Explore the intricacies of Adobe Illustrator through this detailed tutorial, covering various topics including the Blend tool, blending options, color blends, reversing blends, and controlling blends for a more nuanced design output.
This exercise is excerpted from Noble Desktop’s past Adobe Illustrator training materials and is compatible with Illustrator updates through 2020. To learn current skills in Illustrator, check out our Illustrator Bootcamp and graphic design classes in NYC and live online.
Topics covered in this Illustrator tutorial:
The Blend tool, Blending options
Exercise Preview
Exercise Overview
The title says it all—this one is all about blends. You’ll make them, twist them, color them, reverse them, and more.
Creating a Blend
From the Illustrator Class folder, open the file will-it-blend.ai.
Select the Blend tool
.Click on the large pink circle and then click on the small pink circle inside of it. Illustrator will blend them together. (When blending, it doesn’t matter which object you select first—the results will be the same.)
With the circles still selected, double–click on the Blend tool
to get the Blend Options dialog box.-
Do NOT click OK until we say! From the Spacing menu, choose Specified Steps. Enter 5 and check on Preview to see how this looks.
NOTE: This specifies the number of steps (intermediate circles) used to blend between the original objects (the big and little circles).
From the Spacing menu, switch back to Smooth Color and see how that looks.
Click OK.
Go to Select > Deselect.
With the Group Selection tool
, click in the middle of the small circle (not on the outer path). Move it around and see how the blend updates itself.
Color Blends
Using the Blend tool
, blend the cyan and magenta rectangles (the cyan rectangle is at the top of the page and the magenta rectangle is at the bottom).Hit Cmd–Shift–A (Mac) or Ctrl–Shift–A (Windows) to do a Select > Deselect.
Blend the two green rectangles.
Do a Select > Deselect.
In the Properties panel next to Appearance, click on the Fill icon.
At the top middle of the Swatches panel, click the Color Mixer button
to switch to the Color Mixer panel.Mix a color other than green.
-
Drag and drop it over the bottom or top green rectangle. (To drag and drop the color, grab it from either the Fill icon in the Tools panel or the smaller Fill icon at the top left of the Color Mixer panel.)
Do this with different colors as many times as you like.
When you’re ready to move on, close the Color Mixer panel by pressing Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).
Reversing Blends
Blend the two stars.
With both stars still selected, double–click the Blend tool
.Make sure Spacing is set to Smooth Color and click OK.
Go into Object > Blend > Reverse Spine.
Go into Object > Blend > Reverse Front to Back. Notice how these options change your blend.
Do a Select > Deselect.
More Controlled Blends
- With the Blend tool , blend the blue rectangle to the yellow oval.
- Hit Cmd–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Z (Windows) to undo that.
- Select both the blue rectangle and the yellow oval with the Selection tool
. - With the Blend tool , click the right anchor point of the oval (when over the point, notice that the square part of the Blend tool’s cursor turns black).
- Click the bottom left anchor point of the rectangle. Notice how the blend twists in an effort to blend between the two anchor points that you selected.
- With the blue rectangle to yellow circle blend still selected, double–click
the Blend tool. - Next to Spacing, choose Specified Steps and enter 15 (make sure Preview is checked).
- Hit Tab to update the preview. Try some other numbers, hitting Tab to preview.
- Click OK.
