computer and use it for browser based games, plug and play style. Let’s dive in!

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Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials

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  The Rise of HTML5 in WordPress

  2011 was a big year for the advancement of HTML5 in the web development community. It became pretty widely adopted, especially for the mobile web. There have been major projects that help developers use HTML5, like Paul Irish’s HTML5 Boilerplate (technically 2010, but popularized in 2011) and books galore!

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  Reusable Custom Meta Boxes Part 3: Extra Fields

  In Part 1 and Part 2 of our custom meta box template tutorial series, we learned how to create a field array to loop through and create a custom meta box with your standard fields. Now let’s throw in a bit of JavaScript for some fancy, but highly useful fields.

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  The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Speeding Up Your WordPress Site

  Give your site a boost! Implement crucial optimization techniques that will improve not only your ySlow score, but your Google rank too. In this tutorial we will cover all aspects of W3 caching, ySlow, Google page speed, CSS sprites & htaccess rules, to achieve a high ySlow score like i have done on my blog.

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Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials

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  iOS SDK: Creating an Awesome Carousel

  Engage your users with stunning carousels. We’ll look at how easy and clean it can be to implement scrollable, interactive carousels in your iOS applications. With high configurability, you can have 3D, flat, rotating, and endless scrolling arrays for data, images, or buttons.
  

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  PhoneGap From Scratch: Introduction

  Want to learn how to use PhoneGap, but don’t know where to get started? Join us as we put together “Sculder”, not only a tribute to an excellent science fiction TV series, but a fully-fledged native mobile application for the believer in you!

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  Mobile Flash is Far From Dead: Setting the Record Straight

  In light of recent announcements from Adobe, there has been a lot of confusion over the state of the Flash Platform – specifically in regard to Flash content on mobile devices. This article seeks to clarify many of the misconceptions that exist by addressing the main points of confusion around these announcements regardless of the initial, monumental, and absolutely unbelievable blunders from failed public (and private) relations messaging and general marketing surrounding these announcements.

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In this tutorial you will learn how to use Illustrator to create a clean, vector ticket icon. Begin by creating the basic vector shapes, then add pixel perfect highlights, all the necessary text, warping, and grunge effects to give the final result interest. Get started on designing this vector ticket icon at the jump.

Step 1

Hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 600 in the width and height boxes, then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the "Align New Objects to Pixel Grid" box is unchecked before your click OK. Now, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid).

Next, you’ll need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid, enter 5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes.

Do not forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 490 by 330px shape. The Snap to Grid will ease your work. Remember to look into your Info panel for the live preview with the size and location of your shape. Once created, fill your shape with R=247, G=240, B=224. Now remove the color from the stroke.

Step 3

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a four perfect circles (45 by 45px) and place them as shown in the following image. Again, the Snap to Grid will ease your work.

Step 4

Continue with the Ellipse Tool (L), create two new circles (10 by 10px) and place them as shown in the first image. Select both shapes and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown in the second image, click OK, then apply Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 5

Select all the shapes created so far, open the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder), and click on the Minus Front button. The resulting shape should look like the second image shown. Move to the Layers panel, Double-click on this shape and name it "Ticket". It will be easier for you to find it later when you will need to edit it.

Step 6

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 260 by 110px shape, and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with none but add a 3pt stroke. Select it from the Appearance panel and set its color at R=35, G=103, B=164.

Now open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke). Click on the "Align Stroke to Inside" button, then apply Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 5px radius, click OK, and apply Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 7

Pick the Pen Tool (P) and draw two vertical paths (110px tall). Place them as shown in the first image. Add a 3pt stroke for these paths and set its color at R=35, G=103, B=164. Continue with the Pen Tool (P), create two horizontal paths (65px long), and place them as shown in the second image. Again, add a 3pt stroke for these paths and set its color at R=35, G=103, B=164.

Step 8

Select the paths created in the last two steps. First, got to Object > Expand Appearance, then go to Object > Expand (or Object > Path > Outline Stroke). Select the resulting group of shapes, click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel, then apply Object > Compound Path > Make. In the end you should have only one blue compound path. Move to the Layers panel, Double-click on this new path, and name it "Frame".

Step 9

Disable the Grid (View > Show Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Reselect the "Ticket" shape and move to the Appearance panel. Select the existing fill and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 10

Make sure that the "Ticket" shape is still selected, focus on the Appearance panel, and click on the Add New Fill button. It’s the little white square pointed by the arrow. Obviously, this will add a new fill for your shape. Select it from the Appearance panel and use the linear gradient shown below. The yellow zero from the gradient image stands for Opacity percentage.

Step 11

Reselect "Ticket", add a new fill, and select it from the Appearance panel. Make it black, lower its Opacity to 3%, change the blending mode to Multiply, and go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 12

Reselect "Ticket", focus on the Appearance panel, and select the stroke. Set its color at R=212, G=209, B=179. Now make it 2pt wide and align it to outside.

Step 13

Make sure that "Ticket" is still selected and focus on the Appearance panel. Select the stroke and click on the Duplicate Selected Item. It’s the little file icon pointed by the arrow. Obviously, this will add a copy of the selected stroke. Select this new stroke, make it 1pt wide, and replace the existing color with white.

Step 14

Reselect "Ticket" and focus on the Appearance panel. Select the stroke added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item. Select the newly added stroke, make it 3pt wide, and lower its Opacity to 15%.

Step 15

Reselect "Ticket" and focus on the Appearance panel. Select the stroke added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item. Select this new stroke and decrease the size to 1.5pt wide.

Step 16

Reselect "Ticket", focus on the Appearance panel, and click on the Add New Fill button. Select this new fill, drag it to the bottom of the Appearance panel, set its color at R=212, G=209, B=179. Now go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 2px Offset, click OK, then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 17

Reselect "Ticket" and focus on the Appearance panel. Select the fill added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item. Select the newly added fill, drag it to the bottom of the Appearance panel, set its color at R=151, G=145, B=70. Now open the existing Transform effect. Simply, drag the Move-Vertical slider to 3px and click OK.

Step 18

Reselect "Ticket" and focus on the Appearance panel. Select the fill added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item. Select the newly added fill, drag it to the bottom of the Appearance panel, make it black, and open the existing Transform effect.

Drag the Move-Vertical slider at 5px, click OK, then open the existing Offset Path effect. Replace the 2px Offset with a 3px Offset and click OK. Finally, make sure that this black fill is still selected and lower its Opacity to 5%.

Step 19

Reselect the "Ticket" shape, make sure that no fill or stroke is selected, and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 20

Select the "Frame" path and add a new fill. Select it from the Appearance panel and set its color at R=79, G=150, B=192. Now go to Effect > Path > Offset Path and enter a -1px Offset and click OK.

Step 21

Reselect the "Frame" path and add a 0.5pt stroke. Align it to inside and set its color at R=16, G=48, B=96.

Step 22

Reselect the "Frame" path, make sure that no fill or stroke is selected, and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 23

Re-enable the Grid (View > Show Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). For the following step you will need a grid every 2.5px. So, go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid and enter 2.5 in the Gridline every box. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 5 by 10px shape.

Now fill it with R=16, G=48, B=96. Place it as shown in the first image. The Snap to Grid should ease your work. Make sure that this new shape is still selected and go to Object > Transform > Rotate.

Enter a 90 degrees angle and click on the Copy button. This will add a new shape as shown in the second image. Select both shapes and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 24

Let’s focus on the shape created in the previous step. Select it and move to the Appearance panel. Add a new fill, select it from the Appearance panel, and set its color at R=247, G=240, B=224. Now go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1.75px Offset and click OK.

Step 25

Keep focusing on the cross shape. Select it, move to the Appearance panel, and add a third fill. Drag it to the bottom of the Appearance panel, fill it with the linear gradient shown below, and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 1px Offset and click OK. Remember that the yellow zero from the gradient image stands for Opacity percentage.

Step 26

Pick the Type Tool (T), click on your artboard, and add some simple text as shown below. Set its color at R=16, G=48, B=96, and use the MoolBoran font with a size of 40pt.

Step 27

Select the text added in the previous step, move to the Appearance panel, and click on the Add New Fill button. Select this new fill and set its color at R=247, G=240, B=224.

Now go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1.25px Offset and click OK. Reselect this text, make sure that the fresh fill is not selected, and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 28

Pick the Type Tool (T) and add some random number, as shown in the following image. Use the same font and the same color, but lower the size to 40pt.

Step 29

Reselect the numbers added in the previous step, move to the Appearance panel, and click on the Add New Fill button. Select this new fill, make it white, lower its Opacity to 70%, and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path.

Enter a -1px Offset and click OK. Reselect these number paths, make sure that the white fill is not selected, and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 30

Select the text paths, the cross shape, and the "Frame", then group them (Command + G). Open the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes). Open the fly-out menu of this panel and go to Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil. Select the "Chalk-Scribble" brush, pick the Brush Tool (B), and draw three simple paths (as shown in the second image). Make them black and group them (Command + G).

Step 31

Select the two groups created in the previous step and go to the Transparency panel (Window > Transparency). Open the fly-out menu, click on Make Opacity Mask, then uncheck the Clip box. This will add the discrete grunge effect for your ticket.

Step 32

Select all the shapes created so far and group them (Command + G). Select this new group and go to Effect > Warp > Fisheye. Enter the data shown below and click OK. You can try some other Warp effects. Most of them will work well for this.

Step 33

Reselect the group created in the previous step and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look.

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on mixing vector techniques with photography, we learn how to create vintage style lettering that has a grainy retro style, dive deeper into Illustrator’s 3D tools, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in addition to inspiring articles, resources, and useful vector freebies inside. Dig into January’s illustration and design material for vector lovers.

Vector Tutorials

• 

  Merge Vectors with Photographic Imagery

  In this tutorial Neil Stevens shows us how to merge abstract, colorful vector shapes created in Illustrator with photo imagery in Photoshop. The results have a wonderful, retro feel. Learn to merge a few found images, and mix them in with vector shapes to create a unique editorial illustration.

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• 

  Custom Dusty Type Treatment

  This awesome tutorial from Ryan Putnam over on Vectips shows us how to create our own custom type effect that hinges on using Grain Effects and Live Trace in Illustrator CS5. I can’t wait to try the techniques in this tutorial in my own work, and give it a grainy, dingy, dusty style that while vector, will feel like it’s hand made.

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  Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorial: Organic Texture and Shape Effects

  Illustrator François Leroy shows us how he crated his work for the exhibition by the Designers Against Child Slavery campaign. Learn how he creates blended vector shapes, then mixes them on a large canvas in Photoshop with a photo, and adds numerous subtle adjustments and effects, such as drips.

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  How to Create an Isometric Shopping Basket Using Illustrator, Phantasm CS and VectorScribe

  Learn how to create a shiny, realistic shopping basket icon in Illustrator using vector 3D modeling techniques, as well as the Phantasm CS and Vectorscribe plugins. Discover how Iaroslav Lazunov adds shine, shading, and all the professional touches to this vector icon.

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  Illustrating with the Gradient Mesh Tool

  In this video tutorial Jeff Witchel shows us how to work with the Gradient Mesh tool in Illustrator. This tutorial covers techniques like transparent overlay, adding anchor points, as well as sampling color.

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  How to Illustrate a Lighthouse

  Follow along with Alexander Egupov as he demonstrates in detail how to illustrate a vector lighthouse in Illustrator. Walk through the basic shape construction, then into the more advanced parts of the tutorial that use the Gradient Mesh tool and Opacity techniques to color the work and give it a shiny 3D quality.

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  Create A New Year Card in Illustrator

  Learn how Nguyen Ngoc Bao crated a New Year Card in Illustrator. This tutorial features the creation of a cute dragon inside of puffy curled clouds. Clipping Masks, gradients, blurs strokes and more techniques are covered in this detailed workflow.

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  Learn How To Create a Tree From Scratch in Illustrator

  This beginner Illustrator tutorial by EntheosWeb will teach you how to create a beautiful maple leaf tree from scratch using Illustrator. First you’ll use the Pen Tool to create the leaf and then create a custom brush to make many leaves of different sizes.

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  Create a Cute Bird’s Nest in Illustrator

  In this intermediate Illustrator tutorial Simona Prefundner shows us how to create a cute bird’s nest icon. Learn how to create a fragile vector eggshell inside a nest using the Pen Tool, bringing it to life with the Gradient Tool, symbol tools, and finishing it up by adding shadows and highlights.

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  Set ALL the Things Script

  Rype shows us how to batch transform object in Illustrator using the Set ALL the Things Script, which is a handy tool to add to Illustrator. Currently within Illustrator, there is no wash way to do this, except by adding this script.

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  Illustrator Tutorial: Holland Tulip Field

  In this Advanced Illustrator tutorial Abolic shows us how to create a tulip field scene. The Gradient Mesh tool is used extensively to create the tulips in various colors. This is a gorgeous work and each step to create it is well documented.

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Vector Inspiration, Articles, and Resources

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  40+ Fresh And Useful Adobe Illustrator Tutorials

  Put together by Noupe, this collection of Illustrator tutorials from last year has some of the best from across the web. Many of these are well detailed, step-by-step guides put together by talented designers and illustrators.

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  Showcase of Logo Designs with Detailed Patterns

  Chris Spooner showcases a collection of well designed logos that put detailed patterns to good use. See how the designers have combined shapes to produce intricate logos that draw in the viewer – great inspiration.

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  Children’s Illustration Grows Up

  Alice Ross shows us the key features that make children’s illustration interesting and successful. It’s critical that children’s illustrators have fertile imaginations, are able to craft captivating characters and exciting worlds. A good feel for the absurd and nonsensical certainly helps, as well as having the ability to revert back to your younger self. Learn more about illustrating for children with great classic example from Dr Seuss, among others, as well as modern children’s illustrations.

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  365 Awesome Designers

  Over on Computer Arts Garrick Webster shows us the project 365 Awesome Designers. This project by Matthias Mentasti is a great place to get design and illustration inspiration. The site was put together in WordPress and links back through to portfolios of images in Dribbble. The work featured has a taste for grainy textured retro illustration styles, my favorite.

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  Anchor Points: Hyaku

  The Hyaku of Japanese illustrators create chic modern vector illustrations. They are inspired by all sorts of pop culture and fashion references and have a unique retro feel to them. Learn more about this successful illustration team over on Vectips.

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  Swissted

  Swissted is the project of one, Mike Joyce (the NYC-based designer). This is an interesting project that takes hardcore punk and indie show flyers and redoes the posters in swiss modernist style posters. Lots of angular layouts, grids, transparency and scale. And he’s done so many! Take a gander, it’s fun to look through. Each design is set in Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Medium, all lowercase

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(FREE!) Vector Downloads

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  Exclusive Vector Freebie: New Social Media Icon Set

  Noupe released this awesome set of 25 social media vector icons. They are created in Illustrator CS5 by Jasmina Stanojevic. They are free to download and use. The download contains a ZIP file with the original AI file and an EPS version as well. Icons are available for use in personal and commercial projects.

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  96 Vector Icons

  These minimalist icons are designed to look great on any background The free download includes both black and white versions, ready for use. There are multiple free vector icons in this set in various sizes of PNG exports. The fully editable Illustrator file with all the icons is in the download as well.

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  12 Floristic Designs

  This is a nice set of free vector florals available in AI format. They are designed by creative_alys and released by Vecteezy. Grab these floral designs for free today. If you’re looking for more, then check out our big post Massive Collection of Vintage Vector Graphics: Floral Borders, Corners, and Frames.

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  350+ Free Graphics: Vector Arrow Symbols and Shapes

  This article hosts an assortment of arrow symbols, shapes, and icons, all available for free download. If you’re looking for arrow graphics, with various styles, such as flat silhouettes that curve, hand drawn elements, or sharp edged classic designs, then jump over to this large collection. They are available in EPS, CSH, AI and other vector formats for free download.

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Lunar New Year is here! This red card was chosen as a Lunar New Year E-card because in Chinese culture the color red is auspicious and represents happiness or good luck. During Chinese New Year red packets are given out for luck and prosperity in the coming year. In this quick tip you will learn how to use typography, gradients and the shear tool to make a striking card design.

Step 1

Open a New Document with size 128mm x 210mm. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a 128 x 210mm background and open the Gradient Panel (Window > Gradient). Set the gradient Type to Linear with a color 0,100,100,33 for the dark red and 0,100,100,10 for the lighter red. This will be the gradient for the background.

Step 2

To fill the background select the background rectangle and use the eyedropper tool to tap on the created gradient. This will change your background to the gradient color.

Step 3

Make a new layer above the background. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create 3 rectangular shapes a square and a banner. The width for the shapes should be less than 128mm, to fit on the background.

Step 4

To create the banner, firstly use the Rectangle Tool to create a rectangular shape for the middle and use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the side elements.

To make the side elements, draw a rectangle with a point in the side then add a small triangle (in a darker red) that will make up the shadow. Once you draw one of the side elements, select it and use the Reflect Tool (O) to create one for the other side. Place the middle of the banner on top of the side elements so that it meets the shadows.

Step 5

To create the stamp, select the star tool and Alt + Click on the artboard area. The option panel will pop up. Enter 60px for "Radius 1" and 55px for "Radius 2". The points represent the number of sharp points you want for the stamp, I’ve used 60.

Step 6

Next draw a smaller inner circle over the star stamp and go to the Pathfinder Panel and select minus front. This will create a transparent area for the stamp.

Step 7

Once you are done with the stamp and the banner. You can start adding typography to the elements.The fonts I have used are indicated on the image below, they are Steefish and Bebas Neue. The Chinese font can be download here.The chinese character on the stamp means "Dragon" in mandarin and the four Chinese words at the bottom is "Chinese New Year"

Step 8

Now group all of the elements together and go to Object > Transform > Shear. The Option Panel will popup, select Shear Angle -12 degree, Axis : Vertical. Click OK.

Step 9

Select the group of elements and test it on the background you previously created. Next we will be creating a shadow to contrast the elements with the background.

Step 10

Select the 4 main elements and copy and paste them onto the background layer (Command + C then Command + F) then fill it with a darker gradient to the one currently in use.

Step 11

Next group the elements together go to Object > Transform > Shear. Shear the banner as follows, shear angle is 12 degree and axis: Vertical.

Step 12

Finally, place the main elements on top of the background and shadows.

Conclusion

You can adjust the shadow elements by using the Direct Selection Tool to move them around. Now you are done with your unique typography card! I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.

The microscopes is a symbol of our civilization. Throughout this tutorial on how to illustrate a vector microscope you’ll take advantage of numerous Illustrator tools. You will learn how to use blends, art brushes and 3D rendering in Adobe Illustrator. Let’s get started!

Step 1

First, create a horseshoe shaped path, filled with dark color.

Go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, and set there the values shown below. Your result is a support detail of the microscope.

Now you need to grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and change the form in order to comply with the perspective demands. See the diagram below for reference.

Step 2

Illustrate the second part of the support detail the same way.

Sketch the next support of the microscope, which consists of two shown paths.

Group them by going to Object > Group (Command + G), and apply the 3D extruding to this group.

Step 3

Draw the path that will represent a mirror in the lower part of the microscope.

Illustrate the table using the Compound path. Pay attention to the asymmetrical shape of the table. You need to achieve this in order to meet the requirements of the perspective too.

Step 4

Make now the following paths touching with one another.

Place an elongated vertical rectangular path over them as shown below.

Create the following paths also.

And draw the last path as shown.

After that group all the paths,…

…and go to Effect > 3D > Revolve and set there the values shown below.

The result should look like the image shown.

Step 5

Produce the detail of tuning the microscope using 3D revolving.

You need to achieve the following result.

Step 6

Paint now a background using the Mesh Tool (U) as you can see it in the diagram below. Bear in mind that you must create a background before coloring the microscope, because the background affects the luminosity of the objects. Let a source of light be placed on the right side.

Step 7

Select the horseshoe shaped path,…

…go to the Appearance palette and click there the reference to 3D Extrude & Bevel in order to edit effect.

Specify a rendering style of the surface to No Shading. You need to do this in order to decrease the quantity of paths after the expanding.

Now go to Object > Expand Appearance. And apply Object > Ungroup three times.

Step 8

Unite the lateral parts (selected in the diagram below) by going to the Pathfinder palette.

Also unite the following paths too.

After that you must have three paths only (they are filled with different colors for your convenience).

Step 9

Select now the green path and fill it with the linear gradient shown.

Fill the red path with the linear gradient too.

