Lovely interview up on Booooooom with Ori Toor on his work and the making of his great new music video for Marias.

How to Use Gradient Mesh to Create Strawberries in a Milk Splash in Adobe Illustrator

31/05/2017 admin

Post pobrano z: How to Use Gradient Mesh to Create Strawberries in a Milk Splash in Adobe Illustrator

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Mesh Tool and the Warp
effects, all while creating a pair of realistic strawberries in a splash of milk!

If
you’d like to skip this tutorial and wish to purchase the end result with some different fruits, head
over to GraphicRiver to purchase the Big Collection of Fruit and Berries in Milk Splashes.

Big Collection Of Fruit And Berries In Milk Splashes — Big Collection of Fruit and Berries in Milk Splashes

1. How to Create Two Strawberries

Step 1

Begin by creating a red rectangle and Filling it with the #DF0203 color.

Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and place a node in the top middle of the shape by left-clicking. Move the edges of the rectangle using the Mesh Tool by dragging them. Aim to create a strawberry-like shape.

Finally, create a couple more nodes with the Mesh Tool. There should be about eight rows and five columns of Mesh. Select all the nodes in the two bottom rows and color them with a darker color, #920000.

Step 2

Continue by creating and coloring more nodes with the Mesh Tool, similarly to the last step.

The colors you will need for each substep are:

#B20505
#CC0304
#B70404

Step 3

Finally, color the middle node in the fifth row with #C00404.

Step 4

Our mesh for the strawberry is done, so let’s move on to creating the seeds!

As in our previous steps, create and modify a shape filled with #E7BD42, and then color the edges of the seed with a darker #DD8C0A.

Step 5

Continue coloring the seed with Mesh.

The colors you will need are:

#EBCC56
#CE880D
#F3CF71
#D66D0C

Step 6

Create one more Copy of our result.

Take the first copy and apply Effect > Warp > Inflate to the shape with the following settings:

Bend: 0%
Horizontal: 0%
Vertical: 22%

After applying the effect, go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Remember to do this after every warp!

Step 7

Modify the seed by flattening it a little and dragging its tip to the right.

Step 8

Create a copy of the shape we just finished. Scale the copy to about half the size of the original.

Step 9

Let’s place our seeds onto the strawberry!

In the first substep, use the seed we finished in Step 5.

Next, use the one we created in Step 7.

Finally, finish the placement by using the seed from Step 8.

Step 10

This should be your resulting strawberry!

Step 11

Now, let’s start creating a half of a strawberry.

Follow the steps in the image below to color the shape with Mesh.

You will need these colors:

#D32D18
None, shaping the strawberry.
#E85D41
None—you will need to delete the columns of Mesh on the sides of the shape and create four other columns that are closer to the middle.
#AA0000
#C93425
#EB9383
#ECBAB9
#9F8D3C
#ECC2C7
#EAA39B

color it like a strawberry sliced in half

Step 12

Add some seeds on the edges of our finished Mesh strawberry, and let’s move on to creating the leaves!

2. How to Create Leaves, Stalks, and Highlights

Step 1

Let’s draw the leaf! Follow the substeps below.

Here are the colors you will need to use:

#6F7B24
#60641A
#BDBD87
#97953B
#4F3F13
#5B5219
#5F6D1D
#535F18

Step 2

For the details of the leaf, draw three jagged lines with the Pen Tool (P).

Apply a Stroke with the Arrowhead profile to the lines, and then change the color of the Stroke to the basic white-black Gradient.

Change the Transparency mode to Screen and Opacity to 30%.

Finally, select the paths and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 3

Place the lines on top of the leaf. I would suggest Grouping all of the shapes with Control-G.

Step 4

Create two copies of the original leaf.

Grab the first copy and apply Effect > Warp > Squeeze with the following settings:

Bend: -13%
Horizontal: -55%
Vertical: -11%

Don’t forget to Expand Appearance.

Next, draw an outline similar to the yellow path in the screenshot. Select both the outline and the leaf, right-click on the image, and select Create Clipping Mask in the drop-down menu.

Step 5

Create two copies of the leaf we finished in the previous step.

Grab the first copy and modify it by Edit > Edit Colors > Adjust Colors with the following settings:

Red: -11%
Green: -5%
Blue: -15%

Step 6

Take the second copy we made previously and modify its color by going to Edit > Edit Colors > Adjust Colors, now with these settings:

Red: -14%
Green: -14%
Blue: -15%

Step 7

Very similarly to Step 4, grab the second copy we made in that step and apply Effect > Warp > Arc with the following settings:

Bend: 25%
Horizontal: -26%
Vertical: 0%

Don’t forget to Expand Appearance.

Next,
draw an outline, indicated by the black path in the screenshot. Select
both the outline and the leaf, right-click on the image, and click Create Clipping Mask in the drop-down menu.

Step 8

Move on to creating the stalk.

Draw a light-green rectangle filled with #E2E564. Next, bend it with Effect > Warp > Arc, using 45% Bend. Expand Appearance.

Step 9

Bend the right tip of the stalk to make it rounder. Then, following the substeps below, color the stalk with Mesh.

You will need these colors:

#9E7943
#A2A13F
#70511A
#FEFDA6
#ADAD45
#AB7F4E
#CEB963
#C2B248

Step 10

Now that every element is done, let’s bring them all together!

Add the leaves according to the order they were created in, as indicated by the numbers below.

Step 11

Now let’s add our new leaves to the whole strawberry! Place them behind the berry by sending them to the back with Shift-Control-[.

Step 12

Do the same for the half of the strawberry.

Step 13

We’re almost done with our berries! All that’s left is to create the highlight for our whole strawberry.

Draw a shape like the one in the screenshot, and then three round shapes. The round shapes should be bigger than the seeds we placed.

Next, move the round shapes on top of the original drawing, select all of them, and click Exclude in the Pathfinder panel.

Step 14

Draw a half-moon shape and place them as shown in the screenshot. You can use your strawberry with the seeds for reference while doing this—the grey shapes should not touch the seeds, but instead they should be in between.

The same goes for the previous shape.

Step 15

Select all the objects and go to Object > Compound Path > Make.

Next, Fill the resulting path with a Linear Gradient from white to #626161.

