Chapter 6 Working with Patterns and Brushes. Using the Move Command The word offset refers to the distance an object is moved or copied from a starting

Chapter 6

Working with Patterns and Brushes

Using the Move Command

• The word offset refers to the distance an object is moved or copied from a starting location to an ending location.

• The Move command is the most effective method for moving an object at precise offsets.


• In the Move dialog box, you enter the horizontal distance and the vertical distance that you want a selected object to move;– a positive value moves the object horizontally to

the right– a negative value moves it to the left


• On a vertical axis, a positive value moves the object down, and a negative value moves it up.


• An alternate (and seldom used) way to use the Move dialog box is to enter a value for the distance you want the object to move and a value for the angle on which it should move.


Horizontal text boxVertical text box

Distance text box

Angle text box

Move dialog box


A simple pattern created using the Move command

Creating a Pattern

• In Illustrator you can design patterns to fill objects or stroke objects. You can design patterns that are simple or complex, abstract or specific, and you can save them for future use and applications.

• The Swatches panel comes preloaded with pattern swatches that you can modify.

Creating a Pattern

• You can use paths, compound paths, or text in patterns, but you cannot use gradients, blends, brush strokes, meshes, bitmap images, graphs, masks, or other patterns.

Creating a Pattern

• Patterns repeat. A pattern fills an object by repeating the original pattern, a process called tiling.

• The word is used intentionally as a reference to floor tiles.

Creating a Pattern

• Illustrator creates pattern fills in much the same way that you would use multiple tiles to cover a floor.

• Think of the pattern as the floor tile and the object to be filled as the floor.

• You design fill patterns by designing one tile.

Creating a Pattern

The tile repeats to fill the object

Creating a Pattern

• Many times, you will create a pattern that contains no rectangular objects, such as a polka dot or line pattern.

• In these cases, you create a bounding box to define the perimeter of the pattern tile by positioning an unfilled, unstroked rectangular object at the back of the stacking order of the pattern tile.

Creating a Pattern

• The pattern in the following figure is composed of lines only.

• The square is used as a bounding box.• It defines the perimeter of the tile, and the pattern

is created by repeating only the elements that fall within the bounding box.

• Again, a bounding box must have no fill and no stroke, it must be a rectangle or a square, and it must be the backmost object of the pattern tile.

Creating a Pattern

Bounding box

Pattern

Bounding box determines the perimeter of the pattern tile

Creating a Pattern

• By default, the pattern begins at the bottom-left of the artboard, not the bottom-left corner of the object.

• When you move an object that is filled with a pattern, the pattern changes within the object.

• The pattern covers the entire artboard and the object that is filled with the pattern functions like a clipping mask—you can see the pattern only through the object.

Creating a Pattern

• When an object is filled with a pattern, you can choose to transform only the object, only the pattern, or both the object and the pattern.

• When you transform a pattern, all subsequent objects that you create will be filled with the transformed pattern.

• To return a pattern fill to its non-transformed appearance, fill an object with a different swatch, then reapply the pattern swatch.

Creating a Pattern

Artwork to be used as a pattern tile Artwork applied as a pattern fill

Designing a Repeating Pattern

• Understanding how patterns tile is important for achieving a desired effect.

• You will often be surprised to find that the tile you designed does not create the pattern you had in mind.


• In the following figure, it at first seems logical that the tile on the left could produce the pattern below it.

• However, it requires the more complex tile on the right to produce what appears to be a “simple” pattern.


Note the four quarter circles in each cornerThis tile could

not create a pattern

Only the top-right tile could create the pattern


• Another consideration when designing patterns is whether or not you want the pattern to be apparent.

• If you were designing a plaid pattern, you would want the pattern to be noticed.

• However, if you were designing artwork for a field of flowers, you might want the pattern to be subtle, if not invisible.


• You modify a pattern by editing the artwork in the pattern tile, then replacing the old pattern on the Swatches panel with the new pattern.

• When you replace the old pattern, any existing objects on the artboard that were filled with the old pattern will update automatically with the new pattern.


• Of course, you can always leave the original pattern as is and save the edited pattern as a new swatch.

• This is often a wise move, because you may want to use that original pattern again sometime.

