hello and welcome back to another vectortwist tutorial. this week's Adobe Illustrator tutorial is
all about the almighty isometric grid and as always at vectortwist we try to find
the easiest and fastest way to do things and I think I found an even easier way
to create an isometric grid and I will share it with you
we'll use a single line and with the appearance panel we'll create and isometric grid for adobe Illustrator to make a reusable
via a graphic style that you can turn into a grid in any document. yes you heard
correct out of one single line created in Adobe Illustrator but before we start
make sure to subscribe to the channel so you'll never miss a tutorial. open up a
new document in Adobe Illustrator. the size doesn't really matter then grab the
pen tool and make sure you turn off the fill and set the stroke to black. change
your stroke width from one point to 0.25 then zoom out and create a vertical line
the size is approximately the size of your document make sure to hold and
press the shift key when you create the line so it will be straight vertically
down keep the line selected and then we need to increase it so simply
double-click the scale tool and in the pop-up increase it by 300% then click OK
I'm going to zoom out so we can see all of the line we increased it by 300% to
make sure that our grid that we're going to create will fit the artboard after
that open up the appearance panel I'm going to drag it out so you can see
better what we're going to do with this line on the bottom where you see the FX
for add new effect click it and then find distort and transform and choose
transform in the pop-up window click the preview button and four copies set a
value of 1 then when you go to the move for horizontal put 36 points 36 points
of pixels equals half of an inch as you can see in the background we created one
copy 36 points away from the first one now increase the copies to 100 and then
you can see that we've created 100 copies in each separated by 36
excells this is the first step for isometric grid so simply press ok we'll
continue working with the appearance panel and we're going to add another new
effect so keep the line selected we have one effect created duplication 100 lines
separated by 36 pixels and now we're going to add another effect so click the
FX button again go back to distort and transform and choose transform we'll get
the pop-up window again and now we're going to add another effect again click
the preview button set the copies for 1 so we see what we're going to do and
then in the rotate panel we're going to change the angle set it to 60 degrees
then click OK as you can see on the artboard we have two effects now one
vertical line duplicated and then the same simply rotated by 60 degrees I'm
going to zoom in so we can see it a little bit better I still have to line
selected so keep continuing with the line selected and then continue with the
appearance panel to add another effect so go back to the add new effect button
find this dodn't transform again and choose transform there in the pop-up
same steps click the preview set the copies to 1 and we're going back to the
rotate and for the angle this time we're going to set minus 120 degrees then
click OK now if i zoom out and move the line over a little bit you can see that
we've created an isometric grid on our artboard and all we have done is use one
single vertical line and added three effects via the appearance panel in
order to keep your line with the effects permanently in adobe illustrator we need
to turn it into a graphic style and save it properly so I'm going to zoom out as
you can see I still have my line selected with the free effects applied
and now we're going to save it as a graphic style we need to open the
graphic style panel so go to window and choose graphic Styles deselect anything
on your artboard and then delete all of the styles you do not want to have in
the panel so I'm going to select everything and delete it I simply have
one style left by the then I'm going back onto the artboard
select the line with your effects and then click the new graphic style button
this will add the new graphic style to your panel after that simply
double-click it and give it a name that makes sense to you so in this case I'm
going to call it ISO grid then click OK the next step is to save the graphic
style within Adobe Illustrator so no matter what new documents you open you
can always open it up and then create your new isometric grid on your new
document in the graphic style panel click the flyout panel and all the way
on the bottom choose save graphic style library you will already be brought to
the graphic Styles within Adobe Illustrator so again give it a name that
makes sense to you and then click Save now if you go back to the graphic Styles
panel and click the flyout and scroll all the way to open graphic style
library and the user-defined you will find now where you've saved your
isometric graphic style to use the graphic Styles to create an isometric
grid is really neat since you can easily change the grid size so let me show you
how you can do this so select the line again in the appearance panel and you
still see your three effects that you've added and then with the first effect
just double click it and then the pop up you can change the horizontal values for
example we've used 36 pixels which is half an inch but you can either decrease
it or increase it whatever size you would like you grid to be so if I'm
going to set a value of 18 points for example I click the preview on the
artboard you can see that the grid size is smaller or I could even make it
bigger and instead of 36 I can put 72 and then click the preview and then see
that my grid increased as well then all you have to do is click OK and that's it
once you increase your grid of course you have to zoom out and move it better
into place but this way you have control over the grid size since the graphic
style has the effects added via the appearance panel there's still life
effects they have not been expanded the next step is to show
you how to turn it finally into a grid and make guides out of them so select
your line with the Styles applied then go to object and click expand appearance
as you can see everything has been expanded now keep everything selected
and all you need to do is go under view find guides and then choose make guides
now when you zoom in you can see that your lines have been turned into guides
and with the shortcut command or control + semicolon you can turn them off or on
and at the same time working with the smart guides you can create now
isometric designs and all we have done is use one single vertical line and
that's it so let me just clear the guides on the artboard so I simply go to
view guides and select clear guides I'm going to zoom out and just show you
again but we've just done let's close everything here go back to window choose
graphic styles and then click the flyout menu go to open graphic style library
and either under user-defined or under the other dropdowns choose the grid that
you've just turned into a graphic style so I'm going to select it it's going to
open it and here you have your isometric grid as a graphic style then simply
select again a stroke for the color and none for the fill and create a vertical
line on your artboard so with the pen tool create a straight vertical line
hold and press the shift key to do so keep the line selected and then simply
click on your graphic style then just move it into place as you can see you
have your isometric grid with the free effects again these are life effects you
can change them anytime all you have to do is open up the appearance panel so go
to window appearance and in the appearance panel you can double-click
any of the effects you've added if you happy with the size of your isometric
grid keep it selected go to object expand appearance move it into place for
your artboard and then simply go to view guides and choose make guides and now
you are ready to create - isometric art and that's it so if you
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to this tutorial is life thanks for watching and I'll see you next time