GLOBAL COLOR; GLOBAL COLOR; GLOBAL COLOR. Illustrator CC Tutorial Video Lecture | Adobe Illustrator: Become a Pro at Designing - Design Softwares

well hey everybody I'm Nathaniel Dodds
from touch vidcom welcome into this
Adobe Illustrator tutorial where today
we're gonna talk about global color and
why you should use it and what's so
great about it now if you enjoy this
tutorial make sure you subscribe to my
channel so you never miss any Adobe
Illustrator or graphic design related
tutorials in the future let's jump into
Adobe Illustrator right now and check
this thing out
alright alright here we are in Adobe
Illustrator and we have some line art in
front of us that we want to color this
is supposed to be a watermelon and we
want to make it look like a watermelon
and we're gonna use global color to do
that create a color palette and build
out and adjust these colors to just make
this thing just like we want it to be so
what's the fuss with global color well
part of the cool thing about global
color is that when you create an object
like let's say we create a square here
and we're building out a little color
scheme we have this sort of teal aqua
green color well if this was a global
color any time we change the global
color here in our color swatches area
this would automatically update no
matter where it's being used across our
document which of course can be
incredibly helpful if you have you know
a hundred different sort of pieces to a
piece of art that you're creating and
the client decides they want you to
change every black to a very dark purple
or something like that well instead of
having to go recolor all kinds of stuff
you would simply double click on the
swatch here in the swatches panel and
adjust that global color now this right
now is not a global color so how do we
make it a global color well there's a
bunch of different ways you can save a
swatch you can just drag this right here
at the bottom of the tool bin right into
the swatches area and there we go it's a
swatch however it's not a global swatch
we're gonna double click on this swatch
and you can see my swatch options come
up I'm working in CMYK by the way CMYK
from what I've heard I tend to work in
it it's it's really great for color
sometimes I'll mess around in RGB but
CMYK is a really good place to live I've
watched and looked and read a lot of
stuff that vawn glitch guy does he
swears by working in CMYK and he's been
doing it for decades at this point if
it's good enough for him it's good
enough for me
and it's the nice thing about it is if
you build a millionnaire a logo or
something in CMYK it's very easy to
convert it to RGB but if you build
something out an RGB you're gonna have a
pretty big shift in color when you
switch back to CMYK so I figure go at it
get great-looking color in CMYK and then
RGB will just be good as gold
so I'm gonna build this here in CMYK and
well it is what it is I'm gonna round
these just kind of the nearest number so
I'm gonna go 60 and I'm gonna say I'll
pull this up to like 45 and let this be
our number now I'm gonna tick on global
and I'm gonna hit okay now notice what
happens with this global swatch we get
this little white bar looking area in
the bottom corner that's just letting us
know yep this is a global color so let's
say I have a hundred of these little
squares out here all over the document
and we're for some reason we've decided
that this looks good and the client says
yep nope we don't like the teal we want
this to be purple now remember all these
teals in here despite the fact that it's
the same color it's not the it's not
from that global color swatch so it's
not gonna be changed here all we need to
do is double click on the global color
swatch and change this so we could say
look we actually want to make this we
want to make this maybe like a yellowish
color so we'll go yellow and if I tick
on preview you're gonna see we actually
get an update of all the graphics that
will change I'm gonna take off preview
and just hit OK and a few things happen
number one the artwork updates but also
the swatch and the swatches panel
updates as well now you can replace a
global colors contents by alter option
dragging from any of the swatches that
you have in your panel so I could say
you know we actually want these to be
hot pink so I'll hold down my alt or
option key drag and drop on top of that
global color swatch global color swatch
updates and so does all the artwork
associated with it this can be
particularly useful if you bring a
reference photo into illustrator and
you're using the eyedropper tool and
sampling colors off of that reference
photo you can let's say we we've just
sampled this green right I can hold down
drag this swatch I'll do my alt or
option key drop it on top of that global
color and you can see everything now
becomes that green so if we sample that
really dark background color we could do
the same thing there we could sample the
