From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)
922 Precisely sizing any polygon in Illustrator
From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)
922 Precisely sizing any polygon in Illustrator
- Hey gang, this is Deke McClelland. Welcome to Deke's Techniques. This week is about precisely sizing a regular polygon here inside Adobe Illustrator, which may sound scary, or boring, or both, but allow me to present my case. And so, let's start with a basic question. Have you ever clicked with Illustrator's polygon tool, whether to create a hexagon, pentagon, triangle, or some other regular polygon, and wondered how in the world the radius value works? Well, the radius value of a circle, that's half its diameter. And so a circle with a radius of 200 points, measures 400 points wide. But let's say you want to draw a hexagon that's exactly 400 points wide when pointed upright, so that its left and right sides are vertical. If you create such a polygon with a radius value of 200 points, it falls inside the confines of a similarly sized circle, and so it's width measures much less than 400 points. To create a hexagon that measures exactly 400 points wide, it has to fall exactly outside of its similarly sized circle, meaning that it requires a radius value of more than 200 points. I say all this not to confuse you, but to invite you to kick back and let the next few minutes, which are going to make a whole lot of sense, by the way, sink right in. All right, so here we have that upright hexagon that's exactly 400 points wide. And you can confirm that's the case by going up to the View menu and checking to make sure that your smart guides are turned on. And then select the best measuring tool in all of Illustrator, which is the Line Segment tool. And just go ahead and drag from this anchor point here, to its opposite, or at least you're dragging from side to opposite side, at which point you'll see that the distance value is 400 points. So everything's the way it needs to be. I'm going to press the Backspace key, or the Delete key on the Mac, to get rid of that line. And I'll go ahead and click and hold on the rectangle tool in order to bring up the shape tool flyout menu, and I'll select the polygon tool. And then I'll go ahead and drag from the center outward, that's how this tool works, until I snap into alignment with this point here. And you can see that I get a width in that Heads Up Display of exactly 400 points, which is just what I'm looking for. So, that's all you have to do if you've drawn such a pentagon in advance, but of course, it's very unlikely that you will have done such a thing. So I'll press the Backspace key, or the Delete key on the Mac, to get rid of that guy. And we'll create the polygon by the numbers instead, which you do by clicking with the tool. And so I'll click at the intersection of those two guidelines, in order to bring out the polygon dialog box. We want six sides, of course. Now, this dialog box is asking for a radius value. We want a diameter of 400 points. And so to get the radius, you would just enter 400 divided by, that is slash, two. And then that'll give us a radius of 200 points, at which point click, okay. And you'll bring up a shape that, sure enough, measures side-to-side, 400 points as we're seeing here. However, it's come in at the wrong angle. That's not a problem. All you need to do for that is switch to the Rotate tool, which you can get by pressing the R key. The origin point is already set up there right in the middle of the shape. And so I'll just go ahead and press the Enter key, or the Return key on the Mac, to bring up the rotate dialogue box. I'll set the angle value to 30 degrees, and I'll click, okay, and we now have an upright shape, the shape I wanted in the first place, but it's not big enough. And so, if I were to now grab the Line Segment tool and drag from side to opposite side, you can see that I have a distance value of 346.41 points. Why in the world is that? Well, that's because I'm measuring the polygon incorrectly. I actually want to drag from an anchor point to the opposite anchor point, which would be this way instead, at which when I'm seeing a distance value, sure enough, of 400 points. And so the radius of a polygon perhaps works differently than you might think, but in fact, it works exactly the same as it does for a circle. So let me show you what I mean. I'll go ahead and select all of these shapes by pressing Control + A, or Command + A on the Mac, and then assuming that your guidelines are locked down as mine are, all you have to do is press the Backspace key here on the PC, or the Delete key on the Mac, to get rid of them. All right, now I'll go ahead and click and hold on the polygon icon there, and select the Ellipse tool from the flyout tool menu. And this tool, by the way, works a little differently. First of all, if you want to create a shape from the center outward, you have to press and hold the alt key, or the Option key on a Mac, as you drag. But I want to create the shape numerically. So I'll get rid of that guy. And I will alt or option