Step 16

Change the Transparency mode to Screen and Opacity to 70%.

Step 17

Move the highlight on top of the strawberry. If it doesn’t fit, don’t worry—you can modify the shape by dragging its nodes with the Direct Selection Tool (A).

Step 18

Move the half next to the whole strawberry.

3. How to Create a Milk Splash

Step 1

In this final section, we will draw a milk splash for our strawberries. Prepare your Mesh Tool!

Let’s begin by drawing the first little splash out of five.

Use Mesh to modify and color the shape. The colors you will need for this one are:

#ECEEF1
#CBCFD6
#FFFFFF

Step 2

Create the next little splash with more Mesh.

#ECEEF1
#D0D5DB
#FFFFFF

Step 3

Continue by creating the third splash.

#ECEEF1
#D0D5DB
#FFFFFF

Step 4

The colors you will need for the fourth splash are:

#E8EAED
#D2D6DC
#FFFFFF

Step 5

Finish off by creating a milk drop.

#EFF1F3
#DFE1E5
#FFFFFF

Step 6

This is how our little elements will be labeled later—don’t forget!

Step 7

Let’s create our first big Mesh milk splash! You will need these colors:

#F2F3F5
Nothing, just shaping the object
#D0D4DA
#E1E3E7
#FFFFFF

Step 8

Add little elements to our big splash! Consult Step 6 if you’re not sure which is which.

Step 9

Move on to creating the second big splash. This time, you will need these:

#9E7943
Shaping
#DADDE2
#FFFFFF
#E1E3E7
#CBD0D7

Step 10

Add little elements to this splash as well!

Step 11

Create the last part of the splash. Use these colors:

#DFE2E6
Shaping
#C3CAD1
#CFD3DA
#F5F6F7

Step 12

We won’t add any other elements to the last splash.

Let’s combine them! Green is the first splash we finished, red is the second one, and blue is the last splash.

Step 13

We’re almost done! Let’s add some milk drops.

Create four more copies of the milk drop we made in Step 5. Modify the first copy by applying Effect > Warp > Squeeze with these settings:

Bend: -35%
Horizontal: -18%
Vertical: 23%

Don’t forget to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 14

Modify the second copy with Effect > Warp > Inflate with these settings:

Bend: 18%
Horizontal: -8%
Vertical: -40%

Make sure to Expand Appearance.

Step 15

Apply Effect > Warp > Twist to the third copy.

Bend: -34%
Horizontal: 26%
Vertical: 36%

Expand Appearance.

Step 16

For the last copy, simply drag it to flatten it a bit.

Step 17

Use the different milk drops we made in these steps to create something like this:

Step 18

When you’re happy with the little random drops, add them to the big splash and place your strawberries „inside.” They should be on top of the third splash part.

Step 19

The final touch will be the addition of a shadow.

Create an ellipse, Filling it with a Radial Gradient from #8B7065 to #FFFFFF. Set its Transparency mode to Multiply.

Step 20

Place the shadow under your milk splash, and you’re done!

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original image we recreated in this tutorial.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, and I will be extremely happy to see any results, feedback or suggestions in the comments below!

Strawberry in Milk Vector Illustration Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

CSS

Reactive UI’s with VanillaJS – Part 1: Pure Functional Style

31/05/2017 admin Dodaj komentarz

Post pobrano z: Reactive UI’s with VanillaJS – Part 1: Pure Functional Style

Last month Chris Coyier wrote a post investigating the question, „When Does a Project Need React?” In other words, when do the benefits of using React (acting as a stand-in for data-driven web frameworks in general), rather than server-side templates and jQuery, outweigh the added complexity of setting up the requisite tooling, build process, dependencies, etc.? A week later, Sacha Greif wrote a counterpoint post arguing why you should always use such a framework for every type of web project. His points included future-proofing, simplified workflow from project to project (a single architecture; no need to keep up with multiple types of project structures), and improved user experience because of client-side re-rendering, even when the content doesn’t change very often.

In this pair of posts, I delve into a middle ground: writing reactive-style UI’s in plain old JavaScript – no frameworks, no preprocessors.

Article Series:

Pure Functional Style (You are here!)
Class Based Components (Coming soon!)

There are two very different ways to write React components.

You can write them as classes. Stateful objects with lifecycle hooks and internal data.
Or, you can write them as functions. Just a piece of HTML that gets constructed and updated based on parameters that are passed in.

The former is often more useful for large, complex applications with lots of moving parts, while the latter is a more elegant way to display information if you don’t have a lot of dynamic state. If you’ve ever used a templating engine like Handlebars or Swig, their syntax looks pretty similar to function-style React code.

In this pair of posts, our target use case is websites that might otherwise be static, but would benefit from JavaScript-based rendering were it not for the overhead of setting up a framework like React. Blogs, forums, etc. Therefore, this first post will focus on the functional approach to writing a component-based UI, because it’ll be more practical for that type of scenario. The second post will be more of an experiment; I’ll really push the limit on how far we can take things without a framework, trying to replicate React’s class-based component pattern as closely as possible with only Vanilla JavaScript, probably at the expense of some practicality.

About functional programming

Functional programming has soared in popularity over the last couple years, driven primarily by Clojure, Python, and React. A full explanation of functional programming is outside the scope of this post, but the part that’s relevant to us right now is the concept of values that are functions of other values.

Let’s say your code needs to represent the concept of a rectangle. A rectangle has width and height, but it also has area, perimeter, and other attributes. At first, one might think to represent a rectangle with the following object:

var rectangle = {
  width: 2,
  height: 3,
  area: 6,
  perimeter: 10
};

But, it would quickly become apparent that there’s a problem. What happens if the width gets changed? Now we have to also change the area and perimeter, or they’d be wrong. It’s possible to have conflicting values, where you can’t just change one without the possibility of having to update something else. This is called having multiple sources of truth.

In the rectangle example, the functional programming-style solution is to make area and perimeter into functions of a rectangle:

var rectangle = {
  width: 2,
  height: 3
};

function area(rect) {
  return rect.width * rect.height;
}

function perimeter(rect) {
  return rect.width * 2 + rect.height * 2;
}

area(rectangle); // = 6
perimeter(rectangle); // = 10

This way, if width or height changes, we don’t have to manually modify anything else to reflect that fact. The area and perimeter just are correct. This is called having a single source of truth.

