From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

813 Drawing a cubical gobstopper in Illustrator

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

Start my 1-month free trial

813 Drawing a cubical gobstopper in Illustrator

“

I began this weekly series about eight and a half years ago now. And when I first started, I was covering things like ice type and putting wings on a horse and changing the color of a car. But nowadays I give myself permission to venture let's say farther afield. of the object, rendered in the background is a repeating tile pattern, just so that you have a chance to see it open in the context of Adobe Illustrator. And here is that cubical gobstopper that we'll be creating absolutely from scratch in this movie. And so if you're working along with me, first thing you want to go up to the File menu and choose the New command. And notice that I'm creating a document that's 1,008 points wide and 672 points tall, just because that happens to work well in our videos. And I've set all of the bleed values to 12 points and I'm working in the RGB mode. At which point, I'll click Create in order to create that document. Now we need to add a pair of center guides, and you can do that by pressing Control + R or Command + R on a Mac to bring up the rulers, then position your cursor at the intersection of those two rulers in the top-left corner of the screen, and instead of dragging, which isn't going to do anything we want, you want to press the Control key or the Command key on the Mac and drag in order to create two guidelines at the same time. Now at this point, we're done with the rulers, so I'll press Control + R or Command + R on a Mac to get rid of them. And now I want to center these guides. And so the first thing you need to do is try to select them. In my case I can't, and that's because they're locked down. If you run into that as well, then go up to the View menu, drop all the way down to Guides and then choose Unlock Guides in order to unlock them. And now I'll marquee those guides with my Black Arrow Tool. And then what you want to do is make sure your horizontal control panel is available to you up here at the top of the screen. If it's not, then you need to switch away from the Essentials workspace to at the very least, Essentials Classic, and that will also bring back all of your tools. I happen to be working in my custom One On One space, so I'll just go ahead and press the Escape key and now I'll click on the word Align up here in that horizontal control panel, and I'll click on this guy, Horizontal Align Center, and then I'll click on this one, Vertical Align Center. And by the way, for those to work properly, this guy right here has got to be set to Align To Artboard. All right, now I'll press the Escape key in order to hide that panel and at this point, I don't want to mess up these guides, so I'll return to the View menu, choose Guides and choose Lock Guides in order to lock them down. All right now I want you to notice that I have two panels expanded over here on the right-hand side of the screen. The Swatches panel and the Layers panel. I want this tiny thumbnail right here to be larger, and so I'll click on the fly-out menu icon associated with the Layers panel and I'll choose Panel Options and then I'll select this guy, Other, and I'll change this value to 70 pixels and I'll click OK. All right now, I want to rename this layer Guides Then I'll select this next color in, which is a kind of shade of purple right now. Which is fine, I'm going to make it even more purply by changing the hue value to 280 degrees. I'll set the saturation value to 33% and I'll set the Brightness value to 80%. And then I'll click on this final color right there, which once again is a kind of purple. I want it to be yellow, so I'll set the Hue value to 50 degrees. I will once again set the Saturation value to 33%. And I'll take the Brightness value up to 100%. Now notice over here in the Color Groups area that we're seeing the word Cold still in italics. That's because I need to update all of these colors. And you can do that by clicking on that little hard drive icon and that will save your changes and you will see your new colors represented over here as well. At which point, click OK to accept that change and you should see all of your new colors. They're going to have bad names by the way. And if that bothers you, then you can just select one of these colors like so and double-click on it and then change this guy to Dull Blue, and I want this to be a global swatch, so if I make any modifications to the swatch, I would update the objects as well, at which point I'll click OK and now I'll do that for the second guy. I'll change the name to Lilac and I'll turn on Global and I'll click OK. Then I'll double-click on that yellow and I'll call it Pale Yellow because that's what it is and I'll also go ahead and turn on the Global checkbox, after which point I'll click OK. All right now I really want this guy to be purple, so I'll select Lilac. And then I'll switch back to the Rotate Tool, again you can get that tool by pressing the R key, and then I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection of those two guidelines in order to force the display of the Rotate dialog box and set the center of the rotation right at this location here. Then I'll click Copy, change the color of the fill to Dull Blue, so notice that my fill is active here in the Swatches panel. And then I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection of those guides once again in order to bring up the Rotate dialog box. I'm still looking for an angle of 120 degrees, I'll click Copy and