From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)
873 The improved Simplify command in Illustrator 2020
From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)
873 The improved Simplify command in Illustrator 2020
- Hey, gang, this is Deke McClelland. Welcome to Deke's Techniques. Now, if you've updated to Illustrator 2020, then you are perhaps aware that it doesn't offer many new features. In fact, it may be the least new-feature-offering version of Illustrator the world has ever known. But what few new features it does offer are pretty swell. Including the much-improved simplify command, which takes a bunch of path outlines that contain way too many anchor points like these path outlines that I created in Adobe Fresco just a few weeks ago, and slims them down to just those anchor points that are actually required. Altogether automatically, and with nothing more than a right-click from you. You know how sometimes we accuse Adobe of feature bloat, adding stuff that just junks up the software? Well, not this time. This is Simplify. All right, so here's that vector-based artwork that I drew in Adobe Fresco running on an iPad. Notice, if I press Command + A or Control + A on a PC that I have a ton of anchor points. And by the way, if you're not seeing those anchor points, that's probably because your bounding box is turned on. And so notice, if I go up to the View menu and choose Show Bounding Box, that I can now see my path outlines, but I can't see those points, which is a real problem for this exercise. And so, if you're having that problem, you want to go up to the View menu and choose Hide Bounding Box in order to reveal all of those anchor points. To see just how many anchor points you have, you can go up to the Window menu and choose Document Info in order to bring up this panel right here. And then click on the flyout menu icon in the top-right corner of the panel and choose Objects. At which point you'll see that I have a total of 72 closed path outlines comprising 5,479 anchor points, which is a lot of points to express what is ultimately a fairly simple piece of artwork. All right so, I'll go ahead and close that panel. And then armed with my black arrow tool, I'll right-click anywhere inside the document window and I'll choose Simplify in order, not to bring up a dialog box, at least not by default. Instead, inside Illustrator 2020 and moving forward we see a single slider bar. Now, at this point, instead of just seeing red anchor points, we're also seeing blue ones. And that's because I have my black path outlines and my colorful ones on different layers. All right, so these icons pretty much tell the story. If you want fewer anchor points, then you want to drag this guy over to the left. At which point, a moment later you'll see the number of points, in my case, 300 points. So instead of more than 5,000 anchor points, I now just have 300. However, I have a lot of gaps between my path outlines, as we can see indicated by these white slivers right here. That's obviously no good. So I'll just go ahead and crank this guy up to the maximum number of points, and that invokes a progress window. And then a moment later I can see that I now have 1,128 points, and I'm not seeing any gaps at all. So even though I have more than a thousand points, that's only about 20% of the points that I had before. Now, if you want Illustrator to do the work for you, you just go ahead and click on this Auto Simplify icon. And again, a moment later you'll see the number of points, 581, notice that. So, about a tenth of the original number. Now, if you'd like a little more control, then just go ahead and click on this More Options icon in order to bring up what looks a lot like the old-school dialog box, except that the options have been renamed. And their purpose has been updated as well. And so, notice this first guy. It's called Simplify Curve. It used to be called Curve Precision. It's that same slider bar that we saw just a moment ago all by itself. Now, Curve Precision used to be measured from zero to 100%. Now you just move this slider widget between minimum and maximum. Next, we have Corner Point Angle Threshold, which varies from zero degrees to 180 degrees. And the idea is, how sharp do your corners need to be to remain either corner or cusp points? So, if you crank this guy all the way up to 180 degrees, then you're going to get way more anchor points, as we're seeing here. And that's because you're asking for more accuracy. But notice, we've only shaved off a few anchor points. So here's the original number, and here's the new number. It's staying up on screen, so you can really tell what's going on. If you crank this guy all the way down to smooth, meaning that you're going to get far more smooth point than before, not only are you going to see a progress window, but you're going to end up with far fewer points. You're also going to get a bunch of white slivers between your various path outlines. But we end up with just 407 points, so we've done a lot of good here. Now, if you want to convert all your segments to straight segments, then just go ahead and turn on this check box here, then you'll end up with a bunch of straight segments. However, because the angle threshold is set to zero degrees, we're also increasing, not decreasing, but increasing the number of anchor points. Were I to take this angle threshold back up to what it was just a moment ago, which was 150 degrees, then we don't have many anchor points any more, but we don't have much in the way of artwork, either. So I'll go ahead and turn that check box off. All right now, a couple of more things. First of all, if you want to see the original path, complete with all their anchor points, then turn on this Show Original Path check box. And in my case, I'm seeing all the original anchor points in bright green, and I'm seeing the new anchor points in red or blue, depending on their layer. I'll go ahead and turn that check box off. Now, obviously if I want to apply my settings, I would click OK, or I could just press the Return key here on a Mac, or the Enter key on a PC. I'm going to cancel out, however, so I can show you how to apply your settings if all you want is that original slider. So I'll go ahead and right-click inside the document window once again, and choose the Simplify command. And that'll bring up that lone slider bar that we saw a moment ago, telling us we've got 581 points. Let's imagine you want to apply what you see. Well, if you press the Return key or the Enter key on the PC, you're going to bring up that dialog box once again. If you just want to apply these settings, then you press the Escape key, and that will go ahead and simplify your art. All right, now I'm going to deselect my artwork by pressing Command + Shift + A or Control + Shift + A on the PC. And as you can see here, not only do we have far fewer anchor points, but we have gaps between our black and colorful path outlines. And so, what in the world do we do about that? Now, if you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, I have a followup movie in which we take those simplified paths and fill things in, so we don't have any gaps. What am I talking about? Watch the movie. If you're looking forward to next week, I'll show you how to posterize colors inside Photoshop, and assign false colors to achieve this mind-bending effect. Turn on, tune in, Deke out.