This idea is powerful when you substitute the rectangle with whatever data your application may have, and the area and perimeter with HTML. If you can make your HTML a function of your data, then you only have to worry about modifying data – not DOM – and the way it gets rendered on the page will be implicit.

UI components as functions

We want to make our HTML a function of our data. Let’s use the example of a blog post:

var blogPost = {
  author: 'Brandon Smith',
  title: 'A CSS Trick',
  body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
};

function PostPage(postData) {
  return  '<div class="page">' +
            '<div class="header">' + 
              'Home' +
              'About' +
              'Contact' +
            '</div>' + 
            '<div class="post">' + 
              '<h1>' + postData.title + '</h1>' + 
              '<h3>By ' + postData.author + '</h3>' +
              '<p>' + postData.body + '</p>' +
            '</div>' +
          '</div>';
}

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = PostPage(blogPost);

Okay. We’ve made a function of a post object, which returns an HTML string that renders our blog post. It’s not really „componentized” though. It’s all one big thing. What if we also wanted to render all our blog posts in a sequence on the home page? What if we wanted to reuse that header across different pages? Luckily, it’s really easy to build functions out of other functions. This is called composing functions:

var blogPost = {
  author: 'Brandon Smith',
  title: 'A CSS Trick',
  body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
};

function Header() {
  return '<div class="header">' + 
            'Home' +
            'About' +
            'Contact' +
          '</div>';
}

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return '<div class="post">' + 
            '<h1>' + postData.title + '</h1>' + 
            '<h3>By ' + postData.author + '</h3>' +
            '<p>' + postData.body + '</p>' +
          '</div>';
}

function PostPage(postData) {
  return  '<div class="page">' +
            Header() +
            BlogPost(postData) +
          '</div>';
}

function HomePage() {
  return '<div class="page">' +
            Header() +
            '<h1>Welcome to my blog!</h1>' +
            '<p>It\'s about lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur ad...</p>' +
          '</div>';
}

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = PostPage(blogPost);

That’s so much nicer. We didn’t have to duplicate the header for the home page; we have a single source of truth for that HTML code. If we wanted to display a post in a different context, we could do so easily.

Prettier syntax with template literals

Okay, but all those plus signs are horrible. They’re a pain to type, and they make it harder to read what’s going on. There has to be a better way, right? Well, the folks at W3C are way ahead of you. They created template literals – which, while still relatively new, have pretty good browser support at this point. Simply wrap your string in backticks instead of quotes, and it will get a couple of extra superpowers.

The first superpower is the ability to span multiple lines. So our BlogPost component up above can become:

// ...

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>` + postData.title + `</h1>
            <h3>By ` + postData.author + `</h3>
            <p>` + postData.body + `</p>
          </div>`;
}

// ...

That’s nice. But the other power is even nicer: variable substitution. Variables (or any JavaScript expression, including function calls!) can be inserted directly into the string if they’re wrapped in ${ }:

// ...

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>${postData.title}</h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

// ...

Much better. It almost looks like JSX now. Let’s see our full example again, with template literals:

var blogPost = {
  author: 'Brandon Smith',
  title: 'A CSS Trick',
  body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
};

function Header() {
  return `<div class="header">
            Home
            About
            Contact
          </div>`;
}

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>${postData.title}</h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

function PostPage(postData) {
  return  `<div class="page">
            ${Header()}
            ${BlogPost(postData)}
          </div>`;
}

function HomePage() {
  return `<div class="page">
            ${Header()}
            <h1>Welcome to my blog!</h1>
            <p>It's about lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur ad...</p>
          </div>`;
}

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = PostPage(blogPost);

More than just filling in blanks

So we can fill in variables, and even other components through functions, but sometimes more complex rendering logic is necessary. Sometimes we need to loop over data, or respond to a condition. Let’s go over some JavaScript language features that make it easier to do more complex rendering in a functional style.

The ternary operator

We’ll start with the simplest logic: if-else. Of course, since our UI components are just functions, we could use an actual if-else if we wanted to. Let’s see what that would look like:

var blogPost = {
  isSponsored: true,
  author: 'Brandon Smith',
  title: 'A CSS Trick',
  body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
};

function BlogPost(postData) {
  var badgeElement;
  if(postData.isSponsored) {
    badgeElement = `<img src="badge.png">`;
  } else {
    badgeElement = '';
  }

  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>${postData.title} ${badgeElement}</h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

That’s… not ideal. It adds a whole lot of lines for something that isn’t that complicated, and it separates part of our rendering code from its place within the rest of the HTML. This is because a classical if-else statement decides which lines of code to run, rather than which value to evaluate to. This is an important distinction to understand. You can only stick an expression into a template literal, not a series of statements.

The ternary operator is like an if-else, but for an expression instead of a set of statements:

var wantsToGo = true;
var response = wantsToGo ? 'Yes' : 'No'; // response = 'Yes'

wantsToGo = false;
response = wantsToGo ? 'Yes' : 'No'; // response = 'No'

It takes the form [conditional] ? [valueIfTrue] : [valueIfFalse]. So, the blog post example above becomes:

var blogPost = {
  isSponsored: true,
  author: 'Brandon Smith',
  title: 'A CSS Trick',
  body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
};

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>
              ${postData.title} ${postData.isSponsored ? '<img src="badge.png">' : ''}
            </h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

Much better.

`Array.map()`

On to loops. Anytime we have an array of data that we want to render, we’re going to need to loop over those values to generate the corresponding HTML. But if we used a for-loop, we’d run into the exact same issue we had with the if-else statement above. A for loop doesn’t evaluate to a value, it executes a series of statements in a certain way. Luckily, ES6 added some very helpful methods to the Array type which serve this specific need.

