MeshandGradients

Chapter 6

ADDING DEPTH ANDDIMENSION

Depth effectsOne of the greatest features in Illustrator is its flexibility. Thereis no “Add Depth” tool but there are many tools that can sim-ulate depth and dimension for you. You just need to knowwhere to find them. In this chapter, you’ll learn that many ofthese tools are right at your fingertips and you may, in fact, beusing them every day. I’ll demonstrate that it’s merely a shift inyour thought process as to how you view these tools.Gradients, meshes, shadow effects, glow effects, and distorttools all allow you to simulate depth and dimension inIllustrator. Follow along with the exercises in this chapter andyou’ll learn techniques that can quickly turn your effects intoprofessional-quality illustrations with depth and dimension.

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Creating a leaf with theMesh toolIn this exercise, you’re going to create the leaf that yousaw back in Chapter 3 during the water droplets exer-cise. I must first warn you that this exercise isn’t for thefaint of heart. The Mesh tool is one of Illustrator’s mostpowerful tools—along with that power comes com-plexity. However, I’ll break each step down for you tomake it as easy to follow along as possible. Good luck!

1. Open Chapter_06_MeshLeafStart.ai. This filecontains the outline of the leaf that you saw inChapter 3.

ILLUSTRATOR CS MOST WANTED

The first step in this illustration is to decide if yourshape will be a good candidate for using the Mesh tool.Unfortunately, this task is very subjective and willdepend on the object that you wish to apply a mesh to.For this exercise, I’ve decided that the stem of the leafneeded to be separate from the actual leaf area. In thefollowing reference image, I’ve created a mesh usingthe Mesh tool to help illustrate why.

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ADDING DEPTH AND DIMENSION

Notice all of the mesh points and lines that exist in thecircled area. If you were to leave these points as is, itwould wreak havoc on your ability to create a realistic-looking gradient mesh—color transitions would be toosharp and appear distorted. You can’t delete them, asyou would further deteriorate the mesh. The solution isto break the object apart into a stem and a leaf. Followalong to see how.

2. Duplicate the LEAF layer and name this copyOUTLINE. Drag this new layer below the LEAFlayer. Also, lock and hide it for now. The next stepwill modify the overall shape of the leaf, but you’llwant to keep a copy of the outline for later use.

3. Select the Knife tool and slice through the areathat you want to separate; the cut doesn’t have tobe precise.

4. Name the sublayer that contains the stem pathSTEM. Name the other sublayer LEAF MESH.

5. Next, select or target the LEAF MESH and STEMsublayers. Fill the shapes with R:72 G:185 B:51 andset the stroke to None.

The previous step will aid you in creating the meshfor the leaf. Now you have a base color and youjust need to modify the highlights and shadowsinstead of adding color to the entire leaf.

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6. Select the Mesh tool (U). Using the followingimages as a reference, click each of the circledareas once. Precise mesh-point positioning isn’trequired here, but try to follow along as closely aspossible. After each click, your mesh should beginto match the corresponding reference image.


A mesh basically creates, over your object, a dis-torted grid that follows the contours of its shape.Each time you click with the Mesh tool, youcreate an additional row or column for that grid.However, if you click along the same path horizon-tally, you’ll only add an additional column to thegrid, and the number of rows will remain thesame. Alternatively, if you add points verticallyalong the same path, you’ll create additional rowsbut not columns. Finally, if you add mesh pointsthat aren’t on any of the existing vertical or hori-zontal mesh lines, then you’ll create an additionalrow and column. This is similar to the first threeimages in the previous step.

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Next, you’re going to select mesh points within the leafobject and change the colors. This will produce a grad-ual color shift similar to a gradient. Before you moveon to this step, I’d like to first point out a key concept.The wonderful thing about the Mesh tool is that themesh points it produces are similar to anchor pointsand paths. You select and manipulate mesh points inthe same way that you would a path. See the followingreference image for an example.

7. If it isn’t already selected, select the LEAF layerusing the Selection tool or by clicking the meatballin the Layers palette.

8. Select the open arrow Direct Selection tool fromthe toolbox.

There are actually two methods that you can usewhen selecting points on an existing mesh. Youcan use the Direct Selection tool, as suggested instep 8, or the Mesh tool itself. I prefer to use theDirect Selection tool since it will only select pointson the mesh. If you use the Mesh tool, you run therisk of adding another mesh line if you acciden-tally click an open area within the mesh instead ofthe mesh point. Since Illustrator’s anchor pointsare small and can be difficult to select, this is avery real possibility.