The yellow path should be filled with an angled gradient.

Step 10

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw an elongated elliptical path. Fill it with black.

Copy it and paste in front (Command + C then Command + F). Then go to Object > Transform > Scale and set there the values shown below.

And after these manipulations you will achieve the following result.

Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and set the Spacing to Specified Steps and the quantity of steps to 100.

Change the Opacity of the biggest ellipse to 0.

Select both elliptical paths and go to Object > Blend > Make (Command + Alt / Option + B).

Step 11

Drag and drop this path into the Brushes palette. Select the Art Brush option in the dialog box.

Set the items for the brush as you can see them in the diagram below. Name this brush “Black brush.”

Produce the “White brush” where the ellipses are filled with white the same way.

Step 12

Take the Pen Tool (P), illustrate a path in the support part of the microscope (shown in the diagram below) and apply the “White brush” to it.

Change the Stroke weight and the opacity of this path.

Now select the group of the support detail (see the diagram below for reference), copy it and paste in front (Command + C then Command + F). Unite three paths of it by going to the Pathfinder palette, and place the received path in the top of the Layers palette. Select these both paths and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Command + 7).

Step 13

Illustrate the next path using the Pen Tool (P) over one which has just been created and apply the “White brush” to it too. Do not decrease the opacity of this new path, in order to represent a light spot on the support detail.

Apply then Black and White brushes for the following paths on the support detail.

Step 14

Expand the next support of the microscope, as you did it in Step 7.

Select the red path and change the Fill and the Stroke colors. Go to the Stroke palette and align the Stroke to inside.

Fill the yellow path with an angled linear gradient.

After that convert the green path into the mesh and change the colors of nodes using the Mesh Tool (U).

Fill the blue path with an angled gradient.

Fill the violet path with light brown.

Create the mesh from the pink path. See the diagram below.

Step 15

Make a light spot on the detail by using the “White brush.”

Step 16

Expand the detail under the mirror.

Fill the left part of the detail with an angled gradient.

And create a mesh from the right part of the detail. Change the colors of nodes in order to reproduce the light distribution. Give heed to a shadow from the mirror.

Create a shadow from the detail itself by applying the “Black brush.”

Produce a light spot the same way.

Step 17

Now expand the mirror.

Fill the red path with a linear gradient.

Fill the yellow path with the linear gradient too.

The green path should be filled with an angled gradient.

You may fill the blue Compound path with the Radial gradient.

The mirror must reflect the bottom of the table. Create this reflection using the angled linear gradient. You should have a picture the same as below.

Draw a light spot on the mirror using the technique described above.

Step 18

Expand the table now.

Fill the orange path with an angled gradient. Keep in mind the color-value of the 1st color-stop of the gradient (pointed by an arrow on the diagram).

Repeat these manipulations with the violet path. But now keep in mind the color-value of the 2nd color-stop of the gradient (pointed by an arrow on the diagram).

Fill the blue path with the linear gradient that goes from the 2nd color-stop to the 1st color-stop. You should do this in order to represent a flow of colors.

Fill the yellow Compound path with an angled gradient.

Copy this Compound path and paste it in back (Command + C Then Command + B). Move it slightly downward and fill it with brown.

Fill the hole in the table with a radial gradient.

Use a blend for creating the shadow from the central tube of the microscope. Do it by yourself without assistance. You already know how to create blends (see the diagram below).

Step 19

Expand the central tube of the microscope.

Fill the red path of the microscope eye-piece with an angled linear gradient.

Fill the following Compound paths of the eye-piece with usual colors.

Fill the yellow path with an angled gradient too.

Repeat these manipulations with the green path as shown

The blue path must be filled with the Radial gradient.

Specify the distribution of light in the violet path using the linear gradient as shown.

Use the usual color for filling the inner Compound path of the eye-piece.

Step 20

Fill the orange path in the top part of the central tube of the microscope with the following linear gradient.

Use the usual gradient for filling the light brown path.

Fill the ring of the tube with dark gray.

The white path must be painted using the linear gradient also.

Convert the green path into the mesh and change the node colors by applying the Mesh Tool (U). Follow the diagram shown below.

Step 21

The residuary paths must be filled with gradients too. See the images below for reference.

Step 22

Expand the tuning detail.

Fill the paths as shown in the diagrams below.

Apply the “White brush” to the path shown below.

Step 23

Let’s illustrate the notches on the lateral surface of the tuning detail. First draw a thin black line using the Pen Tool (P).

Copy it and paste in front (Command + C then Command + F), move it, and increase the Stroke weight in order to receive a thick line.

Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and set the items which you can see in the diagram below.

Select both paths and go to Object > Blend > Make (Command + Alt + B).

Step 24

Create an analogous blend.

And crop these blends with the Clipping mask.

Step 25

Draw a shadow from the mirror by using the “Black brush.”

And illustrate a shadow from the support detail the same way.

Step 26

You may now draw erythrocytes by using the 3D revolving effect. See the diagram below for reference.

Produce the lines in the background with the aid of the blend.

And crop them with the Clipping path.

Conclusion

The final image is below. Every microscope is the exact scientific tool which allows you to watch the majesty in the microcosm.

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a quirky story told in emoticons by Storyteller and poet Rives at TED2008. See the power of visual storytelling and how typography can convey much more than words.

Vectortuts+ is all about helping people turbo charge their skills, and today we have another special community post that will help our readers take their images to the next level. The best thing is, you can be part of it too! Find out more at the jump.

Peer Review, 5

If you would like to offer advice or tips you can do so in the comments section below, just a few tips before we begin…

How to Participate:

• This sessions contributor has offered a piece of work that they would like help with, please keep this in mind when you share your thoughts. The images are not perfect, but they can be with the right advice and some friendly encouragement. (Vectortuts+ reserves the right to delete any rude comments)
• If you’re better with pictures (let’s face it, most of us are) feel free to take a screenshot of the image using Little Snapper, Skitch or a similar program and paste a link to the annotated image in the comments section with an explanation of the tweaks.

If you want to take part in the next peer review:

Add your work to our facebook photo gallery with a description about the piece and the help/advice you’re looking for.We will chose one to be published on our site as part of the next Community Review, if you’re not chosen straight away – don’t worry – your work will be chosen for a future session.

Image Category: Black and White

Details:

Designer: Robert Sarudy

Details: Hi, I have tried to create this vector fly by tracing a photo. Could you please give me some tips in Peer Review on how to improve this picture or achieve better depth in the image?

Feedback

What are your thoughts on the work above? Critiquing work helps the artist see new possibilities, and it also helps you learn to evaluate art, which will help you take that same analysis and apply it to your own work. Participate in the comments below with your opinions on how to improve the work above.

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, learn how to create a stylized performance car from a reference image using many gradients, custom art brushes, patterns, clipping masks and not a single gradient mesh or blur in sight! If you are looking to take your skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

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In this tutorial you will learn how to quickly create a series of recycled paper textures. You can use these to apply the effect of old paper over illustrations. The goal of this tutorial is to show you some shortcuts for aligning objects on the Artboard by using the Align Panel to your advantage. With this basic knowledge it will become very easy to create many patterns with many different looks in just minutes.

Step 1

Create a new Document, preferably in square format. Since we are working in vector the size does not really matter. I am going for 400 × 400 pixel at 72 dpi.

What we need to start out with are a lot of circles in different sizes. We could take the ellipse tool and place them manually on the Canvas, but this takes lots of time and there is a quicker way to do this. A Scatter Brush can make this quick and easy. Since we don’t need precision, we’re just going to create a simple Scatter Brush and draw some random lines with it.

Create a circle filled with black. Drag it into the Brush Panel and choose "Scatter Brush" from the window. Choose some random settings, important to get a variety of sizes is to set the Size setting to random. The exact numbers for both Spacing and Scatter do not matter, just drag the numbers around.

Step 2

Take the Brush Tool and draw some lines randomly across the Canvas.

As you can see we now have many small circles in different sizes. Go to Object > Expand Appearance. The Brushstroke will now be broken up into shapes.

They are grouped right now, but we need them separated. Go to Object > Ungroup. Every shape is still in its own group, so go to Object > Ungroup again. You can still see the original Brush Stroke in the selection, delete it.

You can see some shapes are outside of the Canvas, in the next step will take care of this.

Step 3

We want our pattern to be exactly 400 × 400 px big. We could move the shapes that are outside the Canvas manually into the canvas, but depending on your Brush settings there may be way too many shapes outside to do it that way.

Open the Align Panel. On the Artboard setting, choose Align to Artboard. Select all your shapes.

We want them nicely spread on our Canvas. To achieve this, use the Align Panel and its Distribute Objects functionality. Apply Vertical Distribute Center and then Horizontal Distribute Center. Your shapes will now all be contained inside the Canvas and be exactly 400 × 400 px big.

Step 4

So far it looks more like Dalmatian fur, than recycled paper. In recycled paper you often find bits of different colored papers in uneven shapes. To achieve this look, we will apply an Effect on our shapes.

Step 5

Select all shapes and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen and use the settings as shown in the screenshot. Go to Object > Expand Appearance when you are satisfied with how the shapes look after applying the effect.

Step 6

In order to get a less uniform appearance we want to reduce the shapes opacity. Group all the objects, this group will be the base for the following steps.

Step 7

Duplicate the group and rotate it 180°. Change the color of this group to 50% Black.

Step 8

Create a rectangle in the Canvas size and place it behind the two groups of shapes. Set its color to 25% Black. Now you have our basic pattern. I want to keep it simple and use only 3 colors for the patterns, the background and 2 different colored bits of paper.

Ungroup everything and distribute the elements along the Artboard again, as you did in Step 3. This step will be repeated a few more times later on, so keep it in mind. If there are some blank areas in your pattern, move shapes manually to fill up those gaps.

Select everything and drag into the Swatches Panel. And we are done with the first texture pattern.

Step 9

Now we are going to create our second pattern. This should have shapes in a longer form, pretty much like grains of rice. Select everything but the background square and go to Object > Transform > Transform Each.

These bits of paper are supposed to be wide and thin. By changing the horizontal and vertical Scale non-uniform, we can easily create this sort of texture. As you can see, some shapes exceed the Artboard again, so we repeat the Vertical and Horizontal Distribution step again. Select everything and drag into the Swatches Panel.Your second pattern is done.

Step 10

Let’s create a third pattern. This one should be more vivid, but based on our second pattern.

Select all the shapes, without the background, again and go to Object > Transform > Transform Each again. This time we will rotate the shapes to have a messier pattern. It is important to set the Rotation to 180° and to check the Random setting. By doing so each element will be rotated between 0° and 180°.

Repeat Step 3 again to distribute the shapes inside the Artboard again. Drag everything into the Swatches Panel to save the pattern.

Step 11

If you take a closer look at the last pattern we just created, you will notice some gaps at the edges of the Canvas. They will become more visible if we apply the pattern to a bigger shape, so we will have to fix this.

We could do so by dragging shapes around manually. Depending on how your pattern looks, this may take a while.

But we can also use the Align Panel again, to make our lives easier.

Your Align Panel should still be set to Align to Artboard. Select some random shapes, about 10 or more. On the Align Panel, click Vertical Align Top so the shapes all have the same vertical position. To have them spread even more evenly you can additionally align them along the whole width of the Artboard. This way we will also have shapes in the corners of our pattern.

Repeat this step for all 4 sides, with the respective aligning method for each side.

Step 12

Below are the three patterns we created.

The first basic pattern, with circles that were roughened up.

The second pattern, with long and thin paper bits.

The third pattern, with randomly rotated paper bits.

Conclusion

You can create a series of more textures by applying more effects to the shapes, adding more shapes in another color, apply an effect to only some of the shapes, mixing 2 patterns etc.

Of course you can also apply "real" colors to the shapes. I stayed with grey tones, to demonstrate the effect. But you could pick a light yellow tone for the background and some pink or blue color to the paper bits. There is no limit to your imagination. My best advice is to play around as much as you can and stay with whatever looks best to you.

However, now that you know how to create a recycled paper texture, you can use these patterns to enhance vector illustrations and give them a retro look. I will demonstrate this with one of my illustrations. I created a new shape above my illustration, filled it with my pattern and set its Blend Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 50%.

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, you will learn how to create a golden shield illustration and an ivy text effect. We’ll use vector shape building techniques to construct the main structure of our work and then Illustrator’s 3D tools to add depth. Then discover how to add polish to the shield before we move onto constructing the ivy text effect. If you are looking to take your skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

Tuts+ Premium Members can login now for instant access to this tutorial. Membership to Tuts+ Premium gets you access to hundreds of exclusive premium tutorials, top selling ebooks, in-depth courses, member forums, and much more. To learn more about Tuts+ Premium, Take the Tour or Join Today.

On Valentine’s Day, a holiday of people who are in love, everyone gives greeting cards to each other. This day is a good opportunity to show your feelings with an unusual gift. I’ll tell you how to create a vector-card for this holiday of love. This artwork was created by my student Eugene Nikandrov.

Step 1

Take the Pen Tool (P) and create a schematic half of the heart with 3 anchor points. Pay attention, the path is open. For your convenience, I recommend you enable the Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides).

Group the received object (Object > Group (Command + G)).

Keep the group selected and go the Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform in the dialog box and set the settings shown on the picture below.

As a result, we get a mirroring of the object.

Step 2

All the changes made with the object will be reflected in its copy. Now select and convert corner anchor points to smooth.

Driving handles of smooth points, create a heart shape.

Now create highlights. Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw a half of the highlight. Drag it to the group, to which the effect of transformation was applied.

Edit the form using the Direct Selection Tool (A). Create side and central highlights using the technique described above.

Step 3

Select the group and go to the Object > Expand Appearance. As result, we got the object of the second half of the heart.

Ungroup all objects twice with the Object > Ungroup (Command + G).

With the Direct Selection Tool (A) or the Lasso Tool (Q) select the lowest point position where the left and the right halves join, and go the Object > Path > Join (Command + J).

Using this technique, join all the points of contact.

Step 4

Let’s start working with a heart shape. For training purposes I turn off the visibility in the panel of layers for all objects we are not working with. Using the Mesh Tool (U) create the Gradient Mesh.

Color the gradient mesh nodes in two colors: pink and dark red (I use RGB color mode (File > Document Color Mode > RGB color)).

Set the Screen Blending Mode for the heart-shape in the Transparency panel.

Step 5

Fill in the form of the flare with a linear gradient, which consists of gray and black colors. Keep the objects selected, set the Screen Blending Mode in the Transparency panel.

Apply the described techniques to other highlights.

Select and group all the objects of the heart (Command + G).

Step 6

Create a background with the Rectangle Tool (M). Fill it with radial gradient, which consists of the shades of dark red color.

Step 7

Set the heart on the background and duplicate it, change the size of copies and turn them while to create the composition.

On Valentine’s Day, a holiday of people who are in love, everyone gives greeting cards to each other. This day is a good opportunity to show your feelings with an unusual gift. I’ll tell you how to create a vector-card for this holiday of love. This artwork was created by my student Eugene Nikandrov.

Step 8

Create glow around the hearts. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a circle, fill it with radical gradient which consists of the shades of dark red.

Duplicate the received object and change its shape to crate a glow.

Step 9

With the help Type Tool (T) write your greetings.

Conclusion

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial. Have a happy holiday!

If you’re serious about creating a typeface design, then you’ll need some solid resources to get started. Learn effective typeface design workflows, how to take an initial spark of an idea from sketch, through Illustrator, into Fontlab, and then work your creation into a complete and custom font design. Here are multiple tutorials that show you how to create fonts in Illustrator and Fontlab, and you can also dive into articles that describe the foundation of quality type design with ample inspirational examples.

Typeface and Font Design Tutorials

Designing a Typeface, With Illustrator and FontLab, from Start to Finish – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

In this three part series Jesse Hora shows us how to design a typeface. He begins in Illustrator and works his way through to FontLab. Learn to find inspiration, utilize geometry to craft letters that work well together, vector your alphabet, and then bring it into Fontlab. You’ll learn typographic terminology, the basics of constructing lettering, as well as intermediate to advanced detail, such as working with kerning pairs. This is a great series to get started with typeface font design.

Build a Geometric Typeface

Cypher13 (now known as Berger & Föhr) show us their process in how to design a geometric font. After sketching, Illustrator is an important part of their process. They use an isometric triangular grid to construct letters in phases.

Learn about creating Horizontal and Vertical Counters, as well as exceptions to various typographic rules you set when designing a typeface. While they mention the importance of Fontlab for taking their typeface design and working it into a full fledge font, that isn’t covered in this tutorial.

Design an Intricate Display Font

Dawn Lewandowski of HypeForType shows us how to take an intricate typeface design and turn it into a Font in FontLab. The display typeface created by Alex Trochut has very intricate linework and presents quite a few challenges for having it converted into a workable font. Learn how Dawn overcame these complexities in FontLab, grab advanced tips, and grow your font design abilities.

Design a Headline Typeface

Tom Muller shows us how to create a thick sans-serif headline typeface. This typeface tutorial doesn’t get into turning the typeface into a font. It focuses on how to create a typeface design that feels well balanced, with various letter thickness and spacing, while being monoline. There is a great introduction for beginners on how to design a stylish thick typeface.

Develop a Themed Pictorial Font

Ana Benaroya shows how to design an illustrative typeface. The process starts with a hand-drawn alphabet, and then covers the process of converting this into a pixel based typeface in Photoshop. Of course, a vector workflow would be preferable, and more versatile to use, you can still learn some great tips from this tutorial.

I really like the artist’s advice on appreciating the quirky and imperfect nature of hand-drawn letting, she even advises to avoid paying too much attention to reference images and focus more on creating your imaginative letters.

New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator

Much of this tutorial focuses on letterform creation using Illustrator’s Anchor Point tools. Fabio Sasso shows how to make a monoline smooth corner typeface design. Learn to work with basic shapes to create typefaces that have impact. This same process was used to create the Abduzeedo logo. There is an accompanying video demonstration to the written tutorial as well.

Create a Text Font in FontLab

This is a must read tutorial for aspiring font designers. In it typeface designer Dan Reynolds goes behind the scenes of text fonts Neue Frutiger and Ysobel to demonstrate the font creation process. You’ll learn the basics of working on letterform and full font creation in FontLab with professional examples of the overall process.

How to Design a Font Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

Over at GoMediaZine Katie Major goes through her font design process in four consecutive posts. Learn how she gets typeface design inspiration from numerous sources. Go into her sketching process, and discover how she refines typeface designs with grids, explores multiple options, and finalizes her characters in Illustrator.

Then jump into FontLab and learn the process of converting your vector letters into a fully functional font. She walks you through her process for kerning and more. Throughout this series you’ll discover terminology and numerous tips on how to design a typeface and turn it into a working custom font design.

Typeface and Font Design Articles

• So You Want to Create a Font – Part 1 and Part 2

  This two part series on how to design a typeface and create a font that comprehensively covers the basics of getting started. There are numerous software options and character design choices to make. Should your “y” be composed of two or three lines? Should you have a one story or two story “g.” These and other questions to answer will help differentiate your font.

• The First One’s The Hardest

  Jeremy Mickel tells the tale of how he fell in love with typeface design, got inspired to create his own font (Router), and worked on it for months to bring it to commercial fruition. This article gives a clear understanding of the time and effort involved with creating a custom font design. He also points out some great resources at the end of the article, such as < a href="http://www.typeworkshop.com/index.php">Typeworkshop.

• The Making of FF Tundra

  Ludwig Übele designed the font FF Tundra. He describes the main features of creating the typeface, how the characteristics of the font were made, and how open spaces work with vertical stems. The type designer worked to create a font that works well on the horizontal. Learn more about the creation of this award winning font design.

• A Few Things I’ve Learned About Typeface Design

  The author Gerry Leonidas is a Senior Lecturer in Typography at the University of Reading (UK) and Programme Director of the MA in Typeface Design. In this article he lays out some of the areas he’s found students of typography should focus on, as well as deficiencies to avoid in the study of typeface design. You’ll also get a good feel for the importance of having a methodology when creating a typeface design. Typographic history, working with type at various scales, and group type creation points are made as well.

• 12 Sources of Inspiration for Creating Your Own Lettering or Typeface Designs

  If you dream of painstakingly designing the next amazing Open Type Font, desire to craft beautiful Hand Drawn Lettering, or feel the urge to create original Typeface Designs then this article is for you. In this article I wrote for GoMediaZine find an assortment of my favorite typeface designers and examples of their work. Grab tips on where to find typeface design inspiration, from hand painted signage to letter systems. The field of type design is ripe with exploration and creative possibilities.

