Adobe Illustrator s Pathfinder Panel

Transcription

1 GRAF 3015 Adobe Illustrator s Pathfinder Panel Instructor: Bill Bowman Bill Bowman 2012 Continued

2 The Pathfinder Panel... Combining and splitting paths in Illustrator is managed by the ten tools found in the Pathfinder panel. These tools combine or divide two or more intersecting paths. Think of these tools as shortcuts to processes you could accomplish equally well, but with much more difficulty, by adding and/ or deleting anchor points on your paths. That old saying don t go around the block, just to get next door comes to mind. Creative use of Adobe Illustrator s Pathfinder feature can make easy work of drawing complex shapes. The trick is getting to know the various Pathfinder functions and how they work. Intersect Minus Front Unite Exclude Divide Trim Merge Crop Outline Minus Back 2

3 Pathfinder Tool What it does Original Shapes / Result / Path View Unite Combine the selected objects into a single shape. Minus Front Deletes the top most object from the object(s) below. Intersect Removes everything but the overlapping areas of selected shapes. Removes shared areas of overlapping shapes. Exclude 3

4 Pathfinder Tool What it does Original Shapes / Result / Path View Divide Splits selected objects into individual shapes created by intersecting paths. (Resulting shapes pulled apart for clarity) Removes the covered portion of the bottom shape. Trim (Resulting shapes pulled apart for clarity) Merge Is similar to the Trim tool, but it merges contiguous shapes that have the same fill colour and removes any stroke attributes. Crop The top most object acts as a cookie cutter to cut away parts of the object that do not fit within it. 4

5 Pathfinder Tool What it does Original Shapes / Result / Path View Outline Converts fills to outlines; the colour of the fill, becomes the colour of the stroke. (Resulting shapes stroked for clarity) Deletes the bottom most shape from objects above it. Minus Back 5

6 Real World Example... Imagine that you need to draw a gear. That would be a rather tedious undertaking with the pen tool, even tracing a template. Why not make it easy on yourself and harness the powerful capabilities of Pathfinder? 1) Draw a many pointed star (fig. 1) 2) With the Ellipse tool draw a circle that will become the inner radius of your gear teeth on top of the star. Be sure that their center points are perfectly aligned. (fig. 2) 3) Select the two shapes and press the Unite Pathfinder function to unite the two shapes. 4) With the Ellipse tool draw a slightly larger circle that will become the outer radius of your gear teeth on top of the shape. Be sure that their center points are perfectly aligned. (fig. 3) 5) Select the two shapes and press the Intersect Pathfinder function. (fig. 4) 6) With the Ellipse tool draw a circle that will be the center hole on top of the gear. Be sure that their center points are perfectly aligned. 7) Select both shapes and press the Minus Front Pathfinder function. (fig. 5) (fig. 1) (fig. 2) (fig. 3) (fig. 4) (fig. 5) TIP: Use your gear and Illustrator s Extrude effect to give your gear a realistic 3D appearance. There you have it, a gear with perfect teeth... Your dentist would be proud! 6