[ Music ]
>> Hello, and welcome to this video tutorial brought
to you by tastytuts.com.
In this tutorial, I'm going to talk about fill
and stroke effects in Adobe Illustrator.
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need
to open this document I have prepared especially
for this tutorial.
This can be found in the introduction folder
in the project folder.
Now, you can download this project folder for free.
The download link is in the description.
So with the project folder open, click introduction,
fill and stroke effects, versions and select the version
of Illustrator you're using.
In my case, it's CC, and open the fill
and stroke effects file, and you should have something
that looks like this.
Now we are going to be covering a lot in this video,
and in quite some depth.
If you wish to skip ahead to any point in the video or back,
you can do so quite simply.
The topics covered in this video are listed in the description,
along with their times.
So, be sure to check that out.
So, let's zoom in to take a closer look.
Here, you can see some fill and stroke examples
which I have prepared to demonstrate some of the basics.
Here we have a vector with a fill and stroke,
just the fill and just a stroke.
Vector shapes in Illustrator can have either a fill color
or a stroke color or both.
As a beginner, it helps to understand how this works
so you can control your artwork.
So, our first example on the far left here is a vector example
with both a stroke and a fill color applied.
If we select this vector with the selection tool
and look closely at the bottom of the tools menu,
we can see what's applied.
And we can see the fill color.
The top square is yellow, and the stroke color,
the outline square, behind, is blue.
We can also see the colors applied up here
in the top control panel, along with the stroke size
and profile and brush definition.
If we continue to look closely at the colors at the bottom
of the menu panel, just above the colored squares is a button
that looks like a double-ended arrow.
This is the swap, fill and stroke button.
If we click this, we can swap the colors like so.
Sometimes you may accidently change a stroke color
with the intent on changing the fill.
So, if this ever happens,
you can simply press the swap button.
So let's now move on to the next example.
I'm going to select this vector with the selection tool.
Once this is selected,
look again at the bottom of the tools menu.
This time, we can see that only a fill is applied and no stroke.
Now we know this because the background stroke square has a
red dash going through it.
A red dash means transparency or not color applied.
And just like earlier, with the vector selected,
if we collect the swap, fill and stroke button,
we have converted this vector object from a fill to a stroke.
I'm just going to click off this shape as I want
to demonstrate something real quick.
So keep in mind that this vector was originally a solid yellow
fill, and we just changed it to a stroke.
So now, this vector is just a stroke and has no fill color.
Now watch this.
With my selection tool, I'm going to attempt
to select my vector shape.
So I'm going to move my mouse cursor
into the middle and click.
And I'm clicking multiple times, yet the shape is not selecting.
Now, this is because there is nothing to select.
The shape is empty, so remember, when you have a vector
that is just an outline, you have to be careful
to move your mouse cursor over the actual stroke and then click
to select the object like so.
Or, you could click and drag a selection over the shape like so
and release the selector.
Once selected, I'm going to swap that back to a fill
by pressing the swap, fill and stroke button.
So moving on to the next example, by now,
you should already be familiar
with a vector with just a stroke.
With the selection tool, I'm carefully going
to select the stroke, and in the tools menu we can confirm
that this vector shape contains no fill
as the fill square is showing a red dash.
To modify the size of the stroke is quite simple.
So we currently have this vector selected.
If we look up on the control panel to the top left,
we can see that the current stroke size is four points.
If we press up or down on the toggle buttons,
we can push the size up or down like so,
or we can even type in our own value.
We can also see the stroke value if we look in the stroke panel.
I'm going to come across and click on my stroke panel.
Though, if you cannot see yours, you can come to window,
scroll down and select the stroke panel from there.
And at the top, we have our stroke weight.
And here we can change this back to four points.
Nice. So the fill and stroke squares
in the tools menu is something to really pay attention
to if you are a beginner.
Once you get your head around this, you will find using fill
and stroke effects very easy.
Next, we are going to move down and look
at alignment of strokes.