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.
- 669_custom_QR.zip
- 670_more_QR.zip
- 671_hidden_circles.zip
- 673_shade_panels.zip
- 672_more_rectangles.zip
- 674_cafe_wall.zip
- 675_skewed_walls.zip
- 676_magic_checkers.zip
- 677_magic_dots.zip
- 678_reverse_illusion.zip
- 679_illusion_decor.zip
- 680_more_gizmos.zip
- 681_connect_gizmos.zip
- 682_wifi_symbol.zip
- 683_bluetooth_logo.zip
- 684_trajan_color.zip
- 685_trajan_AIcc.zip
- 686_stylistic_PsCC.zip
- 687_stylistic_AIcc.zip
- 688_grad_molecules.zip
- 689_sharper_moles.zip
- 690_smart_cules.zip
- 691_explore_cules.zip
- 692_blend_cules.zip
- 693_high_pass_cules.zip
- 694_cell_pattern.zip
- 695_hemoglobin.zip
- 696_edgy_cells.zip
- 697_springy_cells.zip
- 698_accordian_letters.zip
- 699_skew_blends.zip
- 700_cross_blends.zip
- 701_slice_blend.zip
- 702_blend_distort.zip
- 703_dynamic_roughen.zip
- 704_fish_twist.zip
- 705_dynam_bgnd_1.zip
- 706_dynam_bgnd_2.zip
- 707_quieter_art.zip
- 708_disintegration.zip
- 709_more_flakes.zip
- 710_mask_ashes.zip
- 711_flakes_to_ash.zip
- 712_note_tool.zip
- 713_contour_map.zip
- 714_contour_grad.zip
- 715_contour_arb.zip
- 716_contour_riff.zip
- 717_smooth_contour.zip
- 718_contour_cash.zip
- 719_color_of_money.zip
- 720_AI_adjust.zip
- 721_computer_key.zip
- 722_key_type.zip
- 723_faux_hedcut.zip
- 724_hedcut_lines.zip
- 725_color_hedcut.zip
- 726_ET_moon.zip
- 727_ET_trees.zip
- 728_ET_TRex.zip
- 729_global_glow.zip
- 730_content_aware.zip
- 731_space_portal.zip
- 732_enhance_portal.zip
- 733_rushing_stars.zip
- 734_AIcc_puppet.zip
- 735_puppet_tricks.zip
- 736_complex_puppet.zip
- 737_puppet_shortcut.zip
- 738_pentagons.zip
- 739_reinhardt.zip
- 740_kershner.zip
- 741_james_pentagon.zip
- 742_rice_pentagons.zip
- 743_stein_pentagon.zip
- 744_15th_pentagon.zip
- 745_tessellate_15.zip
- 746_pentatiles.zip
- 747_mod_pattern.zip
- 748_complement_tiles.zip
- 749_image_pattern.zip
- 750_pattern_fit.zip
- 751_candy_keeper.zip
- 752_keeper_text.zip
- 753_monster_movie.zip
- 754_mono_halftone.zip
- 755_word_haunted.zip
- 756_cheat_letters.zip
- 757_alt_adjust.zip
- 758_scuba_mono.zip
- 759_backscatter.zip
- 760_sample_outside.zip
- 761_Ps_vector_logo.zip
- 762_trans_shapes.zip
- 763_photo_logo.zip
- 764_high_res_snow.zip
- 765_enhance_snow.zip
- 766_snowflake_bokeh.zip
- 767_mandala_ps.zip
- 768_mandala_pattern.zip
- 769_mandala_dots.zip
- 770_mandala_color.zip
- 771_mandala_final.zip
- 772_AI_trim_view.zip
- 773_AI_presentation.zip
- 774_global_edits.zip
- 775_global_control.zip
- 776_freeform_grads.zip
- 777_freeform_lines.zip
- 778_freeform_gotcha.zip
- 779_great_white.zip
- 780_sharper_shark.zip
- 781_vibrance_sat.zip
- 782_vib_sat_sharp.zip
- 783_hedcut_action.zip
- 784_action_actions.zip
- 785_color_lines.zip
- 786_combine_lines.zip
- 787_clip_to_group.zip
- 788_color_outside.zip
- 789_flip_horizontal.zip
- 790_white_walker.zip
- 791_walker_begins.zip
- 792_digital_shave.zip
- 793_deep_wrinkles.zip
- 794_deep_brows.zip
- 795_pale_lips.zip
- 796_glowing_blue.zip
- 797_lifeless_pupils.zip
- 798_cold_gloomy.zip
- 799_brittle_flakes.zip
- 800_trans_shapes.zip
- 801_range_mask.zip
- 802_flip_photo.zip
- 803_actual_dream.zip
- 804_augment_dream.zip
- 805_smart_distortions.zip
- 806_blend_distortions.zip
- 807_star_negative.zip
- 808_star_pattern.zip
- 809_shaded_stars.zip
- 810_grad_pattern.zip
- 811_pattern_fade.zip
- 813_gobstopper.zip
- 814_gobpattern.zip
- 815_galignment.zip
- 816_etched_lines.zip
- 817_blend_pattern.zip
- 818_cubical_holes.zip
- 819_grad_pattern.zip
- 820_iso_arrows.zip
- 821_position_tips.zip
- 822_fill_gaps.zip
- 823_cartoon_teeth.zip
- 824_triangle_eye.zip
- 825_add_windows.zip
- 826_perfect_tessellate.zip
- 827_triangle_tunnels.zip
- 828_triangles_pattern.zip
- 829_colorful_triangles.zip
- 830_recolor_triangles.zip
- 831_rainbow_blends.zip
- 832_pattern_blends.zip
- 833_imposs_trident.zip
- 834_shade_trident.zip
- 835_opposing_grads.zip
- 836_trident_shadows.zip
- 837_impossible_hex.zip
- 838_impossible_lattice.zip
- 839_Joan_Miro.zip
- 840_watercolor_wash.zip
- 841_Miro_signature.zip
- 842_Photoshop_Miro.zip
- 843_enlarge_Miro.zip
- 844_Miro_Peele.zip
- 845_color_Us.zip
- 846_red_rorschach.zip
- 847_finish_Us.zip
- 848_CAF_fails.zip
- 849_turkey_2019.zip
- 850_trace_hand.zip
- 851_articulated_hand.zip