Mastering the art of character design is something that takes both a lively imagination and a good understanding of drawing techniques. Today we have have bundled together a collection fun and lively character design tutorials from the Vectortuts+ archives. Covering a variety of subjects from sketching to rendering there’s plenty of projects to help you imagine and create your own fantastic characters.

• 

  How to Create a Web Site Mascot

  In this tutorial, I’m going to give an overview of how developed a character from the initial brief through to the final site mascot and then to go on to create several poses for different parts of the site.

  This character was originally made for an Envato site which didn’t take off, and the artwork wasn’t being used, so I’ve reworked this a bit to become a Vectortuts+ character. Let’s check out the process of making this website mascot and learn loads of tips along the way!

• 

  How to Cell Shade and add Texture to a Vector Comic Character

  This tutorial will show you how to create a cell shaded character in Adobe Illustrator, this is a fast technique utilizing the Live Paint bucket for block coloring, the gradient tool to add depth and form, and masked blended shapes for texture.

• 

  How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character

  In this Illustrator tutorial, I will show you how to create a cute bunny character. This tutorial uses simple shapes and gradients that are easy to apply to other character illustrations. The great thing about his tutorial is you don’t have to be an amazing artist to create it!

• 

  How to Color a Cute Character using Graphic Styles

  Coloring a character sketch can sometimes take much longer than anyone expects. With a few layer tricks and Graphic Styles, I will show you how to create a character that is quick to ink, easy to edit and a breeze to re-color. Let’s get started!

• 

  Create a Twitter Style Bird Mascot

  Using some basic shapes, effects, and gradients I will show you how to create a Twitter mascot for your blog or website. Twitter is a popular free web service for social networking and micro-blogging. You can follow Vectips, Sean Hodge, or Collis Ta’eed on Twitter as well!

• 

  How to Create a Fantasy Character in Illustrator

  This tutorial covers the process of creating a fantasy pinup illustration with Illustrator CS3. This tutorial uses Live Paint, so you will need CS2 or above to follow. If you need an alternative method for a legacy version of Illustrator, please download my Creating Comics with Illustrator tutorial tutorial, which includes instructions for that.

• 

  Give a 3D, Vector Robot a Realistic Feel in Photoshop

  In this tutorial you are going to learn how to combine different methods from Illustrator and Photoshop to enhance your 3D vector art. Through the process you will learn how to use the appearance panel, 3D extrude and 3D revolve. You will also create a custom art brush, and your own symbol. I am going to show you how to create masks using Channels and Layers, as well as creating Clipping Masks in Photoshop.

• 

  Create a Super Happy Octopus Character

  In Illustrator it’s really easy to create fun characters with some simple shapes and the Pathfinder Panel. In the following tutorial I will explain how to create a Happy Octopus Character. You can use these techniques and elements to create whatever character you want!

• 

  How to Create a Vector Illustration and Prepare it for Micro-Stock Sale

  There are numerous micro-stock websites that vector designers can design for and make consistent earnings through. Envato runs a few stock sites, such as Graphic River, which you may be interested in participating in. You may find the article on Freelance Switch about making money through selling your work on stock sites enlightening as well. There are some great tips in that article.

  I have quite a bit of experience working with Shutterstock and iStockphoto. This tutorial details a professional workflow for creating vector illustrations and prepping the artwork for these sites. I’ve also included a bunch of time-saving tools and tips as well. Let’s get started!

• 

  How to Illustrate a LeBron James Cartoon Character

  Hello fellow vector artists, I am a cartoonist/illustrator who specialized in retro style vector cartoons. You can find more of my work and books at my web site. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I use Adobe Illustrator to create vector cartoons.

• 

  How to Create a Cartoon Character with Expressive Lines

  Cartoon character drawing covers a lot of techniques and styles from one color characters to multilayered colorful ones. In this tutorial, I will cover the necessary steps for creating a colored multicolor cartoon character that includes shadings. I used Adobe CS3, a Wacom tablet, an inked drawing, and scanner. With your tools ready, let’s get to it!

• 

  How to Illustrate a Cute Emo Kid

  We’ve recently included some funny looking cartoon style silhouettes on our website, so in this tutorial I will take you through the process of drawing these cuties. The concept is based on the Emo trend and I will take you trough all the steps from sketch to full color vector. I am using Illustrator CS3, pen, paper, scanner, and Wacom tablet.

• 

  How to Turn a Sketch into a Fat Cat Vector Illustration

  This tutorial aims to guide you from sketchbook to screen; a "Fat Cat" doodled with biro translated into a neat vector caricature. Intermediate knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is advised. Let’s take a look at how to create a cheeky cat illustration – from initial concept through to vector goodness.

• 

  How to Create a Stinking Zombie Flesh-Eater in Illustrator

  In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a cartoon zombie in Illustrator. Starting by creating a fresh corpse, we will then ‘yuck’ it up using a number of techniques. Let’s ‘rip’ this one apart!

• 

  Create Character Driven Book Cover Art Using Illustrator and Photoshop

  In this two part tutorial on creating the "Let’s Go To Monster School!" book cover, I’ll show you a complete process from initial sketch to the final artwork, using an Illustrator to Photoshop integrated workflow. In Part 1 we will employ Illustrator to trace our hand drawn sketch, lay down the shapes and define the basic colors.

• 

  How to Design a Cheeky Koala Mascot Head

  We’ll use some opacity masks, brushes, gradients and effects, in addition to an easy shading technique you’ll find yourself using in plenty of other projects. Get ready to tuck into this Aussie-flavored tut!

• 

  How to Create Typeface Characters

  I started a character design project that merges typefaces into unique monsters, cute animals, and various other font inspired character creations. The method is simple, I take different sections of the characters of a specific font and I put them together, giving birth to different kinds of creatures.

  The interesting thing about Typefaces is that each font gives a different aspects to the characters. That is the essence of Typefaces – Faces with Type. Learn the basics of how to create these fun characters!

• 

  Make a Fun Holiday Reindeer Illustration

  Take an in-depth look at the process of designing and illustrating a holiday reindeer illustration. This tutorial covers illustration style, color selection, shading and touches on typography. The process of adapting your illustration during creation is also covered. This tutorial is created by Jesse Hora and Darrin Higgins. Time for some holiday fun!

• 

  How to Create a Cute Snail Using Adobe Illustrator

  In this tutorial we will learn how to draw a snail using tools such as the Pen Tool (P), Selection Tool (V), Direct Selection Tool (A), Ellipse Tool, and Gradient Tool (G). Some shapes will be created with the help of the Pathfinder panel. This artwork was created by my student Artur Chochaev.

• 

  How to Create a Killer Chainsaw Bunny Character

  This tutorial shows you how I build a Bucket ‘o’ Thought character and add a dynamic background effect. This process can be applied to any sketch you are vectorising. It takes some knowledge and skill with the Pen tool, but gives you ultimate control over your line work. In this tutorial, I will constantly refer to a tools’ quick key, learn your quick keys people, it makes things so much easier!


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/24/20-fun-lively-character-design-tutorials-from-vectortuts/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/24/create-a-100-vector-painterly-illustration-%e2%80%93-tuts-premium-tutorial/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/24/create-a-100-vector-painterly-illustration-%e2%80%93-tuts-premium-tutorial/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:39 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5247



In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, we will use Adobe Illustrator to create a dynamic painterly textured illustration. This technique can be done using a mouse; however, a tablet will give you an extra level of control. We’ll cover the complete vector painting process from sketch to final illustration. If you are looking to take your skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

View the Tutorial


Tuts+ Premium Members can login now for instant access to this tutorial. Membership to Tuts+ Premium gets you access to hundreds of exclusive premium tutorials, top selling ebooks, in-depth courses, member forums, and much more. To learn more about Tuts+ Premium, Take the Tour or Join Today.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/24/create-a-100-vector-painterly-illustration-%e2%80%93-tuts-premium-tutorial/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-blueprint-illustration/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-blueprint-illustration/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:36 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5252



Have you always wanted to be an architect, but really just because you want to show people cool blueprints? Well‚ neither has Ryan, but he’ll certainly show you how to create a blueprint illustration in Adobe Illustrator. It all starts with a square filled with a gradient, and demonstrates techniques that will help you create almost any type of document.

Note: If you’re following along with the video, the details we use for our document are as follows.

• Document: Letter – Horizontal – RGB
• Grid: 20×20, 20% Opacity
• Square Gradient: (R to L)
  0,78,144
  56,126,235
  0,167,255
• Curl Gradient: white
  217,227,240
  white

]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-blueprint-illustration/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/how-to-create-smoky-brushes-and-type-in-illustrator-cs4/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/how-to-create-smoky-brushes-and-type-in-illustrator-cs4/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:42 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=3226



I’ve always been fascinated by smoke, and have experimented a lot with it. So in this tutorial, I explain how to create realistic smoke, make it into a brush and use it for type. Let’s light up our vector cigarettes and get started smokin’!

October of 2009

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Step 1

Create a new document (Command + N) for print in A3 (297mm by 420mm).



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Step 2

Make a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M) that covers the whole artboard and make it black. While the rectangle is selected go to Object > Lock > Selection (Command + 2), which will lock the object so that you can’t select it.

Take your Pen Tool (P) and make a vertical stroke (click to make a start point, then click somewhere over or under the start point while holding Shift to make a vertical stroke). Make the stroke white and the fill blank. Set the weight of the stroke to 0,05mm.

If your units are set to something else, like points or inches, make sure that you type in “mm” behind 0,05, or hit Command + K. Choose units and display performance from the drop-down menu and change the units to millimeters.



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Step 3

While your stroke is selected grab the Selection Tool (V), then hit enter and type in 0,05mm for horizontal and 0 for vertical. Click copy and hold Command + D (Object > Transform > Transform Again) for around 20sec, which will perform the Tranform Again command multiple times.



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Step 4

While all of your strokes are selected, set the blend mode to Screen and Opacity to 8. Then group it (Command + G).



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Step 5

Take your Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape that looks something like that shown below.



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Step 6

Now for the magical step! Make sure that the shape you just made is on the top and click it, then hit Command + Shift + Right Bracket key (Object > Arrange > Bring to Front). Select the path and the strokes and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Top Object (Command + Alt + C). Check that the Blend Fidelity is set to 100 (Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope Options, there you should set the Fidelity to 100).

Now that’s pretty cool, but if you take a closer look, you will see that the strokes are pretty clear. If you do not intend to make a stroke out of this you can fix it by clicking Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7.0px, but since we are going to make a stroke out of it, we’ll do that later (shapes you want to turn into strokes can’t have effects like this one added).



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Step 7

Now drag your smoke into the brushes panel. If you can’t see it then hit F5. Check the New Art Brush and hit OK.



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Step 8

Name your brush whatever you want to, set the Direction to Up, and Method to Tints and Shades, then hit OK.



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Step 9

Now you have your brush, but do you have something to use it for? If yes, remember to chose Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 0.7px when you have assembled your brush. If no, continue reading.

Take you Pencil Tool (N) and draw some letters, one letter at a time. Group them, add the stroke and set the stroke weight to 0,5pt.



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Step 10

Copy your smoky letters (Command + C) and paste them behind (Command + B). Set the stroke weight to 3 pt. Now go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7 px.

Yes, this is a Photoshop effect, so it will rasterize, but if you hit Command + K and check the Scale Strokes and Effects, then you’ll be fine when you want to scale it.



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Final Image

I hope you learned something new, and that it will come in use sometime, if it does, I would love to see what you make out of it.



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]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/23/how-to-create-smoky-brushes-and-type-in-illustrator-cs4/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/21/mike-matas-a-next-generation-digital-book/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/21/mike-matas-a-next-generation-digital-book/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:00:19 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5249



Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting demo by Software developer Mike Matas at TED2011. In this talk Mike demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad — with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is “Our Choice,” Al Gore’s sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth.”


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/21/mike-matas-a-next-generation-digital-book/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/20/how-to-create-a-vector-light-bulb-icon-with-inkscape/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/20/how-to-create-a-vector-light-bulb-icon-with-inkscape/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:04 +0000 admin http://vectortuts.com/?p=1299



Today we’ll be learning how to create a vector light bulb icon with the free, open source vector program Inkscape. We’ll be following a Tango style of design for this project. Read on to learn more about the Tango Desktop Project and to learn how to create this icon.

February of 2009

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join VECTORTUTS PLUS for just 9/month.



Tango Desktop Project

The Tango Desktop Project is a set of guidelines that icon creators can use to make a consistent appearance in their icons. It’s most famously displayed in Linux distributions, but you might also notice it in standalone applications, such as GIMP. Below, is a sample of the official Tango icons. We’ll be replicating this look.



Step 1

Create a new 48px by 48px canvas. By default Inkscape has a few undesirable settings for creating icons. Go to the Document Properties dialog window and select the Snap tab. Uncheck the box next to Enable snapping. Throughout this tutorial you’ll need to occasionally use a grid to align the shapes to the canvas. To enable the Grid select the menu item View > Grid (#). I used a grey background in this tutorial to make things show up more.



Step 2

Now create a small circle near the top of the canvas and center it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you can adjust it later. Note how it fits nicely between the grid lines. Convert the circle to a path by selecting it then going to Path > Object to Path (Shift + Ctrl + C).



Step 3

Next we’ll create the bottom part of the glass bulb that slopes into the metal socket. It may be beneficial to use a reference image for this next step. Below is a generic light bulb image from sxc.hu.



To create the curved bottom path, select the Bezier Curves tool (Shift + F6) and trace or create a path similar to the one pictured below by adjusting the various nodes.



Step 4

Combine the circle created earlier and the new path by holding down Shift and clicking on the objects individually. Next, click the menu item Path > Combine (Ctrl + K). The two objects are now combined into one and should look the same as the image below while in Edit Paths mode (F2).



Pay attention to the two yellow diamonds selected above. We’re going to make intersections in the circle near these two points. Make the intersections by double-clicking above the two yellow diamonds on the border of the circle. Two new nodes should appear where you double-clicked.



Select the square node at the very bottom of the circle and press the Delete key. The path will be changed slightly and the two yellow squares we made earlier should turn into diamonds. Select these two diamond nodes and remove the path connecting them using the Split Paths tool in your toolbar.



The result is a light bulb shape with two gaps in the middle.



Combine the almost-circle with the bottom path by selecting one end of the circle along with one end of the bottom path. Clicking Join selected endnodes in the Edit nodes toolbar and the two points should fuse together.



Do the same for the opposite side.

Step 5

Now it’s time to add a little color. I used a custom color palette as shown below (.pl included in the VECTORTUTS PLUS source files). It’s also shown below.



Select the light bulb shape and bring up the Fill and Stroke window (Shift + Ctrl + F). Select Stroke paint and then linear gradient. A simple black to transparent gradient should show up as the border of the bulb. We’re going to change these colors. Select Edit… and change the two stop colors. I used 729fcfff as my first and 3465a4ff as my second, darker color.

Change the direction of the gradient path by going into Edit Paths mode (F2) and dragging the square point of the gradient line to the upper left hand corner of the light bulb. Then drag the circle end to the lower right hand corner. This is to create a consistent light source in the icon.



Next up is the Fill. Keep the Fill and Stroke window open and click the Fill tab and select Radial gradient. I used ffffff56 as my inner color and 729fcfe3 for my outer color. You may notice both color are slightly transparent. This is to give the illusion that the light bulb is made of a translucent material.



Step 6

Select the outline, copy it (Ctrl + C) and paste it onto the same location (Ctrl + Alt + V). This is going to be the trademark inner highlight found in most Tango-styled icons. Delete the fill of the copied outline and change the stroke to pure white. This will make it more recognizable.

Adjust the white stroke so it fits snugly on the inside of the blue outline. Remember to keep the shape and 1px border. It will probably be necessary to manual move the nodes around to achieve a perfect fit.



Bring up the Fill and Strokes dialog again and in the Stroke tab select a linear gradient. The white to transparent gradient colors that appear by default will work fine; so there’s no need to change them. We do want to change the angle of the gradient though, because our light source is in the upper left-hand corner of the image. If the light source is in the upper left corner, the brightest spot on the object should also be in the upper left corner.

Adjust the overall opacity of the white outline to 75%.



Step 7

Time to create the filament. Draw two lines near the middle of the bulb with the Bezier Curves tool. Angle them towards the middle creating a V shape, then give each a gradient stroke. I used 9927aff to ffffffff. The lighter color is on top because this is where the filament is burning and giving off bright light.



Refer to the reference bulb earlier in the post and you’ll notice the actual filament is the material between these two wires. Since a 48px by 48px icon doesn’t need too much detail we can simulate a coil by making a wavy line. So once again select the Bezier curves tool and draw four points between the V lines created earlier. Then drag the lines connecting each point downwards so we have three shallow bowls connected together.



Make a new three-sided rectangle in the bottom part of the bulb with the Bezier Curves tool. The rectangle only needs a top, left, and right side; leave the bottom open. Then drag the middle of the top segment upwards to make a small arc. This object will be a small piece of glass inside the bulb that the filament is wired into.



Open the Fill and Strokes dialog and give the new path a stroke color of d0bfacff. Then select the Fill tab and give it a Linear Gradient going from ffffffff to ffffff00 (white to white-transparent). Change the repeat drop-down menu to Reflected. Reflected means the gradient is displayed twice. Once on the left side of the square end, and reflected on the right. I positioned the square point near the middle to look like there is a reflection in the glass. Also, change the overall Opacity to about 50%.



Step 8

Select the original blue outline we drew for the light bulb in Step 1. It should be the bottom layer of your image. Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste it into place (Ctrl + Alt + V). Remove the stroke. Then give it a fill of ffc803ff. This is going to be a nice yellow glow resembling the color incandescent lights give off.



Lower the overall opacity of the object to 26% and lower it to the bottom of the image by pressing the End key.



Now to finish things up. Glass objects always reflect at least a small amount of light; spherical objects often have hot spots where a concentrated portion of light is being reflected off of. Create a circle, or more accurately an oval. Make the width slightly smaller than the length. Now rotate the oval by selecting it, and while having it selected click on it again. The arrows around the perimeter should change to rotational arrows. Click and hold one of the arrows in the corner and rotate the oval about 45° clockwise. Position the oval in the top left corner where the light source is the strongest. Then lower the Opacity to 37%.



Step 9

The final part of the light bulb is the metal connector that screws into a light socket. Create a rectangle connected to the bottom of the glass light bulb we just created. Then convert the shape to a path by going to the menu item Path > Object to Path (Shift + Ctrl + C). This makes the shape editable.



Drag the top of the rectangle upwards to resemble an upside down bowl and the bottom of the rectangle downwards. We’re going for a 3D cylinder look.



Add two more equidistant nodes on the left side of the cylinder by double-clicking where you want the nodes placed. Do the same for the right side, only place them between the nodes on the right starting from the top. By mentally connecting the dots from left to right it should resemble a zig-zag pattern. I added an overlay to help visualize the pattern.



We’re doing this to create the screw shape of the light bulb. Arrange the nodes by moving and extruding them till they resemble the image below.



Give the screw shape a Stroke color of d59600ff. Copy and Paste into place (Ctrl + Alt + V) a new screw. Remove the stroke from the new screw shape and add a linear gradient Fill with the colors ffd543ff and ffeca9ff. Remember to change the Repeat to Reflected to get the shine near the middle of the screw.

The new screw with the fill should be slightly smaller than the screw below it. Resize the newly created Fill object till the border of the object behind it is completely visible, similar to the process in Step 5. We’re doing this to make the corners of the border appear sharper.



Now move the two screw objects to the bottom of the image by selecting them both and pressing the End key. Next draw the wedges/teeth/edges of the screw. This is a very subtle effect and we don’t need a big object to do this. Select the Bezier Curves tool and make an object similar to the one below. The fill color is d59600ff.



Duplicate the object and move it down beneath the original.



Now to add a few final touches. Make two connected points with the Bezier Curves tool in the shape of a bowl. Fill it with the color d0bfacff and a stroke of 5a5249ff and lower it to the bottom of the image with the End key.



Draw an oval at the very bottom of the image. Make it about six times as wide as tall. Open the Fill and Strokes window and Fill it with black (000000ff).



Then select a Radial gradient for the fill. Lower the overall Opacity to 30% and move the oval to the bottom of the image. This is the shadow cast by the light bulb.



