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ByBrant Wilson
Published
A hidden gem in my opinion, Illustrator’s “Reshape” tool can come in very handy in a variety of situations. In a nutshell, the Reshape tool allows you to drag a single point on a path and it tries to retain the overall shape of the entire path, while you only move the one anchor point….
ByBrant Wilson
Published
A reader recently asked me about using the eyedropper tool to adjust the (one of 2+) colors in an Illustrator gradient. If you’ve never witnessed this frustration, it is quite annoying. In Illustrator, when using the gradient palette, (Adobe should have figured this out by now) you can’t double-click on one of the gradient color…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
I don’t know if this would be as useful to you as it is for me, but I leaped for joy when I discovered this little Illy feature. If you deal with client-delivered vector artwork, this could make your life a ton easier. By selecting any or all of the artwork and then clicking “New…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
Every once in a while we might find ourselves needing to get that “inset” or “beveled” look for text, probably more often for buttons and web design, than anything else. But whatever reason you might need or want inset text, here’s a quick tip to get that effect without using a filter, effect, layer style…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
You may or may or may not know/use this Illustrator feature, but Layer Masking is a very under-used feature of the Adobe Illustrator series of software. I’m not talking about making a clipping mask. This is entirely different altogether. By making a “layer mask,” you can save precious time by not having to release and…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
I’ve found a ton of Photoshop tutorials on how to do this, but you would be surprised at how simple and easy it is to get a “glossy” text effect in vector using Illustrator. Don’t get out of your seat, because this won’t take long at all. 1. Outline your text The first step is…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
Creating intricate circular designs and patterns may look difficult because the shapes can be very complicated, but you will be surprised at just how easy making these shapes can be. I will go over some neat tricks, tools, techniques, and settings that will have you pumping out perfect circular designs in no time using Illustrator….
ByBrant Wilson
Published
Illustrator comes standard with some default brushes. Most of us probably use these brushes as they were intended to be used, but what happens if you push the limits of stroke size? You get a really easy way to create some cool abstract effects in Illustrator. Check out the example below, made with very simple…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
After my “50 Free Vector Grunge Corners” post, I got a lot of responses asking how to make vector grunge. Well, I’m going to show you exactly how, and trust me, anyone can do it. It’s not as hard as you might think, thanks to InkScape (free). Overview: In order to easily make intricate grunge…
ByBrant Wilson
Published
Believe it or not, Illustrator is capable of some amazing effects similar to those in Photoshop, all waiting at the tip of your finger in the Tools palette. These are NOT filters, but some lesser known Basic Illustrator Tools that , if harnessed right, can transform a single path into a work of art. I’ll…