From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

825 Adding windows to the houses pattern

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

825 Adding windows to the houses pattern

Welcome to Deke's Techniques. Okay, so we're in Adobe Illustrator, and we have this radial design that could right now tesselate perfectly. It's totally ready to go. And when I say totally I mean, it's kind of missing something, don't you think? I mean, just hear me out, Here, let me show you exactly how these pretty little windows, with their delightfully droopy drapery, should work. All right, now let's draw those windows. And notice, by the way, that they include blinds right there in the background behind the little window, as well as an offset path. All right, so I'll go ahead and switch over to last weeks image, and I'm going to zoom in on that red region right there. And I'll press the A key in order to switch to my white arrow tool, the one that illustrator calls the direct selection tool, but it has a keyboard shortcut of A for arrow. And then I'll click on this edge right here in order to select it, and I'll Shift + click on this segment and then you want to press Control + c Control + f here on the pc, that's going to be Command + c Command + f on the Mac. And what that does is it copies these two segments and it pastes them in front. All right, now you want to go up to the object menu choose blend, and then choose make, which has a keyboard shortcut of Control + Alt + b or Command + Option + b on the mac, now because these two segments are running in opposite directions we have this kind of sonar effect where this top left point is blending into the bottom right point and so forth. I'm more concerned for the moment about how many steps we have. I want nine steps, it looks like I have that but just to confirm, I'll go up to the object menu, choose blend, and choose blend options. Make sure spacing is set to specified steps and that this value right here is nine. In which case I could just cancel out or click okay, it doesn't really matter. Now if we were going to leave things the way they are then I would want to reverse the direction of one of these paths, but I'm actually going to change things. So I'm going to click on this anchor point down here and I'm going to drag it until it snaps on to the other anchor point in this very path so that it has no length whatsoever. However, illustrator's still going to see it and it's going to go ahead and blend between those two paths, like so. And that's exactly the effect I want. All right I'm going to zoom in a little farther here. And actually zoom in quite a bit because this next step is going to go a little bit awry. And so you may recall from a couple of weeks ago that this line segment up here is 100 points wide and we now have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 areas in between these blended steps. And so 100 divided by 10 is 10. That means each one of these regions is 10 points wide. All right, so what I'm going to do is press the v key to switch back to my black arrow tool and I'm going to click someplace in this red fill in order to select this entire big path outline and I want to offset it inward to this point right here. So two increments in, which you would think would be 20 points. And so I'll go up to the object menu, choose path, and then choose this guy offset path and I'll go ahead and set this offset value to negative 20 points like so and turn on the preview checkbox, and I've missed it. Somehow I've gone too far. And it has something to do with the fact that this is a skewed rectangle. So in other words there's some kind of weird geometry going on that I don't understand. But here's what I figured out. If I add to this value plus 2.67, how did I figure that out? I just sat there and messed around until I came up with or the Command key to get the white arrow tool on the fly. And I'll keep that key down as I grab this guy downward like so along this edge once again and that looks pretty good to me, I think I might drag this guy out a little bit. I just want him to look, kind of droopy curtains. And then I'll go ahead and Alt or Option click on this most recent point in order to sever off its control handle up here and now I'll close the path just by clicking on the first anchor point and I end up with this result here. All right, now I'll press the v key to switch back to my black arrow tool. I'll on the path outline to select the entire thing. I'll click on the second color swatch on the far left side of the control panel in order to change the stroke to none. And then I'll click on this first color swatch in order to change the fill to white. So we have this effect right here. And now I'm going to select the opacity value pretty much in the middle of the control panel at this point, and change it to 50% like so. All right, now I want to mask this guy inside the window. And so I'll first cut the path to the clipboard by first going up to the edit menu and choosing the cut command. Or you have a keyboard shortcut of Control + x here on a pc or Command + x on a Mac, and now I'll go ahead and just click on this path outline and now I'll go ahead and just click on this path outline to select it, and then, to select it, and then, because I'm working on a dinky screen, because I'm working on a dinky screen, I'm going to expand my toolbox I'm going to expand my toolbox so that we have two columns of tools so that we have two columns of tools and that way I can see this icon right here draw inside. and that way I can see this icon right here draw inside. Go ahead and click on it, Go ahead and click on it, and you'll see these dashed corners. and