Faking the Dot Pattern Vector Pack If You Don’t Have Illustrator CS4
The Dot Pattern Vector Pack is only available in Illustrator CS4. If you’re working with CS3, here’s a workaround to create your own dot pattern. (this will replace Steps 5 and 6 in the Design With Flair tutorial.)
1 CREATE NEW DOCUMENT IN PHOTOSHOP
Create a new document (File>New) in Photoshop that’s 8×8 inches at 100ppi.
2 SET DEFAULT COLORS; RENDER CLOUDS
Press D to set your Foreground color to black and your Background color to white. Then, go to Render under the Filter menu and select Clouds.
3 DRAW GRADIENTS ON ALL FOUR SIDES
Press the letter G to switch to the Gradient tool. Press X to switch your Foreground color to white. Open the Gradient Picker in the Options Bar and select the Foreground to Transparent gradient. Drag with the Gradient tool from the outer edge of the document toward the center on all for sides so the edges fade out to white.
4 RUN COLOR HALFTONE FILTER
Go under the Filter menu again but this time go to Pixelate and choose Color Halftone.
Use the settings shown in the image here.
5 SAVE AND PLACE IN ILLUSTRATOR
Save this document. Place (File>Place) the image in Illustrator and click the Live Trace button in the Control panel. Click the Expand button to convert the Live Trace object into a standard object. Use the Direct Selection tool (A) to select a white area, then go to Select>Same>Fill Color. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete all the white areas.
6 CHANGE COLOR; SEND TO BACK
Now, select the dot pattern, open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches), and click on a light-gray box to apply that color to the graphic. Using the Selection tool (V), place this graphic over the traced graphic and scale it as needed. Then go under the Object menu and choose Arrange>Send to Back. (Note: If you can’t see the dots behind your object frame, make sure your Fill is set to None in the Control panel.)
Continue with Step 7 of the “Design With Flair” tutorial.
Pages: 1 2
I think you might mean “flair” here…
Hi G,
You’re right, we did mean “flair.” We’ve already made the change.
Thanks!
Chris Main
Managing Editor
Layers Magazine
Nicely done. Thanks for posting!
I was not able to locate the same photo at Fotolia; I took another one but the result is not convincing. The same apply for many tutotials.
[...] Click here to see the rest of the tutorial [...]
Very very good.
Nice work, thanks a lot
great tutorial. thanks, this helped me tap into the abstract side of illustrator!
thanks for sharing!
very simple and nice!! Thanks
That was really great, although my brother and i were both looking at it, and he is not so into the excessive grunge look.
[...] Corey Barker shows how to get some slick results using Illustrator’s Live Trace, symbols, and brushes. [...]
[...] to get a jump on this should check this out (via John Nack who also point to a few other links the Illustrator crowd might [...]
How can i get these vector packs?
Thx Cool work! it will work for me as well!
Awesome tutorial! I am using CS3, and the vector packs are not available in my symbol library – where can I find something similar?
The tutorial is verry good (read awesome [for those sho couldn't get it, sorry but you need to be creative and play with different numbers, don't get stick by the book]).
Dear Layers Magazine (all of you the good guys), thanks for all your effort, and good work.
Nice work
it’s very clear and step by step details, that what i need. thanks and wish having more illustrator demos more often.
cool
I’m kind of with the folks who can’t access the vector packs; if you’re going to demonstrate something that only works in a particular version of the software (i.e. CS4), you should say so up front. Other than that, I was WAY cool with it.
[...] Design with Flair from Start to Finish in Illustrator CS4 – by Corey Barker of Layers [...]
So thats how you do it.
Hey Everyone,
We’ve added a mini-tutorial showing how to fake the Dot Pattern Vector Pack 01 symbol if you don’t have Illustrator CS4.
http://www.layersmagazine.com/design-with-flare-from-start-to-finish-in-illustrator-cs4.html/2
Thanks,
Chris Main
Managing Editor
Layers Magazine
Thanks, this really helped. I don’t know how to save my vector so I can upload it to Myspace though.
[...] Design with Flair from Start to Finish in Illustrator CS4 [...]
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Thank you, that was very helpful. Not only a great tutorial from a learning the basics point of view, but actually a pretty sweet effect too.
This is a great tutorial to take anyone from elementary illustrator work, to intermediate. Very easy to do and very helpful. Thank You!!!
Thanks a lot for the tutorial
lean a lot from this
cheers
[...] (Note: If you don’t have Illustrator CS4, click here.) [...]