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Quick Tip: Create a Set of Neon Art and Scatter Brushes in Illustrator
May 13th
Follow this quick tip and create your own collection of Neon Brushes in Adobe Illustrator. You will create Art Brushes and also Scatter Brushes, different colors and sizes that you can use in your projects. You’ll continue to see how you can save a set of brushes for use in the future and examples of some great quick effects you can create with your brushes. 1. Start Your New Project First, create a New document by going to File > New . Type a name and select the dimensions then hit OK . Next, use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a black rectangle into your artboard because these neon brushes work best on a dark background. 2. Create Your First Neon Art Brush Step 1 Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw an 83 x 30px ellipse and give it a black fill. With the ellipse selected, go to Object > Transform > Scale and type 50% in the Uniform section then hit Copy . Change the fill color of the resulting smaller ellipse from black to blue then move it a little to the left. Now, scale the blue path to obtain the tiny white ellipse but this time select a value of 20% . Move this ellipse to the left also and make sure the three shapes are aligned horizontally. Step 2 Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw other three ellipses with the dimensions below. Align…
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Quick Tip: Create a Set of Neon Art and Scatter Brushes in Illustrator
Quick Tip: Combine 3D Effects With Blends in Adobe Illustrator
Apr 19th
Adobe Illustrator’s 3D Effects are powerful tools for the vector artist. When combined with other effects and tools, the results can be surprising and fun. In this Quick Tip screen cast, see how to map art to 3D objects, then use those objects in a blend. Adjust the number of steps in the blend to reveal its other sides, then manipulate the blend’s spine for a cascading effect. To learn more, check out the Tuts Premium course, Illustrator Effects in Depth .
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Quick Tip: Combine 3D Effects With Blends in Adobe Illustrator
Quick Tip: How to Make Longcat Truly Infinitely Long in Adobe Illustrator
Apr 1st
The Internet has been taken over by cats and one of the Internet’s famous characters and memes is Longcat . He’s known for his incredibly long length and is subject to many Photoshop graphics. However don’t you think, out of all the cat memes, this one should be in vector? In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a Longcat Pattern Brush in Adobe Illustrator. 1. Planning Your Pattern Brush from a Photo Step 1 Whenever you consider creating a Pattern Brush, the basic theory is to consider the subject in multiple parts. Firstly, the center of the Pattern Brush will be the repeating element. Then if you’re going more in depth, consider the ends of the brush and perhaps the inner and outer corners. For Longcat, I’m going to be breaking him down into two ends (head and feet/tail) and his abdomen center. Use the Line Segment Tool () to create clear boundaries which break up you subject and then Select All (Ctrl + A) and create a Compound Path (Ctrl + 
. Step 2 Draw a Rectangle (M) around the overall subject and then use your lines with the Pathfinder panel to Divide the rectangle. As all the elements which make the brush won’t be central (for instance the tummy isn’t central), then you’ll need these three rectangles set to Opacity 0% to create invisible boundaries for your brush later on in the process. For now, they’ll be acting as a guide. Take this opportunity to enable Smart Guides (Ctrl + U) to help snap your objects and lines to your brush boundaries. Step 3 So let’s…
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Quick Tip: How to Make Longcat Truly Infinitely Long in Adobe Illustrator
Creating a Vector Anime Character in Adobe Photoshop – Part 2: Coloring
Mar 22nd
In part one of this tutorial set, we created a simple anime character bust line art ready to color. Now its time to move on to the coloring stage, and really bring those characters to life using the cel shade method, a popular technique within the anime style. Step 1 First thing you’ll need is that wonderful line art you prepared in the previous tutorial . Alternatively, if you didn’t join us for part one and are just here to learn how to color using the popular cell shade technique, then you will need a line art, on a separate layer to a white background, which you have permission to color. Cel shading is popular with the anime style and is the shading style most frequently seen, both in anime films and TV shows, but also in artwork created by fans of the anime style. It is, essentially, creating bold blocks of color to show shaded areas. Naturally, this suits the vector media very well as we can create nice smooth, crisp edges to our blocks of shading. We’ll also be using gradients to soften the bold blocks. So – ready? Step 2 You’ll need to change your white background to vector so that we’ll have a full vector piece at the end rather than the background being raster. The simplest way to do this would be to make a white square using the Shape Tool (U) over your background and naming it “white,…
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Creating a Vector Anime Character in Adobe Photoshop – Part 2: Coloring
Quick Tip: Create a Simple, Pen Tool Free, File Icon in Illustrator
Mar 15th
In the following steps you will learn how to create a simple file icon in Adobe Illustrator. It’s a pretty simple tutorial that will introduce you to the basics of pixel perfect vector shape building techniques. For the starting shapes you will only need the Rectangle Tool (M), the Rounded Corners effect and some simple Pathfinder options. Next, for the coloring you will need a simple linear gradient, a bunch of flat colors and some simple blending techniques. In the final/extra step you will learn how powerful the Transform effect can be. Step 1 Open Adobe Illustrator and hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 600 in the width box and 300 in the height box 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…
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Quick Tip: Create a Simple, Pen Tool Free, File Icon in Illustrator
Quick Tip: How to Create a Heart Illustration without the Pen Tool!