So, we now know that every vector is created
out of anchor points.
And if vectors have curves,
then the anchors will also contain handles.
So all the anchors and handles add up to create a path,
an outline of the vector.
We have just looked at how a vector can have a fill
or a stroke applied.
In Illustrator, you can also tweak the stroke
to behave differently on an outline.
And that's what we are about to cover.
And here are three examples of this.
In Illustrator, the stroke can either align to the center
of an outline, the inside of an outline.
Or the outside of an outline.
So with the direct selection tool, I'm going to draw an area
over these three squares and release
to reveal the anchor points.
If we look closely, we can see
that these three-square examples are the exact same size,
but if you notice very carefully,
you can see they appear very slightly different in size.
That's because each stroke is aligned differently.
So let's take a closer look.
On the first square, we can see the stroke is aligned
to the center.
We can see our vector outline running
through the center of the vector stroke.
If we look over to the next square,
we can see our vector outline is
on the outside of the vector stroke.
And this is because the stroke
on this vector is aligned on the inside.
Now, if we look over to the last example,
this time we can see the outline
of the vector is along the inside.
And this is because the vector stroke is aligned
to the outside.
So I'm just going to select the first example
with the selection tool.
Now, to change the alignment of the stroke on a vector,
you need to reveal your stroke panel.
I'm going to come across and click on my stroke panel.
Though if you cannot see yours, you can come to window
and scroll down and select stroke.
Now, if we look carefully in the stroke panel,
we can see some boxes.
On the bottom row, we have the aligned stroke options.
As you can see, the align stroke
to center button is currently clicked.
If I come over to the next and click this,
notice how my stroke now changes.
Now it's aligned to the inside.
I'll just click back again and align center
so you can see it changing.
Then, if I come to the third button and press this,
my stroke is now aligned to the outside.
Now notice how the stroke changes
as we click on these buttons.
So that is one to keep in mind
for when you create your artwork,
as you can get various different outcomes
with different stroke alignments.
So, in the stroke panel,
you'll also notice we have a corner option.
Now, if we scroll down on our document,
you will see another set of examples here.
Now these examples are displaying the various stroke
corner effects you can achieve.
In Illustrator, we have three options which we can choose
from the stroke panel.
You can use the default, miter joint.
You can use the round joint or beveled joint.
To activate these, simply click on your vector shape and click
on one of the icons in the stroke panel to apply it.
These can also be used to achieve different outcomes
on your artwork should they benefit your design.
Next, I want to demonstrate the dash feature.
In Illustrator, you can add dash effects to your strokes,
which can be customized quite extensively.
As you can see here, I have two examples.
If I select the first example with the selection tool,
we can see the properties in the stroke panel.
We can see the dash option is checked,
with the dash set to 12 points.
Let's change this to six points and see what happens.
As you can see, by altering the dash value, we can increase
or decrease the dashes on our stroke.
The next example, however, is a little different.
Here, we have the dash value set to zero, but this time,
with a gap of 15 points.
Applied to the stroke, I have chosen the round cap.
And this creates the effect of dots.
Also, I have made sure to click the aligned dashes
to corner ends button.
This makes for a better looking dash stroke.
So be sure to play around with these options
to see what effects you can get.
Finally, we have the stroke end options.
In Illustrator, we can add a range of arrowheads to strokes.
If I select the first line,
we can see that this stroke has an arrowhead on the start point.
In the strokes panel, we can swap this like so by clicking
on the swap button and choose another arrowhead
for a wide range of options.
If I select the last stroke,
we can see that this has an arrowhead at both ends.
You can also change a scale of the arrowhead
by entering custom values.
So one arrowhead can be smaller than the other.
So that is an overview of some fill
and stroke effects in Adobe Illustrator.
Be sure to take a closer look at these options
to bring yourself up to speed.
In the next video, we are going to move on to color
where I will be demonstrating some interesting color effects
and tools here in Adobe Illustrator.
So see you in the next video.