Illustrator Help

[SketchGirl]

I'm picking-up on Illustrator and was wondering if someone can help me with this problem I'm facing.

How do I "break" some text in 2 separate objects with different colors? Please see the attached image (of char. "R" done by me in Photoshop). I wan't to duplicate it in Illustrator.

Please help!

[russbellon]

use coreldraw, you can do it all with one tool and your right-click menu. hehe just kidding illustrator fans.
you have to break the paths where you want to separate the shapes and recombine the broken nodes so that the shapes stay closed. i am sure some illustrator pros here can give you more specific pointers tho.

[Nicky]

I KNOW that there is a "proper" way of doing it and I am sure Creole will tell us what it is when he wakes up!

However, I learnt Illustrator by using it, don't even own a book on it, so I hack at things.

I drew your letter with the pen tool. I cannot attach the Illustrator file so I will email it to you.

[Bill Posters]

one method to recreate the form you have posted:

1) As the missing section appears to be part of a large circle, you will first need to recreate the circle.

Imagine the gap to be part of a large outlined circle.

First create a circle approximately the same size as the 'outer' edge of the gap (the outer edge of the circle.)

Then create a circle the same approximate size as the inner edge of the gap (inner edge of the circle.)

Make sure both circles are lined up on the same center point (I usually do this quickly by 'cutting' (not copy) and pasting each item in turn. Items being pasted into the page will alway be pasted in the center of the visible area. So, each circle will be centered automatically)

Select both circles and make them into a compound path (Object Menu > Compound Path > Make (Apple-8 (if on Mac OS))

This will cut the inner circle out of the larger one.

2) Select the R and turn it into outlines (Type menu > create outlines (Apple-Shift-O))

3) Position the circle on top of the R so the overlap is positioned how you want it.

4) Select both the circle and the R form.

5) Goto the Pathfinder palette (Window menu > Show Pathfinder) and on the first row you will see a range of Combine options.
With the circle and the R both selected click on the option Minus Front (white square with a dotted black stroke/outline overlapping a gray circle with a solid stroke/outline).*

This will remove cut out the shape of the overlapping circles from the R.

6] You may then need to Ungroup the two parts of the R form (Object menu > ungroup (Apple-Shift-G)) as both parts are grouped during the Pathfinder process.

7] Fill each part of the R form with the colours you want.

8] There is no part 8, you're done

Note:
You may want to regroup the two parts after you have coloured them to make sure they don't lose their correct alignment.

*In case you don't already have them turned on you may find using the palettes easier if you have the Tooltips turned on. This will have a little pop up title for each of the options on many of the palettes. You can turn them on in the General section of the Preferences (Edit menu > Preferences > General or Apple-K)

Hope that helps

p.s. now hurry up and get the portfolio section of your website finished. I am keen to see your work

[russbellon]

hey Bill, as an off topic, but still illustrator related question; is it possible to change the way that illustrator does the marquee select? meaning, i want to only select things that i completely enclose in the selection marquee.

[Bill Posters]

Not that I know of Russ, though it wouln't surprise me to find there is a 3rd party plug-in which can help in that area.

I take it you don't work with layers at all in Illustrator.

It might be worth factoring them into your working method if you often find yourself needing to work on only some items on the page.

Other than getting used to layers, the best thing you can do is probably run a search for Illustrator plug-ins.
Check the Adobe site for links and info and also sites like VersionTracker.com.

[creole]

I just took a look (v9) and found nothing that would let me turn it on and off. You can do this in Freehand though.

As an aside, nicky, Bill's way is the way I would have posted. There is another faster way like so:

-= Type the R, color it black, deselect
-= Create a red fille/white stroke circle of the correct size and position it as you wish over the black R.
-= Select the "R" and Copy it, then paste in place (CTRL + F) and move to top (CTRL + SHIFT + ]). Keeping this selected, convert it to paths (CTRL + SHIFT + O).
-= Select both the stroked R and the circle. Press CTRL + 7 to make a clipping path. This will use the bounds of the R to "show" anything inside it. Everythoing outside the R will be invisible. You can still select it using the Direct Select Tool (A).

This is a good way of previewing but I would not recommend keeping items in this format. The reason why is that not only is all that data still there, making your file size larger. It also "groups" the two images which means that the actual selected area will be a rectangle the size of both objects. Once you get it looking like you want then use Bill's method.

[creole]

Originally posted by Bill Posters
Other than getting used to layers, the best thing you can do is probably run a search for Illustrator plug-ins.
Check the Adobe site for links and info and also sites like VersionTracker.com.

Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of plugins that are compatible with PC versions of Illustrator. I found this out when trying to get KPT vector effects for the PC.

[Nicky]

That sounds like the proper way to do it but it was still much faster to trace with the pen!

[russbellon]

if one owns a graphire/intuous
(new wacom convert--the pen rules!)

[Bill Posters]

Originally posted by Nicky
That sounds like the proper way to do it but it was still much faster to trace with the pen!

In your dreams, Nicky

Given the right starting typeface (which presumably she has because she used it in Photoshop) it takes literally around 20-30 seconds for someone who knows the routine.

It sounds much more complex than it actually is

(boy, am i in a geekiy, esoteric mood today. Must be the weekend arriving)

[Nicky]

I do like the pen tool!

And BTW, I didn't use my graphics tablet because it is USB and I was connected to the network at the time and only have one USB port on my latop.

[creole]

Whlie I love the Pen tool also, it won't ever be as precise as simply typing the letter.

[SketchGirl]

Thanks Russ, Nicky, Bill, creole.

Russ: Your method is fast, looks a little crude but works!

Bill: I tried your method and it works great for one character/alphabet but it doesnt work for a whole word (say: Lacoste). Any clues? I've tried it repeatedly but cant figure out whats going wrong.

p.s. I will have my portfolio updated in a few days. Just looking for some more design work.

[Bill Posters]

Originally posted by SketchGirl
Bill: I tried your method and it works great for one character/alphabet but it doesnt work for a whole word (say: Lacoste). Any clues? I've tried it repeatedly but cant figure out whats going wrong.

Sure it does...

Just make sure all the letters have been changed to outline (Type menu > create outlines (Apple-Shift-O)).

Then ungroup them (Object menu > ungroup (Apple-Shift-G)), then while the are still selected make them into a compound path (Object Menu > Compound Path > Make (Apple-8 (if on Mac OS)).

Then position the circle above the word form.
Select the word form and the circle.

Go to step 5 of my last post (Re: the Pathfinder palette