Final Image

Congratulations, you’re all done! I hope you enjoyed creating this!



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]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/20/how-to-create-a-vector-light-bulb-icon-with-inkscape/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-simple-price-tag-icon/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-simple-price-tag-icon/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:00:51 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5244



In the following quick tip you will learn how to create a simple price tag icon. It’s another tutorial that focuses mainly on the Appearance panel. First, you will need some basic tools and shape building techniques to create the starting shape. Next, using the power of the Appearance panel and a nice, free font along with some basic effects and techniques you will create you own price tag icon. Let’s get started.

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Step 1

Hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 600 in the with and height boxes then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the "Align New Objects to Pixel Grid" box is unchecked before your click OK. Now, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid).

Next, you’ll need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to set the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. Al these options will significantly increase your work speed.



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Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 150 by 60px shape and fill it with R=255 G=222 B=190. Remove the colors from the stroke.



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Step 3

Reselect the shape created in the previous step. Pick the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and add two new anchor points as shown in the following image. The Snap to Grid will ease your work.



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Step 4

Make sure that your shape is still selected and pick the Direct Selection Tool (A). Select the top, left anchor points and move it 30px down then select the bottom, left anchor point and move it 30px up. In the end your shape should look like in the second image.



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Step 5

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 10px circle and place it as shown in the first image. Select it along with the other shape and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like in the third image. This is the only shape that you will need to create your price tag. Move to the Layers panel (Window > Layers) double click on this shape and name it "Price Tag".



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Step 6

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Select the existing fill and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 7

Select "Price Tag", move to the Appearance panel and click on the Add New Fill button. Obviously, this will add a new fill for your shape. Select it from the Appearance panel, lower its opacity to 25% and fill it with the linear gradient shown below.

The yellow numbers from the gradient image stand for opacity percentage while the white numbers stand for location percentage. Make sure that this new fill is still selected and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -3px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 8

Select "Price Tag" and add a stroke. Make it 1px wide, set its color at R=196 G=154 B=108 and go to the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke). First, check the Round Cap and the Round Join buttons. Next, check the Dashed Line box and enter 0.75pt in the dash box and 3pt in the gap box. Now you should have a dashed stroke.

Return in the Appearance panel, make sure that the stroke is still selected and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -3px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 9

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Make sure that no fill or stroke is selected and click on the Add new Stroke button. This will add a new stroke for your shape. Make it 2pt, align it to outside and set its color at R=196 G=154 B=108.



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Step 10

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Select the stroke added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item button. This will add a copy of the selected stroke. Select it, set its size at 1pt and the color at R=255 G=245 B=235.



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Step 11

Reselect "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Make sure that no fill or stroke is selected and click on the Add New Fill button. Select this new fill and drag it in the bottom of the Appearance panel. Fill it with the liner gradient shown below and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 2px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Distort &Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 12

Reselect your entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 5px radius and click OK. Move to the Appearance panel and make sure that the Rounded Corners is in the top of the Appearance panel.



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Step 13

Pick the Type Tool (T), click on your artboard and add a price. Use the Arcade font with a size of 35pt and set its color at R=169 G=124 B=80. With this text still selected go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 15

Finally, you can use different sets of colors for your price tag or you can increase/decrease the value set for the rounded corners effects.




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Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look, I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-simple-price-tag-icon/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/tuts-premium-pack-%e2%80%93-wild-animals/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/tuts-premium-pack-%e2%80%93-wild-animals/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:31 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5236



Today we have a unique Tuts+ Premium Pack, which is created in Illustrator by Sharon Milne. It’s filled with 10 illustrated wild animals. Each is completely vector, available in AI and EPS formats. Log in or Join Now to get this exclusive download. Learn more at the jump!

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There are 10 vector illustrations in this pack, composed of: tiger, giraffe, elephant, rhino, deer, monkey, llama, kangeroo, polar bear, and wolf. The license allows you to use these vectors in your designs, see the download file for details. They can be scaled to any size and colored any way you choose, as these are all vector (in EPS and AI formats)!



This new Vector Premium Pack is created by Sharon Milne. She’s written numerous high quality vector tutorials for us and we’re excited to partner up with her on this exclusive Tuts+ Premium Pack release!



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Tuts+ Premium Members can login now for instant access to this tutorial. Membership to Tuts+ Premium gets you access to hundreds of exclusive premium tutorials, top selling ebooks, in-depth courses, member forums, and much more. To learn more about Tuts+ Premium, Take the Tour or Join Today.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/19/tuts-premium-pack-%e2%80%93-wild-animals/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/quick-tip-how-to-create-typographic-snowflakes/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/quick-tip-how-to-create-typographic-snowflakes/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:44 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5240



In this tutorial you will learn how to create a series of different snowflakes from letters. To achieve this effect you will use the Transform Effect on a single letter. You will easily be able to create a series of individual snowflakes, taking advantage of editable type and the variety of letters in the alphabet.

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Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• “Sanchez Regular” from MyFonts.com

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Step 1

Open a new document and create a blue rectangular shape the same size as your canvas. I used 8 × 6 inch in RGB mode with 72dpi for the new document and a R:0 G:173 B:238 as background color.

Using the type tool click anywhere in the document and type a letter, I chose T. Since we want to create snowflakes the letter should be colored white. I set the font size to 80 pt. The font I’m using is "Sanchez Regular" by Latinotype, a Geometric Slab Serif font.



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Step 2

With the T selected go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform. In the Transform window the first thing you should do is click "Preview" at the bottom right.

In order to get the typical snowflake effect, we will create copies of our original T and move them upwards as well as make them smaller.

We will start by creating 5 copies of the letter. Not much will happen at this point.

Then we scale the letter both horizontally and vertically to the same amount, 80% in this case. You will see the same letter multiple times now. Las thing we have to do for this step is to move the letter vertically to the top. Therefore we enter 0,5 in in the vertical distance.



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Step 3

Now we will have to go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform again.
Because you already applied this effect before, you will get a warning window. Select "Apply New Effect". This will add a second Transform effect to the letter, instead of editing the one you set before.



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Step 4

In this step we will rotate the letter and its copies to form a full circle snowflake.

We want to have a snowflake in a star shape with 6 tips. After a little math, this means that we need 5 copies of our letter (the original plus 5 additional instances). This also means that we have to divide a circle of 360° by 6 resulting in 60° for our angle.



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Step 5

Now comes the fun part: Playing around with the Transform Effect’s settings!

Open the Appearance Panel. If you look at it you will see the Transform Effect twice.
You can edit the effect by double clicking it and the Transform Effect settings window will show up again. By changing the variables of the Transform Effect, you will change the snowflake’s appearance.



In the picture above you can see how the snowflake changes, if you change the number of copies in the Transform Effect.



This example shows how changing the Scale results in different snowflakes.



Changing the Reference Point of the Transform Effect gives you a variety of results as well.

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Step 6

As every letter gives a different end result, your decision which letter to use can make the difference, too.

A symmetrical letter will make a better snowflake-like results than any other letter. Such letters are: A H M O T U V W X Y. Of course this also depends on the font you choose to use.



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Step 7

The choice of font will give completely different results as well. From my testing I found that using a Geometric and Slab Serif font will work best. The very strong and often simple serifs of those fonts give edges to the snowflake similar to real ones. A Geometric font helps, achieving a proper symmetry in your snowflake.

Below you can see a variety of snowflakes based on the "Sanchez Regular" font. Each snowflake has its own settings to the Transform Effect, just as in real life every snowflake is unique.



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Step 8

In the next example I changed the font to the ever so famous Helvetica. You can immediately see how different the snowflakes look.

A Sans Serif font like Helvetica has less structure and the snowflake appears more artificial and clean.



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Step 9

For the next set of snowflakes I used Times, a classic Serif font. The snowflakes look lighter and more sophisticated.



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Step 10

Now that you have a basic understanding of the principle, you can create an artwork based on these snowflakes. If you decide to do so and want to change the size of your snowflakes you can do so in 2 ways.

You go to Illustrator > Preferences > General and check the box "Scale Strokes & Effects". If you do so you can scale the letters/snowflakes using the transform tool and automatically scale the Transform Effects. If you leave this box unchecked you will have to adjust the Transform Effect manually again.



Another way would be to create your snowflakes and then turn them into Symbols. Therefore you only have to open the Symbol Window and drag and drop a single snowflake into it. Since the snowflake is white, as is the background of the Symbol Window, I recommend naming the symbol properly to find it easier later.

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Step 11

In order to put my snowflakes into a layout, I decided to make a simple composition with 3 in the front and some smaller ones in the background. I chose to turn the single snowflakes into symbols and spread them around the canvas, sizing them down proportionally. I applied a Gaussian Blur effect as well as lowering the opacity to achieve the appearance of depth.

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Conclusion

What you make out of this effect is entirely up to you! The most important part is to play around with fonts and settings and create something unique. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/quick-tip-how-to-create-typographic-snowflakes/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/working-with-professional-typography-in-adobe-illustrator/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/working-with-professional-typography-in-adobe-illustrator/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:20 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5225



I would like to dedicate this tutorial to typography, which are the methods of processing printed text for better legibility and beauty. Typography is composed through the graphic design of printed text using the specifics for that languages rules. In this Basix tutorial will be apply the typography methods and rules using Adobe Illustrator. Materials for creating this tutorial were kindly furnished by Roman Kuznecov, aka Asat, who has many years of publishing experience.

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Step 1

Let’s take a look at the designing of the printed text in the example of the sandwich recipe that we’re working with today. This kind of text contains a variety of items that will help you to develop the theme of this work. For the experiments, you should use text like this one here.



First, define the basic parameters of textual information:

• Size of text block
• Name of the typeface
• Font size
• Line spacing

Choosing these typographic parameters depends on many factors, in particular: on the format of the publication, style of the text, designer’s personal preferences, etc. I will leave these issues outside of the scope of this tutorial, as it covers books and monographs. Based on personal taste, I decided that the block of text will have a size of 150 by 300 mm (Type > Area Type …)



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Step 2

Type text with the Garamond Pro font, size 12pt, and leading 13pt. Change these parameters in the Character palette (Window > Character).



For your information: the font size is the size of the height of the letter; typographic point is the unit of measure of the font size.

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Step 3

Now align the text. There are two basic types of text justifying: Justify with last line aligned to the left and Justify all lines. The first method is quite simple, so use it for formatting. To do this, click on the button “Justify with last line aligned left” in the Paragraph palette (Window > Type > Paragraph).



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Step 4

Next, we must configure the hyphenations. It is important to keep a balance between the number of hyphenations in the block of text and the amount of empty spacing in the rows. On one hand a lot of hyphenations create a feeling of the “fence” and affect the readability of text, on the other hand, long gaps also make it difficult to read.

Adobe Illustrator allows you to adjust this balance yourself with a Hyphenation dialogue window which opens from the fly-out menu of the Paragraph palette. Moving the slider to the better spacing position, we reduce the length of the gaps by increasing the amount of hyphenations, and vice versa. You must choose an optimal value that satisfies the design.



There is also an option that allows you to customize the appearance of the paragraph. In the fly-out menu of the Paragraph palette there are subsections "Adobe Single-line Composer" and the "Adobe Every-line Composer". When hyphenating, "Adobe Single-line Composer" analyzes just a single line. "Adobe Every-line Composer" analyzes the preceding lines; usually this allows you to get a better result.



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Step 5

Thus, the general composition layout is already determined. Now let’s proceed to designing the individual elements of the text. I decided to highlight the main title of the text, so I’ll write it in capital letters. To do this, I’ve highlighted the title and in the fly-out menu of the Character palette I chose the option All Caps.



Here you need to pay attention to one point of interest: when designing the font tracking between the capitals is chosen on the basis that next to it there will necessarily be a lower case letter, so if you type the text in capital letters alone, the text feels cramped. Graphic designers recommend expanding slightly the letters of such text. With the text selected, in the Character palette in the tracking field set the value to 20.



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Step 6

Now apply Kerning. Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between the character pairs to improve the appearance and readability of the text, it serves to justify the distance between adjacent letters or other font characters.

This option involves working individually with each character pair and how to find their relative position depending on the selected font, drawing letters themselves, and so on. The value of kerning is set in a percentage of the width of the space of the font being used, it can be either positive (when the characters are spaced apart) or negative (when the characters come closer to each other).

It is easy to see that the distance between pairs. See how “AV” and “WA” look different, but formally it is the same.



In order to make the distance between any two characters look visually the same, Kerning is applied. In Adobe Illustrator, there are 3 types of kerning:

• Zero Kerning – when kerning is not applicable.
• Auto Kerning – kerning set in the font by its creator. If the font is well designed, this type of kerning fits well in most cases.
• Optical Kerning – is good for kerning of titles or large freestanding signs, such as text for logos.


Set Auto Kerning for the entire text.

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Step 7

Now I want to decorate a little bit the first few lines of text. I’ll do it with small caps. Small caps in typography are uppercase characters that look like reduced lowercase characters. Small caps are used to create titles and first lines of the sections following large initials, to write names, titles and abbreviations, and for bolding in the text.

It is not recommended to use small caps in long (more than two or three words) phrases and sentences; it impairs the readability of text. So, select the first few words after the title and select Small Caps in the fly-out menu of the Character palette.



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Step 8

Now we need to separate paragraphs visually. This separation can be done in many ways, the most common of which are: break line (indent at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph) and the spacing between paragraphs.

In this text, I decided to make a space between paragraphs, but not just by line spacing, but by setting a blank space after each paragraph. To do this, in the Paragraph palette set the Space after paragraph value equal to 10pt.



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Step 9

And now I want to talk about some ways to work with numbers in the text. There are 2 kinds of numerals: text numerals and all caps numerals. It is considered good form to use the first one along with lowercase letters, and the second one – with uppercase letters.

How to key in such numerals? There is one secret: both sets of numerals should be present in the font. The presence of two sets of numerals is one of the hallmarks of a good font. If these numerals are in the font, then key them in using the Glyphs palette (Type > Glyphs), find the necessary character in the table and Double-click to insert it in an active text block.



Our text has two groups of numerals. In the first case the numerals are in the ingredients section – leave them unchanged, I mean all caps numerals. The second group of digits are Fahrenheit temperature figures and the temperature character is in the main text. With the help of the Glyphs palette make them lowercase.



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Step 10

Our text there has a bulleted list of several items. Replace the hyphen at the beginning of the list on the bullet with the help of Glyphs palette. It is important to properly arrange the indent. To do this, select the space between the bullet and the word and press TAB. Do this in every line of the list.



Check whether there is a tab symbol anywhere, and there are no extra spaces. To do this, go to Type > Show hidden characters. The tab character should be represented by an arrow (space is represented with a point, there should be no spaces).



Select the rows with the elements of the list and open the tab panel (Window > Type > Tabs). Place the marker of the tab on the rule box at the place from where the list items start.



Note: that bulleted lists should be formatted with the help of the Tabs panel, but in no way using multiple spaces.

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Step 11

Your text may contain dashes. It is a gross mistake to put a hyphen or double hyphen instead of a dash! There is a character for the dash that we can type by clicking Option + Shift + _ for Mac (Alt + 0151 for Windows). Replace hyphens with dashes where needed.



There are two types of dashes – short (en dash) and long (em dash). “En dash” is keyed in by a combination of keys Option + _ for Mac (Alt + 0150 for Windows). It is used to denote the spacing between the dates.



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Step 12

Now I want to tell you about such text formatting as Roman Hanging punctuation. In this text for more visual use of the Roman Hanging punctuation, we used the alignment of text to the right “Justify with last line aligned right” in the Paragraph panel.

To apply Roman Hanging punctuation, go to Type > Optical Margin Alignment, then in the Paragraph fly-out menu select Roman Hanging punctuation. With these actions, Adobe Illustrator takes all the extreme right punctuation characters behind the side lines and optically aligns the entire text.



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Conclusion

To add authenticity to the text, you can change the shape of some letters. To this, in the OpenType panel (Window > Type > OpenType) press the buttons shown in the picture below.



The program will automatically replace the characters with the Ligatures (Ligature (from Lat. ligatura) – is a character of any system of writing, formed by joining two or more letters). Characters that have contextual alternates will be replaced by their alternatives. Ligatures and contextual alternates, unfortunately, are not available in all fonts.



As a result of our transformation we got the following text.



Note: the entire described above can be used for formatting text in Adobe InDesign.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/18/working-with-professional-typography-in-adobe-illustrator/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/vectortuts-quiz-test-your-illustrator-knowledge/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/vectortuts-quiz-test-your-illustrator-knowledge/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:55 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5237



Test your knowledge of Adobe Illustrator with the Vectortuts+ Illustrator Quiz! How well do you know Adobe Illustrator? Find out at the jump!

If you enjoy this fun mini-quiz, try the Adobe Illustrator Basics Quiz. If you want to brush up on your basic knowledge, check out our Basix category for excellent tutorials and quick tips for beginners.

Note: This quiz was made with Adobe Illustrator CS5


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/vectortuts-quiz-test-your-illustrator-knowledge/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/create-a-designer-gift-bag-using-adobe-illustrator/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/create-a-designer-gift-bag-using-adobe-illustrator/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:00:49 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5228



In this tutorial you will learn how to draw a designer gift bag using basic shapes and various patterns, which are made available in Illustrator. You will also learn to add your own customized details to the design.

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Step 1

Create an 800px by 800px RGB document. Let’s start by creating the basic drawing of a bag. Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw the different parts, i.e. interiors and exteriors of the bag as shown here. I have given the numbering for a quick reference. To draw shape #1 and #2 you may also use the Rectangle Tool (M) and define the angle with the Shear Tool.



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Step 2

Now fill in the Linear Gradients (Command+F9) in each part of the bag. For shape #1 use the gradient from top #B2EDAE to bottom #8DDD87. For shape #2 use, from top #7EBC77 to bottom #61895B. For shape #3 use from top #436B3D to bottom #7EBC77, and for shape #4 use, from left #436B3D to right #7EBC77.



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Step 3

To make a bag more interesting, let’s add two shapes on top of it where we will use a different design pattern than the basic pattern of the bag. To do that, select shape #1 with the Selection Tool (V) and press Command + C and Command + F. This will copy and paste the shape on its place. Repeat this one more time.

Now select the shape (which is the top most) and move it down a bit (the black color shape shown below). Keeping this selected, now select the shape beneath it (pink color shape) and go to Pathfinder (Command + Shift + F9) panel. Click Minus Front as highlighted below.



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Step 4

Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from from top #B2EDAE to bottom #77C396.



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Step 5

Create another shape on the side flap of the bag. To do this, repeat the steps as explained in Step 3. Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from top #7EBC77 to bottom #61895B.



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Step 6

Draw a fold effect on the side flap either with the Pen Tool (P) OR to be more precise repeat the steps explained in Step 3. Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from top #7EBC77 to bottom #436B3D.



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Step 7

To define the top area of the fold, draw a new shape over it by following the steps explained in Step 3. Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from top #7EBC77 to bottom #436B3D.



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Step 8

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a triangle shape at the bottom of the fold as shown. Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from left #6BC18E to right #61895B.



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Step 9

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a triangle shape on the other side of the fold as shown. Fill in a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from left #436B3D to right #7EBC77.



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Step 10

Now let’s apply the decorative patterns to the bag. Select the front shape of the the bag and press Command + C and Command + F. This will duplicate the shape that will be placed over the original shape. We will apply a pattern to the duplicated shape. Go to Window > Swatch Libraries > Patterns > Decorative > Decorative Modern and select the pattern of your choice. I have used " Optical Burst" pattern here. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) 10%.

With the same method apply the patterns of your choice to the rest of the shapes of the bag and set the Opacity between 10%-15%. To create your own pattern, simply draw the graphic and drag it to the Pattern Library. Follow more details here on how to create a pattern in Illustrator.



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Step 11

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw fold lines as shown. Refer to the red arrows. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) to 50% for these lines, as we don’t want to see them too prominent.



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Step 12

We’ll now create the eyelets of the bag. Select the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw ovals as shown in the image.



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Step 13

Fill in Linear Gradients (Command + F9). For Oval 1 use, from top #383827 to bottom #000000. For Oval 2 use, from top #6D6E55 to bottom #14160C. And for Oval 3 use, from top #383827 to bottom #0F0F0C.



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Step 14

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw the highlights on top of Oval 2. Fill in #FFFFFF color and set the Opacity to 80%. Select all the shapes of the eyelets with the Selection Tool (V) and Group (Command + G) them all.



