in today's video six things you might not know about a DeBellis traitor and
what they can do so follow along and see how many of them you've actually learned
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version so welcome back to Satori graphics everybody and we are back in my
second home Adobe Illustrator the first function in Adobe Illustrator that you
might not know about relates to the live corners which you can only use if you
have illustrator CC you can find the live corners here and by using the
direct selection tool which is a on your keyboard you can round the corners off
like so which is really basic stuff and that's not what the tip is actually
about the tip here is that you can double click the live corners to bring
up this a dialog box you now have new options that allow you to change the
style of the corner and you have some measurements to adjust an alter rate as
well and this was hiding behind a double click the entire time also however you
can use the standard selection tool which is V on your keyboard and then
double click to bring up the transform window instantly this will allow you to
transform your shapes as a whole
so that was the first thing you might not know about illustrator let's move on
to more geeky a goodness so we've swapped up a square for a circle and for
this one we're going to look at a neat function that uses gradients we're going
to add a gradient to our stroke but in a very specific way so if you want to
toggle the stroke and the fill simply press X and that will change the color
palette selection but anyway for this effect make a gradient and then make
sure to use the apply a grading along a stroke which is the middle box in the
gradient window you then want to increase the stroke weight as a whole
and I actually didn't click the gradient along a stroke option but yeah okay so
keep increasing the stroke weights until the hole in the middle of your shape
disappears this leave you there really needs outcome and this actually does
work all kinds of different shapes but let's move on to the next edition in
today's tutorial and for this one you do again need illustrator CC because I'm
going to show you a neat way to use the free form of gradient tool now for this
one you want to open up the gradient window and also the swatches panel too
and these can both be found under the window drop down menu now we need the
swatches panel open because we're going to make a global swatch which will be
part of this neat function I'm going to show you when using the freeform
gradient tool so drag a color into the swatches panel from the colors palettes
and then double click it so you can activate the global swatch option using
the ellipse tool I'm going to make a circle so I can actually demonstrate the
next step so you can add a gradient fill in the color palettes or just go
directly to the gradient in the gradient window and you want to make use of the
freeform gradients now the lines option is so much better
than a sports option in my personal opinion and so we're going to be using
that if I select a node and then I choose my global swatch color I can
continue to make a line around my design like so the lines option gives you more
freedom to position your gradient in a very precise way as opposed to just
using spot colors now if I finish up my design here I'm going to reveal why the
global swatch option is very handy say if I want to change the color of each
point on my line it would take a lot of time to individually click each color on
the line and change it so what I can do is simply just double click the swatch
color and then adjust it from here which will change the entire color across the
line now personally speaking this is one of the best ways to use a free-form
gradient tool in Illustrator in most situations the next thing you might not
know about illustrator is a quick way to make a color scheme and to create a
visual harmony with color you're going to find that in the color guide which is
located here now clicking the fly down menu will show you all of the color
schemes and the choices that you have and this feature is so useful
illustrator it's something I use on a regular basis in my workflow so let's
take the base color of this logo and then create a monochromatic selection
using it holding down the alt/option key and then clicking and dragging will
duplicate my design and then I just hit command or ctrl + D which is going to
repeat the process and using the color guide window makes life so much easier
when selecting and using colors in Adobe Illustrator and it's something I feel
every single designer can make good use of color is very important when it comes
to designs and it can make or break a design as a matter of fact
the next function administrator is a quick one but it's really handy to know
and many of you probably already know it's but if you want to place a design
or an object in the direct center of the artboards there are various different
ways to do that but one quick way is to open up the align window and then set
the alignment to align to our boards now we can Center anything to the exact
center very very easily and also quickly also we can align things to the edges of
the artboard as well so the next aspect of Illustrator that you might not know
about is something quite fun to experiment with
so firstly before that we can add some more anchor points to a shape or a
design and you can do that in the paths menu right here now I'm actually going
to do this two times in fact
so in the effects menu you'll find something labeled a pucker and bloat
this can make some very interesting vector designs in a matter of seconds
depending on your shape and the amount of anchor points that you're using so
check the preview option and then see what kind of results you get this last
one is kind of a bit of fun and it's interesting to experiment with a
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and if you do want to keep boosting your skills as a graphic designer
do remember to subscribe to my channel for weekly graphic design content and of
course until next time guys design your future today peace