you'll see these dashed corners. Then go up to the edit menu and choose paste in place Then go up to the edit menu and choose paste in place and that will paste the curtains inside of the window and that will paste the curtains inside of the window so that the window is acting as a clipping mask. so that the window is acting as a clipping mask. After which point you can go ahead and switch back After which point you can go ahead and switch back to draw normal, to draw normal, and then I'll return to the single column toolbox. and then I'll return to the single column toolbox. And now I'll press Control + zero, Command + zero on a Mac And now I'll press Control + zero, Command + zero on a Mac in order to center my zoom. in order to center my zoom. All right now we need to duplicate this window, All right now we need to duplicate this window, and rotate it by the way. and rotate it by the way. So I'll just click on the edge of that window right there So I'll just click on the edge of that window right there to select both the clipping mask, to select both the clipping mask, and its contents, that is to say the curtains, and its contents, that is to say the curtains, and then I'll switch to the rotate tool, and then I'll switch to the rotate tool, which again I can get by pressing the r key, which again I can get by pressing the r key, and I will alter option click at the center and I will alter option click at the center of that six pointed start in order to bring up of that six pointed start in order to bring up the rotate dialog box the rotate dialog box and I forgot to grab the blend. and I forgot to grab the blend. All right, I've got to cancel out. All right, I've got to cancel out. And so I'll press the v key to switch back And so I'll press the v key to switch back to my black arrow tool to my black arrow tool and I'll go ahead and click on this edge right there and I'll go ahead and click on this edge right there to select the blend. to select the blend. You can see that this little guy's also selected. You can see that this little guy's also selected. All right, now I'll press the r key All right, now I'll press the r key to switch back to the rotate too right there. to switch back to the rotate too right there. And I'll Alt or Option click at this location And I'll Alt or Option click at this location in order to bring up the rotate dialog box, in order to bring up the rotate dialog box, make sure the angle value's set to 60 degrees, make sure the angle value's set to 60 degrees, click the copy button in order to create a duplicate click the copy button in order to create a duplicate and then press Control or Command + d a bunch of times and then press Control or Command + d a bunch of times in order to duplicate those windows. in order to duplicate those windows. Now of course, we do have a problem. Now of course, we do have a problem. The various windows need to be different colors, The various windows need to be different colors, and so I'll press the a key, and so I'll press the a key, this is the best way to go, this is the best way to go, press the a key to switch to the white arrow tool press the a key to switch to the white arrow tool and click on one of the edges of these windows, and click on one of the edges of these windows, away from the curtains by the way away from the curtains by the way is the best way to work. is the best way to work. Make sure your gradient panel is still up, Make sure your gradient panel is still up, and then grab color two and drag it and drop it onto and then grab color two and drag it and drop it onto that center color stop. that center color stop. And now you just need to repeat And now you just need to repeat that process for all of the other windows. that process for all of the other windows. So I'll click on this edge, drag color three, So I'll click on this edge, drag color three, and drop it at this location. and drop it at this location. Click on this edge right here, Click on this edge right here, grab color four, and drag it and drop it grab color four, and drag it and drop it to the center of the gradient. to the center of the gradient. Go ahead and grab this guy, Go ahead and grab this guy, drag and drop color five to this location, drag and drop color five to this location, and then click on this edge, and then click on this edge, drag and drop color six like so. drag and drop color six like so. And that, my friends, completes the effect. And that, my friends, completes the effect. Okay, so I'm a loving this project. Okay, so I'm a loving this project. But we've got to get it over with. But we've got to get it over with. Which is why if you're a member Which is why if you're a member of Linkedin Learning, I have a followup movie of Linkedin Learning, I have a followup movie in which we achieve every pattern makers dream. in which we achieve every pattern makers dream. An altogether perfect and utterly seamless tesselation. An altogether perfect and utterly seamless tesselation. If you listen very, very carefully, If you listen very, very carefully, you'll here your tiny, tiny screen pixels cry with joy. you'll here your tiny, tiny screen pixels cry with joy. Whee! Whee! If you're looking forward to next week, If you're looking forward to next week, well, it's going to be a letdown, isn't it? well, it's going to be a letdown, isn't it? We're going to create this off bar triangle tunnel. We're going to create this off bar triangle tunnel. oh, wait, that's really cool. oh, wait, that's really cool. Deke's techniques, each and every week. Deke's techniques, each and every week. Keep watching. Keep watching.

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