9. Click each mesh point that I’ve circled in this refer-ence image and change the fill color to R: 233G:255 B:227.

You can change the fill color by using the Colorpalette, the Swatches palette, or by double-clicking the Fill swatch in the toolbox.

Turning on Smart Guides (CTRL/CMD+U) for therest of the exercise may aid you in selecting meshpoints.

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10. Now select the following anchor points.

11. Change the fill color of these points to R:192G:249 B:93.

12. This should produce a nice color shift along theleft side of the leaf. It looks pretty good so far, butyou have a few more changes to make.

13. Select the points displayed in this reference image.


14. Change the fill color to R:98 G:214 B:60.

15. Next, select these points.

16. Change the fill color to R:51 G:160 B:44.

17. Hopefully, you get the idea. Use this referenceimage to select the remaining anchor points andchange their colors accordingly.

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OK, if you’ve followed along, the hard part is done. Allthat remains are the veins that run through the leaf.You’ll create these using the Pen tool. However, if youhave an aversion to (or fear of) this tool, the source fileincludes a layer named VEINS that you can use withouthaving to actually draw the veins.

18. Create a new layer called VEINS on top of theleaf objects. Select the Pen tool and begin draw-ing the veins as I have in these referenceimages. Note that these aren’t closed paths.When you wish to end your path, just press theENTER/RETURN key.

19. Next, select all of the paths on the VEINSlayer. Choose Window ➤ Brush Libraries ➤

Artistic_Calligraphic. Select the 3 pt oval brush nearthe bottom of the palette to apply to your paths.

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20. Finally, unlock and select the OUTLINE layer.Choose the 3 pt oval brush from the same paletteto apply to the outline path around the leaf.

Shadow effectsOften, depth isn’t defined only by the highlights andshadows that are produced on an object, but also bythe highlights and shadows the object produces on itsenvironment. In this exercise, you’ll learn two effects.The first part uses Illustrator’s native Drop Shadoweffect (Effect ➤ Stylize ➤ Drop Shadow). You’ve seenthis effect used throughout this book in other exer-cises, and it’s very easy to apply. However, the nativeDrop Shadow effect doesn’t always suit your needs. Inthe second part, you’ll actually manipulate and skew acopy of the object itself to cast a shadow on the sur-rounding area. This is a widely used illustration tech-nique. Although it’s more complicated, this method ismore versatile and creates more realistic results thanthe preceding effect.


1. OK, let’s dig in. The first effect is simple but you’lllook at a couple of variations. Open Chapter_06_ButtonShadowStart.ai. This file contains the aquagel button that you created in Chapter 4.

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2. Examine the Layers palette. Select the bottom layernamed BASE. In the Appearance palette, notice theDrop Shadow effect. Double-click this layer. Whenthe dialog box appears, be sure to check thePreview check box.

From the settings you chose when you created this but-ton in Chapter 4, you should assume that the lightsource is shining from the top left. This will cause ashadow off to the bottom right. Examine the Artboardwithout clicking OK and you’ll see what I mean.

3. However, by setting the X Offset value to 0 and theY Offset value to a positive number, the dropshadow will now be positioned directly below thebutton. Try this by setting the X Offset value to 0and the Y Offset value to 15 pt. Also, set the opac-ity to 30% and the blur to 6 pt.

4. You can make the button appear to be raised evenhigher above the surface by increasing the Y Offsetvalue. In this case, I changed it to 45 pt.

However, keep in mind that as the object getshigher off the surface, the shadow becomes lessdefined. The intensity of the shadow fades as well.You can simulate this in Illustrator by increasing theBlur setting and decreasing the Opacity setting.

5. While still in the Drop Shadow dialog box, set theBlur setting to 10 pt and the Opacity setting to20%. Click OK and you’re done.

This completes part 1 of this exercise. In part 2, you’regoing to abandon the native Drop Shadow effect inplace of a “manual” process. Don’t run away just yet! Iknow I said manual, but I promise this effect isn’t goingto be too difficult. In fact, it’s a widely used technique,and if you wish to add that extra touch of realism toyour illustrations you’ll find it very useful.

To begin, I’d like to illustrate why this technique isuseful and why it can often be the preferred way toadd a drop shadow instead of using Illustrator’s DropShadow effect. Take a look at this reference image:

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The preceding illustration could benefit greatly from adrop shadow cast by the flag (commonly referred to asa “pin” for all of you non-golf enthusiasts). However, ifyou add the default drop shadow using Illustrator’sDrop Shadow effect, you don’t get the effect you’relooking for.


Luckily for you, there is another way. Follow along withthe next steps to see how.

