Deke's Techniques

First, don't panic that I've suddenly skipped from episode 105, "Op Art Experiment 1a:Inflated Checkers," all the way up to 191 in a single week. You didn't miss 86 episodes in between. It's just an adjustment in the numbering convention. I previously counted the free videos (the ones posted on this site) and left out the ones that are only available to members of lynda.com. But given that it's a new year and Deke's Techiques is now officially in its third year, I decided to do the rational thing and catch up with the lynda.com numbering system. And so here we are.

Second, the topic of this week's video: How to create the universal pictographic man symbol in Illustrator. By which I mean, the one below:

And the way we'll be creating this man is, dare I say, innovative. Rather than drawing him as a series of path outlines, either tediously with the pen tool (gawd!) or as a collection of rectangles and circles that you combine from the Pathfinder panel, I'll show you how to construct the guy from the Appearance panel by heaping on a series of strokes and a single fill.

Watch the video. And then, if you're in the mood for a step-by-step companion, see Colleen Wheeler's deliciously diagrammed post from yesterday. Many of you will be able to follow the directions just by looking at the figures. Read more » 

As I write this, I have newly returned from a ski weekend in Keystone, CO. My youngest, Sam, got barf-all-over-the-place sick and had to go home. Which really sucked. But fortunately my eldest, Max, and I missed the bug and therefore went on to have a terrific adventure. Today in particular was outstanding. We woke up, watched cartoons for two hours (in discussing why Scooby-Doo still sucks, Max assured me they're trying to keep it consistent with the old days), and hit the slopes just a short walk from our rented condo. I let him lead while I captured our antics with my hand-held GoPro. I reckon most of the footage would be boring to anyone but us---altho I did wipe out in a hilarious 1080-degree freefall because I was paying too much attention to the camera---but wow it was fun.

On the way home, Max and I discussed whether an insanely large cargo plane could carry smaller airplanes, the latter of which might subsequently take off from the innards of the former. As the rational father, I naturally argued "no, that's insane, you silly child." But Max had me really believing "maybe" over the course of two grueling hours because, seriously, the kid is relentless and we had nothing better to do.

Which takes me to this week's technique: Infinity. Life-wise, infinity reminds me of how much I love my boys. (I know it's cornball. But I'm feeling it so shut up.) Video-wise, infinity is a symbol. One that's missing from just about every font on the market. So what do you do when you're thinking infinity (like me) but you can't make infinity (like right now here like me)? Answer: Draw it with the Width tool in Illustrator.

Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

Well gang, it's been a couple of weeks since I last talked to you. But I have to admit, I enjoyed the break. My youngest son, the aspiring actor, rocked it in a play called Rose Red. (Delivered to the eponymous character, his line "Gadzooks! You are a wild youth!" brought down the house.) My eldest, the occasional musician, sailed through his piano recital with a breathtakingly perfect rendition of Beethoven's "Für Elise." (Which is somewhat amazing considering how much it sounds like a baseball bat hitting a squeezebox in the back alley of a pachinko parlor during practice time.) Plus, we celebrated the rare white Christmas, which is always a nice touch.

I could go on: My boys and I played games, read books, saw movies, entertained endless ideas, hung après-Xmas lights, clobbered each other, and spent what seemed like a year full of days in a sometimes peaceful, sometimes chaotic realm of imaginative mayhem. Honestly, if I were asked to replay a handful of days for the rest of eternity, I would respectfully decline. But if, you know, some big scary dude got all muscly and made me, these last days would be them.

The upshot is that I return to you in 2013 much as I left you at the beginning of 2012, restored and ready for more. Today, in fact---this very day---I suddenly reappear to show you how to construct a single-artboard, resolution-independent 2013 calendar for the new year. All inside that surge protector of smooth-line vectors, Adobe Illustrator.

Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

This week's installment of Deke's Techniques shows how to create type that looks just like the logo for The Hobbit movie poster. Which is an insanely great effect.

As many of you know, Peter Jackson and company decided to divide The Hobbit---a 310-page book---into three movies. At the beginning of my video (the one above), I joke that the first movie (An Unexpected Journey) covers the first 36 pages of the book. Today, I took my boys to see the movie. And, as it turns out, I wasn't joking!

I timed it: The movie doesn't get to the beginning of the book, The Hobbit, until 37 minutes in! And it takes another 15 minutes (or thereabout, didn't time it) to cover the first page of the damn thing. After that, we discover that Thorin (the lead dwarf) hates elves, a wizard named Radagast the Brown rides on a sleigh pulled by bunnies, Saruman has something to do with this story, Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen can speak to each other telekinetically, Bilbo (with no prior knowledge of swordsmanship) slays orcs and goblins (who attack ad nauseum and at various sizes), there are Stone Giants (why?), and Bilbo is tempted to kill Golum but he manages to trick a trio of trolls instead. None of which happens in the book! The movie is mildly entertaining (I got up and ordered popcorn at one point b/c I was so bored, after which I fell asleep twice), but it has Precious little to do with The Hobbit.

So here's my advice: Wait for the Blu-ray. And if you're making a movie based on a popular children's novel, diverge from it as much as possible and milk it for all you're worth.

Meanwhile, if you want to make your type look like The Hobbit movie logo (which is awesomely cool!), watch my video. Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more »