Deke would be the first person to tell you that freeform gradients are wonderful, but there are a couple of surprising limitations. Switching from linear or radial to a freeform gradient sets down a whole new set of colors, meaning that—at least for now—Illustrator CC makes no attempt to convert your previous settings to the new ones. More importantly, you can’t drag a point outside a path outline, or Illustrator will delete it. You also can’t cross any two lines.
- [Instructor] In this movie, we'll talk…about a couple of Freeform gradient gotchas.…Including the fact that you can't drag a point…outside of a path outline, and you can't cross lines.…And along the way, we'll go ahead and shade…the stem of this left hand pepper.…Alright, so I'll go ahead and switch over…to our document so far and I'm going…to go ahead and zoom in on the stem like so,…so that we can see it up close and personal.…And then I'll click on it with the black arrow tool…in order to select it.…The shape currently has a solid fill,…and so we're not seeing any of our gradient controls…up here in the control bar.…
So I'll go ahead and switch to my gradient tool,…which I can get by pressing the G key,…at which point all of my gradient controls appear.…Now, assuming that your fill is selected,…that's very important, you can not apply…Freeform gradients to strokes.…Then you will see the Freeform gradient icon.…At which point, all you have to do is click on it,…in order to automatically add a few points.…And in my case, I ended up with a total…
Author
Deke McClelland
Updated
3/30/2021Released
1/13/2011Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion.
Skill Level Intermediate
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
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