Hey YouTube, this is a free extract from my larger Illustrator course...
called Illustrator Essentials.
You can check it out on bringyourownlaptop.com
If you want to follow along with this video, there's exercise files.
Those are free to download.
You can go and download those.
There'll be a link in the description, so you can play along.
One last thing, there's a Cheat Sheet as well.
So there is a PDF you can download from bringyourownlaptop.com
Look for Resources, it's a free PDF.
You can download it, print it up...
stick it up next to your computer while you're doing these videos.
All right, enjoy the video.
Bye now.
Hi there, in this video we're going to look at the Shape Builder Tool.
I love this tool.
It's absolutely my most favorite tool out of all the tools in Illustrator.
We're going to take this drawing that we did of the fox...
with simple shapes, and add some kind of shadows to it.
Well, not so much exciting about the shadows...
but more of the technique that we used...
the Shape Builder Tool to kind of...
be able to carve out extra colors within other shapes.
I love it. Let's go and learn how to use it now.
To get started with the Shape Builder Tool, let's start with a really simple file.
Go to 'File', 'Open', there is a file in here...
called 'Shape Builder', click 'Open'.
Now this file is not very exciting. All it is, is I'm on my Black Arrow...
just a couple of circles on top of a rectangle.
So what I'd like to do is...
I would like to, say this circle to join this rectangle.
So I'm going to use my Black Arrow, and select them all...
and we're going to go to the Shape Builder Tool, this guy here.
He is the absolute best thing that ever happened to Illustrator.
What it allows me to do is...
you can see, by default there's a '+' next to my cursor there.
What I can do is, watch this, I can hover above this...
click, hold down my mouse, and just drag a line...
and you see, it drags it across all three of these parts.
And they are fused now as one thing.
That is just awesome, no more Path Finder, and trying to join things...
it's really easy, simple shapes...
using the Shape Builder tool, and they join.
Another cool trick is that...
if I hold down the 'Option' key on a Mac, or the 'Alt' key on a PC...
you can see, it changes from a ' + ' to a ' - '.
So what I can do now is...
I want to minus this, and this, I'm holding down my mouse key.
I can drag it across those two bits to minus those bits off.
So that is its main two uses, joining things and minusing things.
It also has another little trick where--
I've got two bits selected, right...
and what I can do is, I can pick a Fill color, let's say this...
and use it for, not minusing or adding, but just coloring in bits.
So I'm going to click off in the background here...
and watch this, I can just click on that...
and it uses that as the Fill color.
Just really handy to go through...
pick a color, click off, click in there, and it just fills shapes.
I'll go back to my Black Arrow, and now, I click off...
it's actually just three separate shapes that have been colored in.
Let's use it in a kind of a practical sense now.
So let's close this guy, I don't want to save him, it wasn't that exciting.
So before we go and create a round kind of custom shape...
from the Shape Builder Tool...
I'm going to show you how I use it mostly.
I want you to open up the 'fox' that we made earlier.
If you haven't done that tutorial, you can cheat...
go to the 'Exercise Files', and download one called 'Shape Builder 2', open it up.
So what I'd like to do is, I want to add some shadows to this.
You've seen that at the beginning of this video.
So first thing we need to do is, with the Black Arrow...
let's just grab this background, and just move it over to this side.
Just to make life a little easier...
let's go to 'Layers', and turn 'Off' the view of the template.
We'll move it back in later on.
So what I'd like to do is, I'm just going to start with the head.
I'm going to grab the 'Line Tool'...
I'm going to draw a line that goes from his ear...
and I'm going to go all the way through his face here...
just to show you how good the Shape Builder Tool is.
I'm going to grab the 'Black Arrow'.
And I'm going to have this selected...
plus holding 'Shift', and grabbing these selectors.
So I've got the head, and the line there, just those two.
And go to 'Properties'.
I'm going to go to my 'Shape Builder Tool', now I want to color it.
So, like we did earlier, with the red and the blue...
I'm going to pick a Fill color.
I'm going to go to my 'Swatches' here, pick the orange.
I'm going to move to this, like color mixer.
Pre-made swatches here, color mixer here.
I want to make it a bit dark, watch this, this 'K' is black.
You can see, if I drag it, it gets a bit darker.
I'm going to go to maybe 10%.
You can be a bit more flexible with yours.
Now, just need to click anywhere out, to close that box.
Now when I hover above, click once...
and I've got this lovely dark, lovely.
That's fine. So yes, cast this shadow here.
Now next thing I want to do is grab my Black Arrow...
and just click off in the background.
There are some bits left over...
that thing there, if you've got some black...
hanging off the end here, you can just select it, and hit 'Delete'.
