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Technique Creative skills Making patterns
Illustrator CS3
Create camouflage patterns
Have you ever needed to create camouflage patterns in Illustrator, but not known the best way to go about it? Derek Lea demonstrates his own time-saving method
Camouflage, and many other artistic patterns, rely on the use of a few basic visual elements. It’s through the repetition and variation of these elements that appealing designs are created. In Illustrator, you can easily create a pattern by Alt/Option-dragging your completed objects around on the artboard, making dozens of copies of them. However, the downside to this method is that your file can get cumbersome to work with very quickly and editing the pattern after the fact can prove to be a nightmare. Using Symbols is the ideal method for creating pattern designs. If your pattern is made up of only a few shapes, use them to create a series of Symbols. The Symbols themselves will reside within the Symbols palette, and you’ll use instances of the Symbols on the artboard to create your design. All instances are linked to the original Symbol, so any edits applied to a Symbol will be immediately reflected in all of the instances linked to it.
Designer Derek Lea is an award-winning illustrator, author and instructor at Centennial College in Toronto, Canada. See more of his work at www.dereklea.com, or check out his latest book at www. creativephotoshop thebook.com.
On the disc You’ll find the file you need to complete this tutorial in Disc Contents\ Resources\camo.
Time needed 30 minutes Skills Using layers to simplify work Creating, using and saving Symbols
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The first step in creating a camouflage pattern is to create the objects you’re going to use. Use the Pen tool to draw an irregular-shaped, closed object. A Symbol can consist of more than a single object, so go ahead and create a few smaller objects around the main object’s perimeter.
We’re going to create a camouflage pattern here that’s a mix of greens and browns. Select all of the objects you created and use the Color palette to fill the selected objects with a light brown. Next, drag the selected objects into the Symbols palette. The Symbol Options dialog will appear.
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Name this Symbol ‘light brown’, set the type to graphic and click OK. It appears immediately in the Symbols palette and your artwork on the artboard becomes an instance of the Symbol. Next, move to a different area of the artboard and create a slightly different closed shape with the Pen tool.
Again, add some shapes around the perimeter and select all of the new objects. In the Color palette, fill the selected objects with a darker brown. Next, drag all of the selected objects into the Symbols palette. Again, the Symbol Options will appear. Follow the same procedure as last time, but name it something different.
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On another empty area of the artboard, create another new shape. Make this one noticeably larger than the others and fill it with a light green. After that, again drag the selected shape into the Symbols palette to add it as a Symbol. Name it something appropriate.
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Create one more closed shape. Keep it closer in size to your brown shapes, but make it a little smaller. Create some smaller shapes around the perimeter. Fill these new shapes with a darker green and add the selected shapes to the Symbols palette. You now have four new Symbols to use in your design.
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Technique Creative skills Making patterns
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Now that you’ve created all of the camouflage Symbols, it’s time to create a pattern from them. Select all of the instances on the artboard and delete them. Then create a large beige rectangle. This will act as the background for your pattern.
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In the Layers palette, create a new layer. Ensure that your new layer is targeted and double-click the Symbol Sprayer tool. The Symbol tool options will open. As a starting point, set the Diameter, Intensity and Density to 4 or 5. Leave everything else set to average.
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Click OK and then use the Symbol Sprayer to paint multiple instances of your Symbol into a Symbol set on the current layer. Each time you stop and start again, Symbols will be added into the same set. Double-click the Symbol Sprayer to try other options.
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Tear off the Symbol Sprayer tool button by holding down and dragging the mouse to the right. It becomes a floating palette that contains all of the Symbolism tools. You’re going to focus on the Symbol Shifter and the Symbol Sizer.
Use the Symbol Shifter to reposition the Symbols as necessary and use the Symbol Sizer to resize individual Symbol instances in the set by clicking and dragging them. Lock the layer, then create a new layer, ensuring it’s targeted in the Layers palette.
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Use the Symbol Sprayer tool to click on the light brown Symbol. Spray instances of the light brown Symbol into a set on your new layer. Keep the underlying layer locked while working on a new layer to ensure different Symbols aren’t placed within the previous set.
Edit the set contents with other Symbolism tools as necessary. Repeat this process twice more then lock the layer. Create a new layer above it. Spray a new set of Symbols onto the layer and repeat the process. When you’re finished, you’ll have a set of each Symbol on a layer of its own.
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Now you’re going to change the camouflage to an icy pattern. Double-click a Symbol in the Symbols palette. You’re now editing the Symbol itself and all other artwork becomes invisible. Select the object(s) and change the colour. Then, double-click on an empty area to apply the change.
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Symbol libraries
To save your own set of Symbols, select the Save Symbol Library option from the Symbols palette menu. Name your Symbol file and choose a destination. To load the Symbol Library, choose OpenSymbolLibrary>OtherLibrary from the Symbols palette menu. Then navigate to your file and click the Open button. You can try this method to load the Symbols used in this tutorial. The file is called Symbols.ai and is included on the CD.
Double-click to return to the Illustrator workspace. Repeat this method with each Symbol until all Symbols and instances are shades of blue. In addition to colour changes, you can edit the individual objects that make up your Symbols. To complete the look, change the background’s fill colour too.
Computer Arts March 2008
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