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Step 15

To duplicate the eyelet, hold down the Alt key and drag the eyelet. We now have two eyelets ready. Arrange them on the bag as shown.



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Step 16

To create a bag handle, select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a satin shape as shown. Fill in the Linear Gradient (Command + F9). The Gradient color values are #68B762 (lighter shade) and #36703A (darker shade). Adjust the gradient color sliders as shown below.



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Step 17

With the handle selected, add a stroke (Command + F10) of 1pt. Go to Object > Path > Outline Stroke. By doing so, we will be able to fill the gradient to the stroke.

Right-click on the shape and select Ungroup. This will separate the outline from the shape. Select the outline with the Selection Tool (V) and fill the Gradient with #377033 and #91D88B. Adjust the Gradient color sliders as shown.



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Step 18

To apply the pattern to the handle, follow the instructions in Step 10. I have used the "Diamond Square Color" pattern from Window > Swatch Libraries > Patterns > Decorative > Decorative Geometric 1 > Diamond Square Color. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10)15% for the pattern.



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Step 19

To add the shadow of the handle, Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape as shown in the image below. Fill in #000000 color and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur, then set the parameters as given here. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) to 20% for the shadow.



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Step 20

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw the shapes as shown. Select the Gradient Fill (Command + F9) as "Fade to Black" and apply the gradient as shown.



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Step 21

With the Pen Tool (P), draw the shadow of the bag, and apply Blur Effect as we did in Step 19. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) to 15%.



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Step 22

To create a gift tag, first draw a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L) and a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M) overlapping each other. Select both the shapes with the Selection Tool (V) and go to the Pathfinder panel (Command + Shift + F9). Select Unite. Here we get the basic shape of the tag. Fill it with any color for now.



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Step 23

Draw a circle of 26×26 px at the center of the tag. Now select both the shapes and go to the Pathfinder Panel (Command + Shift + F9). Now apply Minus Front.



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Step 24

Draw one more circle around the cropped circle and fill #AD000D color. Select the tag shape with the Selection Tool (V) and apply a Linear Gradient (Command + F9) that goes from top #FF001E to bottom #8B0010.



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Step 25

To give slight thickness to the tag, Select the tag, then press Command + C and Command + F. This will duplicate the shape. Fill in #490101 color. Place this copied shape behind (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key) the original shape and move it 1px right and down. To draw the highlighted shape, follow the steps mentioned in Step 3 (you need to do this with the Pathfinder options). Fill this highlight with #F7AAAA color.



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Step 26

Let’s add some design to the tag. Select the original tag shape and press Command + C and Command + F. We will get the duplicated shape. Resize this shape to the smaller size than the original tag. Fill in #FFFFFF color and set the Opacity at 40%. This is an inner outline that we just created.



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Step 27

Go to Window > Symbol Libraries > Florid vector pack and select the symbol of your choice. Drag the symbol on the tag and fill #FFFFFF color for the symbol. I have used "Florid Vector Pack 01" symbol here. To change the color of the symbol, simply Double-click it and it will allow you to make changes to the symbol.



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Step 28

Now select the inner outline that we created in Step 26. Press Command + C and Command + F. We get the duplicate copy of the outline. Keeping the outline selected, hold down the Shift key and select the symbol that we have dragged over the tag. Right-click the object and select Make Clipping Mask. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) at 24%.



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Step 29

Now group all the parts of the tag that we created. Rotate the object with the Rotate Tool (R) and place it over the bag as shown below.



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Step 30

To tie a tag on the bag, Select Paintbrush Tool (B) and draw a thread as shown. Select the brush color #AD000D and set the brush parameters as shown.



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Step 31

To create a tag shadow, select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape as shown. Go to Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the parameters as given here. Set the Opacity (Command + Shift + F10) at 20%.



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Final Image

There you have it. After binding all the elements together we have a designer gift bag ready. I hope you enjoyed this tut.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/17/create-a-designer-gift-bag-using-adobe-illustrator/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-mosaic-text-effect/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-mosaic-text-effect/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:00:04 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5231



In the following quick tip you will learn how to create a Mosaic text effect. It all start with the background. A simple rectangle filled with a flat color, a radial gradient plus a Film Grain effect. For the text you will use a nice, free font. After you expand it you will add the final colors and some basic effect. Give it a try and you might learn some new tricks about Illustrator’s 3D options. The final effect is easily edited so you can add your favorite colors or effects.

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Step 1

Create a 700 by 300px, RGB document. As I said in the introduction, it all starts with the background. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a shape the size of your artboard and fill it with the R=241 G=242 B=242.



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Step 2

Reselect the shape created in the previous step and go to the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance). Select the existing fill and click on the Duplicate Selected Item button from the Appearance panel. This will add second fill for your shape. Select it and fill it with the radial gradient shown below. Have a closer look at the gradient image and you’ll notice a yellow zero. It stands for opacity percentage. This means that you need to select that gradient slider and lower its opacity to 0%.



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Step 3

Reselect the shape edited in the previous step and add a third fill. Make it black, lower its opacity to 3% and go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below and click OK.Now, this will be the background. You won’t need to edit or select this shape. So, go to the Layers panel and lock it to make sure that you won’t accidentally select/move it.



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Step 4

Now, let’s add the text. Pick the Type Tool (T), click on your artboard and enter a black text. Use the Arcade font with a size of 200pt and set the leading at 130pt. Select this text and go to Object > Expand Appearance. This will create a new group in your Layers panel. Open it and you will find a set of simple compound path (one for every letter). You need to expand these paths even more, you must be able to select the black, squares one by one. Reselect your group, go to the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) and click on the Divide button. Have a new look in your Layers panel and you will find a group with a bunch of black squares. Select this group and ungroup it (Shift + Command + G).



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Step 5

Next, you need to edit the shapes created in the previous step. Pick the Selection Tool and focus on the squares that make up the first letter. Select the top, left square and fill it with white. Now, move diagonally, select the next square and fill it white white. Repeat these techniques for the rest of the squares. Make sure that you always start with the top, left square when you move to a new letter. In the end your entire text should have the look of a chess table. Next, you need to select all the white shapes. Here a simple way. Select one of these white shapes and go to Select > Same > Fill Color. This will select all the shapes with a white fill. Group them (Command + G). Use the same options to select all the black squares. Replace the black with R=28 G=117 B=188 then group them (Command + G).



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Step 6

Select the group with the blue squares and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -2 Offset, click OK and immediately hit Command + G. This will group the resulting shapes. Go to the Layers panel, open the group with the blue shapes and you will find a new group. Select it, move it outside then reselect the group created in the previous step and delete it.



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Step 7

Select the group with the white squares and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1 Offset, click OK and hit Command + G. This will group the resulting shapes. Again, this will create a new group inside the main group. Go to the Layers panel, select this new group, move it outside then reselect the group created in the fifth step and delete it.



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Step 8

Go to the Layers panel and open the white squares group. Select one of these shapes and go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Reselect the rest of the white shapes and click on Shift + Command + E. This will add the same 3D effect for the selected shapes.



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Step 9

Go to the Layers panel, select the white squares group and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below image #1 and click OK. Make sure that the group is still selected and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this new group and go to the Appearance panel. Open the existing Drop Shadow effect, enter the data shown below image #2 and click OK.



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Step 10

Return to the Layers panel and open the blue squares group. Select one of these shapes and go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Reselect the other blue shapes and click on Shift + Command + E.



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Step 11

Go to the Layers panel, select the blue squares group and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below image #1 and click OK. Make sure that the group is still selected and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this new group and go to the Appearance panel. Open the existing Drop Shadow effect, enter the data shown below image #2, click OK and you’re done.



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Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-mosaic-text-effect/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/win-business-cards-postcards-or-posters-from-uprinting-5/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/win-business-cards-postcards-or-posters-from-uprinting-5/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:02 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5207



Are you looking to start your new year with a fresh set of prints to help promote your design business? Today, our friends at UPrinting are kicking off 2012 by giving away business cards, posters, or postcards to 36 lucky Tuts+ readers. To enter, all you have to do is submit your entry using the form below and select which prize you would prefer.

If you are a frequent reader of our site, chances are, you are already familiar with UPrinting. They are an online printer that offers business cards, poster printing, postcard printing, and much more. UPrinting is a frequent sponsor of this site and we are very excited to partner with them on another giveaway.

Submit Your Entry

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Up for Grabs

Today, UPrinting is giving you several options to choose from. You can enter to win 500 standard business cards, 100 postcards, or 1 poster print. The choice is yours! More details can be found below.

500 Standard Business Cards
2" x 3.5" US Standard, 2" x 2" Square, 1.75" x 3.5" Slim
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte, 13pt Cardstock Uncoated
Front and Back Printing
3 Business Days Turnaround time

1 Poster Print
18" x 24"
Semi Gloss / High Gloss
1 Business day print turnaround time

100 Postcards
5" x 7"
14pt Cardstock Gloss
Front Only Printing
2 Business days print turnaround time

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Rules

• To enter, submit your entry and select which product you would like.
• You may only enter once.
• Follow UPrinting on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ (Optional)
• Make sure to enter a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• Entries will be accepted until Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:59 PM, EST.
• Shipping is free to U.S. and International residents.

]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/win-business-cards-postcards-or-posters-from-uprinting-5/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/create-a-picture-gallery-in-illustrator/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/create-a-picture-gallery-in-illustrator/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:06 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5219



This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Alexander Egupov. We have used 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks, making this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points. Learn every step in how to create this picture gallery work.

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Step 1

First of all, take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw the path shown, and fill it with a Radial gradient. It will be the basis for the gallery.



Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create an ellipse, which will represent a stage, and fill it with the Radial gradient (as shown below).



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Step 2

Copy this ellipse and paste it in back (Command + C then Command + B). Move the copy slightly down.



Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the top anchor point of the ellipse copy with it, and press the Delete button on your keyboard.




Now take the Pen Tool (P) and continue drawing the rest of the arc (as shown in the figure below).



Fill the received path with the Linear gradient shown.



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Step 3

Now expand this gradient to the gradient mesh by going to Object > Expand, and Object > Ungroup after that.



You will receive the following mesh.



Take the Mesh Tool (U), add the nodes, color them in different shades of gray, and move them in order to achieve the following result.



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Step 4

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw an elliptical path. Now fill it with gray.



Change the Opacity of this ellipse to 0.



Now draw a smaller ellipse filled with dark gray and place it over the biggest one in the Layers palette. Its location in the workspace is shown below.



Place these ellipses under the stage.



Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options, then set the Spacing to Specified Steps, and the quantity of steps to 60.



While both elliptical paths are selected, go to Object > Blend > Make (Command + Option + B). And you will receive a shadow from the stage.



Use this chain of actions in order to create your own blends. Draw a light spot under the stage now. Do it by yourself without assistance.



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Step 5

Select the elliptical plate of the stage, go to Object > Transform > Scale, and decrease the value of the Uniform scaling. Now click there the Copy button, fill the received ellipse with light gray, and achieve the following result.



Repeat these manipulations. And after that you need to receive both ellipses, where the smallest ellipse is located over the biggest one.



While both elliptical paths are selected, go to Object > Compound Path > Make (Command + 8). And you will get a gray ring on the plate.



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Step 6

Illustrate the following rectangular path and fill it with light gray. It will represent the central picture of the gallery.



Let this picture be luminescent! How to achieve this? First, go to Effect > Document Raster Effect Settings and set there the High resolution (300ppi).



Then go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set there the value of the blurring radius (shown below).



The result should look like the image shown.



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Step 7

Copy this rectangle and paste in front (Command + C then Command + F). Go to the Appearance palette and delete the “Gaussian Blur” item.



The result should look something like the following.



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Step 8

Illustrate now the dark gray path over the light one.



Illustrate a shadow under the picture using the blend.



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Step 9

Select now two paths that represent a picture, go to Object > Group (Command + G), copy this group and paste it in front (Command + C then Command + F).



Now move the copy downward in order to locate it under the picture itself. Change the saturation of these paths fillings. You should have the following result.



Sketch the next rectangle over them, and fill it with the Vertical gradient that goes from black to gray in color as shown.



Select both: this path and the group under it, and go to the Transparency palette. Select there the Make Opacity Mask command in the fly-out menu.




You should have the following results, which represent a reflection.




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Step 10

But our reflection cannot lie beyond the stage. What must we do in order to fix it? Select the elliptical plate of the stage, copy it and paste in front (Command + C then Command + F),…



…then place it over the reflection group, and apply the Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Command + 7).



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Step 11

Illustrate now the circle at the right bottom corner of the central picture, and fill it with white, for example. We will create a spotlight now.



Now go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, and set there the items as you can see them in the diagram below.



You need to achieve the following result.



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Step 12

Go to the Appearance palette and click there the reference to 3D Extrude & Bevel in order to edit effect.



Specify a rendering style of the surface to No Shading. You need to do this in order to decrease the quantity of paths after the expanding.



Now go to Object > Expand Appearance. And apply Object > Ungroup twice.



Unite all lateral parts by going to the Pathfinder palette. After that you must have two paths only.



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Step 13

Fill the lateral surface of the spotlight with an angled gradient.



Fill the rear surface of the spotlight with the Radial gradient as shown.



Create now the back path filled with a vertical gradient.



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Step 14

Draw an elliptical plate filled with a vertical gradient under the spotlight. It will represent a support detail.



Draw the lateral path of this plate filled with black as you did it in Step 2.



Illustrate the leg of the spotlight. Pay attention to the elliptical form in the lower part of it.



Illustrate a shadow under the spotlight using the Blend.



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Step 15

In order to create a beam of light, first of all you need to draw the two following paths filled with white. (The circular path is placed over the non-circular one).



Then change the non-circular filling to an angled gradient that goes from white to white in color and from 100% to 0 in Opacity. See the diagram below for reference.



Change the Opacity of the non-circular path to 0…



…and create a blend from these two paths.



Place the ray under the spotlight. Decrease then the Opacity of the ray if you want.



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Step 16

Illustrate as many spotlights as you want.



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Step 17

Now we begin to draw a perspective using the vanishing points. We will use three vanishing points in our drawing (shown with the red circles in the diagram below). You are free to set them at your own choosing, but give heed to the symmetrical placing of them. In other words, the segment “AB” must be equal to the segment “BC”.



Let’s sketch the left border of the leftmost picture in our gallery. This border is a vertical segment obviously.



Let the horizontal guideline go to the intersection with the upper point of this path.



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Step 18

Take the Rotate Tool (R), click on the Guide in the upper point…



…and rotate the guideline to the intersection with the remote vanishing point.



Repeat these manipulations.



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Step 19

Now take the Pen Tool (P) and finish drawing the leftmost picture form.



Select this form, copy it, and paste in back (Command + C then Command + B). Now make this picture luminescent. Go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set there the value of the blurring radius.



The result should look like the image below



Sketch the dark gray path in the inner part of the picture.



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Step 20

Illustrate another picture the same way along the guidelines.



And illustrate the right pictures the same way. They must converge with each other in the left vanishing point.



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Step 21

The lamps on the ceiling are illustrated the same way as the pictures. They converge with each other in the upper vanishing point. Follow the helpful diagrams below.








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Step 22

When the left side of the ceiling lamp is complete, select all of them, and go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Set the following items in the dialog box and click the Copy button.




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Step 23

Make the lamps luminesce using the “Gaussian Blur” effect.



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Step 24

Picture now the glare on the central picture using the vertical gradient that goes from white to white in color and from 0 to 50% in Opacity.



Repeat these manipulations for the other pictures.



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Step 25

Now draw a rectangular path in the lower part of the artwork and fill it with the Radial gradient shown.



Draw another rectangular path in the upper part of the artwork and fill it with the vertical gradient with Opacity. See the image below for reference.



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Step 26

Lay emphasis on the borders of the artwork by creating the black rectangle in the top left corner of your image. Decrease the Opacity of it as you like.



Do the same with the top right corner.



And sketch the black path over them.



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Step 27

Grab the Type Tool (T), choose any font, and type the shown words. Then go to Type > Create Outlines (Command + Shift + O), and fill the paths with white.



Place the white vertical strokes between the words as shown.



Place the shown text in the lower part of your artwork.



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Step 28

Sketch the next gray path in order to represent an arrow.



Place the arrows on the left and right sides of your artwork.



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Conclusion

To customize this you may insert your own images in order to create a unique picture gallery.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/16/create-a-picture-gallery-in-illustrator/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/14/klaus-stadlmann-the-world%e2%80%99s-smallest-3d-printer/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/14/klaus-stadlmann-the-world%e2%80%99s-smallest-3d-printer/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:00:15 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5229



Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting talk by Klaus Stadlmann at TED xVienna. In this talk Klaus demos his tiny, affordable printer that could someday make customized hearing aids or sculptures smaller than a human hair.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/14/klaus-stadlmann-the-world%e2%80%99s-smallest-3d-printer/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/13/community-peer-review-05/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/13/community-peer-review-05/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:35 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5227



Vectortuts+ is all about helping people turbo charge their skills, and today we have another special community post that will help our readers take their images to the next level. The best thing is, you can be part of it too! Find out more at the jump.

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Peer Review, 5

If you would like to offer advice or tips you can do so in the comments section below, just a few tips before we begin…

How to Participate:

• This sessions contributor has offered a piece of work that they would like help with, please keep this in mind when you share your thoughts. The images are not perfect, but they can be with the right advice and some friendly encouragement. (Vectortuts+ reserves the right to delete any rude comments)
• If you’re better with pictures (let’s face it, most of us are) feel free to take a screenshot of the image using Little Snapper, Skitch or a similar program and paste a link to the annotated image in the comments section with an explanation of the tweaks.

If you want to take part in the next peer review:

Add your work to our facebook photo gallery with a description about the piece and the help/advice you’re looking for.We will chose one to be published on our site as part of the next Community Review, if you’re not chosen straight away – don’t worry – your work will be chosen for a future session.


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Image Category: Realistic Portrait



Details:

Designer: Jason Carmony

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Feedback

What are your thoughts on the work above? Critiquing work helps the artist see new possibilities, and it also helps you learn to evaluate art, which will help you take that same analysis and apply it to your own work. Participate in the comments below with your opinions on how to improve the work above.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/13/community-peer-review-05/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cartoon-style-big-bang-explosion/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cartoon-style-big-bang-explosion/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:00:49 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5223



Let’s blow things up with a nice big boom in this this Quick Tip. Circles, triangles and a star shape create a bright explosion. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the inkscape toolbar are added to the images to make it easier to find the tool and function I am describing in the text. Let’s begin!

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Step 1

Start out with a circle and bring up the fill and stroke panel (Control + Shift + F). Select a radial gradient fill. Three additional marker will appear on you circle controlling the gradients center, height, width and rotation. Click on the square controller select a lighter red and then move it down and to the right while holding the mouse button down.

The off-set of the gradient center creates additional depth to the explosion as the lighter part will remain turned towards the center



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Step 2

Duplicate the circle and change the gradient colors to orange and yellow.



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Step 3

Select the red gradient circle and start duplicating it (Control + D) while changing size and rotation (keeping the lighter part turned towards the center).



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Step 4

Repeat the process with the orange circle.



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Step 5

And again with the yellow circle.



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Step 6

Create two circles und combine them with the Path/Difference command to create the highlight. Select a light orange fill with 50% opacity.



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Step 7

Duplicate, scale and rotate the ‘moon shapes’ as you place them on top of the circle. Adjust the color to a lighter orange or a red depending on the circles you place them on.



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Step 8

Use the straight lines tool to draw an irregular star shape.



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Step 9

Use the node modifier and select all the nodes. Convert them to curves. Now select just the inner nodes and turn the smooth. This effect will most likely overdo the desired rounding of the center and require some fiddling with the nodes.



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Step 10

Adjust the nodes to create a spiky shape by manipulating the node handles to clear up overlapping. Duplicate the shape and scale it down (pressing Control while scale will lock the proportions). Due to the shape being uneven you might have to touch up the nodes to bring the smaller shape in line with the larger one.



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Step 11

Place the flash ontop of the explosion’s ‘cloud shape’. Add some debris and motion trail shape with the straight line tool and adjust the order by moving some debris behind the explosion (Page Down).



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Conclusion

Play with the color of the explosion and it’s setup – by adding more circles or spreading them out differently – to find the right look and feel for your illustration.