Don't need that anymore.
Next thing I want to do is maybe cast a shadow underneath the chin.
Same thing, 'Line Tool', cast some sort of fake Casting Shadow thing.
'Black Arrow', hold 'Shift', so I've got the line, and his body selected.
Actually you can't go to Fill yet, you got to go to the Shape Builder Tool.
Then go to 'Fill'.
I'm going to use that--
you can see it's the last color that I've used, and it's pretty mixed it.
If it hasn't, you can go back to the 'Swatches', click this one, go here.
Do '10%'.
Hopefully you can use the last mixed, save some time.
I'm just going to hover above, and get to click out...
hover above this, click once.
This is going to run into our first problem with the Shape Builder Tool.
Grab the 'Selection Tool', click off in the background.
You can see, this has ended up above everything, which is fine.
All I need to do is, with it selected with the 'Black Arrow'...
click 'Arrange', and 'Send to Back'.
Now we'll be using 'Send to Back'.
You might just need to 'Send Backwards', backwards goes back one step.
If I click backwards now, it's not going to quite work...
it's probably going behind...
I don't know, this, and you can keep going backwards.
And it's just one step at a time, backwards, backwards...
and eventually you'll get there.
I'm going to go to 'Arrange', 'Send to complete back'.
Awesome!
Now I'm going to do a couple of more shadows...
you can follow along if you like.
I'm going to grab this, copy and paste it, make it bigger.
I'm going to use it like, shadow for his bum.
I'm going to select both of these, holding 'Shift'.
With my Black Arrow, move to the Shape Builder Tool.
Pick a Fill color.
Last used color, didn't work.
I'm going to go to here and pick 10%.
Click off, and then click back on.
Back to my Black Arrow, click off in the background...
grab him, don't need you anymore, buddy.
I'm going to do the same with the tail here, copy, paste it.
Make it a bit bigger.
I'll use it to kind of make some sort of tail shadow.
Select both of them.
Holding 'Shift', go to 'Shape Builder Tool'.
You will get it after some time...
Shape Builder Tool is one of the shortcuts I use loads.
If I hover above the tool, can you see, it says, 'Shift+M'.
That's both for Mac and PC.
If I hold down the 'Shift' key on my keyboard, and type 'M'...
it jumps to the Shape Builder Tool.
And the Black Arrow is 'V'.
So very often, I'm going 'V', 'Shift+M', you can see on my Tool Bar...
I'm kind of jumping in between the two by just clicking those keys.
'Fill', I'm going to use this one, '10%'.
Click off, and I'm going to say, you...
clicking my Black Arrow, which is the V key, delete this one.
I'm going to create some sort a line here, now I'm just knocking about.
You can skip on if you like.
Select both of them.
'Shift+M'.
Pick a darker color than I had before for my Swatches.
Kind of looks like he's doing custom made shadow from the moonlight.
I'm going to grab this one, drag it back in.
Snap it up, you'll just notice that it's in the wrong kind of layer order.
So I'm going to do a 'Select In'.
'Arrange', and 'Send to Back'.
And that's kind of how I use the Shape Builder a lot.
I kind of get the basics in with some shapes...
then use other shapes...
and the Shape Builder Tool to kind of construct some more sophisticated art work.
So that's kind of updating an existing drawing.
Let's go and make something cool in the next video.
Totally with the Shape Builder Tool.
It's pretty nice, and it's one of those styles that are trending at the moment.
So let's go and look how to do that in the next video.
Hi there, in this video we're going to make this swooshy looking fox thing...
using my favorite tool, the Shape Builder Tool.
Look at him, he's all made of little shapes, and bits, and pieces.
Let's put you back together, fox...
and let's go learn how to make you in Adobe Illustrator.
So let's start with a new document, 'File', 'New'.
You can use US Letter Landscape, or A4 Landscape, it doesn't matter.
Click on 'Create'.
We're going to bring in the drawing we're going to copy from.
So let's save this document, 'File', 'Save'.
Let's put it on our 'Desktop', in our 'Illustrator Class Files'.
Let's call this one 'Awake Fox'.
Let's click 'OK'.
Let's bring in the image we're going to redraw...
we're going to go to 'File', 'Place'.
We're going to use...
in our 'Exercise Files', there's one called 'Awake Fox.jpg'.
Remember, like in the previous tutorial...
we could just bring it in, put it on its own layer, and lock it...
and turn the Transparency down.
You can do that all in one fell swoop...
by just clicking this 'Template' as you bring it in.
Remember...
watch this, it's created two layers...
one's a Template layer, and you can't touch it.
And they've dimmed it down, so you can draw on that easily.
We're working on 'Layer 1'.