color here from the stroke we could just
swap it right to the foreground there
hold down alt or option and say yeah we
actually want you to be the global color
and everything would update so if you're
kind of exploring color and basing off
of some old design that you found in a
magazine or a poster or something or you
have a photograph that you're looking to
copy the general color palette from it's
really easy to do it and apply it across
a big illustration if you're using
global color and also by the way if you
have global colors in a gradient that's
in your artwork that stuff will update
as well and let me actually show you
where this can be particularly useful
let's drive one of these rectangles
out and we're gonna give this a gradient
so I'm gonna say yeah gradient we're
gonna apply a gradient here we're gonna
drag this color swatch and drop it in
here and I'm gonna just add a second
green color swatch I'm gonna drag away
the black and then what we can do with
with a global color not only do you have
the color but you have a hundred
different types of tint for that color
so we can adjust the tint you can see
it's referencing cyan fifty nine yellow
forty three magenta and black both at
zero but most importantly we know that
it's referencing our global color so you
could say yeah this color stop over here
we're gonna make this almost white like
a very super light minty tint and we
have this gradient now what happens when
we update our global color well let's
just double click and let's make it like
a yellow or something when we hit
preview the gradient updates both the
solid you know just right on one
hundred-percent tint of that global
color but also the very super light tint
of the global color so if I make this
pink over here is gonna be just a super
light pink so it's really really
powerful when you begin mixing global
colors and playing with the tints
there's so much you can do with global
colors it's really really a thing of
beauty so I'm just gonna select all
these shapes here let's try to colorize
our watermelon here oops I don't want to
get rid of that I'm gonna just select
these few squares and let's build out a
color palette here so the way I like to
do this is just use square so I'm just
gonna drag out a square I know that I
want a background color I want a color
for the rind of my watermelon and then
another color for like the internal rind
and then I want another color that'll be
the watermelon flesh and then I might go
with like just a red pinkish color and a
light blue color for some of these sort
of floating dots that are floating
around our illustration so we have what
four five six different colors we need
to build out so here's what we'll do
well go ahead and delete this a global
color just get rid of it and we're gonna
choose new swatch here from the swatches
panel and what's going to happen is
illustrator is going to take the
selected color that we have so right now
we've selected that object there's the
fill color this is what it's saying yeah
you want this as your swatch right well
not really we want to make a background
color here so I'm gonna make sure global
is ticked on number one and we're just
going to go with even numbers so I want
this to be heavy magenta so I'm gonna go
like 85
I'm gonna push the cyan up as well we'll
go 85 for that yellow we're gonna drop
this down to like 20 and we want this to
be relatively dark so I'm gonna say like
50 here in the black channel you know
I'm gonna make it darker than we're
gonna say 75 something like that and I'm
gonna hit okay so right now we have a
global color this would be sort of our
background color now we're gonna go
ahead and create a nice rich green this
will be sort of the darkest green in the
illustration the the sort of rind of our
watermelon so once more I'm gonna choose
create a new swatch it's gonna pick up
that same teal that's fine but we want
to kind of explore here we want to go
with just a very very rich green so I'm
gonna push yellow to 100 and probably
cyan cyan almost to 100 maybe we'll drop
cyan at about 75 and I'm gonna leave
magenta magenta is the opposite of green
so I'm gonna leave that at 0% and I want
this to be pretty bright well maybe not
quite that bright
maybe we'll push it to about 20
something like that and we'll hit okay
so there's the rind of the watermelon
now we're gonna select the next color
this is gonna be sort of the fleshy
almost yellowy internal of the
watermelon so we're gonna push cyan down
to like 10 we're gonna leave magenta at
zero and with the yellow I'll probably
push this up to 50 and I might drop cyan
down even 2-0 something like that I
think the yellow should be less let's
push that down to like 35 something like
that I think is good and we'll hit okay
that actually might need to be a little
bit less saturated even than that but
that's fine we can play with that later
next we're gonna create a nice rich
almost pink red color for the flesh of