- 852_colorful_hand.zip
- 853_paint_fingernails.zip
- 854_paint_turkey.zip
- 855_turkey_feathers.zip
- 856_drop_shadow.zip
- 857_Ps_iPad_1.zip
- 858_Ps_iPad_2.zip
- 859_Ps_iPad_3.zip
- 860_iPad_Sidecar.zip
- 861_Adobe_Fresco.zip
- 862_Fresco_halftones.zip
- 863_live_brushes.zip
- 864_oil_paint.zip
- 865_Fresco_masks.zip
- 866_repurpose_mask.zip
- 867_vector_brush.zip
- 868_fresco_ps.zip
- 869_auto_color.zip
- 870_ACR_pano.zip
- 871_correct_pano.zip
- 872_diffusion.zip
- 873_simplify_2020.zip
- 874_fill_gaps.zip
- 875_posterize.zip
- 876_paint_bucket.zip
- 877_nonD_poster.zip
- 878_dynamic_poster.zip
- 879_filmstrip.zip
- 880_awful_awesome.zip
- 881_rembrandt.zip
- 882_recolor_freeform.zip
- 883_recolor_group.zip
- 884_over_under.zip
- 885_dev_over_under.zip
- 886_3D_metal_star.zip
- 887_heavy_metal.zip
- 888_wonder_poster.zip
- 889_wonder_displace.zip
- 890_wonder_woman.zip
- 891_metadata_template.zip
- 892_edit_metadata.zip
- 893_quilt_warp.zip
- 894_warp_object.zip
- 895_gopro_images.zip
- 896_content_aware.zip
- 897_gopro_combo.zip
- 898_blend_vignette.zip
- 899_photo_painting.zip
- 900_cue_ball.zip
- 901_pool_ball.zip
- 902_stripe_ball.zip
- 903_transform_each.zip
- 904_recolor_pool.zip
- 905_pool_cues.zip
- 906_rotate_cues.zip
- 907_repeat_face.zip
- 908_rainbow_faces.zip
- 909_mask_lips.zip
- 910_single_many.zip
- 911_symmetrical_mask.zip
- 912_colorize_grads.zip
- 913_mask_grads.zip
- 914_lantern_type1.zip
- 915_lantern_type2.zip
- 916_lantern_type3.zip
- 917_blend_steps.zip
- 918_blended_blends.zip
- 919_reverse_order.zip
- 920_pattern_colors.zip
- 921_blend_pattern.zip
- 922_polygons.zip
- 923_equil_triangle.zip
- 924_mercedes.zip
- 925_star_ring.zip
- 926_perfect_star.zip
- 927_lets_review.zip
- 928_basic_shapes.zip
- 929_triangle_man.zip
- 930_paint_grads.zip
- 931_adv_grads.zip
- 932_trans_vectors.zip
- 933_free_distort.zip
- 934_dynamic_fx.zip
- 935_cats_eye.zip
- 936_cat_iris.zip
- 937_primitives.zip
- 938_zig_zag.zip
- 939_dynamic_hilight.zip
- 940_reptile_scales.zip
- 941_shade_eye.zip
- 942_variable_shade.zip
- 943_dragon_eye.zip
- 945_single_thumbnail.zip
- 946_ai_home.zip
- 947_unlock_object.zip
- 948_unlock_icon.zip
- 949_line_tool.zip
- 950_broken_candy.zip
- 951_candy_rhino.zip
- 952_wrap_pattern.zip
- 953_ice_shadows.zip
- 954_illustrator_ipad.zip
- 955_pencil_points.zip
- 956_ipad_blob.zip
- 957_ipad_pen.zip
- 958_grads_repeats.zip
- 959_color_grading.zip
- 960_grading_tricks.zip
- 961_blend_balance.zip
- 962_font_height.zip
- 963_camera_profile.zip
- 964_JPEG_raw.zip
- 965_match_detail.zip
- 966_Ps_line_tool.zip
- 967_troubleshoot_line.zip
- 968_blend_vectors.zip
- 969_curve_line.zip
- 970_point_glyphs.zip
- 971_area_glyphs.zip
- 972_snap_glyphs.zip
- 973_snap_letterform.zip
- 974_glyph_shape.zip
- 975_glyph_pen.zip
- 976_playing_cards.zip
- 977_scale_shape.zip
- 978_card_suits.zip
- 979_enhance_path.zip
- 980_power_symbol.zip
- 981_huge_artboard.zip
- 982_new_artboard.zip
- 983_triceratops.zip
- 984_pen_tricks.zip
- 985_round_corner.zip
- 986_draw_round.zip
- 987_reshape_round.zip
- 988_AI_brushed.zip
- 989_AI_rivets.zip
- 990_blend_grad.zip
- 991_binoculars.zip
- 992_blue_halo.zip
- 993_bi_aberrations.zip
- 994_hide_shapes.zip
- 995_subwoofer.zip
- 996_deep_cone.zip
- 997_gradient_frame.zip
- 998_hex_screws.zip
- 999_thats_all.zip
Contents
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860 Using an iPad as a Sidecar drawing tablet11m 37s
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861 Introducing Adobe Fresco for the iPad15m 27s
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862 Adobe Fresco paints halftone patterns9m 37s
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863 Live brushes in Adobe Fresco9m 36s
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864 Using oil brushes in Adobe Fresco5m 54s
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865 Masking layers in Adobe Fresco9m 47s
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866 Repurposing and inverting masks5m 25s
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867 Vector brushes in Adobe Fresco9m 7s
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868 Opening Fresco art in Photoshop8m 32s
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869 Customizing the Auto Color command6m 51s