Note: The tutorial works with some minor adjustments in other vector design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. These just use different icons, tool and command names, but the functionality is the same. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cartoon-style-big-bang-explosion/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/350-free-graphics-vector-arrow-symbols-and-shapes/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/350-free-graphics-vector-arrow-symbols-and-shapes/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:21 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5210



If you’re looking for arrow graphics, with various styles, such as flat silhouettes that curve, hand drawn elements, or sharp edged classic designs, then you’ve found a compilation worth downloading. We’ve collected an assortment of arrow symbols, shapes, and icons, all available for free download.

Grab a multitude of arrow vector freebies to add to your files, which are available in EPS, CSH, AI and other vector formats for free download. Whether you use Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or prefer another vector software package, you can download these sets and use them in your next design.

Note: Many of these graphics are available for commercial use, as well as personal use. Some may have stronger restrictions though, so as always check the usage rights before using.

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Free Arrow Vector Graphics for Download

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This pack of vector arrow icon symbols is created by Sander Baumann. Arrows are often used in signage and wayfind­ing design to guide a visitor in the right direction. These professional arrows are excellent for using in signs as they have strong contrast and great usability design. This arrow icon pack is available in EPS graphic vector format for free download.



New Vector Collection of 100 Arrows!

Here is a collection of 100 vector arrows in different sizes and shapes. This is a huge variety of useful designs from Pink Moustache. These free arrow symbols are useful for virtually any graphic design you need to use them in. The arrows are available in AI & EPS format, for personal or commercial use.



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This collection of vector clipart arrows has a hand drawn, grunge style. This packs symbols are up, down, left, right arrows, double and two sided arrow, different directions, pointers, triangles, arrows in round shapes, icons, circle arrows in recycling style. These free vector silhouette arrows are available in AI, EPS, and SVG formats and released by All-Silhouettes.com.



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There are 72 free hand drawn vector arrow symbols. These sketchy vector arrow shapes are created by Dragon Art and include unique and creative indicators, pointers; indexes; arrows, arrowheads and cursors. They are available as a free vector download in both AI and CSH formats.



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These free vector silhouettes of arrow symbols are released by All-Silhouettes.com. There are 52 curving, graffiti style vector clipart elements. If you need to add a grunge style to your current design work and give a bit of graffiti style, then grab these free vector arrow graphics now. They are available in AI and CSH vector formats.



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This pack of arrow symbols is huge. It’s created by Jeya and released through Media Militia. The few shown below are just examples of the awesome quality in this arrow pack. There are so many different arrow styles in this pack like traditional, hand drawn, graffiti, swirly and more. This set of free arrow symbols are available to download in EPS and ABR formats.



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These arrow symbols have strong angles and a free flowing graffiti style. This free vector arrow download set is available in EPS and AI graphic formats. Grab the free vector arrow silhouettes to use in your next design project.



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This vector arrow silhouettes collection is composed of multiple curving and arching arrow symbols. There are over 20 isolated vector arrows in this set. They are created by Free Vectors and available for free download in AI graphic format.



Arrow Icons

These arrow icons contain over 55 colorful arrow designs, which are all given various styles of glossy reflective styles. These free vector clipart arrows are released by Vectorartbox.com.

They’re great for when you need a quick solution to adding effects to your image. They can be used for creation of ads, flyers, banners, business cards, book covers and logotypes. They were created in Adobe Illustrator, but are available in EPS format, so you can use in your vector editor of choice.



Free Vector Arrows Pack

This pack of vector arrows are made in 3D, high gloss style. They have a professional cut design and are available in multiple colors, shapes, and directions. These free arrow icons are released by Freedesign4.me in vector EPS graphic format.



Random Free Vectors – Part 8: Modern Arrows

These modern arrows pull together to form a simple, colorful illustration. The files are available in AI and SVG vector graphic formats. BittBox created this free vector arrow download and it’s released by Vecteezy.com.



Free 50s Vintage Style Vector Signs

This set of vector illustrations have a retro style to them. They have arrows emblazoned across their stylish vintage facade. You can add your own words to them to personalize them in your design work. They are created by Vectorjungle.com and available for free download in vector EPS and PDF graphic formats.



Black Vector Arrow

This shiny black arrow vector illustration is available for free download. It’s designed by Free Vector Graphics and has a silver stroked edge and stand. Grab this free arrow symbol in EPS graphic format.



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More Large Collections of Free Vector Downloads on Vectortuts+

• 250+ Free, Vintage Graphics: Flourish Vector Ornaments
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• Best of, Free Vector Business People Silhouette Packs
• 23 Free, Vector Icon Packs for Social Media
• 13 Brandable, Free, Vector People Graphics: Mascots and Character Designs

]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/12/350-free-graphics-vector-arrow-symbols-and-shapes/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-quick-and-easy-diagonal-pattern/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-quick-and-easy-diagonal-pattern/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:00:51 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5217



In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create a diagonal pattern in Adobe Illustrator. Creating seamless patterns is a challenge in itself, but it is even harder if the pattern is supposed to be at an angle. But there is an easy trick to do so by creating a simple straight pattern first.

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Step 1

Create a square rectangle as a base for your pattern. You can do so by selecting the Rectangle Tool (M) from the Tools panel. Double click anywhere on your canvas. By doing so a window will pop up in which you can enter the exact size you want for your square. I chose 1 × 1 in. But you can make it as big as you want your pattern to be.



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Step 2

Duplicate the square, I use Command + C and Command + F. This will paste the copy of your square in exactly the same place it was before. Select one of the reference points at the bounding box in the middle and hold down Option while dragging it into the middle of the rectangle. Holding down Option will help you to keep the rectangle symmetrical from the center.

Fill this rectangle with black and change the Opacity to 20%.



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Step 3

Repeat the previous step with a new rectangle. This one will be filled with white.



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Step 4

Do it one more time and fill the new rectangle with black again. By doing these three steps you make sure that the bottom and top of your pattern repeats seamlessly. Which colors, opacities and blend modes you use is entirely up to you.



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Step 5

Select the three new rectangles and duplicate them. Keep the rectangles selected and turn them by 90°.





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Step 6

This will be our base pattern.



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Step 7

Open the Swatches Panel and simply drag and drop your pattern base into the panel.




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Step 8

Create a new bigger rectangle and fill it with your pattern. As you can see it repeats perfectly.



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Step 9

Select your rectangle and double click the Rotate Tool (R) from your Tools Panel.



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Step 10

The Rotate window will pop up. Check Preview and Uncheck Objects. By leaving only Patterns selected the rectangle will not rotate, but the pattern will. Enter an Angle of 45°.



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Final Image

In under 5 minutes you have created a diagonal pattern. Doing it manually is time consuming and hard to get a grip of at first. Luckily Illustrator has many, sometimes hidden, tricks to make your life easier. This is one of them. This works for every angle and so extremely easy to use for effects like scanlines, that can come at many different angles.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-quick-and-easy-diagonal-pattern/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/how-to-create-realistic-vector-bubbles/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/how-to-create-realistic-vector-bubbles/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:00:37 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=3417



His Majesty the Bubble! In this tutorial we will learn how to create realistic colorful bubbles. We’ll cover numerous techniques and build this illustrations step by step. Set aside a couple hours for this one!

March of 2010

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Step 1

Open up a new document. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a rectangle. Set the fill to a solid dark blue color, without a stroke. Rename the layer to “BG” and lock it. It’s more convenient to start the artwork by creating the background, otherwise transparent bubbles will not be visible on a white background. We will adjust background colors in the following steps.



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Step 2

Create a new layer and name it “Bubbles.” Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a black circle.



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Step 3

Create a gray shape using the Pen Tool (P) as shown below. Copy and paste in front the black circle. Now select the copy of the black circle and gray shape, then click Intersect from the pathfinder palette. Now click Expand. The current colors of the elements do not play the role for now, but we’ll adjust them in the following steps.



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Step 4

Use the Pen Tool (P) to create the shape of light glare on the bubble. Work carefully over the beauty of the lines, the final result depends on your efforts here.



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Step 5

Create a new shape and make an intersection as shown in Step 3. For better convenience fill the shapes with different colors, leave some of them only with a stroke and do not fill them.




Add new elements of the bubble. In the process of work you can also switch fill modes from the solid fill to the stroke fill; it will help us not to get lost in the number of objects lying on top of each other.



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Step 6

At first create bigger elements; the sequence of sub layers can be changed during the process of working.





Try to keep your lines look perfect, while outlining the shape of a sphere. Study carefully how to create the elements in the shape of an umbrella. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a circle. Take the Scissors Tool (C) and cut a circle into two pieces.



Remove the upper segment of the circle. Now join together the points of the cross-section using the Pen Tool (P). Add five anchor points to the even part of the segment. Move down some anchor points using the Direct Selection Tool (A), as shown below.



Convert the bottom anchor points from corner to smooth.



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Step 7

So, we have fourteen objects, all objects with strokes of different colors are shown on the picture below.



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Step 8

Get down to working on the objects. Make the sub layer with a black circle invisible by clicking the eye icon in the Layers palette, and lock it. We will need this circle to create the smaller elements of the bubble. Select the first element and fill it with the linear black to white gradient. Change the Blend Mode and Opacity from the Transparency palette as shown below.



Use the same technique working with the other elements of the bubble.





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Step 9

We will use the Gradient Mesh to work with the other elements of the bubble. While working with a large number of elements that are superimposed on each other, you should always lock some of the sub layers. It would be even better if all the neighboring sub layers were locked, except for the one being edited. Note that to select the object you only have to click the Target in the appropriate sub layer from the Layers palette.



Fill the shape with a solid black color, take the Mesh Tool (U) and add one point to the bottom side of the shape. Change the color to white for this point. Change the Blend Mode and Opacity for the edited object and apply the settings shown below. The object may be edited only when they are selected entirely; use the Selection Tool (V) for it.




All the objects containing the Mesh Gradient are shown below. The Blending Mode for the objects are all set to Screen, while the opacities are different.



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Step 10

Let’s get down to the smaller details. The technique of creating these additional shapes is all the same. There are fifteen of them, you do not have to copy me, just defer to your own artistic taste when adding detail to the bubble. Pay attention to where the light is coming form to add more detail.



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Step 11

The soap-bubble is ready. Delete the sub layer with the black circle; we do not need it any more. Group all the elements of the bubble.



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Step 12

Copy, paste, scale, and place the bubbles as shown in the picture below.



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Step 13

Create the star-like glares on the bubble. Create a new layer and name it “Stars.” Create a triangle using the Pen Tool (P) and fill it with a black to white linear gradient. Now set the Blend Mode and Opacity from the Transparency palette as shown.



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Step 14

Keep the shape selected, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform, and apply the settings as shown. Now go to Object > Expand Appearance.



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Step 15

Select a star and go to Object > Transform > Rotate… 45 degrees and hit Copy.



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Step 16

Keep it selected, press Command + Shift and scale the object using the Selection Tool (V). Group all elements of the star.



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Step 17

Copy, paste, scale and place the stars as shown below. Some of the stars have to be rotated, so that they could look more realistically. It’s time to get down to the background.

Take the Mesh Tool (U) and create the Mesh Gradient as shown below. Paint the central points in different hues of blue color. The linear gradient may be used, but the Mesh gradient reproduces better background adjustability. Try to avoid light colors, because bubbles can get lost.



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Step 18

Now create color spots. Create a new layer above the “BG” layer and name it “Spot.” Take the Pen Tool (P) and create a new shape, then fill it with a linear gradient as shown.



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Step 19

Keeping the selection, go to Effect > Blur > Radial Blur, and apply the settings shown.



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Step 20

Keeping the selection, change the Blending Mode to Color Dodge with 50% Opacity.



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Step 21

Create some light spots using the same technique.



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Conclusion

The final image is down below. Have fun creating your own bubbles. If you want to master this tutorial you’ll need to experiment with color, spots, and shapes. Good luck!



Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/11/how-to-create-realistic-vector-bubbles/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/2012-calendar-design-project-round-2/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/2012-calendar-design-project-round-2/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:00:23 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5215



Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be showcasing Round 2 of the 2012 Calendar Design Project. Check out the 2nd and final round at the jump.

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2012 Calendar Design Project, Round 2

The designs are posted in no particular order, but we thought it would be fun to kick things off with the ultimate calendar subject, cute cats. Great work everyone, the 2012 Calendar Design Project has been fantastic! If you didn’t have a chance to participate, don’t worry, there will be a new community project launching soon!



Mokshu
"Hi, I am Mokshu, a French illustrator. (www.mokshu.com).
Cats (A calendar without cat, is not a calendar) + Mayan Calendar = Awesome !"

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Steven Gonzalez
“Hello,this is my contribution. I’m a colombian graphic designer. I like to draw with vector, my work is flickr.com/photos/tivenk/“

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Young Min
"Happy new year! you can see my work at sen.hostei.com"

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Hayley Sky

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Dan Phillips
"My name is Dan Phillips and this is my entry to the 2012 Calendar Project. I am a freelance Graphic Designer and digital artist in my freetime. The theme for my design was that of a more rustic and symbolic feeling relating somewhat to all the 2012 apocalypse theories. My website can be viewed at designphilled.com"

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Clarice Gomes
"I am a freelance graphic and web designer in Toronto. My website is claricegomes.ca I also offer free vectors on my site."

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Marie Andrews
"Hey Vectortuts+! I really thought this was a cool concept when you put the request up for a vector designed calendar, and I wanted to take up the challenge! My name is Marie, and I am a graphic designer in Detroit, Michigan. My faith and tattoo art inspires me greatly to draw, paint and do anything creative so here is a slice of what I can do! Thanks again for putting this up. You guys are amazing! You can check out my work at marieandrewsdesign.com"

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Brad Angell
"My name is Brad Angell and I am a graphic artist from Iowa and this is my submission for the Vectortuts+ 2012 Calendar Design Project. I recently created the skull used in this design for fun and have been looking for just the right project to use it in and this is what I came up with. I call my wallpaper calendar “Killer Shades.” Hope you all like it. Be sure to check out my website at angellgraphics.com"


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/2012-calendar-design-project-round-2/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/40-inspiring-animal-vector-art-illustrations/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/40-inspiring-animal-vector-art-illustrations/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:51 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5185



In today’s article, I’m going to show you 40 pieces of inspiring vector art animal illustrations. See how a variety of artists render things from fur to feathers, scales to horns, and more. I’ll also share with you links to tutorials here on Vectortuts+ so you can gain insight into how animal illustrations and effects can be created.

Introduction

In 2012, it’s a personal goal to illustrate more animals… not a hard task to ask of myself since I absolutely adore animals! Part of the research into illustrating animals, I decided to look at how other vector artists rendered creatures in their own style, as well as looking at how they have incorporated their critters into their compositions, and how they give them a unique character. So let’s get into it!

Domestic Animals

Domestic animals are those which have previously been wild but are now tamed and living alongside humans. These can be anything from your cute cat to the farmyard animal.

As we live side-by-side with these animals, as artists we’re much more likely to be able to attach emotions and character to our companions. As a pet owner of two cats and a dog, I can definitely say no two domestic animals share the same personality, and this is true with the range of characters displayed here.








Domestic Animal Tutorials

Creating a Detailed Furry Dog Portrait with Art Brushes



Create an Adorable Puppy with Negative Space and the Paintbrush Tool



Creating a Personalized Pet Portrait in Illustrator CS5



How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character



Flight Animals

Animals of flight include not only our feathered friends, but also insects such as butterflies. Looking specifically at how the wings are created. Are the feathers constructed individually or are we given an impression of the overall wing?













Flight Animal Tutorials

How to Make an Attractive Vector Butterfly



Create a Feather Brush and Set of Detailed Wings in Illustrator



How to Create a Curious Owl in Illustrator CS4



Create Textured European Goldfinch Characters



Wild Animals

Wild animals are the untamable, roaming beasts and beauties beyond our doorstep. Whether you think of the dominant, dignified African lion or maybe that cheeky squirrel, which seems to play havoc with your washing line, the majority are of the furry kind.












Wild Animal Tutorials

Create a Kung Fu Panda Diptych in Adobe Illustrator CS5



Creating a Maneater Vector Girl through Collaboration



How to Create a Stylized Vector Grasshopper



Water Animals

Water animals aren’t just restricted to fish, but also creatures such as turtles, dolphins, whales and sharks! Again we look at whether to render the scales of fish individually or would you just give the impression of scales by adding a highlight here and there?






Water Animal Tutorials

How to Create a Stylized Underwater Scene



How to Create a Vector Goldfish in Six Steps



Create an Artistic Vector Fish with Layered Effects



Create a Traditional Japanese Koi Carp Illustration



Mythical Animals

Finally, for the mythical beasts that are portrayed in stories we’re told as children, lessons we’re taught in history and movies we watch as adults. As there isn’t an abundance of stock images out there for your standard dragon or unicorn, the way they are rendered and illustrated are completely left to the imagination of the artist.











Mythical Animal Tutorials

Create a Friendly Dragon with Gradients in Illustrator



Creating a Mysterious Cheshire Cat in Adobe Illustrator



Conclusion

I hope today’s article has inspired you to look more into each one of these artists further to compare how their body of work is to their animal illustrations and to maybe try out some animal illustration yourself.

If you’d like more creature inspiration, why not check out previous articles here on Vectortuts+ on animals, such as: 70 Cute and Cheeky Vector Animal Characters and 50 Vector Illustrations, Furry Critters and Fuzzy Creatures.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/10/40-inspiring-animal-vector-art-illustrations/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-futuristic-scarlet-eclipse-effect/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-futuristic-scarlet-eclipse-effect/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:43 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5211



In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a dark eclipse design which could be a perfect base for a poster or a flyer. We will use blends, effects, various transformations and spice up the effect by adding texture to the final design.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-futuristic-scarlet-eclipse-effect/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/create-a-detailed-vector-chalkboard-icon/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/create-a-detailed-vector-chalkboard-icon/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:21 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5204



In the following Illustrator tutorial you will learn how to create a detailed vector chalkboard icon. This classic school, blackboard illustration is composed using vector shape building techniques, pixel perfect highlighting, as well as brushes and textures for adding interest to the work.

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Step 1

Hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 700 in the width and height boxes, then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the Align New Objects to Pixel Grid box is unchecked before you click OK. Now, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next, you’ll need a grid every 10px.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid, enter 10 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.



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Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 490 by 330px shape. The Snap to Grid will ease your work. Remember to look into your Info panel for the live preview with the size and location of your shape. Once created fill your shape with R=196, G=154, B=108. Remove the color from the stroke then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 20px radius, click OK and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Next, you will need a grid every 5px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid and enter 5 in the Gridline every box. Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 440 by 280px shape and place it as shown in the second image. Again, the Snap to Grid will come in handy. The color properties for this second shape are not important.



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Step 3

Reselect the two shapes created in the previous step, go to the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) and click on the Minus Front button. The resulting shape should be a compound path that looks like the second image shown.



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Step 4

Reselect the compound path created in the previous step and focus on the Appearance panel. Simply click on the Add New Fill button. It’s the little, white square from the bottom of the Appearance panel. Obviously, this will add a new fill for your path.

Select it from the Appearance panel and make it black. Lower its Opacity to 7%, change the blending mode to Multiply, then go to Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen. Enter the properties shown below, click OK and add a new fill for this compound path.

Select it from the Appearance panel and use the linear gradient shown below. Also, lower its Opacity to 10%, then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -5px Offset and click OK. Have a closer look at the gradient image and you will notice a yellow zero above the right slider. It stands for Opacity percentage. This means that you need to select that gradient slider and lower its Opacity to 0%.



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Step 5

Keep focusing on the existing compound path. Select it and go to the Appearance panel. Add a 2pt stroke, align it to inside and set its color at R=225, G=204, B=162. Add a second stroke for this path using the Add New Stroke button from the bottom of the Appearance panel.

Select the new stroke, make it 1pt wide, align it to inside and set the color at R=139, G=94, B=60. Reselect the entire compound path and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Go to the Layers panel, Double-click on your compound path and name it "Wooden Frame".



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Step 6

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 25px square and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with R=128, G=130, B=133. Now go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 5px radius, click OK and go to Object > Expand Appearance.



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Step 7

Select the shape created in the previous step and make 3 copies in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select the copies one by one and place them as shown below. Reselect all four rounded rectangles and go to Object > Compound Path > Make.



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Step 8

Select "Wooden Frame" and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this copy along with the compound path created in the previous step and click on the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. This will create a group with four gray shapes. The shapes should look like the third image.



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Step 9

Focus on the top right shape created in the previous step. Add a new fill for this path and use the linear gradient shown below. Add a new fill for the other three gray shapes and use the same linear gradient, but with a different angle.



