Blended Floral Effects in Adobe Illustrator CC Video Lecture | Adobe Illustrator: Become a Pro at Designing - Design Softwares

(magical chiming)
- Hey everybody, I'm Nathaniel
Dodson from tutvid.com.
Welcome right into this
Adobe Illustrator tutorial,
where today we're gonna
cover three different methods
for doing this blended floral,
borderline geometric design.
I'm not necessarily sure what to call it.
But I stumbled across
this effect, actually,
here on YouTube.
Saw some other people
doing it and thought whoa,
that's so stinkin' cool,
gotta give it a shot.
So I came up with three
different techniques
that are kind of my own rendition of it,
and I just had to share them with you.
So that's what this tutorial is all about.
I think you're really gonna love it.
If you do love it, make sure
you hit that subscribe button,
subscribe to my channel so you never miss
any past, present, or future
Illustrator tutorials.
With that outta the way, let's jump in
and check this thing out.
Alright, so like I said,
I saw this tutorial
on some videos here on YouTube.
I'm gonna make sure I link those videos
down in the description so you
can check them out as well.
Give those guys some love,
because without them,
I probably wouldn't be here
making this video right now.
So here we are in Illustrator.
Got a blank document.
I sized my document 2560 by 1440.
And I am gonna kick things off
by canceling out the fill
by selecting the fill
and hitting the slash icon
over in the tool panel there.
Then I'll use the black
stroke for my shape.
So that's the important thing here.
Just that stroke, and we
can leave it black for now, that's fine.
I'm gonna grab my ellipse tool,
and I'm gonna click once,
and I'm gonna choose
to size this ellipse at
7 pixels by 7 pixels.
Then I'm gonna set the
stroke for the little ellipse
to 10 points, and then I'm
gonna grab the star tool.
I'm gonna click once, and
I'm gonna set my Radius 1
and Radius 2 to 125 and 65 and choose
to make a star with 10 points.
I'll then click to add another star.
Don't worry about all the alignment,
we'll get to that in a second.
Click to add another star, and this one
is gonna have a 200 and a 150 Radius.
And the star will also, excuse
me, the star also 10 points.
So next, we're gonna select all three
of these shapes we just made.
We'll open the Align panel Window, Align,
and choose to align to the
art board first and foremost,
that's important, and
then align these shapes
both vertically and horizontally.
Next, I'll grab my selection tool.
I'm gonna select the outermost star,
and I'm gonna hold down
the command or control key
and use those little
white dots that appear.
See them?
I'm gonna drag them inward a little bit,
just to round off the
points of the stars a bit.
And I'll repeat that process here
for the inner star as well.
This gets us set up nicely
for what's about to come.
Now I'm gonna select
the outer stroke here,
and open my Gradient panel, and apply
a radial gradient, and
drag the leftmost handle.
I'll drag it into around the 75% mark.
And then I'm gonna change the color
to a pale yellow using the Color panel.
I'm gonna set the Color panel to RGB
and choose the color here.
And then I'm gonna set
the right-hand color stop
to more of a salmon-ish color.
I'm gonna leave the right-hand stop
over there at 100% position.
After I do that, I'll
select the second star,
and I'm gonna add a radial
gradient here as well.
I'll drag the leftmost handle
into about the 50% mark,
and this one I'm gonna set
to a deep magenta-pink color
using the Color panel in the RGB mode.
And I will select the
right-hand color stop.
I'll change that to,
like, a nice light pink,
again, using RGB up in the Color Mode.
And maybe I'll even drag it inward
to about the 85% mark,
something around there.
Then I'm gonna select the
little ellipse in the center,
and sample in that same
gradient, and flip the color.
So sample that in using
the eyedropper tool.
Just gonna flip those colors,
and I'll adjust the gradient
until I see a good gradient
across this sort of fat stroke.
Right, we gave these, the ellipse
and the stars this really thick stroke
so we could help see this
gradient a little bit more.
So once I see the gradient
across this fat stroke,
I know I kinda have
this in the right place.
Next, I'll select all three strokes.
And here we're done, we don't need
to see these huge strokes anymore.
So we'll reduce the stroke to 1 point,
a nice, thin, slender stroke.
Then I'm gonna go Object, Blend,
and I'm gonna choose Blend Options first.