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870 Camera Raw 12: Panoramas with fill edges9m 38s
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871 Developing your panorama in Camera Raw5m 53s
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872 Healing with Clone Source plus Diffusion8m 8s
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873 The improved Simplify command in Illustrator 20207m 25s
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874 Filling in any post-Simplify gaps4m 27s
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875 Posterizing colors, in the style of "Hair"11m 54s
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876 Recoloring art with the Paint Bucket tool5m 34s
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878 Adjusting your poster art dynamically6m 15s
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877 Posterizing colors nondestructively9m 8s
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879 Hiding the Filmstrip in Camera Raw4m 35s
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880 Making an awful photograph awesome10m 14s
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881 What if Rembrandt had painted sea lions?4m 43s
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882 Recolor a freeform gradient in Illustrator4m 58s
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883 Recoloring a gradient using a color group3m 24s
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884 Faking a GoPro over-under shot10m 20s
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885 Developing your over-under in Camera Raw4m 41s
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886 Drawing a 3D metal star in Illustrator14m 25s
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887 Rendering the 3D star in heavy metal5m 51s
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888 Creating a Wonder Woman 1984 poster effect9m 5s
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889 Creating the Wonder Woman displacement map15m 5s
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890 Masking your Wonder Woman11m 39s
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891 Creating a metadata template in Bridge9m 24s
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892 Streamlining a multi-use metadata template9m 29s
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893 The Photoshop 2020 freeform Warp enhancements12m 32s
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894 Applying a freeform Warp to a Smart Object7m 54s
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895 Rescuing a frame from a GoPro movie7m 49s
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896 Filling gaps with Content-Aware Fill7m 5s
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897 Two images are better than one13m 8s
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898 Blending images with a hand-drawn vignette4m 44s
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899 Creating a photographic painting12m 37s
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900 Drawing a gradient sphere as a 2D shape9m 49s
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901 Turning a sphere into a colorful pool ball7m 51s
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902 Changing a pool ball from solid to stripes8m 22s
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903 Rotate versus Transform Each in Illustrator9m 36s
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904 Recoloring your pool balls8m 20s
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905 Drawing a pool cue in Illustrator15m 43s
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906 Rotating with precision accuracy7m 28s
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907 Repeating a face so it shares a common eye11m 20s
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908 Continuous rainbow faces in Photoshop5m 42s
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909 Masking in the natural colors of the lips6m 8s
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910 Flipping a face to create new identities9m 8s
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911 Hand painting a symmetrical layer mask4m 18s