Let's go back to 'Properties'.
Now, there is no real particular order to start this...
but you might as well follow me.
So let's start with, say the Polygon Tool.
If we click once--
we're going to make sure it says three sides.
I'm not too worried about the radius at the moment, just click 'OK'.
What we can do is, 'Black Arrow', holding 'Shift'...
drag it out to the right size, and rotate it around.
We did Rotation & Scaling in an earlier tutorial.
I'm going to get it roughly in there.
Now, you'll notice that the choice has snapped to the edge of the page...
and lots of those purple arrows, that's really handy.
Sometimes it's just nice to get it close... and use your arrow keys on your keyboard.
Just a kind of tap it around with the keyboard to get it close.
I'm happy with that.
What I'd like to do is have 'No' Fill, and a 'Black' Stroke.
So I've got my black Stroke, if you don't...
click on 'Stroke', 'Black', 'Fill Color'.
Let's go for 'No' Fill color.
Now I'm not sure which part to start with, I'm going to start with the ears here.
So I'm going to grab and hold down the 'Polygon Tool...
and grab the 'Ellipse Tool'.
I'm going to draw an Ellipse.
Holding down 'Shift', remember, gets a perfect circle.
If I let go of Shift, it can get a weird shape.
It's up to you what you want to do, I'm going to start with perfect circles.
Something like that, 'Black Arrow'...
remember, I can't click the center, because it has no Fill.
So I'm going to click the edge, and kind of drag it.
You can kind of see, I'll use it maybe for that one, it's a bit big.
I'm just resizing it till I get something close to that part.
Using my keyboard to tap it around again.
Cool. That will do.
I am going to copy it, and paste it.
Then move it up, so I've got it kind of here as well.
I think I used a slightly smaller one, here we go.
Even smaller than that.
Trying to match that circle in there.
That will do.
Next thing I'd like to do is start using my Shape Builder Tool.
So I'm going to select everything.
So my 'Black Arrow', select everything on the page...
and I'm going to move to my 'Shape Builder Tool'.
Now what I want to do is...
I don't want to add any of these guys...
I want to subtract this chunk up here that I don't need.
Now who remembers what the shortcut is?
That's right, it's 'Option' on a Mac, or 'Alt' on a PC.
Hold it down, and you see I get a minus, ' - '...
and I can drag across all of that, that, that.
Click on him, you can see I can kind of minus those chunks off.
I want to leave that, because that's going to be kind of the wider nose.
These guys though need, they're doing some weird stuff...
so I'm going to join them all.
Remember, holding no keys down, will add.
I'm going to add all of that to it.
I'm going to minus that off, minus that off.
Then, yes, it's kind of the basics for it.
I'm going to grab my 'Black Arrow'.
What do I want to do now? I want the other ear.
So I'm just going to copy it, paste it, I got another version.
This guy here...
can't quite remember, I'm going to all the way turn it around a little bit.
Awesome!
We've got another set of ears back here.
Maybe not so much rotation.
Now with everything selected, again, let's grab the 'Shape Builder Tool'.
That bit's perfect.
Now I just want to join these together, about there.
And the nose goes, kind of disjointed with all these little bits.
You might have to zoom in a little bit, remember, 'Command +', or 'Control +'.
I'm going to draw on all of that together, so it's one unit.
Now it starts looking a bit high, because you're like...
"What is the drawing underneath, and which is mine?"
You might go to 'Layers', and turn this 'on' and 'off'.
Just to get a sense of what it is.
So the only thing I'm really missing is the circle for the eye.
So let's do that, grab the 'Ellipse Tool'...
drag this out. Why am I dragging it up here?
No reason, I'm going to drag it down here.
Habit.
Move it around, select all this chunk.
I'm going to grab the 'Shape Builder Tool'...
and I'm going to do-- I want to add all of that together.
That kind of worked.
On, off, on that bottom layer.
It's looking good, now we just need the neck.
I'm going to zoom out a little bit.
Grab the 'Ellipse Tool'.
Try and draw a circle big enough for that outside bit.
Holding 'Shift', it feels about right.
No, that's way too big. Hold it down.
Remember, grabbing the edge, not the center of the circle.
It's about him, and there's one stripe, two stripes.
So I'm going to copy and paste him.
I'm going to use that one.
Roughly about that size, paste another one.
Actually I don't need to paste another one, as long as I've got two there.
Don't need that guy. Go away.
So I am now going to select it all.
Grab my 'Shape Builder Tool', and I'm going to say, don't want you.
Don’t want you, actually I do want you.
There's the ellipse there. Why did I delete that one?
I don’t need it.
So, there was a circle that I was missing.
You probably saw it while you were doing it, and went, "No."