Array.map() is an Array method that takes a single argument, which is a callback function. It loops over the array it’s called on (similar to Array.forEach()), and calls the supplied callback once for each item, passing the array element to it as an argument. The thing that makes it different from Array.forEach() is that the callback is supposed to return a value – presumably one that’s based on the corresponding item in the array – and the full expression returns the new array of all the items returned from the callback. For example:

var myArray = [ 'zero', 'one', 'two', 'three' ];

// evaluates to [ 'ZERO', 'ONE', 'TWO', 'THREE' ]
var capitalizedArray = myArray.map(function(item) {
  return item.toUpperCase();
});

You might be able to guess why this is so useful for what we’re doing. Earlier we established the concept of a value being a function of another value. Array.map() allows us to get an entire array, for which each item is a function of the corresponding item in another array. Let’s say we have an array of blog posts that we want to display:

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post">
            <h1>${postData.title}</h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

function BlogPostList(posts) {
  return `<div class="blog-post-list">
            ${posts.map(BlogPost).join('')}
          </div>`
}

var allPosts = [
  {
    author: 'Brandon Smith',
    title: 'A CSS Trick',
    body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
  },
  {
    author: 'Chris Coyier',
    title: 'Another CSS Trick',
    body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
  },
  {
    author: 'Bob Saget',
    title: 'A Home Video',
    body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.'
  }
]

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = BlogPostList(allPosts);

Each object containing the info for a single blog post is passed, one by one, to the BlogPost function, and the returned HTML strings are placed into a new array. We then just call join() on that new array to combine the array of strings into a single string (separated by an empty string), and we’re done. No for-loops, just a list of objects converted to a list of HTML elements.

Re-rendering

We can now implicitly generate HTML for given data, in a way that’s reusable and composable, all within the browser. But, how do we update when the data changes? How do we even know when to trigger an update? This subject is one of the most complex and hotly debated in the JavaScript framework community today. Making large numbers of DOM updates efficiently is an amazingly difficult problem, one which engineers at Facebook and Google have spent years working on.

Luckily, our proverbial website is just a blog. The content pretty much only changes when we look at a different blog post. There aren’t a ton of interactions to detect, we don’t have to optimize our DOM operations. When we load a new blog post, we can just scrap the DOM and rebuild it.

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = PostPage(postData);

We could make this a little nicer by wrapping it in a function:

function update() {
  document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = PostPage(postData);
}

Now whenever we load a new blog post, we can just call update() and it will appear. If our application were complicated enough that it needed to re-render frequently – maybe a couple times per second in certain situations – it would get choppy really fast. You could write complex logic to figure out which sections of the page truly need to update given a particular change in data and only update those, but that’s the point where you should just use a framework.

Not just for content

At this point pretty much all our rendering code has been used to determine the actual HTML and text content inside the elements, but we don’t have to stop there. Since we’re just creating an HTML string, anything inside there is fair game. CSS classes?

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post ${postData.isSponsored ? 'sponsored-post' : ''}">
            <h1>
              ${postData.title} ${postData.isSponsored ? '<img src="badge.png">' : ''}
            </h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

Check. HTML attributes?

function BlogPost(postData) {
  return `<div class="post ${postData.isSponsored ? 'sponsored-post' : ''}">
            <input type="checkbox" ${postData.isSponsored ? 'checked' : ''}>
            <h1>
              ${postData.title} ${postData.isSponsored ? '<img src="badge.png">' : ''}
            </h1>
            <h3>By ${postData.author}</h3>
            <p>${postData.body}</p>
          </div>`;
}

Check. Feel free to get really creative with this. Think about your data, and think about how all the different aspects of it should be represented in markup, and write expressions that turn one into the other.

Summary

Hopefully, this post gives you a good set of tools for writing simple reactive, data-driven web interfaces without the overhead of any tools or frameworks. This type of code is far easier to write and maintain than jQuery spaghetti, and there’s no hurdle at all to using it right now. Everything we’ve talked about here comes free with all reasonably modern browsers, without so much as a library.

Part 2 will focus on class-based, stateful components, which will get near the territory of too-complicated-to-reasonably-do-in-VanillaJS. But by golly, we’re going to try anyway, and it’s going to be interesting.

Article Series:

Pure Functional Style (You are here!)
Class Based Components (Coming soon!)

Reactive UI’s with VanillaJS – Part 1: Pure Functional Style is a post from CSS-Tricks

Design

The Mobius interactive bench by Louis Lim

31/05/2017 admin Dodaj komentarz

Post pobrano z: The Mobius interactive bench by Louis Lim
first image of the post

Inspired by the Möbius strip, this bench also includes interactive features that add in coolness. It was designed by Louis Lim of Makingworks, in collaboration with 3form. It was featured this year at WantedDesign.

The bench uses DarkChroma, a material provided by 3form. It comes as a dark object that lights up once you touch it.

Web Tools

The Beginner’s Guide to Hot Foil Stamping

31/05/2017 admin

Post pobrano z: The Beginner’s Guide to Hot Foil Stamping

If you want to add a touch of luxury to your designs, you’re going to want to know a bit about foiling. Often used on premium print media, like invitations, business cards, reports and letterheads, this is a process whereby metallic foil is applied to the surface of the paper using either a manually-operated or pneumatic (air-powered) machine. The result? A truly stunning effect that pulls out details of the design in a metallic or colored sheen.

In this article you’ll learn how to set up existing artwork for foiling, but you can also find ready-prepared foil print templates on GraphicRiver and Envato Elements.

Let’s take a look at the historical background to foiling and some contemporary examples to whet your appetite. Skip to the end of the article to find out how to set up your digital artwork for foil stamping.

How Did Foiling Come About?

Some of the very first manuscripts ever produced used real gold leaf to decorate intricate calligraphy. The process of applying raw gold leaf to paper was related to the craft of gilding, in which wafer-thin layers of gold were brushed onto items like bullae (amulets), picture frames, statues, and furniture.

After printing presses became more widely used in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, books became the focus of metallic foiling. The most beautiful and expensive books were bound in leather cases which were often embellished with gold leaf. This process was combined with embossing or bevelling, which left a relieved or raised impression on the surface of the cover.

hanna book cover — The gilded antique cover of an early 20th-century Jewish prayer book

Nowadays, the foiling process doesn’t use real gold leaf (save in exceptional, and very expensive, circumstances). Metallic foils are now made of aluminium or tin, and are combined with a color layer to produce the desired effect. For designers, this is a much-loved development, giving you a wider choice of colors without the risk of blowing your budget!