I'll change the fill to that shade of Pale Yellow. All right now we're getting to the interesting part. I'm going to press the V key to switch back to the Black Arrow Tool up there at the top of the toolbox, and I'll go ahead and grab this guy by his bottom-right corner and I'll drag him till he snaps into alignment with the left side of the blue shape, and then I'll go ahead and press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac in order to make a copy like so. All right you'll want to drag it once again by that bottom-right corner until it snaps into alignment right here and then press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac to create a copy. And we want to create another copy over at this location, so remember to press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac. Always make sure that you're getting a snap by the way, so you want to see that white arrowhead cursor, and you want to see two of them when you press and hold the Alt or Option key and then go ahead and drag this guy like so until it snaps into alignment. So notice that each and every time I'm dragging by an anchor point. That's why you can't have that Bounding box turned on. And then go ahead and press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac in order to create a copy of that shape. All right now you want to go ahead and marquee those yellow shapes and then Shift + click on that final guide down there. So you just want to make sure all of those new yellow shapes are selected. Then go to the Window menu and choose Then go to the Window menu and choose the Pathfinder command in order to bring the Pathfinder command in order to bring up the Pathfinder panel and click on the Unite icon. up the Pathfinder panel and click on the Unite icon. Now if you prefer, you could've used Now if you prefer, you could've used the Shape Builder Tool, some people the Shape Builder Tool, some people really love that tool, but I find really love that tool, but I find it much easier just to click on a single icon. it much easier just to click on a single icon. All right now I'll go ahead and hide All right now I'll go ahead and hide that panel and we have a fused shape that panel and we have a fused shape as you can see right here. as you can see right here. All right now you want to switch All right now you want to switch to the White Arrow Tool, which you can get to the White Arrow Tool, which you can get by pressing the A key, A for arrow, by pressing the A key, A for arrow, then click off the shape to deselect it, then click off the shape to deselect it, and we want to select just this segment right here, and we want to select just this segment right here, so go ahead and click on it in order so go ahead and click on it in order to select it like so. to select it like so. All of the anchor points should be hollow by the way, All of the anchor points should be hollow by the way, at which point press Control + C or Command + C at which point press Control + C or Command + C on the Mac in order to copy that line segment, on the Mac in order to copy that line segment, and then press Control + F or Command + F and then press Control + F or Command + F on the Mac in order to paste it in front. on the Mac in order to paste it in front. And now you want to drag this guy And now you want to drag this guy by its top anchor point until it snaps by its top anchor point until it snaps into alignment with what was formally into alignment with what was formally the bottom anchor point. the bottom anchor point. You want to make sure that you're seeing You want to make sure that you're seeing that white arrowhead, which tells you you have a snap. that white arrowhead, which tells you you have a snap. At which point, just release. At which point, just release. So this time around, we're not making a copy. So this time around, we're not making a copy. All right now what we're drawing by the way All right now what we're drawing by the way is a little triangle right here is a little triangle right here at this location, and you'll see at this location, and you'll see why that works in just a moment. why that works in just a moment. And so I'll select the Rotate Tool, And so I'll select the Rotate Tool, which again you can get by pressing the R key which again you can get by pressing the R key and then I'll Alt or Option + click and then I'll Alt or Option + click on this top anchor point in order on this top anchor point in order to bring up the Rotate dialog box, to bring up the Rotate dialog box, and this time I'm looking for an angle value of 60 degrees, and this time I'm looking for an angle value of 60 degrees, after which point I'll click Copy after which point I'll click Copy in order to create a copy of that line. in order to create a copy of that line. Then you want to Alt or Option + click Then you want to Alt or Option + click on this bottom anchor point. on this bottom anchor point. Again, we're looking for an angle of 60 degrees, Again, we're looking for an angle of 60 degrees, at which point I'll click Copy. at which point I'll click Copy. And we end up with a total of three straight segments. And we end up with a total of three straight segments. Now I'll press the V key to switch back Now I'll press the V key to switch back to the Black Arrow Tool and I'll partially marquee to the Black Arrow Tool and I'll partially marquee those three straight segments, and then I'll return those three straight segments, and then I'll return to the Object menu, choose Path and choose Join to the Object menu, choose Path and choose Join in order to once again join them into a closed path outline. in order to once again join