And I'm gonna choose Specified
Steps from the drop-down
and blend it with 300 steps.
Next, make sure I still have
the three strokes selected.
Go Object, Blend, Make.
So we've got this crazy
gradient object going on now.
I'm gonna select this entire blend now,
and I'm gonna go Effect,
Distort & Transform,
Pucker & Bloat, and I'm
gonna lay a big bloat,
like 75%, plus 75% on this thing.
And then I'm gonna go back to Effect,
Distort & Transform, and choose Zig Zag.
I'm gonna go with 21 pixels in Size,
I'm gonna choose
Absolute, and I'm gonna go
with a 7 Ridge per segment option,
and I'll Smooth the lines
to create this effect here.
Now, just be aware, this is
a little processor intensive,
so it make take a couple seconds
before you see your finished effect.
Don't worry.
But at this point, the
effect is gonna be finished.
You can add a background to this graphic,
you could tweak the colors, bring it over
into Photoshop, adjust the
color, and tweak white balance,
and all kinds of stuff a
little bit more if you like.
But the effect as it is going to be made
in Illustrator is done.
This is the first of these sort of floral,
blended-color flower effects.
So onto the next.
Here again with another
blank document, 2560 by 1440.
We're gonna add a 140
pixel by 140 pixel ellipse
just by clicking a single time
and setting it to 140 by 140.
I'm gonna give this a 10
point stroke again, no fill.
And we'll add a star
shape above this ellipse,
and just click to add the star shape.
Again, we'll go 150 by 75, or
150 and 75 for the 2 Radius.
And for this star, we're
gonna go 12 points.
Then we'll add a third star.
Sounding familiar here, isn't it?
Oh, we're gonna go 450
for the first Radius,
250 for the second Radius.
Again, 12 points for this star as well.
Then I'm gonna grab all
three of these shapes.
Again, use the Align
panel, get 'em all lined up
vertically, horizontally, in
accordance with our art board.
Now, I'm gonna use the selection tool.
Once again, hold down my
command or control key,
drag those little white dots in.
We're gonna do this for both stars.
The key here is that I'm really looking
for those outer stars to
be long and thin stars,
but just very slightly rounded corners.
Select the outer stroke shape,
and to this we're gonna
add a radial gradient
with a color stop on the
left set to a very pale,
like, yellow-slash-pink color.
I don't know how to describe it.
And then the right color stopper
we're just gonna set to
a straight pale pink.
Then I'm gonna drag the left color stop
in to about the 75% point.
I'm gonna grab the inner stroke here,
and I'm gonna add a
radial gradient to this
with the color stop to the
left set to a hot pink.
And then I'll change the right color stop
to a slightly brighter, hotter
pink, also using Color panel,
which by the way, I'm setting
the Color panel to RGB.
You can really use any of the modes here
as long as you have access to color.
HSB, CMYK, they'll all work for you.
I'm gonna drag the left color stop
in this gradient to 50%,
and the right color stop,
I'm gonna slide it into 75%.
Next, I'll select the
ellipse in the center,
and I'm gonna add a
radial gradient once more.
Here I'm gonna change the left color stop
to just a very pale
yellow, and I'll change
the color stop on the right to a hot pink.
And then I'm gonna swing
the left color stop
over to about the 70% mark,
so shift it way over there.
After that, I'm gonna
select these three strokes.
Gonna reset 'em to 1 point
using the Stroke panel.
And I'll use that same set
of blending options we set before.
So I can just go Object, Blend, Make.
That's gonna apply the same 300 step blend
that we used on our first floral,
and roll with what we get.
The real key when you're working
with artwork like this is
getting the color right.
You get the color right,
you can really make some cool stuff.
So spend a little bit of time
tweaking and adjusting the color.
If you don't quite get it right,
go ahead and play with the
color a little bit more,
and then go ahead and try
making your blend again.
So now that you have this, go ahead
and select the whole blend, and go Effect,
Distort & Transform, and
choose Pucker & Bloat.
We're gonna bloat this just
a little bit, to like 15%.
Then I'm gonna go Effect,
Distort & Transform, Zig Zag.
And for this one, I'm
gonna set the Zig Zag
to 15 pixels, Absolute, and with 3 Ridges,
and select Smooth, not Corner.