the watermelon so again new swatch we
will drop cyan all the way down cyan and
red or opposite so we know we want red
and then I'm gonna push this up and I'm
gonna slide yellow up until I start to
get I almost want this you can see how
it's almost pink red color I kind of
like that now that's too too pink if I
so you know if I push that up and push
this slightly toward red a little bit
more maybe something like that'll work
we'll go ahead and hit okay so that'd be
sort of the flesh of the watermelon
maybe it's too red not pink enough but
that's alright and you know what I think
we won't be doing a red dot we'll just
use whatever the color of the watermelon
is and then we're gonna just create a
light blue here so once more I'm gonna
say new global color swatch and this is
just gonna be a nice light blue so we'll
go something kind of like this and we
can always choose a tint of it if we
like so this is kind of the color scheme
that we've developed and we're ready to
begin applying it to colors here in our
document so
begin with the underlying green shape we
can just select the stroke get rid of
the stroke select the fill hold down our
eyedropper or I should say select the
eyedropper tool by hitting a letter I
and just sample that really dark green
and you can see what I've selected is
some kind of semi-transparent multiply
blend mode something let's just shut
that off real quick we want to get we
want to get to the original nitty-gritty
here so let's let's grab here it is this
is the original artwork and I'm gonna
say yep go ahead and fill that with
green it's gonna take a second it's got
to rebuild an outer glow that's fine but
there is the rind of our watermelon
we'll select the next shape in and this
is gonna be sort of the yellow fleshy
part of the watermelon and or I'm sorry
they have sort of the inner rind and
then the next is gonna be the red fleshy
part of the watermelon just like that
and then we want to go ahead and apply a
nice green color to this half of the
watermelon this is sort of gonna be a
half of the watermelon that's covering
the watermelon to give it more of a
rounded shape so once we'll apply that
green to this and I'm gonna shut this
other shape off on top here and we have
our basic watermelon shape I'm going to
go ahead what's this here these are
these kind of squiggly lines we're gonna
apply the dark green to that as well now
you can see well they're just blending
right in because they're the same color
as our rind that's fine we're gonna be
creating a gradient here with our global
colors to kind of offset that in just a
second I can actually scroll down here
I'm gonna unlock my background layer
let's select our background grab our
eyedropper tool and just give this the
new background color and with that I
think I'm gonna do some seeds the
background color and some seeds will be
a white and some will be the red of the
watermelon flesh so we'll go ahead here
I'm gonna select this big middle seed
and I'm gonna collapse my properties
panel for a quick second just to get it
out of the way and then I'm gonna select
maybe this little seed and what would it
be would it be this one nope it's not
that when I'm just shift-clicking these
circles by the way here to select
multiples nope not that one there we go
to that one so these three I'm gonna
color these the same color as the
background and then I'm gonna go ahead
I'm gonna select this this little seed
and maybe this one here yeah and we'll
make these the same red as the
watermelon flush they're gonna disappear
but we're gonna change that in a second
you'll see how we change it and then I'm
gonna select the last two little seeds
here and these guys are going to be
white but I'm really gonna make them the
really light yellow
of the inner rind we can see there the
go they look good what we can do to keep
this linked to that global color if we
want them to be super close to white
well just change the tint right so we
could say we still want to be a little
bit of that yellowy color in there let's
just make this like a ten or twelve
hundred I'll punch in ten manually 10%
tint and there we go
for all intents and purposes they look
totally solid white now here's where
some of the magic begins this is where
we can both use tints and gradients to
really mess around and play with this
and bring some shape into this so I'm
gonna first begin with the underlying
rind and we're gonna say yeah we
actually want to apply a gradient here
so I can drag my color stop into the
gradient editor here and it's gonna show
up in there I'm gonna start getting rid
of these other color stops and I'm just
gonna drag out a second one of these
color stops and I'll drag and get rid of
the other sort of aqua green then we'll
go ahead we'll just adjust this gradient
I'll bring this Center slider over to
right around 50% maybe a little less
than 50% maybe 45 I'll select the color
stop all the way over here to the right
