[ Music ]
>> Hello, and welcome to this video tutorial brought
to you by tastytuts.com.
In the previous episode I demonstrated how you can use the
drawing tools to trace in a scanned in sketch
and compose a vector trace.
In this video, I'm going
to demonstrate how you can take your vector drawing
and compound it into a single flat vector.
So, here I have opened an example document.
Now, at first glance, they look identical,
but they are indeed very different.
Over the left here is the drawing we created
in the previous tutorial.
If I press "V" to activate my selection tool,
and start clicking around on my drawing,
we can see that this composition contains all the individual
vector strokes and shapes that make up the vector artwork.
Now, if I come over to the right here and select the artwork,
we can see that this in one solid flat vector.
Now, this vector object has been compounded
from the example to the left.
If you'd like to take a closer look at this example,
this can be found in the compounding vector folder
in the project folder, and you can download this project folder
for free.
The download link is in the description.
So, what does compounding object mean in Illustrator?
Well, to compound a vector object in Illustrator is
to merge and flatten a number
of individual vectors into a single vector.
Some vector compositions, such as the example here to the left,
might not only consist of solid vector shapes,
but also vector strokes.
So, why compound a vector like this?
Well, there are some good reasons why you may want
to compound vectors.
By compounding solid vector shapes together
with stroke vectors, we can create a flat single vector,
and this would help make your project more streamline.
With a single vector, we can apply a series
of effects we might not be able to apply to the composition
with individual vectors and strokes.
For example, we could click the swap fill in stroke button
to create an interesting outline effect.
To that stroke effect, we could apply dashed lines
or we could apply a texture brush from the brushes panel.
Now, those are just some examples.
Now, the main reason why we are going to compound our vector is
to help us add color to the artwork.
Later we are going to use the compound shape vector
as a stencil.
So, how can we compound multiple vector shapes and strokes
into a single flat vector?
So, to demonstrate this, I'm going to carry on from
where we left off in the previous video
where we traced the sketch
and developed our vector composition.
If you are following along from the previous video, great,
open that document now, though if you're new to this course,
you will need to open this document.
This can be found in the drawing folder in the project folder.
You can download this project folder for free.
The download link is in the description.
So, with the project folder open, click "test project,
drawing, compounding vectors, versions",
and select the version of Illustrator you're using.
In my case, it's CC and open the skull drawing file,
and you should have something that looks like this.
So, here we are with the drawing on the first artboard.
We are going to begin by selecting the entire composition
with the selection tool.
With it all selected, I'm going to press "Command C" to copy
and "Command V" to paste.
With my new artwork, I'm going to place this
over onto the next artboard.
An important thing to keep in mind, if you ever plan
on compounding your vectors, always keep a backup
of your original composition.
So, I'm going to keep my original drawing composition
on the first artboard and now proceed with my new version
on my second artboard.
Great. So, now we are ready to compound the artwork.
So, with our new artwork selected, I'm going to come
up to object, scroll down and click expand appearance.
Now, what that will do is expand all the brush strokes
in the composition.
All the strokes with brush effects applied will now be
expanded into vector shapes.
Next, we are going to have to come again to object,
though this time we are going to select expand.
Now, when we click this, we are going to get a menu appear.
This menu box is asking us what we would like to expand.
On this occasion, we want to expand everything,
so we are going to make sure fill
and stroke is selected and press okay.
Now, if we zoom in, we can see that all the vector strokes
that previously made this composition have been changed
into vector shapes.
And we can see here, if we look carefully,
that many of these new vector shapes are overlapping
each other.
Great. So, the next step is to come to the pathfinder tool.
I have mine here to the right, though if you cannot see yours,
you can come up to the top menu, click window,
scroll down and activate it here.
So, I'm going to go ahead
and click the first shape mode tool called "unite".
Upon click, we can now see, if we zoom in,
that all the individual vector shapes
that were previously overlapping each other have now been merged
together as one.
Now, before we are done, we need to come
over to the pathfinder tool once more
and click the top right-hand menu, scroll down and click
"make compound shape".
Once this is clicked, we will then see a button become
available in the pathfinder panel called "expand".