6. Open Chapter_06_GolfFlagStart.ai. Take note ofthe layers that exist in this file—GREEN, HOLE,and FLAG, the last two being locked.

7. The first step is to create a copy of the FLAG layer.Duplicate this layer by dragging it to the CreateNew Layer button at the bottom of the Layerspalette. This will produce a layer named FLAGcopy. Drag this layer below FLAG and rename itSHADOW.

Next, you don’t actually need all of the componentsthat make up the flag. You only need the general out-line of it.

8. Target the meatball icon for the SHADOW layer toselect all of its contents.

9. Open the Pathfinder palette (SHIFT+F9). Hold downthe ALT/OPTION key and select the Add to ShapeArea button to combine all of the shapes. Set thefill color of this path to black and the stroke toNone. I’ve hidden the FLAG layer so you can seethe results in this reference image. You’ll need tohide it as well to see the effect.

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Now that the shape you’ll use for the shadow is cre-ated, let’s position it in place.

10. With the object on the SHADOW layer stillselected, choose Object ➤ Transform ➤ Shear. Setthe shear angle to 50 degrees and be sureHorizontal is selected. Click OK.

11. Next, choose Object ➤ Transform ➤ Scale. SelectUniform and enter 70 for the Scale setting.

12. Drag the shadow to the right so it appears directlybehind the original flagstick as shown in the fol-lowing figure. Don’t deselect the SHADOW layeryet, though.

13. Finally, select the Free Transform tool (E). Click thetop-right corner of the bounding box that surroundsthe shadow. Before you move the mouse to trans-form the flag, hold down the CTRL/CMD key. Nowdrag the corner point downward as I’ve done here:

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14. You should have something similar to this:

If your transformation doesn’t go as planned, youcould be holding down the CTRL/CMD key incor-rectly. It’s very important to click first and thenhold down the CTRL/CMD key.


15. Repeat step 13 but drag the bottom-right point ofthe bounding box this time.

16. Finally, to complete the effect, change the opacityof the SHADOW layer to 50% in the Transparencypalette and you’re done.

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Simulating depth withgradients and glowsThe next exercise will walk you through combining oneof Illustrator’s tools that’s commonly used in addingdepth and dimension (Gradient) to images and onethat isn’t (Inner Glow).

1. Open Chapter_06_FishStart.ai. This file containsthe outline of a fish shape that I drew for you. Aswith many of the source files, it’s only here to helpyou jump in and perform the exercises quickly.There are no special tricks to this effect other thantaking the time to draw the fish shape.

2. The first task is to create a custom gradient. As youmay have seen so far, gradients are a great way toadd depth to an object. Use this reference imageand create a radial gradient to apply to the fishshape.

3. Save this gradient for later use by dragging the gra-dient preview thumbnail (shown in the upper leftof the palette) over the Swatches palette andreleasing the mouse button.

4. Expand the FISH layer to view its sublayers. Selectthe BODY sublayer. Click the gradient in theSwatches palette to apply it to that shape and setthe stroke to None.

By default, Illustrator aligns the center of a radial gradi-ent with the shape that you applied it to. Since thiscenter point serves as your highlight in this illustration,let’s reposition it.

5. With the BODY sublayer selected, select theGradient tool (G). Position your cursor where youwant to define the beginning point of the gradient.Drag across the FISH layer toward the bottom leftof the fish shape, as shown in the following image.Release the mouse button where you would like todefine the endpoint of the gradient.

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Great! You’re now starting to add some dimension tothe fish. Next you’re going to use an effect in Illustratorthat you may not usually associate with depth anddimension—the Inner Glow effect. One main reasonwhy you probably wouldn’t associate this effect asbeing useful in this circumstance is due to the defaultsettings when you choose it. They do very little justiceinitially, but with some quick modifications you caneasily use an Inner Glow effect to add depth to thisillustration.

6. Select the BODY sublayer. Choose Effect ➤ Stylize➤ Inner Glow. Note that the default color settingis a light yellow and the Blending mode is set toScreen.

7. First, be sure the Preview box is checked so youcan view your modifications. Change the color toR:124 G:37 B:116 and change the Mode setting toMultiply. Set the Opacity setting to 70% and theBlur setting to 28 pt. Finally, check the Edge radiobutton.


8. Click OK to apply. You should now have somethingsimilar to this:

Now, you should really see some depth within the fishobject. The final steps are to add a few more depth-related elements such as fins and an eye.

9. Create a new sublayer above FISH and call itFRONT FIN. Draw a simple shape with the Pen toolas I have in this reference image.

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10. Set the fill to the same radial gradient you used forthe fish shape in step 4 by clicking the gradient inthe Swatches palette.