It is there. We don't need three circles.
Now one of the things is going to happen here, if I zoom in...
scroll up here, I hold my 'space bar', you see, it doesn't line up here.
To make the Shape Builder work nicely, you need to overlap everything.
So I'm zoomed in; it's just easier when you're zoomed in.
Now I'm going to grab the edge, and try to get him to snap in there.
It's reasonably thick, I think.
Doesn't have to be absolutely, scientifically perfect...
but reasonably close, a couple of pixels.
Now I'm going to select it all, and grab my 'Shape Builder Tool'...
and I'm going to say, I don't want that.
Don't want any of that, don't want that, I don't need that.
Delete that, I'm going to come in here.
What I might do now is turn off the Template...
because I kind of know.
Those two I want, those two I want.
If you're finding it a little bit tough, don't worry.
It is a little bit tough, trying to work out.
You end up deleting the wrong bits...
like, there's a chunk through here, I'm going to add you guys together.
'Black Arrow', select the background, pretty close.
There's some of these Strokes flowing on, that are different sizes.
There's a thin one there, and a thick one there.
I'm going to select them all, and say 'Properties'...
and I'm going to give them all the same Stroke Width of this '0.25 points'.
Just a really thin one to get us going.
That is looking good.
If you find you've got kind of junk in the nose, like this little trim bit...
just zoom in, use your Shape Builder Tool to try and tidy it up.
You might even use the Black Arrow, just click bits, and delete it.
Now what I want to do is go and color it.
I'm going to put in a nice, big gray background.
I don’t know why, everything looks better on a dark gray background.
I'm just drawing a nice big rectangle, I'm going to fill it with a dark gray.
I'm going to have 'No' Stroke on it.
I'm going to click 'Arrange', 'Send it to the Back'.
Now I'm going to fill this with color.
There's a couple of ways of filling it.
I can just click the edges, and go fill it...
or I could use the Shape Builder technique...
like we did in the last video, it's up to you.
I'm going to go pick colors, foxy colors.
I'm going to mix my own.
I'm going to click on the 'Mixer'.
I got my 'Object' selected...
I've clicked on 'Fill', I've clicked on 'Mixer'...
and I'm going to click down here to try and find a foxy color.
That's going to be my kind of lead color, I'll pick this one.
Front Fill.
I'm going to use the pretty mix color...
and just make it a bit darker by grabbing the 'K'.
Lifting it up a little bit.
I'm going to use this kind of back of the head bit...
by doing the same sort of thing.
I'm going to use that, but lightening it up.
Go even whiter.
This one here is going to be just--
should be white, maybe, but I'm going to use this, like off white...
so it looks good.
Same with you.
And, off white.
I'm going to select it all as well.
Now if I select all of it...
I'm going to end up with the background selected as well.
That's fine, because I want to go to 'Stroke'...
and I want to say, never use those Strokes.
Thank you very much.
And that is our cool little fox thing.
All done with the Shape Builder Tool...
get some nice kind of swooshes and swirls, and it's kind of flowy.
Those are words I'm just making up, but you get the idea, right?
It's kind of a nice, swooshy thing.
So, now it is time for the end, and the time for the class project.
So what I've done is, I've done another sketch that you can use...
but I want you to go through and use the same techniques from the fox...
but we're going to use our--
So 'New Document', use 'File', 'Place'...
and you're going to bring in this one called 'Swan'.
Yes, that's meant to be a swan.
Kind of looks like a swan, kind of a chunky swan.
You're allowed to--
it doesn't have to be perfect like this, I guess.
What I want to see is a better swan, nice colors.
It's totally up to you, you can draw it perfectly if you like...
but using the same tools as we did...
using the Shape Builder Tool and the fox, I'd like you to go off and do the swan.
Again, I'd like to see your projects.
All right, that is it for this video, let's get on to the next one.
Actually no, you're going to go off and start doing your homework.
Draw this one, make him better.
All right, see you in the next video though.
Hi, what did you think of the video?
If you enjoyed it, give me a 'Thumbs up', and consider subscribing.
Also leave me comments, let me know what you liked about it.
Also, this is kind of a short part of a longer course.
If you want to check that out, it's at bringyourownlaptop.com
This is the Essentials course.
There is also another course, there's an Advanced course for Illustrator.
Also, a UI Web App Design version of Illustrator course as well.
Check all those out.
Also, it's quite a visual course, I'd love to see what you've actually made.
On Instagram, I am bringyourownlaptop, check that out.
Also, remember there's a Cheat Sheet you can download.
Bring Your Own Laptop, it's free, under Resources, check all that out.
And, yes, I'll see you in another video.
Bye now.