and we'll just change the tint up here
we'll change it to like I don't know
let's see what 75 looks like and that
doesn't look too bad maybe I'll just
I'll punch it back to like 60 maybe and
you can see how it's really giving this
gradation in fact I think I'm gonna drag
this color stop back to extend that a
little bit further toward the sort of
halfway point of my watermelon just like
that and then we would pretty much do
the same with the red flesh here we're
gonna add this red color to our gradient
and I can begin dragging away my green
color stops let's just add a second of
those red color stops and once more I'll
drag this red color stop over I'm gonna
drag this green color stop to earth I'm
sorry the the middle red color stop to
about the 50% location maybe a little
less than 50 I'll select the color stop
over to the right and we'll just change
the tint here so I'll reduce this I want
to be careful I don't want my are my
flesh to look orange I still want it to
definitely have a reddish nough stew it
but I want it to just be offset a little
bit from the fleshiness that's back here
so maybe we'll drop it down we'll go
like 85 even something like that that
looks pretty cool and then we'll
probably have to do to make the seeds
stand out a little more I'm gonna lock
my background layer here so I don't
accidentally damage it to make these
seeds stand out a little more they
probably should be a little darker but I
think I'm just gonna use my tint here
and just make them a touch brighter so
we'll go push these to like 90 as well
just they're gonna it's gonna make them
stick out a little bit more and they'll
be sort of the subtle
quite so noticeable seed in there all
right cool that's good let's grab this
half of our watermelon and we're gonna
do the same thing here we're gonna apply
and get that same lighter green what was
at 65% on the gradient let's just try
taking our eyedropper tool and just
sampling that gradient now I
accidentally sampled the yellow we don't
want that we want the green you can see
it's going side to side we actually want
this to go up and down so we're gonna go
90 degrees and let's maybe just stretch
this guy back out entirely something
like that you can see what's happening
is now we're starting to be able to see
some of that texture of that darker
green appear and of course one of the
things you're probably noticing is this
weird-looking little line there that's
actually a little highlight I've got
we're gonna select our stroke here and
we will give this that same green global
color so I can use my eyedropper tool I
can just sample it but then I'll just
have to swap fill and Stroke so I'll
just hit shift in the X key that's gonna
swap my fill and my stroke now we've got
this green as our stroke we can't really
see it so I'm gonna take the tint of
this and just crank it way up to like I
don't know let's go 10% again nearly
white we'll go to our properties panel
here and we'll say stroke actually let's
open up the stroke entirely let's give
this a round cap and Matt oh no make
this a 10-point stroke something like
that it should be pretty noticeable for
us I'll go ahead here and deselect and
yeah there we go and because it's a tint
of the green if we decide to change this
to make it a blue watermelon for
whatever stupid reason we can do that
and we won't have to worry about our
tint looking out of place so now let's
go ahead let's select a couple of these
shapes here some of these shapes should
be green some should be white some
should be red some should be blue so I'm
gonna select these two let's make these
green I'm gonna select this one here and
I will select this little guy out here
maybe this big one up here and we'll
make these red or again we're sampling
our global colors then I'll select this
guy here and this little one here and
this one right here and we'll make these
blue finally we're gonna use our blue
global color cool and last but not least
we'll select the final two and we'll
make these that really light yellow but
I'm probably specifically going to come
in and give these a tint now look at the
color panel look at this
all that tinting stuff went away where
did it go well what we're looking at is
actually the non-existent stroke so if
we select the fill here we go tint let's
push this all the way up well push it up
to like 10% as well something like that
basically making it solid white so at
this point we have our colors we got
some gradients
here we have some stuff that's going on
but what if we look at it it's like ah
the green isn't quite right the red
isn't quite right the the yellow should
really be a little bit whiter how do we
start changing this well let's go to our
green first here actually let's go to
our background maybe the background
should be less saturated and a little
darker double-click on that and we can
say look yeah make the background a
little darker we can even preview this