11. Select the Gradient tool and reposition the gradi-ent to your liking, just as you did in step 5.

12. Duplicate the FRONTFIN layer and move it belowthe FISH layer. Name it BACKFIN.

13. Scale the BACKFIN shape down slightly using theFree Transform tool (E). Then drag it over tothe right.

14. Finally, select the Knife tool. Slice the fish just tothe right of its tail fin.

15. The tail fin and the fish shape are actually two sep-arate paths now.

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16. Also, note that if you select the tail fin shape, itretains the same effects that were applied to theoverall fish shape earlier. This includes the gradientand the Inner Glow effect. You can view this in theAppearance palette (SHIFT+F6).

17. However, the gradient may be difficult to seebecause the Inner Glow effect is covering it. Backin step 7 you changed the Blur setting to 28 pt. Thisworked well for the entire fish shape, but the tailfin is much too small for a setting this large.

18. Select the tail fin object. Double-click the InnerGlow effect layer in the Appearance palette tochange its settings. Change the Blur setting to 10 ptand click OK.

There you have it—a 3D-like illustration using basicgradients and an Inner Glow effect. I’ve included theeye in the source file for you to complete the fish. Itwas created in the same way as the fish—radial gradi-ents and an Inner Glow effect. It may also be nice toadd some water for the fish to swim in (fish like that,you know).


19. Create a layer below the BACKFIN layer namedSEA. Using the Rectangle tool draw a rectangle onthe Artboard.

20. Create a radial gradient similar to this referenceimage and fill the rectangle with it.

21. Finally, reposition the gradient as you’ve done inother steps so the highlight appears in the top-leftcorner of the image.

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If the fins on the fish look too flat for your taste, youcan always apply an Inner Glow effect to them in thesame way that you did for the body and tail fin.

Using Liquify tools to simulatedimensionAnother popular group of features in Illustrator are theLiquify tools. These tools allow you to step back fromthe path and anchor-point madness that can some-times occur so that you can have some plain old fun.Along the way, though, you can produce some aston-ishing effects with these tools that would have takena great deal of time with only the Pen tool. In thisexercise, you’re going to create a simple pattern andmodify it with one of the Liquify tools called the Bloattool. You’ll then map this pattern to the fish object youcreated in the previous exercise to further enhance theillusion of depth and dimension.

1. Open Chapter_06_FishLiquifyStart.ai. This isthe completed version of the file you used in theprevious exercise. I’ve organized the layers by mov-ing the EYE, BACKFIN, and FRONTFIN layers allwithin the FISH layer.

2. Create a new sublayer above BODY called DOTS.Lock all of the other sublayers.

3. Select the Ellipse tool. Draw a circle over the fishbody similar to this reference image. Set the fillcolor to R:158 G:73 B:161 and the stroke to None.

4. Continue drawing circles as I have in this referenceimage, or duplicate the existing circle and reposi-tion the circles as necessary. This will be the pat-tern for your fish.

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5. Target the DOTS layer by clicking its correspon-ding meatball icon. Turn the dots into a compoundpath (CTRL/CMD+8).

I realize that many of you may not be familiar withpolka-dotted fish. However, they’re very popular in thewaters off the Gulf Coast of Florida where I reside. OK,perhaps that isn’t entirely truthful. I have to admit thatI’ve never seen a purple polka-dotted fish before. But Ido feel that this pattern portrays this effect very well,so please bear with my genetically altered fish for theremainder of this exercise.

6. Select the Bloat tool. It’s located in the Warp toolflyout menu. Alas, there isn’t a keyboard shortcutfor this one.

7. Double-click the Bloat tool button in the toolboxto display the Bloat Tool Options dialog box. TheLiquify tools are basically brushes with warpeffects. They have similar diameter properties, as


well as Angle and Intensity settings. As such, youcan modify these settings just as you can a regularbrush.

8. Set the Width and Height settings to an amountlarge enough to cover the dots you just created.If you’ve been following along, 500 pt shouldwork fine. Also, set the Intensity setting to 25%.Click OK.

9. Next, quickly click two times over the dot pattern.Notice how the dots appear to expand as if they’reexploding. Also, note that the longer you click andhold, the more this affects the shapes.

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The final step is to remove the area of the DOTS layerthat expands beyond the fish’s body.

10. Unlock the BODY layer. Duplicate it by dragging itto the Create New Layer button at the bottom ofthe Layers palette. You should now have twoBODY sublayers in the Layers palette.