Finally, we need to click this and upon click,
we have successfully compounded what was previously a complex
composition of vector shapes and strokes
into a single flat vector.
Excellent.
So, that's how you can compound vectors in Adobe Illustrator.
First you need to select the vectors you wish
to compound together, and by triggering the expand options;
you can flatten them into single vectors.
So, in the next video we are going to begin
to color our vector artwork.
Now, at the moment, this compound vector is hollow.
We have just spent the previous videos focusing
on getting our sketch from paper and into Illustrator
by using the drawing tools to trace it.
This vector we have just compounded is simply a black
vector will lots of shapes cut out.
So, how are we going to add color to this vector artwork?
Well, now I want to show you a handy tip I use.
I'm now going to use this compounded vector object
as a stencil.
I'm going to use this vector shape
to create some new vector shapes,
which we will apply color to.
So, to do this, I'm first going to create a new artboard.
I'm going to come over to the artboard panel and click the
"add artboard" button.
Then I'm going to click on the right artboard menu button,
click arrange artboards, and click okay,
and now I have a new artboard below like so.
So, I'm going to come to my new artboard and I'm going to come
over to the menu and select the rectangle shape tool.
On my new artboard, I'm going to draw a shape
like so roughly the size of the page.
And for the sake of this tutorial,
I'm going to color the shape in yellow, though at this point,
it does not matter what color you choose to use.
Cool.
Next, I'm going to come back
to my compounded shape that I just created.
I'm going to select it and press "Command C" to copy,
then I'm going to come down to my new artboard
and press "Command V" to paste.
And I'll just position my pasted vector
on top of my yellow block.
Then I'm going to paste, once more, but this time I'm going
to place my new version over in the paste board.
You will see why I need to do this very shortly.
So, with my selection tool, I'm going to click and drag
over my yellow shape and skull vector like so,
and upon release, I now have both the yellow background shape
and my skull artwork selected.
Then I'm going to come to the control panel
and click the horizontal align center button.
Then I'm going to click on the vertical align center button.
Now, this is very important because this is going to ensure
that the skull artwork is perfectly placed
in the center of my yellow block.
Excellent.
Now we are ready to cut the shape out.
So, with the object still selected, I'm going to come
over to the pathfinder panel.
This time I'm going to click the fourth icon
from the left called "exclude".
So, upon click, we will now see that the skull vector shape
that was on top of the yellow block has been cut
out of the block behind.
So, now we have essentially inverted the vector
of the skull artwork to the right here.
Great. You will notice the color changed to black
as it incorporated the color from the vector on top.
So, I'm going to change this back to yellow like before.
So, now with the selection tool,
I'm going to select the new cutout block
and the original vector example to the right
by pressing and holding "Shift".
Then just like earlier, I'm going to come
up to the control panel
and click the horizontal align center button.
Then I'm going to click on the vertical align center button,
and just like that, we have placed the black vector artwork
on top perfectly.
And I'll just move this back onto the artboard
like so and click "off".
Now, if I click back onto the yellow area,
we can see that this is all selected.
Now, this is because upon exclude
in the artwork, it remains grouped.
What I'm going to do now is simply right click
on the yellow block and select "and group".
Then I'm going to click "off" to deselect.
Now, this the selection tool, I'm going to click back
onto the yellow shape and upon click, I am now able
to select each and every individual shape
within my skull artwork just like that.
Nice. Now, I do not need the outside area, so I'll click
and delete this like so.
So, compounding the original vector drawing composition has
proved very useful in this situation.
Now, I have my outline of the skull artwork in black,
which is a flat single vector,
and inside I now have all the shapes
between the skull artwork, which I can select
as individual vectors and begin to apply color.
So, to finish off, I'm going to save the document.
I'm going to come to "file save" and save my document
to the desktop, and simply save as "skull compound".
Make sure you save this document somewhere safe
as we will be using this document in the next video.
So, that covers compounding vector shapes
in Adobe Illustrator.
In the next video, we will be progressing with our project
and adding CMYK and Pantone colors to our skull artwork.
See you in the next video.