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Computers and Software => Raster and Vector Manipulation Programs, and How to Do Stuff in Them. => Topic started by: screenxpress on July 27, 2017, 12:45:14 PM
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I rarely use AI, but have a project in mind that I'd like to start using and learning AI.
Starting off, I have a Vector image that is outlined in black and has black content, okay, it's a skull.
The image fill is transparent because when I arrange the image to front and a black box to the back, the image disappears. Changing the background box from black to yellow shows the image.
How can I fill the object with white leaving the black border outline and eye sockets alone?
TIA
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I don't quite follow you with transparency and the black box part. Is the black content a percentage of black? If you're placing your art on a black box to simulate a shirt, try a different color box first, like red or green. This way you won't get confused with the background. After you get the image set up correctly, change the box back to black. Post the image, it will easier to help if we can see it... For some designs like this, we might use 2 blacks, one screen for the blackest parts, and a second screen for the halftones...
Steve
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Let me try this again.
It so happens I have two vector skull images.
When I make the background box yellow, both skulls are visible with their outline, but only 1 is filled with white. The other is filled with yellow from the background box.
If I change the background box to black, I still see the one filled with white. The other disappears and blends in with the black.
I want to make the one that disappears in with the black to have a white fill and visible on a black background like the first one is.
Nothing I have tried to click on changes that.
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Live paint bucket tool!
When you're happy with the results, expand your image to commit your fills to shapes. <-- Very important step or else the entire thing will be grouped together.
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Some visual steps.
Make sure the shape (skull) is selected before you switch to the live paint tool. After you expand your live paint group, you can move it, change fill, stroke, etc.
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Thank you!
It is a bit tedious to enlarge and click every part that is transparent, but that will get the job done.
That tool is similar to the one in Corel, but I had no idea what to use.
Thanks again.
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No problem, I started on Corel and it took me awhile to find the fill tool on AI.
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Select the empty shape you want to color, then go to menu: Select>Same>Fill Color
That should select all the empty filled shapes within and probably around the skull, then select a color to fill.
This might be skipping a step if the shapes aren't "separated". Kind of heard to explain in type
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TSE, can you explain this in your post?
expand your image to commit your fills to shapes. <-- Very important step or else the entire thing will be grouped together.
I had to ungroup and select the entire skull, then click all over the place in every nook and cranny where I see a transparent fill. Then I regrouped to move it back.
I'm lost on the 'commit your fills shape' part?
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If you don't expand the entire selection (live paint group), it remains live and some weird things happen when you try to move it. Attached an example of that and also of an expanded fill.
Not sure if you were able to finish your project? But if you're having trouble, upload a picture of your art so we know what you're talking about.
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Select the empty shape you want to color, then go to menu: Select>Same>Fill Color
That should select all the empty filled shapes within and probably around the skull, then select a color to fill.
This might be skipping a step if the shapes aren't "separated". Kind of heard to explain in type
This would work and save some time for detailed art.
You would still need to expand first, or use the trim function to get the empty space to become a fillable empty space though, right?
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Open Skull Image
Make a yellow box bigger than the skull image
place the box behind the skull
you will now see yellow where there is no black in your skull
select both images
open your pathfinder window
Click on the divide option under Pathfinders:
Ungroup your image
Select the yellow out side your skull and delete as it is now extra/extaneous
select any yellow spot
go under select in your drop down menu
go to "same" fly our menue
select "Fill Color"
you have now selected all the yellow in your skull
group all those together.
Boom :)
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Open Skull Image
Make a yellow box bigger than the skull image
place the box behind the skull
you will now see yellow where there is no black in your skull
select both images
open your pathfinder window
Click on the divide option under Pathfinders:
Ungroup your image
Select the yellow out side your skull and delete as it is now extra/extaneous
select any yellow spot
go under select in your drop down menu
go to "same" fly our menue
select "Fill Color"
you have now selected all the yellow in your skull
group all those together.
Boom :)
this is much better; I would use Trim, then Merge on the Pathfinder pallet. You could then use the Direct Selection tool (hollow arrow) to select the yellow on the outside, and delete it; then click on the yellow on the inside, Select same fill color in case the parts aren't contiguous, and make it white, or any color you want.
