Easy Color Transitions with Illustrator’s Blend Tool

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Since all Illustrator objects are vectors it's much easier to create dynamic effects from basic shapes. Gradients can be applied onto a single shape or they can be created by blending multiple shapes together. Blending two shapes do not involve simply mixing them up but it includes mixing them up in a suitable fashion that supports the designer with his work. Blend means to match up to their colors, contrasts, monopoly, dimensions, and other aspects. Photoshop software provides you will a variety of tools to blend different aspects with each way having many advantages over the other.

I'll demonstrate the latter technique using a little trick known as the Blend Tool. It's actually very simple once you learn how to tweak settings and get the gradients working as you intend.

1. Drawing Shapes

To get started open Illustrator and create a new blank document of any size. Now draw a shape like a square or a circle, or even something more detailed like a polygon. Change the fill color to something other than white so you can see it.

draw a shape illustrator

You should also remove the stroke from the shape so it just has a solid color. Now draw another shape within this current shape – it can either be larger or smaller. If larger then you'll need to find the other shape and right-click Arrange > Bring to Front.

illustrator shape bring to front

Now we can move the smaller shape towards the center of the larger shape and blend the colors together.

Select the Blend tool from the tools panel by clicking the icon or hitting the keyboard shortcut W.

illustrator blend tool

2. Blurring the Shapes

If you want to create a blur effect manually just click within the 2 shapes to create a blurred border. You can add points to the blur effect for manipulation or manual editing.

The alternative would be in the menu bar under Object > Blend > Make.

object blend tool ai

Both techniques perform the exact same thing while keeping the two shapes separate.

sample blended rectangles illustrator

If you want to edit the blur effect you'll need to mess with blur options from the tools palette. To do so merely double-click on the Blur tool which opens the Blend Options dialog box.

blend options illustrator

3. Editing Options

It should be noted that blend options are somewhat minuscule in nature. You can add extra points into the gradient or manipulate how the blending occurs. But generally speaking, you'll want to practice this effect on your own in real projects to see how they look.

blend options steps gradients

As you toy with different values you'll learn how to best utilize this tool. It's very different from the gradient tool because it works based on the internal shape's path.

For example, if we add another anchor point to the inner path we can manipulate the gradient's shape. This allows you to develop more detailed objects and multi-sided polygons with ease.

anchor points paths blend tool

Keep this in mind for future vector projects when building icons, characters, or even logos. You might even try lowering the opacity on the outer shape to get a clear transparent gradient effect with path manipulation.

Illustrator is like every Adobe program in that it requires practice and patience. The more you try to build the more you'll learn and the quicker you'll see improvements in your skillset.