so we can see exactly what it looks like
let's take this 290 and let's say a
little bit more yellow in there
something like that let's push this down
to 80 nope eighties not right 85 is
probably about right and hit okay great
we've updated the background color
alright let's double click on green here
and let's push this up can we make it
more green let's turn preview on and
remember this is gonna update everything
even our gradients because everything is
a version of our global color here I'm
gonna make this a brighter green now
maybe should make it a darker green
maybe I should pull the cyan back out of
it a little bit that looks like a bad
watermelon it's kind of yellowish right
if I push some magenta into there no
that just kind of muddles things maybe I
should just make it brighter and there
might just be a limitation on how green
we can make this thing look here with
the CMYK color space so we'll push a
little pull and we'll try to get it as
nice as we can we're set to 90 maybe
I'll make it a little bit darker here I
pushed it to like 30 that's kind of cool
I'll hit OK I'll live with that and
let's try to make the yellow part of the
fleshy rind a little bit less yellow so
we'll just take the yellow and say yeah
yellow you know what stopped being quite
so yellow and it's a preview that and
see what that looks like that's actually
pretty nice too maybe we'll take it down
to 15 and maybe make it just a little
bit darker I'll go like 5 in the K
Department hit okay there we go it's a
little more washed out but I think it
kind of works for us all the same let's
go over to the red let's see if we can
make this a little bit more red so we'll
push more yellow into it let's preview
it so we can see what we're getting here
and now you can see this makes the tint
a bit more Orange
if we increase the cyan a little bit
what does that do that just kind of
Browns us out what if we darken it a
little bit by adding some K with it
actually kind of looks nice we'll push
this up to about 20 or so that's kind of
neat let's try to scale back on the
yellow a little bit and actually I'll
push the K back to like 10% I think
something like that's nice there's
before there's after we just make it a
little bit more like watermelon fleshy
colored now last but not least if we
just wanted to take the blue and say you
know what be crazy blue or be super
duper light blue kind of something like
that we probably wouldn't want that
because we want to really be able to
differentiate our dots out here from the
white dot
so those blues are very obvious so we
could just make that a very rich blue
and hit okay so you can really tell here
using these global colors we just have
an immense amount of control and edit
ability later on to come back to a
document that has tons of different
layers with the color spread out we're
just working from a single color palette
and because they're all global color so
we go ahead and change one of them and
just everything is gonna change across
the board so if the client said yeah we
don't want the green watermelon we would
like the watermelon to be maybe more of
a blue type watermelon have you ever
seen have you seen one of them we've got
these blue watermelons are really cool
and when you say okay and they say yeah
but not only that the flesh of the blue
watermelon is kind of orangey
so we'd say okay sounds weird not sure
that it's my type of watermelon but you
know you say the word and I'll make it
happen so then we go with like this blue
and yellow we orangey looking watermelon
there we go and hit OK and it's just the
whole point is it's just super easy to
go in and make these big color changes
and oh by the way all the little dots
change around the watermelon to reflect
the color style which you're working
with so just a global color it's an
awesome thing
so that ladies and gentlemen is a global
color in Adobe Illustrator it's really
super useful and incredibly versatile
once you start using it you really just
well you really can't go back if you
enjoyed this video make sure you
subscribe to my channel so you miss any
other Photoshop or illustrator really
graphic design related tutorials in the
future and if you're into discord check
out our discord a chant this corded not
me slash Tut vid there's a link down on
the bio for that and if you're into
Instagram
well of course check me out over on
Instagram at tub did we do a live show
on all kinds of artwork sharing stuff
and it's just a whole bunch of fun in
general so for colors and tints and CMYK
stuff and why global color is just
really really great that's it get it got
it good
nothing the lads and Hut vidcom look at
you next and before you go make sure you
subscribe to my channel for more great
tutorials every day also by my course it
helps us do what we do and this channel
is supported by viewers just like you
you can also just click the thumbnail
and watch another video from this
channel
see you next time guys
[Music]