We'll go ahead here and
we'll create another ellipse,
175 by 175 pixels, and I'm gonna fill it
with a radial gradient that goes
from a flat pink on the left color stop.
And select the color stop on the right,
and make this one like a
deep, dark, saturated pink,
very hot, very magenta pink,
and adjust that flat lighter pink stop
to flood the middle of the flower
with more of that pink like
we did with the last one.
So I'm taking this
ellipse, I'm making sure
that I'm aligning it to
the very center, here,
of this floral-looking
shape that we're working on.
And as we did before, we can
add a background to this.
We can take this bad boy
into Photoshop or wherever,
have some fun tweaking the colors
and contrast tones just as we see fit,
have a little bit of fun with it.
And once you're finished with that,
let's go ahead and get after the next one
for the third and the
final of these floral,
blended flower artwork
designs we're gonna create.
Once again, I'm gonna begin
with a blank 2560 by 1440 document.
I'm gonna add a star here.
400 for the first Radius,
150 for the second Radius, with 18 points.
This is like an extreme star.
Then I'm gonna select the star
and use the selection
tool, hold down my command
or control key, and use the
dots to round the corners.
And for this star, we don't
need to worry about Stroke.
In fact, we don't want Stroke.
We're just dealing with a fill.
So we're going to apply a radial gradient.
And I'm gonna set the left color stop
to sort of this toasted brown color.
I'm gonna add a point in the middle here.
I'm gonna set that to
this bright, fiery orange.
And then I'm gonna change
the rightmost point
to this very bright but
pale sort of yellow color.
And then I'm gonna move the
left point to the 65% mark.
And the middle point,
I'm gonna shift it over
to the 85% mark here on my Gradient.
Then I'm gonna go Edit, and choose Copy.
Then I'm just gonna choose
Edit, Paste in Front.
This essentially is
gonna duplicate the star
and paste it exactly in place.
But here, with the front star selected,
I'm gonna look to my Properties panel,
and I"m gonna lock the Width
and Height proportions.
And I'm gonna set one of
the Sizes here to 20 pixels.
Then I'll use the Align
panel to line these shapes up
horizontally, vertically, and apply
the same type of blend that
we've been using before
by going Object, Blend, Make,
to apply that same blend to
just these two star shapes.
Then I'll go ahead and I'll
select this whole blend.
I'm gonna use that same Pucker & Bloat.
So we're gonna go Effect,
Distort & Transform, Pucker & Bloat.
And I'm gonna pucker this thing -30%.
So we're gonna go opposite
the way we've been going
for the rest of this tutorial.
Then we're gonna go Effect,
Distort & Transform,
and choose to Roughen.
And we're gonna roughen
this thing up to 30%.
I'm gonna choose
Relative, we're gonna go 0
for Detail, and we're gonna
set this thing to Smooth.
You can see that it's crazy.
It's almost like a shag
carpet floral effect.
It's kinda cool.
And that's basically it for this flower.
It's very simple.
And like we did before,
we can add a background,
we can take the graphic into Photoshop,
play with the color or
the tone, you name it,
wherever, whenever, however we
want to our heart's delight.
And ladies and gentlemen,
that's pretty much gonna
be it for this one.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
If you did enjoy it, if
you did create this flower,
make sure you upload it to Instagram.
Tag me.
My Instagram handle is @tutvid.
Actually tag me in the photo,
not just the description.
If you drop the tag in the photo,
it shows up in my tagged
photos and I'll never miss it.
I'll eventually get to ya.
If you just tag me, like, in the caption,
it's in my notifications.
It's here today, gone tomorrow,
and then I just can't find it again.
So make sure you do that.
I would love to see what
you guys are creatin'.
I'll make sure I slap I like on it.
I'll get in there, drop
ya a comment, show ya.
Dap ya up a little bit,
that's what I'm tryin' to say.
Again, my Instagram handle is @tutvid.
You can check it out.
I try to post some stuff
over their livestreams,
the whole bit.
It's all good.
Alright, so for this tutorial,
and for the blend tool,
and just kind of everything
that we did in this,
all that roughen, and all
the distort, and transform,
and just all that stuff, for
all that and more, that's it!
Get it, got it?
Good!
(funky smooth dance music)
Nathaniel Dodson, tutvid.com.
I'll catch ya in the next one.
And before you go, make sure you subscribe
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