Using the Pattern Options Panel

• Patterns can add enormous visual complexity to an illustration, but over the years, designers have found Illustrator’s basic pattern creation process, which involves designing in a tile without a real sense of what the pattern will look like, too complex.


• The Pattern Options panel, shown in the following figure, makes it very easy to create interesting patterns.


Pattern Options panel


Pattern previewed outside of pattern tile


• When you first enter pattern editing mode, the tile is automatically generated as a perimeter around the selected object.

• That’s just a default action; you can enter new sizes in the Width and Height text boxes in the Pattern Options panel to resize the tile.

• The following figure shows changes to the pattern after the tile was increased from a .25" to a .35" square.


Changes to the pattern after increasing only the tile size


• The Pattern Options panel has many built-in options:– You can set the tile to move with the artwork—

though you’re usually better off leaving that option unchecked.

– Use the Copies list menu to specify how many rows of the pattern are previewed.

– The Tile Type menu offers a number of layout options for the pattern, with the default being Grid.


• When you’re working in pattern editing mode, keep in mind that all you’re really doing is designing a pattern swatch which is being constantly updated in the Swatches panel with every change you make.

Working with the Brushes Panel

• The term brush refers to any artwork you can apply to paths or paint with using the Paintbrush tool.

• The Brushes panel houses five types of brushes:– Calligraphic– Scatter– Art– Bristle– Pattern


Brushes panel with pre-loaded brush libraries


• Calligraphic brushes apply strokes that resemble those drawn with a calligraphy pen.


A Calligraphic brush applied to a path


• Scatter brushes disperse copies of an object along a path.


A Scatter brush applied to a path


• Art brushes stretch an object along the length of a path.


Artwork created to use as an art brush

Art brush applied to a path

An art brush applied to a path


• Bristle brushes create brush strokes with the appearance of a natural brush with hairs and bristles.


• Pattern brushes repeat a pattern along a path. They are made with tiles that you create and you can define up to five tiles as components of the pattern:– one tile for the side– one for the inner corner– one for the outer corner– one each for the beginning and ending of the

path


• You can create any of the five types of brushes.• Artwork for brushes must be composed of simple

paths, with no gradients, blends, mesh objects, masks, or other brush strokes.

• Art and pattern brushes cannot include text.


• You must convert text to outlines before it can be used as artwork for these types of brushes.

• Art, Pattern, and Scatter brushes can contain bitmap images, as long as they are not embedded.

• Illustrator’s Pattern Brushes feature allows you to make corner tiles for pattern brushes.


• You can still create your own artwork for corners, but if you don’t, Illustrator automatically generates corner artwork based on the artwork you create for the pattern brush.


• Illustrator generates four types of corner tiles that you choose from in the Pattern Brush Options dialog box:– Auto-Centered: the edge tile bends around the

corner and is centered on the path.– Auto-Between: the edge tile is copied and

extends to the corner.


– Auto-Sliced: the edge tile is sliced at an angle and mirrored, much like you'll see with a picture frame and its mitered corners.

– Auto-Overlap: the edge tile is copied and overlap at the corner.


• The following figure gives you an idea of what each of the four corner types does.


Auto-centered

corner

Auto-between corner

Auto-overlap corner

Auto-sliced

corner

Working with Scatter Brushes

• You can use the scatter brush to manipulate the path endlessly, with precise control of the size, spacing, and rotation of the elements along the path.

• You can, also input a scatter value, which determines how far the objects can be positioned from the path, an option that blending does not offer.


• The scatter brush is even more powerful for creating the effect of “randomness,” as shown in the following figure.


A swarm of beetles created with a flying beetle scatter brush


• In the Scatter Brush Options dialog box, you can apply a random range for size, spacing, scatter, and rotation and create the effect of a three-dimensional swarm of beetles flying in different directions—some of them closer to you and larger and some of them farther away and smaller.


• For each setting in the Brush Options dialog box, you can choose fixed or random values.

• When you apply random settings to a scatter brush, the positioning of the objects on the path will be different every time you apply the brush.

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The main difference between using the

Paintbrush tool and the Pen tool to create artwork is largely a measure of control.– The Pen tool offers precision. As you draw, you

can manipulate handles and anchor points to draw and position the path exactly where you want it and exactly how you want it to look.

