Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics back with another video tutorial.
Today we're going to have some fun using both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop to create
a colourful abstract design.
We'll use Illustrator's powerful shape tools to create a tessellating geometric pattern,
then we'll send the vector artwork over to Photoshop for some polishing and finishing
touches to add cool textures and colour effects.
Begin by opening up Adobe Illustrator and creating a new document of any size.
Go to View > Hide Artboard to give yourself a nice large work area.
Select the Rectangle tool and click once on the artboard to specify an exact size.
Enter 50mm for the width and height to create a square, then clear out the stroke colour
to leave just a white fill.
Next, go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel.
Change the settings to 45 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees, then change the Surface setting
to Wireframe.
Go to Object > Expand Appearance to convert the shape, then repeatedly right click and
select Ungroup until the Ungroup option is no longer available.
Click on the fill box and select a gradient from the Swatches panel, then alter the colours
of the gradient handles to a pastel yellow to pink.
I'm using #ffec96 to #e1739c.
Switch to the stroke setting, then clear out the current selection by clicking the None
icon.
Draw a selection around all the objects that make up this cube, then reduce the opacity
from within the Transparency panel to 70%.
Select the lowermost face of the cube, then use the shortcut CMD+Shift+[, or the Arrange
> Send to Back menu option to place this shape at the bottom of the stack.
Click on the first cube face on the left and adjust the gradient direction to 90 degrees.
Then click the next cube face and change the gradient flow to -90 degrees.
Change the gradient flow of the top face to 45 degrees, then alter the flow of the rear
left face to -45 degrees.
This just mixes up the colours a little to enhance the gradient effect.
Draw a selection around this cube element and press CMD+G to Group.
Turn on Smart Guides with the shortcut CMD+U, then hold the Alt and Shift keys while dragging
out a duplicate of the shape.
Use the Smart Guides to snap this shape directly next to the original.
Repeatedly press the Transform Again shortcut of CMD+D to generate a series of perfectly
aligned shapes.
Aim for a row of around 8.
Draw a selection around all the shapes, then hold Alt while dragging the elements to duplicate
the entire row.
Align the new row underneath, slightly offsetting it to tessellate the shapes.
Draw a new selection to capture all the elements, then hold Alt and drag another duplicate,
this time aligning the shapes vertically.
Repeatedly press the shortcut CMD+D to extend this pattern to fill a rectangular composition.
Now the geometric shapes have been created, it's time to switch over to Photoshop to apply
some special effects.
Download and open a subtle grunge texture to use as a background.
Switch back to Adobe Illustrator and select the entire design.
Press CMD+C to Copy, then Paste the selection into Photoshop.
Select the Pixels option, then scale the design to fit within the canvas, leaving a slight
border around the edge.
Change the blending mode of the design layer to Multiply to allow the texturing to show
through.
Then press CMD+J to duplicate this layer.
Change the blending mode of this duplicate layer back to Normal but reduce the opacity
to 80% to leave just a subtle texturing effect.
Create a new layer, then set up a large soft brush.
Select a bright pastel pink colour then apply it to the lower right corner of the canvas.
the colour I'm using #e084e6.
Create another new layer and change the colour selection to a pastel orange such as #e69b84
and add an area of colour to the lower left corner of the canvas.
Create one more layer.
This time use a pastel yellow colour like #e3e684 and fill in the remaining area at
the top of the canvas.
Select all three of these colour layers and change the blending mode to Soft Light, then
individually reduce the opacity of each layer to tone down the amount of colour adjustment
to leave just a subtle change of hue. 44%, 77% and 55% are the opacities that I ended
up with.
Create another new layer and this time add a few dabs of black around the canvas.
Change the blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to 50%.
Add one more layer to the top of the stack.
Dramatically reduce the size of the brush and set the colour to white, then add a few
highlights to the corners of some of the shapes.
Once you've added a range of specular highlights to the design, change the blending mode to
Color Dodge, then reduce the Fill to around 10% so the highlights are hardly visible,
but they make a big difference when the layer is turned off.
So that leaves our abstract geometric design complete.
If you enjoyed this tutorial I'd really appreciate a thumbs up on YouTube to help spread the
word, otherwise you can subscribe both on YouTube and on my website at http://spoon.graphics
to receive more tutorials for Illustrator and Photoshop, along with free resources and
inspiration for your upcoming design projects.
So as always thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one.