Pattern Brush Anatomy 101 in Illustrator 9 and 10, Part 3
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Pattern Brush Anatomy 101 in Illustrator 9 and 10, Part 3
Now it's time to use what you've learned and make a pattern brush of your own. For a review, the chart below tells which slots in the brushes palette holds which type of tile.
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Illustrator 9
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Illustrator 10
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Slot 1 |
outer corner tile |
Slot 1 |
outer corner tile |
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Slot 2 |
side tile |
Slot 2 |
side tile |
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Slot 3 |
side tile |
Slot 3 |
side tile |
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Slot 4 |
side tile |
Slot 4 |
inner corner tile |
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Slot 5 |
inner corner tile |
Slot 5 |
beginning tile |
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Slot 6 |
beginning tile |
Slot 6 |
ending tile |
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Slot 7 |
ending tile |
Slot 7 |
no slot 7 in Illustrator 10 |
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The first step to making any brush is creating the art you'll be using in the brush. I started with the grid I made in my tutorial for printable grids in Illustrator 9. If you want to make the same brushes I have here, you can follow the Printable Grid in Illustrator 9 tutorial here, (it also works for Illustrator 10) and then come back and do this tutorial. You may also download the .ai file with the grid here. The file will work in Illustrator 7 and up. Or use your own art for the brush, following the guidelines set here. This is a simple brush, and we will use the same piece of art (tile) for both the sides and the corners. |
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When we worked on the brush made of squares, we selected the first tile and dragged it to the brushes palette. This time we'll use a second method of making a brush. In the brushes palette (if you can't see the brushes palette, hit the F5 key to open it) click on the options triangle on the top right of the palette (by the red arrow in the illustration) to open the options, and click on New Brush. It'll be the first item in the list. |
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The New Brush dialog opens, and there are four types of brushes in the list. Tick the radio button by "New Pattern Brush". Click OK. |
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The Pattern Brush Options box opens and you can see the grid has been placed in the first square, and from the diagram below it you can tell it's the side tile. There are also boxes for the outer corner tile, inner corner tile, a beginning tile, and an ending tile. In this simple square brush we only need the inner and outer corners, and they're a copy of the same tile as the grid we used already, but they still have to be added to let the brush follow any shape smoothly. Type a name for your brush in the Name box. You can name it any unique name up to 30 characters long. Since we want to be able to colorize it, in the Colorization Method dropdown list, choose Tints. Any color you have chosen for stroke color will be the color of the brush. Leave the rest of the options as they are set here and click OK. |
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Screenshot is from Illustrator 10 In the brushes palette, the grid will be in the second and third slots on Illustrator 10, and second, third and fourth slots on Illustrator 9. We know these are the side tile slots from our previous experiments with the colored squares. |
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Alt+Drag the same tile you dragged to the palette (it should only have dragged a copy, so your original grid should still be on the artboard) to the brushes palette and drop it in the outer corner slot, or slot 1. The brush options opens, click OK to close them. In Illustrator 9 and 10 both it will appear in the first slot. Screenshot is from Illustrator 10. |
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Alt+Drag the tile again to the inner corner slot, which is slot 5 on Illustrator 9, and slot 4 on Illustrator 10. Brush options open, click OK to close and return to the artboard; and in the brush palette, the inner corner tile is now in the corresponding slot, depending on whether you are using Illustrator 9 or 10. Screenshot is from Illustrator 10. |
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You have the idea now...alt+drag the tile to the remaining slots in the brushes palette, the brush options will open, click OK to close the brush options and return to the artboard. Look at the brushes palette and the whole row is filled with our tile. |
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Draw a line and an ellipse and apply the new brush. |
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Remember when we first defined this brush, we set the colorization method to tints? Drag a swatch on top of the line and ellipse and the color will change, or change the stroke color in the toolbox and the color will change. |
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Try the new brush on different shapes and see how the corners fill in the different angles. Even s simple pattern brush like this one can create some interesting effects. |
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There are a lot more interesting possibilities...lets go on to part 4 to finish the tutorial. |
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