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Step 10

Select one of the gray shapes and add a 2pt stroke. Align it to inside and set its color at R=209, G=211, B=212. Add a second stroke for this shape. Make it 1pt wide, align it to inside and set the color at R=139, G=94, B=60. Continue to add the same stroke properties for the remaining gray shapes.



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Step 11

Reselect "Wooden Frame" and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 500 by 170px shape and place it as shown in the second image. Select this new shape along with the fresh copy of "Wooden Frame" and click on the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with white and lower its Opacity to 10%.



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Step 12

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 440 by 280px shape. Fill it with R=169, G=124, B=80. Now place it as shown in the first image and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -5px Offset and click OK. Reselect both shapes and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like the third image. It’s a thin compound path.



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Step 13

Pick the Pen Tool (P) and draw four simple, horizontal paths. Place them as shown in the following image. Once again, the Snap to Grid will ease your work.



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Step 14

Select the four paths created in the previous step, along with the thin compound path created in the twelfth step, and click on the Divide button. This will divide your compound path into four simple paths. Have a look into your Layers panel and you will find a group with these four shapes.

Select the bottom shape and fill it with R=117, G=76, B=41. Select the left and right shapes and fill them with R=139, G=94, B=60. Finally, make sure that the top shape is filled with R=169, G=124, B=80.



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Step 15

Focus on the left shape created in the previous step. Add two new fills for this path and use the linear gradient shown below.



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Step 16

Focus on the right shape created in the fourteenth step. Add two new fills and use the linear gradients from the previous step, but with a different angle.



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Step 17

Again, focus on the left shape created in the fourteenth step. Add a new fill for this path and select it from the Appearance panel. Use the linear gradient shown below, lower its Opacity to 20% and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1.5px Offset and click OK.

In the end your shape should look like the second image shown below. Now move to the right shape created in the fourteenth steep. Add a new fill for this path and use the same properties mentioned earlier.



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Step 18

Select the top shape created in the fourteenth step and add a new fill. Use the linear gradient shown below, lower its Opacity to 20% and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1.5px Offset and click OK. In the end your shape should look like the image shown.



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Step 19

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 430 by 270px shape. Fill it with R=58, G=90, B=77. Now place it as shown. Add a second fill for this shape and use the radial gradient shown below. Select this new fill from the Appearance panel and lower its Opacity to 50%.



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Step 20

Add a third fill for the shape created in the previous step. Make it black, lower its Opacity to 5% and change the blending mode to Multiply, then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 21

Reselect the shape edited in the previous step and add a 2pt stroke. Align it to inside and set its color at R=225, G=204, B=162. Add a second stroke for the same path, make it 1pt wide, align it to inside and set the color at R=37, G=61, B=48. Continue to add a new fill for this path. Lower its Opacity to 50%, change the blending mode to Multiply and use the linear gradient shown below.

Again, have a closer look at the gradient image. This time you will notice a white number. It stands for Location percentage. Simply select that little diamond icon and drag it to 20%. Finally, go to the Appearance panel, select this last fill and drag it to the top of the Appearance panel, above the strokes.



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Step 22

Go to the Brushes panel, open the fly-out menu and go to Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_Paintbrush. This will open a new window with a bunch of built-in brushes. You will need the “Quick Brush 3″.

Pick the Brush Tool, select the "Quick Brush 3" brush, set the stroke color to R=255, G=255, B=255. Now draw some random paths as shown in the following image. When you’re done select all paths and group them (Command + G).



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Step 23

Reselect the green shape created in the nineteenth step, make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F), and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select this copy, along with the group of brushes, and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make. This will mask your brushes. In the end the group should look like the third image shown below.



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Step 24

Move to the Layers panel, focus on the group of brushes and select all the existing paths. Make sure that you did not select the entire path. Once selected, go to the Transparency panel and lower the Opacity to 5%, and set the blending mode to Overlay.



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Step 25

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 450 by 5px shape and fill it with R=139, G=94, B=60. Place it as shown in the first image, then go to Object > Transform > Move. Enter 0 in the Horizontal box and -5 in the Vertical box, then click on the Copy button. This will create a copy of the selected shape, right above the original shape.



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Step 26

Focus on the second shape created in the previous step. Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the top left anchor point and move it 10px to the right. Select the top, right anchor point and move it 10px to the left. In the end your shape should look like a trapezoid. Replace the flat fill color with the linear gradient shown in the third image.



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Step 27

Disable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid), then go to Edit > Preferences > General, and make sure that the Keyboard Increment is set at 1px. Select the first shape created in step 25 and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F).

Select the top copy and hit the down arrow once. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with white, lower its Opacity to 30%, and change its blending mode to Overlay.



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Step 28

Re-enable the Snap to Grid. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 450 by 15px shape. Place it as shown in the first image and fill it with the linear gradient shown below. Move to the Layers panel. Drag this path below the shapes created in the last three steps, lower its Opacity to 80%, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 2px radius and click OK.



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Step 29

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 30 by 5px shape and fill it with the linear gradient shown in the first image. Add a second fill for this shape. Make it black, lower its Opacity to 7%, and change the blending mode to Multiply, then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Continue in the Appearance panel and add a 0.5pt stroke for this shape. Align it to inside and set its color to R=188, G=189, B=192.



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Step 30

Reselect the shape created in the previous step and go to Effect > Warp > Arc Lower. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Place the resulting shape as shown in the second image.



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Step 31

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a new 490 by 330px shape. Fill it with black and make sure that it completely covers the existing shapes. Go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners and enter a 20px radius. Click OK and the apply Object > Expand Appearance. Lower the Opacity of the resulting shape to 15% and then make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F).



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Step 32

Focus on the two shapes created in the previous step. First, disable the Snap to Grid. Now, select the top shape and hit the up arrow twice, then select the bottom shape, and hit the down arrow twice.



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Step 33

Select the two shapes edited in the previous step and make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B). Select these two copies and lower their Opacity to 10%. Now, select the top copy and hit the up arrow 3 times, then select the bottom copy and hit the down arrow three times.



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Step 34

Reselect the two shapes created in the previous step and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 5px radius and click OK. Select the four shapes created in the last threes steps and group them. Send this group to back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).



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Step 35

Re-enable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 40px square. Fill it with R=196, G=154, B=108, and place it as shown below.



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Step 36

Reselect the shape created in the previous step, add the second fill, and use the linear gradient shown below. Add a third fill for this path and make it black. Select it from the Appearance panel, lower its Opacity to 5%, and change the blending mode to Multiply, then go to Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen. Enter the properties shown below and click OK.



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Step 37

Reselect the shape edited in the previous step and add a 2pt stroke. Align it to inside and set its color to R=225, G=204, B=162. Add a second stroke for this path, make it 1pt wide, align it to inside, and set the color to R=139, G=94, B=60.



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Step 38

Reselect the shape edited in the last steps and go to the Appearance panel. Select the bottom fill (R=196, G=154, B=108) and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 39

Reselect the path edited in the last steps and make sure that no fill or stroke is selected. First, go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Outer Glow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.

Finally, go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 3px radius and click OK. Go to the Appearance panel and make sure that the Rounded Corners is placed in the top of the Appearance panel. You can easily drag if you need to. In the end your shape should look like in the following image.



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Step 40

For the following step you will need a grid every 1px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid and enter 1 in the Gridline every box. Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 5px circle, and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it it with R=147, G=149, B=152, then add a second fill.

Select it from the Appearance panel and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1.5px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat. Drag the slider to -50% and click OK. Now add a 1pt stroke, then Align it to outside, and set its color at R=88, G=89, B=91.

Add a second stroke for this path, make it 0.5pt wide, align it to outside, and set the color at R=209, G=211, B=212. Reselect this entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 41

Return to gridline every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid and enter 5 in the Gridline every box. Select the two shapes created and edited in the last six steps, then group them. Select this fresh group and go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check the Horizontal button and click on the Copy button. This will create a vertically flipped group copy.



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Step 42

Select the flipped group created in the previous step and drag it several pixels down. It will be easier for you to edit the shapes inside the group. First, let’s edit the rounded rectangle.

Select it, go to the Appearance panel, select the fill with the linear gradient and set the angle at 90 degrees. Next, open the Drop Shadow effect applied for the first fill. Enter 0 in the X Offset box and 1 in the Y Offset box.

Move to the gray circle. Select it, go to the Appearance panel and open the existing Drop Shadow effect. Enter 0 in the X Offset box and -1 in the Y Offset box.



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Step 43

Reselect the flipped group and drag it down as shown in the first image. Next, select both groups, duplicate them and drag the copies to the right. Select all four groups and group them (Command + G). Finally, send this group to the back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).



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Step 44

Pick the Brush Tool (B) and go to the Brushes panel. Select the 3pt Round Brush, set the stroke color at white and draw some balloons or anything you like.

After you’re done, select all paths, lower their Opacity to 90%, and group them (Command + G). Select this group and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Enter the data shown in the final image and click OK.



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Step 45

Finally, let’s add a background for the chalkboard. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a shape the size of your artboard. Fill it with the radial gradient shown below and send it to back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).



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Step 46

Reselect the shape created in the previous step and add a second fill. Make it black, lower its Opacity to 15%, and change the blending mode to Multiply. Now go to Effect > Sketch > Note Paper. Enter the data shown below, click OK and you’re done.



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Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/09/create-a-detailed-vector-chalkboard-icon/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/07/andrea-ruggiero-when-less-becomes-more/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/07/andrea-ruggiero-when-less-becomes-more/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:00:48 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5208



Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a thought provoking talk by Andrea Ruggiero at DesignBoost NYC. In this talk, Andrea shares his observations on Design and Consumption.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/07/andrea-ruggiero-when-less-becomes-more/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/06/how-to-add-decorative-glamour-to-your-ordinary-script-font/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/06/how-to-add-decorative-glamour-to-your-ordinary-script-font/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:00:18 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=2686



Sometimes you need to go a little bit wild with your typography. In these cases, you can either take the easy way and choose a fancy font from some of the free font site like Dafont or Urban Fonts, or get creative and give some extra sparkle to your ordinary font, creating a typographic design which can stand by itself. This tutorial, discusses this later option. Beware of the following boolean operations galore!

July of 2009

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards, as well as a few color variations. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

For this tutorial, I used CorelDRAW but the techniques discussed apply for most vector editing software.




Step 1 – Type, Organize, and Choose the Font

Find the relationships in your copy and organize the text accordingly. For this tutorial, I’ve chosen a calligraphic font called Old Script from dafont.com, but any script font will do.



Step 2 – Convert to Curves and Break Apart

To modify the font we will need curves. Select your text and press Command + Q (convert to curves) and then press Command + K or use the Break Apart icon form the Property Bar, to break apart the components of the font. Since inner parts are separate elements we need to trim them from the rest of the character.



Step 3 – Trim Inner Parts

Shift-select the inner (I’ve altered their color to orange) and the outer parts of a character and press trim on the Property Bar. If you want to have more control over boolean operations, then you can turn on the Shaping docker from the Window menu. Then select the source object, press Trim, and select the target object with the special cursor.

Sometimes after the break apart operation the inner parts go behind the outer parts. In this case, select the outer part and press Shift + Page Down to send it to the back. It is always a good idea to have two different colors for boolean operations.



Step 4 – Give Some Flesh to the Characters

Select an individual letter and drag away. Before releasing your button, click with the right button and you will get a copy of the original shape. Repeat the copy operation, but this time move the copy to the left a little bit to have two overlapping shapes.



Step 5 – Trim and Break

Select the two overlapping copies and click the Trim icon on the toolbar. Select the resulting shape and press Command + K to break apart.



Step 6 – Weld

Move away some of the resulting shapes to the right and weld the rest. The goal is to achieve a more dynamic look by increasing the difference between the thick and thin parts of the character. I find steps 4-6 the easiest way, but you can use any other techniques to achieve the desired alteration.



Step 7 – Clean Up Messy Curves

Remove unneeded nodes to have a clean flowing curve. Select the Shape Tool (F10) and right-click on a point, then select Delete from the context menu, or simply double-click the node with the Shape Tool. After a boolean operations, always check for stray segment and undesired nodes.



Step 8 – Glamorizing Begins

Make a copy of the character by moving it to the left, but just a tiny bit. Select the resulting shapes and press trim in the Property Bar. Repeat the copy and trim operation to the right, up and down.



Always move away the resulting chips and break them apart (Command + K). These small shapes will be the building bricks of the look we’re creating.



Step 9 – The Creative Part

Arrange the chips so that they overlap the original object. Rotate, scale, or duplicate them in a creative way, until you’re satisfied with the outcome.



Make an extra copy of the original shape for later use. Select the original shape and the chips and weld them by pressing the Weld icon on the Property Bar.



Step 10 – Let There Be Highlight

Pick the Interactive Contour Tool by pressing longer on the Effects Tool on the toolbar. In the properties bar, choose Inner contour, Number of steps 1, and a small offset depending on the size of your character. From the Arrange menu choose Break Contour Group Apart.



Step 11 – Finishing the Highlight

Pick the resulting object, clean it up, and position somewhere towards the top-left part of your character.



We are almost there. Make one more highlight if you wish following Steps 11-12.



Step 12 – The Tedious Part

Repeat Steps 4-12 on all the characters.

Step 13 – Bring it All Together

Using the original text as a template move the modified characters to their place.



Get creative on the initials and use swirls and swashes derived from the characters to make the design coherent.



Step 14 – Experiment with Color Setups

When finished, group the characters and highlights in two separate groups to make the color experimentation easier. The ideal color setup would be something like a darker base color and a lighter shade of it for the highlight.



To Sum Up

In this tutorial, we created a typography effect by using only parts of the original type, which makes the whole thing work together. Using this trim and weld technique, you can always give some extra details to your type treatments or vectors.

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/06/how-to-add-decorative-glamour-to-your-ordinary-script-font/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-classic-handgun-with-inkscape/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-classic-handgun-with-inkscape/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:00:47 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5201



This Quick Tip will teach you how to create a handgun using just basic shapes like rectangles, circles and triangle. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the Inkscape toolbar are to the images to make it easier to find the tool and function I am describing in the text. Let’s begin!

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Step 1

Start with three squares. Convert the smallest one to a path [Path/ Object to Path] and add a node to the top. You can do that by either double clicking on the line or using the button ‘insert new node to the selected segment’. Angle off the top right corner by moving the corner node downwards.



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Step 2

Cut the angled shape off the second square using the Path/ Difference command.



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Step 3

Create a gradient fill to achieve the dark metal look. Add two smaller copies of the main rectangle for the sight and the end of the barrel.



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Step 4

Duplicate the main square another two times and place those copies below. Convert the main square to a path and modify the nodes on the right to curve the ‘barrel shape’.



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Step 5

Add another rectangle to create the base of the handle and a slim rectangle for the ridges in the barrel. Duplicate this one a few times setting them copies apart slightly.



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Step 6

Create another two rectangles with rounded edges for the trigger and combine them using the Path/ Difference command.



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Step 7

Modify the nodes to extend the shape towards the handle and the barrel.



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Step 8

Skew the handle and add another rectangle with rounded edges to form the black cover. Create another long rectangle above the trigger to connect it to the barrel.



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Step 9

Modify the nodes to curve the edges of the handle. Add new nodes were needed.



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Step 10

Add an elongated circle for the trigger and another for the decoration on the handle.



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Step 11

Deform the circle for trigger by moving the center nodes to the right. Put it in place and move it back (Page Down).



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Final Image

Add more detail and highlights (triangular shapes using the straight line tool and white ovals on the decoration) as well as some engraved text. Write the text in a light grey color and add a darker duplicate a lighter higher up.

Note: The tutorial works with some minor adjustments in other vector design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. These just use different icons, tool and command names, but the functionality is the same.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-classic-handgun-with-inkscape/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/interview-with-maria-dimova-aka-dimary/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/interview-with-maria-dimova-aka-dimary/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:00:13 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5180



Today our guest is a graphic designer Maria Dimova (aka Dimary) from Moldova. She is a professional designer/illustrator that always makes time to work for pleasure. Exactly such artworks illustrated in this interview. Maria works in a style of fantasy and Hed Kandi. Meet the person for who vector is not simply a job, it’s a passion.

Q Tell us briefly about yourself, where were you born, where do you live right now? Do you have a basic art education?


I was born and live in the capital of Moldova, Chisinau. I was studying in the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University, the Faculty of Arts and Design, Department of Fashion Design, and graduated with honors. I got an art education in university, before that I was self-taught, often sketching clothes. Back then I wanted to become a fashion designer.

After graduation, I was not working in the field, and I started a temporary job at a local newspaper as a sales manager. It was the most boring job in my life. I quit and decided to try computer graphics. The first graphics editor I met was Adobe Illustrator, and since then I only work with it.



Q What is vector graphics for you today, a profession or hobby?

Believe it or not, it is both. When there is a break between commercial projects, I draw for myself, as they say “for pleasure”. Vector graphics has become a profession literally within a month after the beginning of its study. The first drawings were portraits in the style of Hed Kandi. Back then, as I was thinking that I was mastering vector very quickly, and all my free time was dedicated to drawing.



Q What kind of work do you do as a professional designer? Do you work as a freelancer or in the office? What is your favorite trend in design?

I am a freelancer. I tried to work in the office, but I did not like it. I find working at home is easier and more profitable for me now.

In most cases I draw illustrations. Mostly I have to work in a style given by a customer. I am creating web design, illustrations, packaging, calendars and post cards, develop characters and rarely draw comics. As you can see in my pictures, I love to draw beautiful girls and give a lot of attention to detail in clothing. Perhaps inside of me I still have that feeling of a designer for which I studied and dreamed to become.



Q How do clients find you?

I began searching for orders after I filled out my portfolio on the website for Russian-speaking freelancers, free-lance.ru, therefore most of my customers found me over there. Some of them have become regular with who I have been working for the last 3 years. Others came to me from the Illustration section from my website amigolab.com. Some customers have recommended me to other customers. Basically, there have never been long periods of time that I have been out of work.



Q Tell us a little about your workflow. What are its stages?

To begin, I draw a pencil sketch on a sheet of paper; it can be very detailed or just sketchy. Usually, most of the details already appear in the process of working on the vector image. Then sketch is being scanned and opened in Adobe Illustrator.

Next, I create a brush that is created from an ellipse that is thin at the ends. I draw with a Wacom tablet; it’s old but still works fine. I start tracing the outline, filling it with new items at the same time. When I’m completely satisfied with an outline of the picture, I begin to color. I pick a color palette, I change outline colors according to the objects’ fills. And then I begin the manual work on creating the volume of each detail.

Usually, it is created with the help of a set of vector objects with different transparency. When a character is ready, I proceed to work on the background. It can be as simple as a pattern, or complex, with the objects surrounding the main character. I sign it, and that’s it, the drawing is ready.

Normally I do not wait a few days, looking for flaws in an art-work, but immediately post the work in the Internet portfolio, to stop thinking of it. By this time I get tired of the same image, and I want to start a new one. But at the same time, I almost never work on two drawings at once.



Q I understand that you work only with simple vector objects? Have you experimented with the Gradient Mesh?

It was very rarely that I used the Gradient Mesh for smooth transitions; basically, I was applying this technique to create the background. But after switching to Adobe Illustrator CS5 which allows to apply various transparency in different areas of the gradient, the Gradient Mesh has no longer become necessary for me.

I have several artworks created using this technique, but it’s mostly copying of the pictures. I tested Gradient Mesh a long time ago being curious, just to check it off my list that I know how to use it, but I got bored quickly with this technique. So, yes, I do work with gradient fills and brushes for the path.



Q Do you have any secrets working with multi-layered images? There are dozens of objects on the faces of your characters; did you learn how to simplify this process?

The fact is that there is no secret. First, I create the cheekbones, nose, dark eye sockets, and then create a lot of other objects on top to smooth the shape, and then I create glares at the end. This can probably be comparable to painting with a brush where each stroke is a vector object.

Only such details as rouge I do with a gradient fill with transparency around the edges, or apply a Blur effect. Unfortunately, I do not know yet how to make this job easier. The more vector objects you have, the more voluminous is the object, that’s the secret.



Q Who do you depict in your artworks, what kind of characters? Do you have a favorite artwork? How long did it take you to create it?