them into a closed path outline. All right, now I need to create another triangle All right, now I need to create another triangle up here at this location, and so I'll press up here at this location, and so I'll press the R key to switch back to my Rotate Tool, the R key to switch back to my Rotate Tool, and then I'll Alt or Option + click and then I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection of these two guidelines at the intersection of these two guidelines and I'll set the Angle value to 180 degrees. and I'll set the Angle value to 180 degrees. And I'll click Copy. And I'll click Copy. Now this is the shape I'm looking Now this is the shape I'm looking for but it's not really in the right location, for but it's not really in the right location, so I'll press the V key to switch back so I'll press the V key to switch back to my Black Arrow Tool and I'll drag to my Black Arrow Tool and I'll drag the path by its top-left anchor point the path by its top-left anchor point until it snaps into alignment right there, until it snaps into alignment right there, and then I'll release. and then I'll release. And that, believe it or not, gives me all And that, believe it or not, gives me all of the shapes I need. of the shapes I need. And so now all I need to do is copy them. And so now all I need to do is copy them. So I'll Shift + click on this big cross shape right here So I'll Shift + click on this big cross shape right here and I'll Shift + click on the other triangle, and I'll Shift + click on the other triangle, so all three of these shapes are selected. so all three of these shapes are selected. And then I'll press the R key to switch back And then I'll press the R key to switch back to the Rotate Tool. to the Rotate Tool. And I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection And I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection of those guidelines and I'll set the angle value of those guidelines and I'll set the angle value to 120 degrees this time and I'll click Copy, to 120 degrees this time and I'll click Copy, and now I'll go ahead and change and now I'll go ahead and change the fill to Lilac, and then I'll Alt the fill to Lilac, and then I'll Alt or Option + click at the intersection or Option + click at the intersection of those two guidelines of those two guidelines once again, armed with the Rotate Tool. once again, armed with the Rotate Tool. I do indeed want an angle value of 120 degrees, I do indeed want an angle value of 120 degrees, at which point I'll click Copy and then I'll change at which point I'll click Copy and then I'll change the fill this time around to Dull Blue the fill this time around to Dull Blue in order to create this effect here. in order to create this effect here. Now I'll press the V key to switch back Now I'll press the V key to switch back to my Black Arrow Tool, I'll click to my Black Arrow Tool, I'll click off the shapes to deselect them, off the shapes to deselect them, and then I'll turn off the Guides layer. and then I'll turn off the Guides layer. All right now if you look very closely All right now if you look very closely we do have something of a problem right here. we do have something of a problem right here. I'm going to press Control + space bar, I'm going to press Control + space bar, that's Command + space bar on a Mac, that's Command + space bar on a Mac, and drag to the right so that you can see, and drag to the right so that you can see, we've got these unfortunate miter joins, we've got these unfortunate miter joins, which are more or less ruining the effect. which are more or less ruining the effect. That's why I'm going to press Control + A That's why I'm going to press Control + A or Command + on the Mac to select all of the shapes, or Command + on the Mac to select all of the shapes, and I'll click the word Stroke up here and I'll click the word Stroke up here on the left of the Control Panel on the left of the Control Panel and I'll set the corner to Round Join, and I'll set the corner to Round Join, which will get rid of those miters. which will get rid of those miters. All right now I'll press the Escape key All right now I'll press the Escape key in order to hide that panel. in order to hide that panel. I'll click off the shapes to deselect them, I'll click off the shapes to deselect them, and I'll press Control + zero or Command + zero and I'll press Control + zero or Command + zero on the Mac to center my zoom. on the Mac to center my zoom. And that is how you create a cubical gobstopper And that is how you create a cubical gobstopper or if you prefer an orthogonal Rubik's Cube or if you prefer an orthogonal Rubik's Cube that's missing its corners here inside Illustrator. that's missing its corners here inside Illustrator. If you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, If you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, I have two, count them two follow-up movies I have two, count them two follow-up movies in which we take our cubicle gobstopper in which we take our cubicle gobstopper and arrange it into a seamless hex pattern, and arrange it into a seamless hex pattern, and then we align it to the big original gobstopper prime. and then we align it to the big original gobstopper prime. If you're looking forward to next week, If you're looking forward to next week, we'll add some object blends to create we'll add some object blends to create these kind of etched line textures, these kind of etched line textures, which I kind of like. which I kind of like. Deke's Techniques each and every week, keep watchin'. Deke's Techniques each and every week, keep watchin'.

Contents