Although many printers will have a standard range of foil colors that they provide at a lower price point, which typically include gold, silver and copper, you can also request custom foil colors from an almost endless range of options. Want a metallic rainbow effect on your wedding invites? There’s probably a foil color out there to do just that.

business cards template — Stylish foil stamped business card template

Even though foiling is an added expense to a standard print job, due to the extra hours and resources that go into stamping the foil after printing, it is still a relatively economical method for producing an impressive effect that really ups the luxury factor of a product.

You’ll notice that designers use foiling across all sorts of things, from packaging to stationery. It’s a sure-fire way of making your design feel more expensive and aspirational, without the hefty price tag.

gold stationery template — Gold and black stationery template

How Does Foiling Work?

Foiling can be done either manually, using a manual hot foil stamping machine, or pneumatically, using an air-powered machine. Manual machines are used for low-volume jobs (e.g. for foiling a limited-edition book cover, or a small volume of invitations), while pneumatic machines are used for higher-volume jobs. Small print shops might have a manual machine in-store or send off your item to a specialist, while larger commercial printers might have a pneumatic machine in-house.

For either machine, the foiling process is roughly the same. The design to be rendered in foil is etched onto a metal die. The die is heated up, and the foil is placed between the die and the surface of the paper or other material to be stamped. When the die is applied to the surface, the foil bonds to the surface, producing the metallic effect.

Commercial foiling machines fall into three main categories: clamshell presses, straight stamp presses, and roll presses. Clamshell presses are suited for medium runs, and the name comes from the movement of the machine, which closes like a clam, pushing the dye, foil and print surface together. Straight stamp and roll presses are designed to deal with larger item quantities, so these tend to be used by commercial printers for things like packaging.

Dies range in price depending on their size and the material they are made of. The cheapest dies are made from magnesium, which is a softer metal and, as a result, can only be used for a certain number of impressions. More expensive dies are made from copper, which is pretty tough, or brass, which is even stronger.

Once your die has been made using acid etching (where your die is placed in an acid bath after being exposed to UV light), it can be used for a number of print runs, which will vary depending on the material. If you’re producing a short print run, it’s possible that your die can be stored and used for another run later down the line. Your printer can store this for you, or you can request to take it away when the run’s finished.

Foils themselves come in a huge range of textures and colors, which can be split into four categories. Choosing your foil is probably the most exciting part of the foiling process, and if you’re willing to pay a little extra, your options are almost unlimited.

Metallic foils replicate the look of precious metals, such as gold, silver, or copper. These are considered standard by most printers, so they’ll probably carry this limited range in-house. But you can also request orders for other metallic foils, like rose gold or metallic colors like red and blue.

blush copper invite template — Blush copper wedding invitation template

Pigment foils don’t have a metallic look, but instead come in a range of matte or gloss colors. These are great for pulling out text or logos in an eye-catching color and texture.

Pearl foils add a pearlescent, ethereal sheen to otherwise mostly transparent or translucent color. They are used to give more tactile shine rather than color to a design, and are a pretty, subtle choice for elegant stationery like invitations and business cards.

Holographic foils appear to be silver before application, but in fact they reflect a variety of colors back at the viewer, giving the impression of a holograph or rainbow. These are fun and youthful when used in the right context, and are also popular for Christmas-themed designs.

When Should I Use Foiling on My Designs?

There’s probably nothing more satisfying than seeing your digital design come to life when printed and foiled. A simple business card can look instantly impressive with a dash of bronze foil, and a silver sheen has the magical ability to make somebody choose one product over another, based on the packaging design alone.

Almost all print media that is meant to be special in one way or another will probably benefit from foiling. Some items to consider adding foiling to are:

Invitations—for New Year’s Eve celebrations, Christmas parties, gala events and weddings.
Business stationery—make your business seem more upscale by adding foiling to business cards, letterheads, envelopes, and reports.
Promotional materials—adding foiling to brochures, booklets and catalogs makes your offering seem instantly more aspirational and enticing.
Packaging—up the luxe factor of boxes, labels and stickers. Wine labels look particularly luxurious with a touch of foil.

wedding invite template — Wedding invitation template with silver foiling

Fired up for foiling? Awesome! Let’s check out how to set up your digital artwork for foiling.

How to Set Up Your Artwork for Foil Stamping

Preparing your own artwork for foil stamping is pretty simple. Different printers have different preferences for how they like the artwork to be set up, but in general most will be happy with the elements to be foiled placed on a separate layer and set in a spot color.

Here, I’ve created a save the date card in Adobe InDesign, and I want to bring out all the typographic elements in a copper foil.

The process for setting up the file is roughly the same whether you’re working in a publishing program like InDesign or vector software like Adobe Illustrator. What is important to note is that you should always set up your foiling design in vector, not raster, format. This allows your dye to be produced to a high quality. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how I set up my card for stamping in InDesign.

Step 1

I’ve created a US postcard layout (7 by 5 inches) with a dark blue color set on its own Background layer (Window > Layers).

I then created a New Layer and named this Typography, before using the Type Tool (T) to create the type design*.

* The fonts used on this design are Charlevoix Pro and Euphoria Script.

Step 2

I right-click on the Typography layer and select Duplicate Layer “Typography”, to create a copy.

Double-clicking the duplicate layer allows me to edit the name of the layer. Name your layer something easily recognizable, like HOT FOIL STAMPING or SPOT FOIL.

Step 3

Next, we need to vectorize all the elements on the page that are to be stamped.

Select all the text elements on your layer and head up to Type > Create Outlines.

Step 4

Go to the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and create a New Swatch. Name the swatch something instantly recognizable, such as FOIL SPOT COLOR. Set the Type to Spot and adjust the levels of either Cyan, Magenta or Yellow to 100%. Then click Add and Done.

Apply the Spot Color Swatch to the elements on your layer.

Step 5

A final preparation step before exporting is to set the elements on your foil layer to overprint. This prevents the foil effect from knocking out other items on the page below.

Go to Object > Output > Attributes and check the Overprint boxes which are not greyed out.

Step 6

Now you’re ready to Export your design as a print-ready PDF file.

Head up to File > Export, and choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format drop-down menu. Give the file a suitable name and hit Save.

Step 7

In the Export window that opens select [PDFX1a 2001] from the Adobe PDF Preset menu at the top of the window.