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The main difference between using the

Paintbrush tool and the Pen tool to create artwork is largely a measure of control.– The Paintbrush tool, on the other hand, offers

more of a “freehand” approach to drawing. You can use the Paintbrush tool to sketch out a drawing and create artwork that is more spontaneous and “hand-drawn.”

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The essential difference between the Paintbrush

tool and the Blob Brush tool is that the Paintbrush tool creates a stroked path and the Blob Brush tool creates a closed filled object.

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The following figure shows two simple pieces of

artwork:– the top piece is made with the Paintbrush tool.– the bottom piece is made with the Blob Brush

tool.

Paintbrush tool

Blob Brush

tool

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool

Two brush strokes

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• Both the Paintbrush tool and the Blob Brush tool

paint with color.– The Paintbrush tool creates individual, non-

connected paths with every stroke of the tool.– The Blob Brush tool behaves differently. With

the Blob Brush tool, if you overlap one stroke with a second stroke of the same color, the two strokes will be united as one object.

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The following figure shows a horizontal stroke

and a vertical stroke created with the Blob Brush tool.


An “X” created with the Blob Brush tool

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The following figure shows the artwork in Outline

mode, revealed as one closed object.


The “X” revealed as a single object

Comparing the Paintbrush Tool to the Blob Brush Tool• The Blob Brush tool is sensitive to color.• The following figure shows a pink stroke crossed

by a blue stroke, both created by the Blob Brush tool.*Note that they are two separate filled objects. Because the second object was created with a different fill color, the Blob Brush tool does not unite the two objects.


Two intersecting objects created with the Blob Brush tool

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The following figure shows objects that have

been drawn and assembled.• There’s no flare, no nuance, nothing unique.

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool

Objects with a simple stroke

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The following figure now has a simple charcoal

artbrush applied to it.• Notice the dramatic effect it gives the illustration.


Charcoal brush applied to artwork

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• At some point, you might find yourself wanting

brush artwork that’s even more unique than what you can create with Illustrator’s Brushes panel or with Illustrator objects.

• One technique that designers use is to trace actual pencil, crayon, or marker sketches in Illustrator, then apply the artwork as a brush.

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The following figure shows a placed bitmap

graphic of a simple pencil stroke on paper.• That bitmap art can be traced and then saved as

a brush.


Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The Bristle Brush creates a natural brush stroke

with the streaks and varying opacities you would find with an actual paint brush, allowing you to mimic the look and feel of traditional disciplines like watercolor or paint.

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• As with the Paintbrush tool, the Bristle Brush

creates open paths.• When you paint with either brush, if you switch to

Outline mode, you’ll see a series of path segments.

• Therefore, colors you apply to those segments while painting with the brushes are applied as strokes.


Snowball recreated with the Bristle Brush

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• To use the Bristle Brush, you first create a new

brush in the Brushes panel, and then choose Bristle Brush as the definition.

• This opens the Bristle Brush Options dialog box.


Bristle Brush Options dialog box

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• Remember that you make “pseudo strokes” by

creating black copies behind objects and distorting them to “peek” from behind the front object, as shown in the following figure.


Pseudo strokes effect

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The Width tool offers you a method for quickly

altering the width of a stroke by clicking and dragging on the stroke itself.

• The following figure shows a simple stroke and the bottom image shows the same stroke being increased with the Width tool.

• With the Width tool, you simply position the tool over the stroke, then click and drag to increase the width of the stroke.


Increasing the width of a stroke with the Width tool

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• What’s really great about the Width tool is that

you can click and drag any area of a path, not just over an already-existing anchor point.

• This makes the entire path available for modification.

• The following figure shows the bottom stroke after it has been altered with the Width tool.*Note that it is still simply a stroked path.


Stroke with an increased width

Enhancing Artwork with Brushes and the Width Tool• The Width tool provides a quick way to mimic the

pseudo strokes effect.• The following figure shows the Snowball

illustration after being altered with the Width tool.


Snowball illustration with altered widths

Documents

Chapter 6 Working with Patterns and Brushes. Using the Move Command The word offset refers to the distance an object is moved or copied from a starting