11. Select the duplicate body layer’s meatball andSHIFT-select the DOTS layer meatball as well.

12. Make the Pathfinder palette visible. Hold down theALT/OPTION key and click the Intersect Shape Areasbutton.

13. This will remove the areas of the DOTS layer thatdon’t intersect with the BODY layer.

14. Your polka-dotted fish should now be complete.One final enhancement would be to change theBlending mode of the DOTS layer to Multiply andthe Opacity setting to 50%.

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Incorporating depth of field inan illustrationDepth of field refers to the distance between thenearest and farthest points that appear in focus (sharp)in a photograph. Graphic designers attempt to simulatedepth of field in their designs in various ways. This usu-ally involves specific paint programs and their corre-sponding blur effects. Until recently, utilizing this effectin Illustrator was difficult. But with the advent of liveeffects, you can quickly add this touch of realism toillustrations with little effort. In this exercise, you’ll visitthe genetically altered purple polka-dotted fish onemore time. He was alone in his vast aqua home, soyou’re going to add some background elements andeven a friend to make him feel more at home. Corny, Iknow, but follow along, as this is an essential techniquefor adding depth to your illustrations.

1. Open Chapter_06_FishDepthofFieldStart.ai.This file contains the same underwater fish scenethat you’ve been working with. Everything has beencompleted for you up to this point, but feel free touse the same file that you’ve been working with inprevious exercises.

2. Notice the layers within this illustration. The keylayer in this illustration is SEA. Lock the other layersand expand the SEA layer to view its sublayers.

3. Create a new sublayer above WATER calledBACKHILLS.


4. Using the Pen tool, draw a jagged, mountainous-type shape similar to this reference image. Noticethat this is a closed path, meaning that all thepoints connect to one another. This allowsthe shape to accept a fill easily, without allowingany gaps or unintended side effects to occur.

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5. Fill this object with the following radial gradient.Use the Gradient tool and mouse to reposition thegradient to your liking. I’ve included an arrow as areference for how the gradient was positioned inthis example.

6. Next, create another sublayer above BACKHILLSand name it FRONTHILLS. Create a shape similarto the one you created in step 4. Fill this shapewith the same radial gradient.

Now it’s time to incorporate a Depth of Field effect. Tosimulate depth of field, you need to decide whichobject will be in focus. Since the fish has been so dearto your heart in this chapter, let’s continue to give himthe spotlight. This means that the hills (the BACKHILLSand FRONTHILLS layers) will need to get progressivelyblurry as the scenery gets farther away.

7. Select the shape on the BACKHILLS layer. ChooseEffect ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur. Enter 10 pixels forthe Radius setting.

8. Select the shape on the FRONTHILLS layer. ChooseEffect ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur. Enter 3 pixels forthe Radius setting.

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Finally, to finish this off, let’s add a friend for your fish.

9. Unlock the FISH layer. Duplicate it by draggingthe layer over the Create New Layer button at thebottom of the Layers palette. Target the entirecontents of the layer by clicking the parent layer’smeatball icon.

10. Choose Object ➤ Transform ➤ Scale. Enter 35%for the amount and be sure that Uniform isselected. Click OK.

11. Choose Object ➤ Transform ➤ Reflect. Select theVertical radio button and click OK.

12. Move the new fish off to the left, but don’t dese-lect it yet.

I’ve purposely varied the settings between the twohill shapes. This is because objects don’t instantlybecome blurred when taking depth of field intoaccount. Everything gets progressively out of focusas you move further away from the focus object.Thus, the hills in front should be slightly more infocus than the hills in back.


13. Choose Effect ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur. Set theradius to 5 pixels.

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14. This completes the fish illustration. However, Ichanged the Opacity setting of the FISH copy layerto 75% to make it appear as if the fish was fartherin the background, and it began to take on thecolor properties of the actual ocean surrounding it.

SummaryAs you’ve learned in this chapter, simulating depth anddimension can be accomplished with tools you may useevery day. Often, simple changes such as adding astrategically placed gradient or shadow can mean thedifference between a mediocre illustration and a pro-fessional-looking one. However, if I had to pick oneimportant message from this chapter, it wouldn’t behow to use a specific tool or effect. Instead, it wouldbe a concept: highlights and shadows are the key tocreating illustrations that appear to have depth and

dimension. Our eyes pick up on these elements andtranslate them into depth, thus the appearance of a 3Dobject. Study the world around you. Examine how lightinteracts (or doesn’t interact) with objects in your envi-ronment. It’s this process that will familiarize you withthe various highlights and shadows produced on anobject. In turn, you’ll begin to take control of Illustratorand learn to make the tools work for you when creat-ing illustrations of your own.

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MeshandGradients