Then click on Marks and Bleeds in the left-hand menu and check the All Printer’s Marks* and Use Document Bleed Settings boxes.

Then go ahead and click Export to create your PDF file.

* It may not be necessary to include all printer’s marks on your exported file. Check with your printer before you include this. It is, however, really important to always include a bleed on your exported print artwork.

Step 8

You can now see how your design is split into different print plates from Adobe Acrobat. In Acrobat, go to View > Tools > Print Production. Then select Output Preview from the Print Production menu.

Keep in mind that the more separations or plates you have in your artwork the more time and resources will go into producing your final printed product, which will increase printing costs. You should always check with your printer ahead of preparing your artwork, and get a quote in advance.

Conclusion: Have Fun With Foiling!

Applying foil to your print designs really does add a very special touch. The process adds both visual and tactile appeal—people won’t be able to resist touching your prints!

Whether you go for luxurious metals, dreamy pearl effects or pops of glossy color, foiling is a lovely finishing touch for any product and every designer should experience the joyful satisfaction of seeing and touching the results of their foiling.

If you’re still not super confident with setting up foil artwork on your own, there are lots of foil print templates available on GraphicRiver and Envato Elements, which do the hard work for you. It’s then easy-peasy to export your design and send it to the printers. They’ll be really impressed with the professional result.

save the date card Adobe InDesign tutorial

Web Tools

How to Create a Mountain Landscape in Flat Style in Adobe Illustrator

30/05/2017 admin

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Mountain Landscape in Flat Style in Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a natural mountain landscape in flat design using the most basic shapes and tools of Adobe Illustrator.

If you would like to skip the tutorial, you can just purchase the result as a part of my Camping Travel Landscape package. Find more inspiration for Travel Designs on GraphicRiver.

1. How to Create a New Document

First we need to set up a New Document (File > New or Control-N) with these settings:

Number of Artboards: 1
Width: 1200
Height: 1200
Units: pixels

From the Advanced Tab:

Color Mode: RGB
Raster Effects: Screen
Preview Mode: Default
Uncheck Align New Objects to Pixel Grid

2. How to Set Up the Layers

It would be a good idea to organize our project using layers, since this way we can easily focus on each part of our landscape.

Bring up the Layers panel, and create five layers, renaming each of them as follows:

layer 1: lake
layer 2: main
layer 3: hills
layer 4: mountains
layer 5: sky

Lock all but the first „lake” layer. To Lock layers, click the Edit Column button (to the right of the eye icon) in the Layers panel for each layer you want to lock.

I prefer to do it the faster way by Alt-Clicking the Edit Column button in the Layers panel for the only layer I want to stay unlocked.

3. How to Create the Mountain Lake

Step 1

Start to build a mountain lake by creating a 900 x 58 px light blue #4bafe3 rectangle in the bottom part of the artboard with the help of the Rectangle Tool (M).

Make one more 580 x 40 px shape of the same color, placing it under the bottom edge of the first one closer to the left side.

Step 2

Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the corners of the large rectangle or just click inside the shape, holding down Shift. You can see the Live Corner Widget shown inside the corners. Make the shape’s corners fully rounded by pulling the circle indicators to the center. You can also use Effect > Stylize > Round Corners.

Use the same method to round the corners of the smaller rectangle.

Select both objects and merge them into one object, using the Unite option of the Pathfinder panel.

Rounding corners and merging the rectangles

Step 3

Select the blue shape and Copy it, using Control-C. Click Control-B to get a Duplicate behind the main object. Move it a few pixels lower and change the color to #406e85.

Step 4

Select the top edge of the light blue figure with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and Copy it by clicking Control-C. Press Control-F to get a Duplicate of the top side line in front of the main shape. Change the Fill color of the line to None and Stroke color to black. Set the Stroke weight to 3-4 px, making the stripe stand out from the main shape.

Choose the line and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Change the Size value to 3 px, Absolute. And set Ridges per segment equal to 27. Select Smooth Points and click OK, getting the wavy line. Go to Object > Expand Appearance to apply the effect.

Step 5

Select both the left and the right side anchors of the wavy stripe with the Direct Selection Tool (A), and use Control-J to join the open path, getting a closed shape as a result.

Drag the resulting wavy shape right onto the top edge of the main blue figure and change its Fill color to #4bafe3 and Stroke color to None. Select the wavy shape together with the large blue form and merge them into one object, using the Unite option of the Pathfinder panel.

Step 6

Choose the main blue form and press Enter to open the Move window. Set the Horizontal Position value to 0 px and the Vertical position value to -10 px, and click on the Copy button. Set the Fill color of the new shape to #73d0ff and place it to the back with the help of Shift-Control-[.

Repeat all the actions for the newly created figure to get another Duplicate behind it. Change the Fill of the second copy to #ace5f6.

Group all the shapes together with Control-G, aligning them to the middle of the artboard.

Step 7

Now we are going to add some details to the lake to make it more real.

Take the Ellipse tool (L) and create a 22 x 10 px ellipse, filling it with #ace5f6 color. Convert the left and right anchor points from smooth to sharp corners by clicking on them with the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), getting the leaf-like shape (1).

Draw a horizontal line across the middle of the figure which passes through both sharp anchors. Divide both shapes in Pathfinder (2), Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) them, and Delete the top half (3).

Use the Move option window to create two more copies at the same distance (4). Group (Control-G) all the shapes.

Spread the copies of our group over the lake, making the sun’s glittering reflections (5), something like what we see on the water’s surface on a sunny day.

Step 8

Make an 8.5 x 21 px ellipse of #fff75a color with the help of the Ellipse Tool (L). Click on the top anchor with the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), converting it to a sharp corner.

Select the left and right anchors of the ellipse with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and move them down by a few pixels, resulting in a drop-like shape.

Choose the yellow shape, take the Rotate Tool (R), and then Alt-click on the bottom anchor point of our figure. In the Rotate panel, set the Angle to 20° and click the Copy button. Press Control-D one more time to repeat the last action, getting two more copies. Select both copies and move them slightly to the bottom.

Step 9

Keeping the copies selected, choose the Reflect Tool (O). Holding the Alt key, click on the top anchor of the vertical yellow figure. In the Reflect option window, set the Axis to Vertical and press Copy, reflecting both shapes to the right side of the vertical form. Group (Control-G) the yellow shapes. It will be the blossom of the water lily.