Mar 14th
In the following steps you will learn how to create a simple heart illustration. It’s a pretty simple quick tip that will teach you how to avoid using the Pen Tool when you’re looking to create a somewhat complex vector shape. We’ll start with two simple rectangles. Next, using basic Transform options, the Rounded Corners effect, a little script, some simple tools and the Warp Fisheye effect we’ll build the main heart shape. Moving to the coloring, we’ll use the Appearance panel, several linear gradients, Pathfinder options plus some basic effects and blending techniques. For the final touches we’ll use a simple Transform effect. Step 1 Hit …
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Quick Tip: How to Create a Heart Illustration without the Pen Tool!
Quick Tip: How to Fix Muddy Gradients in Adobe InDesign
Mar 5th
If you spend a lot of time in Adobe InDesign, then there’s a good chance that you’ve encountered a gradient with a muddy-looking, off black and dulled transition. This phenomenon happens a lot when using the default black. In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at a few methods you can use to correct that muddy look in both process (CMYK) and spot color gradients. Enjoy! Section 1: Process Colors (CMYK) Before we jump in, let’s look at an example of what we mean by a muddy gradient. Below you will notice that I’ve used the Gradient panel to create a red-to-black gradient using swatches from the Swatches panel. For more information on working with color in Adobe InDesign, check out this article by James Andrew Quick Tip: Color and InDesign . The image below shows the resulting gradient. You can immediately see how the colors appear muddy and gray. The cause of the muddy gradient is due to the lack of color in the black (note that the black contains no cyan, magenta, or yellow). As the black shifts toward the red, it has to go through the only other ‘color’ it contains, and that’s gray (hence the muddy color). Process Colors: Method 1 Let’s take at one way to set up a proper gradient. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw out a box and give it a solid red fill. Next, Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste the box into place (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V). Now, set up a black-to-white gradient (if it’s not already set up) using the Gradient and Swatches panel. Drag …
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Quick Tip: How to Fix Muddy Gradients in Adobe InDesign
Quick Tip: How to Draw Isometric Circles in Adobe Illustrator
Feb 26th
In this tutorial we will be covering something that can cause more than a headache while working in an isometric perspective: circles. Not only we’ll take care of the top and side views, we’ll also be taking this to the next level and create some cylinders too. Step 1 First of all, we need to have an isometric grid. There are a lot of resources and tutorials on how to do this, I’ll explain you my method. Create a New file. For now, enter the same specifications in Width and Height as seen below. This will help in the next step. Step 2 Then, double click on the Line Segment Tool (). Create a line that has the below settings. While the “true” isometric projection uses a 30º angle, we’…
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Quick Tip: How to Draw Isometric Circles in Adobe Illustrator
Quick Tip: How to Create a Detailed Box in Adobe Illustrator
Feb 21st
For this Quick Tip I’m going to show you how to create a detailed cardboard box, including dividers, from scratch. We will use the power of gradients, pattern swatches and a bit 3D magic to make this box really come to life. So let’s get to it! Step 1 Take your Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle 65 x 130 mm, use this rectangle as your base to create the flaps. When your flaps are done select your base-rectangle and while holding down Shift + Alt use one of the corner-handlers to scale it down. Use the Pen Tool (P) to create the insides of the box, and use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to shift the corners of the flaps around. Step 2 Time for some gradients to each of the shapes. Use the image below to follow the gradients required, for the colors and angles within the Gradient panel. Step 3 Now to finish it off…
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Quick Tip: How to Create a Detailed Box in Adobe Illustrator
What is Anime/Manga and Why should you Create it in Vector?
Feb 19th
Today we will be looking at exactly what makes a drawing “anime styled”, the general theories behind drawing in this style, and why vector is a fantastic medium to work with when creating anime/manga styled artwork. This is a great introduction for those who aren’t familiar with the style and wish to know more. What is Anime/Manga? Before looking at the details of drawing in the anime and manga style, first it needs to be established exactly what makes something anime styled. This style originates in Japan and, by definition, the term anime refers to Japanese animation, the cartoons you see on the television, and the term manga refers to comic strips depicting a story of some kind, such as a printed graphic novel. However, Japanese-speakers often use the word manga…
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What is Anime/Manga and Why should you Create it in Vector?