Most often, these are generalized characters. First, an idea with its own history that ultimately transforms into an image. I really love fantasy genre in literature as well as in art, so I am trying to add at least a bit of this magic to my works. Lately I’ve been drawing a lot for picsfordesign.com, these characters are, of course, focused on the interests of the people who buy these images, but still I’m trying to keep a little of myself in these characters.
The most favorite is, probably, “Libertad“; work on it was delayed for a month. This is the most time-consuming and complex work up to now. It is very difficult to maintain interest in the work, dragging out the process for such a long time



Q Do you have a self-portrait?

I don’t have my own self portrait, there is an idealized portrait, but it can hardly be called a self-portrait, it probably is what I would like to be. I mean the “Libertad”. Although a lot of people say that they see me in every character I create.



Q What are your interests besides designing, how do you spend your leisure time?

Besides design, I enjoy intellectual games such as “Mafia.” I’m trying to devote a couple of free evenings for games; I take part in the championships for the “Mafia” at the international level. Sport plays an important role in my life. I like body fitness and, of course, I want to achieve higher results in it.



Q What would you like to wish for the young designers that are making their first steps in becoming an artist?

I wish young designers and artists tenacity and dedication, love your job and respect your work, and, of course, do not forget about self-discipline and self-improvement. Use in your artworks everything that you’re interested in, do not be afraid to try something new and then everything will work out for you!



Maria Dimova (aka Dimary) on the Web:

• dimary.deviantart.com
• amigolab.com

]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/05/interview-with-maria-dimova-aka-dimary/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cute-snail-using-adobe-illustrator/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cute-snail-using-adobe-illustrator/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:00:17 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5197



In this tutorial we will learn how to draw a snail using tools such as the Pen Tool (P), Selection Tool (V), Direct Selection Tool (A), Ellipse Tool, and Gradient Tool (G). Some shapes will be created with the help of the Pathfinder panel. This artwork was created by my student Artur Chochaev.

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Step 1

Take the Pen Tool (P) and create the body of a snail, and fill the resulting shape with a vertical linear gradient which consists of shades of orange color.



With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a new shape with yellow fill as it is shown in the picture below.



Copy the body of a snail and paste it in front (Command + C then Command + F), select the shape of the body and the yellow shape, then click on the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel.



By this action, we have removed part of the yellow shape that was beyond the boundaries of the body.



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Step 2

With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create two shapes on the lower part of the snail, one filled with yellow and the other light brown.




Group up these shapes (Command + G). Move the group to the left, holding down the Option button. This action creates a copy of the group.



Now with the help of the Selection Tool (V) reduce the new group, as shown in the figure below.



Using this technique, create a few more of these kinds of groups, reducing their size when approaching closer to the tail of the snail.



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Step 3

Create an ellipse filled with yellow color using the Ellipse Tool (L).



Create eight copies of this ellipse (Command + C then Command + F) and by changing their size and position, place the ellipses on the head of the snail, as shown in the picture below.



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Step 4

Proceed to the creation of the mouth of the snail. With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a path shown in the picture below.



Apply the suitable profile from the Stroke panel to this path.



This can only be done in Adobe Illustrator CS5, if you work in earlier versions, you will need to create a similar brush. Take the Ellipse Tool and create an ellipse. With the Direct Selection Tool (A) select points A and B and convert them from smooth into the corner.



Now drag this shape to the Brushes panel and save the new brush as an Art Brush.



Apply the brush to the mouth path.



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Step 5

All of the following shapes are created with the help of the Pen Tool (P) and are below the mouth path. It is convenient to move the shapes relative to each other in the Layers panel. I’m only showing the sequence of their creation.







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Step 6

Create eyes of the snail. Take the Pen Tool (P) and create the contour shown in the figure below.



Fill it with a linear gradient that consists of two shades of orange color. Copy and paste this path in front (Command + C then Command + F). With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a new path shown in the figure below.



Select both objects and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder palette, this will make the shape of a shadow.



Fill this shape with solid orange color.



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Step 7

Take the Ellipse Tool (L) draw a circle, then slightly reduce it’s shape vertically using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and fill it with a radial gradient consisting of light shades of gray color.



Create a new ellipse; fill it with a linear gradient which consists of shades of blue color.



Create a pupil, fill it with a radial gradient consisting of two shades of dark blue color.



With the help of the Ellipse Tool (L) create an ellipse and a circle, these will make the highlight on the eye. Fill the highlights with white color set to 70% opacity in the Transparency panel.



Group up all the elements of the eye Command + G. Copy and paste the group in front (Command + C then Command + F). Move the copy to the left and rotate it with the help of the Selection Tool (V).



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Step 8

With the help of Pen Tool (P) create a shape of the shell and fill it with elliptical gradient consisting of the shades of light brown color.



Now create a spiral, and apply a triangular profile from the Stroke panel to it, or create a similar brush as described in step 4.



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Step 9

With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a shape of the edge of the shell filled with light-brown color.



Create two more shapes of the darker shades that will create the play of light on the edge of the shell.




Create a shadow of the shell on the snail body, and the gap between the shell and the body.




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Step 10

With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a shadow on the shell.





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Step 11

Create a curved triangular profile, filled with brown color.



Copy it and paste it in front (Command + C then Command + F). Fill the copy with a lighter shade of brown color. Keeping the upper shape selected, take the Rotate Tool (R), set the center of rotation at point "A" and rotate the shape slightly.



Group up two shapes (Command + G).

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Step 12

Now we need to make multiple copies of the group and place them along the spiral. Change the shape, position and size with the help of the Selection Tool (V) and the Direct Selection Tool (A).



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Step 13

With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a shape highlight on the shell. Fill it with a linear gradient which consists of two shades of light brown color, and reduce its transparency in the Transparency panel.



Using this technique, create other highlights on the shell.



Let’s create another shape on top of the shell and fill it with radial gradient, as it is shown in the picture below.



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Step 14

Now we just have to create a shadow of the snail. Create the shape shown in the picture below.



Copy the snail body shape and paste it in front (Command + C then Command + F) and move the shape in the layers panel so that it is higher than the shadow of the shape.



Select the body of the snail and shadow, and then click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel.



Fill the resulting shape with a linear gradient from black to gray, set Multiply Blending Mode and 60% opacity in the Transparency panel.



With this kind of a shadow, you can place the snail on any kind of background.



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Conclusion

First of all I like this artwork because a lot of shapes are created only with the help of the Pen Tool (P). That’s what makes it look unique and handmade. Your artwork will always be appreciated if you put in the time to create the shapes carefully. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.


]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/quick-tip-how-to-create-a-cute-snail-using-adobe-illustrator/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/video-training-giveaway-exploring-illustrator-reference-library/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/video-training-giveaway-exploring-illustrator-reference-library/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:00:34 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5190



We have an exciting Illustrator video training series to give away to 2 lucky Vectortuts+ readers. It’s packed with 111 training videos created by professional illustrator Brian Zaikowski and released through Cartoon Smart on the Tuts+ Marketplace. Learn more about the Exploring Illustrator – Video Reference Library giveaway following the jump.

About the Contest

How to Enter?

To enter leave a comment below. The contest will close Tuesday, January 10th 2012 at the end of the day. We’ll then choose 2 random winners and follow up with you to distribute the videos.

What’s Inside? The Rundown

Professional Illustrator Brian Zaikowski teaches this amazing 24 hour Adobe Illustrator tutorial. Yes, a full day’s worth of videos, but you don’t have to tackle them in any particular order.

These 111 videos are like books on a shelf just waiting for the moment you need to learn everything about a particular tool or preference in Illustrator. Or for those true of spirit that want to master Adobe Illustrator in a couple days, you can begin in alphabetical order and learn nearly everything about this program.

You’ll get 111 videos in total, with over 50 source files. Since each video is focused on a Tool or Preference name, they are around 10-20 minutes in length and organized accordingly…



Video Quality? The Examples

We have 3 examples from this high quality video training series available below. The entire series covers virtually every tool in illustrator. Check out the 3D Revolve Tool, Rotate Tool & Reflect Tool, and Calligraphic Brushes covered below.

3D Revolve Tool: Exploring Adobe Illustrator Tutorial from Cartoon Smart on Vimeo.

Exploring Illustrator CS5 Course: Rotate and Reflect Tool from Cartoon Smart on Vimeo.

Exploring Adobe Illustrator: Calligraphic Brushes from Cartoon Smart on Vimeo.

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Terms and Conditions

• This competition is not open to Envato employees.
• Entries are accepted worldwide.
• If you do not respond within 7 days to a notification that you have won a prize, we reserve the right to select another winner.

]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/video-training-giveaway-exploring-illustrator-reference-library/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/create-a-colorful-glass-text-effect-in-illustrator/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/create-a-colorful-glass-text-effect-in-illustrator/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:00:34 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5182



In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a colorful, glass text effect in Illustrator. Learn each step to construct this shiny, vector text effect. We’ll use patterns, transform effects, multiple gradient fills, and more to construct this beautiful lettering.

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Step 1

Create a 700 by 300px, RGB document. Grab the Rectangle Tool and create a shape the size of your artboard. Fill it with R=241, G=247, B=226, and remove the color from the stroke. With this shape still selected move to the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance).

Simply click on the Add New Fill button. It’s the little, white square from the bottom bar. Obviously, this will add a second fill for your shape. Select it and use the radial gradient shown below. Have a closer look at the gradient image and you will notice a yellow zero above the left slider. This means that you need to select that gradient slider and lower its Opacity to 0%.



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Step 2

Reselect the shape created in the previous step and add a third fill. For this new fill you will need a built-in pattern. Move to the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches). Open the fly-out menu and go to Open Swatch Library > Patterns > Basic Graphics > Basic Graphics_Textures. A new window with a set of built-in patterns should open.

Return to the Appearance panel, make sure that the third fill is still selected and click on the USGS 19 Land Inundation pattern. Now that the pattern is applied lower its Opacity to 15%. Move to the Layers panel and lock this rectangle.



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Step 3

For the following step you will need a built-in calligraphic brush. Move to the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes). Open the fly-out menu and go to Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_Calligraphic. A new window with a set of built-in brushes should open. Pick the Brush Tool (B), select the 30pt Round brush, set the stroke color to white and draw a path like the one shown in the first image.

Continue with the Brush Tool and draw four extra paths as shown in the second image. Select all these paths, lower their Opacity to 7%, change the blending mode to Overlay, then group them (Command + G). Move to the Layers panel, Double-click on this group, name it “Brushes,” and lock it.



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Step 4

Pick the Type Tool (T), click on your artboard and add some white text. Use the Calibri font with a size of 150pt. Reselect this text and go to Object > Expand (or Type > Create Outlines). Select the resulting group of shapes, click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) then go to Object > Compound Path > Make.

Select the resulting path, go to the Appearance panel and remove the color from the fill and the stroke. Move to the Layers panel, Double-click on this compound path and name it "Main".

Let’s make a quick recap. So far, you should have two paths (“Bg” and “Main”) and a group (Brushes) in your Layers panel.



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Step 5

Select "Main" and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this copy and add a white fill. Move to the Appearance panel, select this fill, and lower its Opacity to 10%.



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Step 6

Reselect the white path created in the previous step, add a second fill, and use the linear gradient shown below. Don’t forget about the yellow zero. Select this new fill from the Appearance panel and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path.

Now enter a -4px radius, click OK and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below, click OK, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 2px radius and click OK. Move to the Layers panel and name this path "Text".



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Step 7

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Add a 3pt, white stroke for this new path, align it to inside and lower its Opacity to 30%.



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Step 8

Go to Edit > Preferences > General and make sure that the Keyboard Increment is set at 1px. Select "Main", make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F) and bring them to front (Shift + Command + ] ).

Select the top copy, then hit the right arrow and the down arrows 4 times. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group of shapes and turn it into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Fill the resulting path with white and lower its Opacity to 40%.



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Step 9

Select "Main", make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F) and bring them to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select the top copy, then hit the right arrow and the down arrows twice.

Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group of shapes and turn it into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Fill the resulting path with white and lower its Opacity to 50%.



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Step 10

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Add a 1pt, black stroke for this new path. Align it to outside and then go to Object > Expand Appearance (or Object > Path > Outline Stroke). Fill the resulting path with the linear gradient shown in the third image and lower its Opacity to 75%.



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Step 11

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Add a 0.5pt, black stroke for this new path. Align it to outside, then go to Object > Expand Appearance (or Object > Path > Outline Stroke). Fill the resulting path with the linear gradient shown in the third image and lower its Opacity to 75%.



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Step 12

Select the path created in the previous step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Fill it with the linear gradient shown in the second image and lower the Opacity to 15%.



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Step 13

Select the three paths created in the last three steps and group them (Command + G). Move to the Layers panel and drag this fresh group above the "Brushes" group.



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Step 14

For the following step you will need the 2pt Oval calligraphic brush. You can easily get it from your Brushes panel. Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ).

Select it and focus on the Appearance panel. First, add a stroke and set its color at R=78, G=113, B=120. The size is not important. Make sure that your stroke is still selected and click on the 2pt Oval brush from the Brushes panel. Next, go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -4px Offset and click OK, then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown in the final image and click OK.



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Step 15

Keep focusing on the path created in the previous step. Select it, move to the Appearance panel, select the stroke and click on the Duplicate Selected Item button (the little file icon from the bottom bar). Obviously, this will add a copy of the selected stroke. Select this new stroke, open the existing Transform effect and enter the data shown below. In the end your it should look like in the following image.



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Step 16

Keep focusing on the shape edited in the previous step. Select it and move to the Appearance panel. Select the first stroke, lower its Opacity to 10% and change the blending mode to Color Burn. Move to the second stroke and add the same properties (Opacity of 10% and Blending Mode of Color Burn).



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Step 17

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L) and click once on your artboard. Enter 10 in the width and height boxes, then click OK. This will create a 10px circle. Fill it with white.

Move to the Appearance panel and select this fill. Lower its Opacity to 50% and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat. Drag the slider to -75%, click OK, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 2px radius and click OK.



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Step 18

Reselect the shape created in the previous step, add a second fill and make it white. Select it from the Appearance panel, lower its Opacity to 25% and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat. Drag the slider to -75%, click OK, and got Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -0.5 Offset and click OK.



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Step 19

Multiply the shape created in the previous step. Spread these copies as shown in the following image.



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Step 20

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Fill this copy with black, lower its Opacity to 10% then move it 2px down and to the right. Select this fresh path and make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B). Move this new copy 2px down and to the right, then lower its Opacity to 5%.



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Step 21

Select the two shapes created in the previous step and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 2px radius, click OK, then group them (Command + G). Move to the Layers panel and drag this group below the "Brushes" group. The glassy text effect is complete.

Continue the tutorial and you will learn how to add three different colorful effects for your text.



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Step 22

Select "Main", make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F) and bring them to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select the top copy, then hit the right arrow and the up arrows three times.

Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group of shapes and turn it into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Fill the resulting path with R=237, G=28, B=36, and lower its Opacity to 8%.



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Step 23

Select "Main", make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F), and bring them to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select the top copy, then hit the left arrow and the up arrows three times.

Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group of shapes and turn it into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Fill the resulting path with R=39, G=170, B=225, and lower its Opacity to 8%.



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Step 24

Select "Main", make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F) and bring them to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select the top copy, then hit the right arrow and the down arrows three times.

Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group of shapes and turn it into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Fill the resulting path with R=249, G=237, B=50, and lower its Opacity to 15%. In the end your text should look like the fourth image.



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Step 25

Select the paths created in the last three steps and group them (Command + G). Move to the Layers panel and make it invisible.



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Step 26

Enable the Grid (View > Show Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). For the following steps you will need a grid every 10px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 10 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box.



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Step 27

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M). Create two 10 by 120px shapes and place them as shown in the first image. The Snap to Grid will ease your work. Fill the left rectangle with R=249, G=237, B=50, and the right one with white. Reselect both shapes, lower their Opacity to 13%, group them (Command + G), and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 28

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M). Create two 10 by 280px shapes and place them as shown in the first image. Again, the Snap to Grid will ease your work. Fill the left rectangle with R=39, G=170, B=225, and the right one with white. Reselect both shapes and lower their Opacity to 10%.

Group them (Command + G) and go to Edit > Transform > Rotate. Enter a 45 degrees angle and click OK. Now, your group should look like the second image shown. Reselect it and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown in the final image and click OK.



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Step 29

Select the group created in the previous step and go to Edit > Transform > Rotate. Enter a 90 degrees angle and click on the Copy button. This will create a horizontally flipped copy of your group.

Select the blue rectangle from this new group and replace the existing fill color with R=237, G=28, B=36. In the end your group should look like the second image shown. Reselect it along with the other two groups created in the last two steps and group them (Command + G).



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Step 30

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F), and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select this copy, along with the group created in the previous step, and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

It should look like the third image shown. Move to the Layers panel and drag this masked group above the "Text" path. In the end, it should look like the fourth image shown. Move to the Layers panel and make it invisible.



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Step 31

For the following step you will need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, then enter 5 in the Gridline every box. Pick the Ellipse Tool (L) and create three, 10px circles. Fill them with R=237, G=28, B=36, place them as shown in the first image, then group them (Command + G).

Create three new circles (10px). Fill them with R=249, G=237, B=50, place them as shown in the second image, then group them (Command + G). Create three new circles (10px). Fill them with R=39, G=170, B=225, place them as shown in the third image, then group them (Command + G).



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Step 32

Select the three groups created in the previous step and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below and click OK.



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Step 33

Reselect the three groups edited in the previous step and go again to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Select the groups containing the red and the blue circles, then lower their Opacity to 10%. Select the group containing yellow circles and lower its Opacity to 15%. Reselect these three groups and group them (Command + G).



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Step 34

Select "Main", make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and bring it to front (Shift + Command + ] ). Select this copy along with the group created in the previous step and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make. It should look like the third image shown.

Move to the Layers panel and drag this masked group above the "Text" path. In the end, it should look like the fourth image shown.



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Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look.



]]> http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/04/create-a-colorful-glass-text-effect-in-illustrator/feed/ 0 http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/03/2012-calendar-design-project-round-1/ http://www.technicalmarketing.org/2012/01/03/2012-calendar-design-project-round-1/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:49 +0000 admin http://vector.tutsplus.com/?p=5192



Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be showcasing Round 1 of the 2012 Calendar Design Project. If you missed out this time, don’t worry, there’s still time to part of it! Find out how to get involved, at the jump.

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2012 Calendar Design Project, Round 1

The designs are posted in no particular order, but we thought it would be fun to kick things off with a cute version of Alice in Wonderland. Great work everyone. If your design isn’t included in this weeks post don’t worry, round 2 will publish soon.

Submissions are still open. Get your entries in before Sunday 8th of January 2012 for a chance to be in round 2! More information on how to participate is at the end of this post.



Alaska Young
"I’m Nay and I’m an art student from Mexico. I don’t have website of my own except for my tumblr"

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Bret Crutchfield

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ChewedKandi

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Olivier Sommé
"I’m a french graphic designer. You can see my work at olivier-somme.fr "graphiquement vôtre" and happy new year!"

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Esteban Ramirez
"What up everyone? My name is Esteban, here is my design for the 2012 calendar project. Since this is a new year up ahead I wanted to visualize movement opening up like a flower blooming. I really enjoy creating vector works that are just free and abstract with all kinds of shapes from circles, triangles, lines, the possibilities are endless and limitless. With that idea in mind I just had some fun thinking of how I could create my vision. I hope you enjoy. please check out my website at ramirezdesignz.com"

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Anna Juszczyk
"Hi there, check out my entry for Vectortuts+ 2012 calendar project. I’m a 24 year old designer from Poland, feel free to visit my website: piksele.net. Happy 2012!"

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Victoria Brown
"Happy New Year!"

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KishKoosh
"I’m Ron, a graphic designer from Israel. Wishing all of us a great 2012! My calendar was inspired by Parks and Recreation’s Tom Haverford… My site kishkoosh.com"

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How to Make a Vectortuts+ Calendar Design:

1. Download the Design Template
2. Draw your image onto the template, you can be as creative as you like, feel free to alter any or all of the illustration. We want to see creative and fun projects so go crazy!
3. Upload your design to the Vectortuts+ Facebook Group with a short description of your style or theme.

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Guidelines:

• Artwork can be any style or theme as long as it’s vector and 100% your own work.
• You don’t have to spend hours and hours on your piece, the project’s aim is to be fun, fast and individual.
• You may submit more than one design
• When you publish your work on Facebook, please include one or two paragraphs about yourself and/or your work and a link to your website / online portfolio.
• Have Fun!

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