click at the intersection of those two guides, to bring up the Ellipse dialog box. Now, this dialog box is not asking for a radius this time around, instead, for whatever reason, it wants a diameter. So I'll enter 200 times, that is asterisk, two, and then I'll tab to the height value and change it to 400 as well. And I'll click okay in order to create that shape. And I can confirm that it has the exact diameter I want by once again, switching over to the Line Segment tool, and I'm going to drag from the center of the shape right there, all the way to the top. And you can see that sure enough, I have a distance value, not diameter, but distance value of 200 points, at which point I will release. So I have a circle with a 200 point radius. Now, just so we can compare that to a pentagon which has six sides, I'm going to duplicate this line so that we have a total of six of them. And so I'll go ahead and switch to the Rotate tool once again. And then I'll alt or option click at the bottom of this line, and I'll enter an angle value of 360 divided by six, 'cause we want six lines in all. And that means I want to rotate this line by 60 degrees, at which point I'll click the copy button in order to copy that line. And then I'll duplicate it four more times by pressing Control + D, or Command + D on the Mac, a total of four times like so, at which point we have a kind of pizza. All right, now I'll go ahead and switch back to the polygon tool, and I will drag, this time around, from that center all the way out to the end of one of these lines, it doesn't matter which one. And notice that one of the values in my Heads Up Display is reading 400 points. And it's always going to be the height value in this case, by the way, just because of the way I've set up my lines. And a reason it's saying 400 points, is because, if I were to grab the Line tool once again and drag from the top of this shape, down to the bottom, which is the height of the shape, incidentally, I will see a distance value of 400 points. All right, but that's not what I want. What I want is a width value of 400 points. And currently I have a width, if I were to drag from one side to the other, of 346.41 points, which is not what I want at all. And so here's what you do. I'll go ahead and undo that line. And I'll drag along this guy right here, just so I can find its angle value, which is saying 329 degrees, it's actually 330, and I can confirm that's the case by getting rid of that line and then clicking right there at the intersection of those two center guides. Notice the angle is telling me 330. I'll just go ahead and change the link value to 400 points so I have a very long line, and I'll click, okay. All right, now I'm going to press the V key to switch back to my Black Arrow tool, and I'll shift click on the circle right there to select it. And what we're going to do is turn these guys in the custom guidelines, by going over here to the layers panel, I'll drag this red square right here down in order to move these items to the correct layer. And then I'll right click inside the document window and choose, make guides. And I have a couple of custom guides. All right, now, watch what you do. Go ahead and switch back to your polygon tool, then switch back to the shapes layer, and I'll go ahead and drag from the center down along this guideline, until I snap in alignment with the outside of the circle, at which point, look at that Heads Up Display. We now have a width of 400 points, who cares about the height value? This is the polygon I was looking for. And the reason that it works is because instead of aligning the polygon inside of the circle, I'm aligning it to the outside of the circle. And the reason we needed this custom guideline right here, was so that this edge is exactly vertical. And that is how you understand the radius of any regular polygon here inside Illustrator. Looking forward to next week. Well, that's when we're going to create this three-pointed triangle. "But, Deke," you say, "Don't all triangles have three points?" Yes they do, but here's something special. We're going to take that triangle and turn it into this classic Mercedes star. "But Deke," you say, "Mercedes is a German brand, "isn't America number one?" Yes, it is. In video training, by me, Deke's Techniques each and every week, keep watching.
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
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- 673_shade_panels.zip
- 672_more_rectangles.zip
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- 675_skewed_walls.zip
- 676_magic_checkers.zip
- 677_magic_dots.zip
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- 688_grad_molecules.zip
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- 690_smart_cules.zip
- 691_explore_cules.zip
- 692_blend_cules.zip
- 693_high_pass_cules.zip
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- 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
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- 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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