Build a 62 x 6.5 rectangle, Filling it with #c1db35 and making the corners rounded with the help of the Live Widget feature.

Place the yellow blossom closer to the right side of the green figure, hiding its bottom part behind the rectangle.

Create a 13 x 13 px circle Filled with this #fff75a color and send it backward with Object > Arrange > Send Backward. Then place the circle closer to the right side of the green rectangle, hiding its bottom edge behind the figure. Group (Control-G) all the parts together.

Create the yellow blossom and green bottom

Step 10

Using the same methods as in the two previous steps, create a small fish of #ace5f6 color.

Spread the copies of fishes and water lilies over the lake surface as shown in the example below.

4. How to Create the Meadow and the Forest

Lock all the layers but the „main” layer.

Step 1

Let’s start to create the bulrush by building a 1.7 x 55 px vertical rectangle, with #66801b for the color of the stalk.

Make one more 4.25 x 17 px rectangle, which we will color using #696354. Use the Live Corners feature to make the corners of the shape fully rounded.

Put the brown shape on the top of the green stalk, making its bottom part overlap the top of the stalk and aligning to its middle.

Using the Pen Tool (P), draw simple triangle-like shapes of #66801b color for the leaves on the bottom part of the stalk. Group (Control-G) all the bulrush parts together.

Step 2

Build an 82 x 78 px rectangle of #c1db35 color, making its top part fully rounded with the help of the Live Corners feature. Draw a vertical line which goes across the middle and the top anchor of the shape.

Divide both shapes in Pathfinder and Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) them. Color the left half with #79981f. Make a small circle of #99ba38 color on the right half of the large figure. Copy the circle and spread the copies over the right part, making it textured. Group (Control-G) all the parts together. This will be the bush.

Create a smaller Copy of the bush near the first one and drag both bushes to the left side of the lake, hiding their bottom parts behind the waves.

Make few copies of the bulrush that we created previously, and place them on the right side of the lake, hiding the bottom part of the stalks behind the water line.

Forming the bush and putting the plants on the lake

Step 3

Start to create the shore by building a 1075 x 57 px rectangle with a #a2c430 Fill color. Make if fully rounded and align it to the middle of the lake. Send it backward with Object > Arrange > Send to Back.

Select the green rectangle and Copy it with Control-C. Click Control-B to get a Duplicate behind the main object. Move it down by a few pixels and change the color to #406e85. Group (Control-G) the rectangles and place them behind the lake.

Step 4

Let’s continue adding details to the shore by creating a 14 x 14 px rectangle with a #79981f Fill color. Choose the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and click on the middle of the top edge of the rectangle, adding one more anchor point. Delete the left and right top anchors with the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-), getting the triangle shape (1).

Select the triangle with the Selection Tool (V) and press Enter to open the Move options window. Set the Horizontal Position value to 0 px and Vertical position value to 14 px, and click on the Copy button. Press Control-D to repeat the action, and continue pressing Control-D to add 17 copies (2). Group (Control-G) them together. This will be the grass.

Create a 110 x 100 px circle with a #7a7462 Fill color. Draw a horizontal line which goes across the middle and side anchors of the shape. Select both figures and Divide them, using the Pathfinder panel (3). Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) the shapes and Delete the bottom part. This figure will act as a stone. Create a smaller stone of #8f8873 color (4).

Combine and copy stones and grass, spreading them behind the ground rectangle. Don’t forget to use Object > Arrange > Send to Back for the objects to place them behind the ground rectangle. Add one or more copies of the bush we created previously. You can use and example below as a reference (5), but feel free to make different combinations of grass, bushes, and stones.

Step 5

Now we are going to work on the forest background. Build a 1030 x 40 px rectangle with #d0f341 color, aligning it to the middle of the artboard. Round its corners, send it backward with Object > Arrange > Send to Back, and place it behind the larger green rectangle, making its bottom part overlap the top edge of the larger figure.

Adding one more rounded rectangle to the background

Step 6

To form the forest we will need two types of trees: fir trees shaped like a triangle, and leaf trees shaped like a circle.

Create a 140 x 235 px rectangle with a #d0f341 Fill color. Click on the middle of the top edge of the rectangle with the Add Anchor Point Tool (+), adding one more anchor point. Delete the left and right top anchors with the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-), getting the triangle shape.

Make a vertical line which goes across the middle and the top anchor of the shape. Divide both figures in Pathfinder and Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) them, coloring the left half into #a2c430. Create a small rectangle of #a2c430 color, Copy it, and spread the copies over the right part of the tree, making it textured. Group all parts and send the tree to back with Object > Arrange > Send to Back.

Step 7

Let’s make the crown of the second tree by building a 165 x 165 circle which we will Fill with #d0f341 color.

Draw a vertical line across the middle and anchors of the shape.

Divide both shapes in Pathfinder and Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) them. Color the left half with #a2c430. Add few small rounded rectangles of #a2c430 color to the right half for a textured effect. Add a trunk with a #7a7462 Fill color to the bottom of the crown.

Group (Control-G) all the parts and send them to the back with Object > Arrange > Send to Back.

Step 8

Let’s place our trees in a row behind the back rounded rectangle shape, Duplicating some of them and varying the sizes to form a balanced composition. Add a few more of the brushes we’ve created already.

Leave an empty space in the middle of the forest for the hills and the mountains which we will be creating in the following steps. The result should look like this:

Placing the trees and the bushes on the main scene

5. How to Create the Hills

Lock all the layers except the „hills” layer.

Step 1

With the help of the Pen Tool (P), create the wavy shape with a #8ead28 Fill color.

Select the figure, and then choose the Reflect Tool (O) and, holding the Alt key, click on the bottom right anchor. In the Reflect option window, set the Axis to Vertical and press Copy, reflecting the shape to the right side.

Merge both shapes into one with the Unite option of the Pathfinder panel, getting the hill.

Step 2

Put the hill behind the main scene, placing it closer to the right side. Make a smaller Copy of the darker green color (#79981f) on the left side of the landscape, hiding it behind the first shape. All the side and bottom parts of our hills should be hidden behind the trees, bushes, and the ground level.

