pattern

One of my favorite things about Deke is his focus, and by that I mean he gets an idea in his brain and won't let go until he's figured it out. I have a feeling that's what happened the first time he started doing Op Art experiments with Adobe Creative Suite. He focused in on each style, using Photoshop (as in Deke's Techniques 189, known temporarily as Deke's Techniques 105: "Op Art Experiment 1a: Inflated Checkers in Photoshop) or Illustrator as needed. Eventually, he ended up with today's Illustrator technique: an Op Art inspired pattern of undulating lines and hypnotic diamonds. Ironically, as much as it represents the manifestation of Deke's mental focus, it could actually mess with your literal ability to focus your eyes.

But the visual effect is only temporary (I hope). The increase in your powers with Illustrator, however, will be permanent (I also hope). Starting with two sets of curly lines, plus an itinerant diamond shape, Deke duplicates, reflects, joins, blends, and eventually creates a pattern that yields this result. You can then fill an entire shape with your pattern and wow your friends and colleagues with your ability to create perfectly aligned visual mayhem. (You can probably use it to bend them to your will, as well.) 

Along the way, you'll become familiar with these key Illustrator tools, commands, and idiosyncrasies:  Read more » 

Hello, fellow gangsters. This week is remarkable is three regards: First, I'm actually writing my own Deke's Techniques post. (Colleen wrote the last two. But in all fairness, I helped out.) Second, I just today finished recording the last movie in the final course of my four-part Photoshop video opus for lynda.com, which will be titled Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Mastery. (Lynda doesn't like us making promises, so I can't assure you that it's coming out any time soon. But it is.) And third, in this week's episode of Deke's Techniques, we're back in Illustrator, which I've really been grooving on lately.

I know, you photographers hate it when I visit Illustrator. But in case you haven't received the memo, I'm a graphic artist and I really like to draw. (Did I mention that photographers are sissies because all they do is point and shoot a camera? No I didn't. Which is a good thing because that would've seriously pissed off a lot of people.)

Oh, man, no wonder I don't write more of these things. I'm a liability to myself.

Anywhom, this week, I show you how to create a free-form pattern of size- and color-changing circles inside Illustrator. Which I do by blending between groups, and then grouping those blends, and then blending between those blended groups. Yes, you have to reformat your brain to follow along.

Fortunately, the only thing you have to "draw" is a circle, create a file that measures 612 by 420 points, then make a 43.5-point circle centered at a coordinate location of X: 44, Y: 42. Yowsa, I love this full-on nerd shit.

After that, well, it's all in the video. Spoiler alert: Here's the final size- and color-changing circle pattern, as created in Adobe Illustrator:

And it's all from a single circle! You can draw a circle, right? Well then quit screwing off with your cameras and join in. After all, when you're done, you'll have a piece of art that's worthy of printing on a shower curtain. Try doing that with your high-resolution Ansel Adams homage. Read more » 

This week's video is the first of a two-parter, the second of which, "Assembling a seamless Pattern Brush," is available exclusively to members of the lynda.com Online Training Library. I mention this because today's movie ends as a bit of a cliff hanger. that is to say, this free movie shows you how to create all the elements required to make a seamless pattern. But you might as well know up front: To understand how to turn those elements into an actual functioning Pattern Brush, you'll have to be a paying member of lynda.com.

Hey, even a kind and generous teacher like me has to turn the occasional buck. Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

By now, a few of you may be using Illustrator CS6. In which case, you have access to the new Pattern Options panel, which---among other things---allows you to create hex patterns. By which I mean, patterns that are organized into hexagonal tiles instead of the regular old rectangular ones. And it designs the patterns seamlessly, with remarkably little planning on your part.

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

Hey gang. Tonight finds me at Photoshop World in Las Vegas. Earlier today I taught my four-hour "precon" workshop, Photoshop 3D Fundamentals, and I'm happy to report, it was a scintillating sold-out success. Afterward, I had a beer with a member of the Photoshop 3D development team who filled me in on some upcoming developments. I can't share details, but it all sounded very encouraging. (Suffice it to say, it sounds like everything I pissed and moaned about in either my session or my Photoshop 3D videos for lynda.com is begin addressed.)

I mention this because, well, it means that I'm getting around to posting this week's Deke's Techniques many hours later than normal. Fortunately, the technique is worth the wait. This week, I show you how to design a magically updating pattern in Illustrator. The movie (which itself is quite magical) is a kind of two-parter. In the first three and a half minutes, I show you how to fill a page with a repeating pattern using Illustrator's best and most powerful dynamic effect, Transform. After that, I show you how to update the entire page by editing a few base path outlines. Along the way, I integrate another dynamic effect, Roughen.

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