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912 Two ways to colorize with gradients6m 9s
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913 Two ways to mask gradient effects6m 40s
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914 Lantern tile: Type 1, onion7m 53s
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915 Lantern tile: Type 2, traditional6m 33s
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916 Lantern tile: Type 3, scallop4m 30s
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917 Quickly change the number of steps in Illustrator8m 22s
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918 Creating a blend inside a blend7m 44s
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919 Reversing the stacking order in Illustrator4m 32s
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920 Turning a blend into a repeating pattern12m 16s
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921 Recoloring a blended pattern5m 8s
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922 Precisely sizing any polygon in Illustrator9m 19s
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923 Creating a beveled, equilateral triangle11m 46s
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924 Turning a triangle into a Mercedes star9m 7s
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925 Adding a ring around the Mercedes star7m 57s
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926 Precisely sizing stars in Illustrator10m 20s
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927 Let's review that star technique5m 25s
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928 Creating real artwork with basic shapes9m 55s
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929 Making a face of triangles in Illustrator10m 18s
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930 Painting with gradients and translucency10m 34s
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931 More advanced gradients in Illustrator6m 52s
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932 Combining translucent vectors with a photo5m 30s
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933 Using the dynamic Free Distort filter9m 3s
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934 Combining dynamic effects in Illustrator6m 4s
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935 Creating a Halloween cat’s eye in Illustrator14m 35s
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936 Combining multiple gradient fills and effects8m 28s
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937 Tracing a photo with primitives in Illustrator11m 31s
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938 Halftone pattern and Zig Zag in Illustrator13m 5s
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939 Adding dynamic highlights to your cat’s eye10m 29s
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940 Blending reptile-like scales in Illustrator13m 42s
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941 Shading to your cat’s eye in Illustrator10m 53s
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942 Shading with variable-width strokes9m 10s
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943 Turning your cat’s eye into a dragon’s eye10m 40s
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944 Clearing the Photoshop Home screen5m 5s
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945 Hiding a single Home screen thumbnail3m 29s
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946 Clearing the Illustrator Home screen4m 4s
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947 A new way to unlock stuff in Illustrator5m
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948 Another way to unlock stuff in Illustrator2m 47s
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949 The new Line tool in Photoshop 202110m 43s
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950 Fixing a broken candy cane pattern4m 58s
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951 Creating a candy cane rhinoceros in Photoshop10m 4s
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952 Warping a pattern around an object4m 2s
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953 Adding some rippling, reflective ice shadows8m 35s
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