Step 3

First, select the left hill that we created in the previous steps.

Right-click and choose Isolate Selected Group from the drop-down menu. The isolated hill appears in full color, while the rest of the artwork appears dimmed.

Take the Pen Tool (P) and build a vertical zig-zag line crossing the hill shape. Set the Fill of the line to None, the Stroke Weight to 9 px, and the Stroke Color to #66801b. Make the corners of the line rounded by choosing them with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and dragging the Live Corners markers.

Choose the line and go to Object > Expand. Check the Stroke option, and uncheck the Fill option, pressing OK. Our stroke will transform into a filled shape

Let’s cut off the parts of the path that stand outside the hill. Select the overlapping path together with the hill shape, and use the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M) by holding down the Alt key and clicking the unwanted pieces to Delete them.

Press OK and Escape to exit isolation mode or, using the Selection Tool (V), double-click outside of the isolated group.

Step 4

Unlock the „main” layer. Select one leaf and one fir tree and Copy them. Lock the „main” layer again and go back to the „hills” layer. Press Control-V or go to Edit > Paste, getting the copies of our trees on the „hills” layer.

Spread the trees over the hills, Duplicating some of them and varying the sizes to fill the empty space.

Step 5

Create silhouettes of the background hills by making Duplicates of the previously created hills, changing their Fill colors to #515c1b and making taller or shorter shapes with the help of the Selection Tool (V).

You should get something like this:

6. How to Create the Mountains

Lock all the layers but the „mountains” layer.

Step 1

Let’s start to form the mountain shape by creating a 582 x 540 px rectangle, Filling it with #99927b color.

Take the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and click on the middle of the top edge of the rectangle, adding one more anchor point. Delete the left and right top anchors with the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-), getting the triangle shape.

Step 2

With the help of the Line Segment Tool (/), build a 400 px Width black Stroke without Fill, positioning it under the top part of the rectangle, leaving a gap of about 200 px from the top anchor and aligning it to the middle of the rectangle.

Select the line and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Set the Size value to 10 px, Absolute. And set Ridges per segment equal to 9. Select Smooth Points and click OK. Go to Object > Expand Appearance to apply the effect.

Choose the triangle shape and Copy it, using Control-C. Click Control-F to get a Duplicate on top of the triangle. Select the duplicate and the line using the Divide option of the Pathfinder panel, dividing our triangle into two shapes. Ungroup them and remove the bottom part. Color the upper remaining figure with #e2f0e9, getting the snowy top of the mountain.

Step 3

Create a narrower Copy of the triangle in front of the first one and change its color to #99927b, forming slight shadows on the mountain. Build a narrower Duplicate of the shadow part in the front of it, coloring the new one with #87806c.

Now our mountain looks more detailed and interesting.

Working over the shadow parts of the mountain

Step 4

Now that the basic view of the mountain is ready, let’s add a flat-style shadow, covering one half of the rock.

Select the back triangle shape, Copy it and Paste in Front (Control-C > Control-F). Keeping the duplicate selected, go to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front, placing the copy in front of the mountain. Select the bottom right anchor of the triangle with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and drag it to the center, aligning to the middle anchor.

Change the Blending Mode of the resulting triangle to Multiply while lowering the Opacity levels to 40% in the Transparency panel, getting the shadow. Group (Control-G) all the mountain parts together.

Forming a flat-style shadow on the mountain

Step 5

Put the mountain on the main scene, hiding its bottom part behind the hills. Create two smaller mountains to the left and to the right of the main rock, making them overlap the larger mountain and placing them in front of it.

Form two more triangle mountain silhouettes with a #659cad Fill color behind the main landscape, finishing the composition.

Positioning the mountain and its copies on the main scene

7. How to Create the Background

We are almost done with our mountain landscape. But we still need a background depicting sky, sun, and clouds.

Let’s start by Locking all the layers except the „sky” layer.

Step 1

Build a 1200 x 1200 px square of #77b8cc, aligning it to the middle of the artboard.

Step 2

To fill the empty space and add depth to our landscape, create cloud-like shapes of #9accdb color behind the mountains with the help of the Pen Tool (P) or the Rectangle Tool (M), making the corners of the resulting figures rounded.

Step 3

Start to build the cloud by creating two overlapping circles with the Ellipse Tool (L), setting their Fill and Stroke to the default black and white colors. Switch to the Rectangle Tool (M) and place a narrow stripe at the bottom of the cloud, letting it down a little lower than the bottom edge of the large circle.

Unite all the shapes in the Pathfinder to make a single object. Change the Fill color to #e2f0e9 and stroke to None. Make a few more clouds of different sizes and spread them over the sky, leaving an empty space for the sun.

Step 4

Build a 105 x 105 px circle which we will color using #fff45a. Draw a vertical line across the middle of the circle, using the Line Segment Tool (\). Keeping the line and the circle selected, Divide them in the Pathfinder. Ungroup (Control-Shift-G) the shapes and color the left half with #fde23d.

Build one more 144 x 144 px circle of #fbcd30 color, placing it behind the first one, aligning to its center. Select the large circle and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Set the Size to 5 px, Absolute. And set Ridges per segment equal to 10. Select Smooth Points and click OK. Go to Object > Expand Appearance to apply the effect.

Group all the sun shapes together and place it on the main scene.

Unlock all the layers.

Our Mountain Landscape Is Ready!

Great job! Our flat-style mountain area scene is finished. You can use your imagination and continue playing around and adding details until you are fully satisfied with the result.

This mountain landscape illustration is just a part of my Camping Travel Landscape, and there are far more travel and adventure illustrations in my portfolio!

Camping Travel Landscape From GraphicRiver

I hope you’ve discovered some new tips and tricks that you can use for creating wonderful illustrations in future. Feel free to share your results in the comments below.

Flat Mountain Landscape Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

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Giorgio

30/05/2017 admin Dodaj komentarz

Post pobrano z: Giorgio

Stunning new work from one of New York’s best!

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Step by Step: Emanuele Colombo

30/05/2017 admin Dodaj komentarz

Post pobrano z: Step by Step: Emanuele Colombo

Ever wonder what goes into 2D character animation in After Effects? Well, you’re in luck! In this month’s Step by Step enjoy as Emanuele Colombo takes us through his process.