Steve
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Both of the replies from Steve and Colin came very close.
In both methods, once I had the outside yellow deleted and the yellow inside the skull (and it has a lot of vector sub-sections), trying to select all of the yellow never selected ALL of the yellow to change to white. Some yellow pockets always remained. This happened using both methods.
But as a hybrid to both, since I had Transparency Grid on (Shift/Ctrl/D), instead of making the background box yellow, I made it white. Then pretty much either method worked and I could stop once I deleted the background box outside of the skull.
I don't know why I was having difficulty getting all the yellow in the skull to select to turn to white in one click.
I really appreciate the response and both methods, Steve's seemed to be a little easier for me to run through.
I've attached one of the images if anyone wants to fiddle with it to see why the final steps to capture all of the yellow would not work.
Thanks all,
Wayne
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Any good?
I cheated. Blew the vector up real large and exported as a 300DPI .TIFF file.
placed the .TIFF file into a new document and traced as a 3 colour.
Selected the white and made it magenta so I could see what I wanted to delete and spent 2 mins clicking out the magenta in the hair and whatever was outsize the outline.
Unless I'm reading your requirements completely wrong and it's a whole lot more complicated.
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My quick method.
Create a shape in white (or what ever color you want) and place it behind your object. Select all, Pathfinder Trim, Pathfinder Divide. All strokes need to be outlined.
Select the colored areas outside of the design and delete them.
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There was one small section under the eye that needed a small adjustment to close a gap in the black. Other than that really easy. With long term illustrator use, it took longer to boot up illustrator than it did to fill with "other color".
To add on to the steps - do everything that was posted above, but select the same black - lock it so it cant be selected - and go wild grabbing as much "other color" outside as possible.
That was a pretty wild skull :)
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There was one small section under the eye that needed a small adjustment to close a gap in the black. Other than that really easy. With long term illustrator use, it took longer to boot up illustrator than it did to fill with "other color".
To add on to the steps - do everything that was posted above, but select the same black - lock it so it cant be selected - and go wild grabbing as much "other color" outside as possible.
That was a pretty wild skull :)
Yeah, that's kind of a messy skull, and when I deleted the outside, I found the gap Colin mentions too. I didn't notice if there were strokes to be outlined, but I like Flatten Transparency usually for that...
Steve
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Wayne, out of curiosity, I understand that for you. this is an Illy learning experience, but can you do it in CorelDRAW?
I had a little time and played with it and found it an interesting exercise.
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Hi Andy,
My first attempt using that image was in Corel and got something that worked, but Corel has a similar problem filling parts of an Vector image. In Corel its done by the Smart Fill Tool.
I just got unemployed from my day IT job on 7/6. They call it retirement, lol. So I'm spending some of my time trying to pick up some new tricks with the generous help of some of the folks here. I have no request for creating this, just a personal project.
Thanks all and I'm sure I may be asking some more questions. I'll try to dig out what I can first to keep the requests manageable. Google is my friend ;)
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Hi Andy,
My first attempt using that image was in Corel and got something that worked, but Corel has a similar problem filling parts of an Vector image. In Corel its done by the Smart Fill Tool.
I just got unemployed from my day IT job on 7/6. They call it retirement, lol. So I'm spending some of my time trying to pick up some new tricks with the generous help of some of the folks here. I have no request for creating this, just a personal project.
Thanks all and I'm sure I may be asking some more questions. I'll try to dig out what I can first to keep the requests manageable. Google is my friend ;)
This reminds me of that nasty cat-skinning saying. There are many ways. I am short on experience with the smart fill. I made an oval about the same shape as the face. colored it, and placed it behind. After copying the original image, I used the Back minus Front command to come up with a shape that would soon become the white "fill". After breaking this new object apart, I deleted the areas outside the skull, noticing one small section between the right eye and nose that also got deleted. That cat skinnig came back as I came up with two ways to solve that issue, the best being a slight initial tweak to the original black line with the shape tool, closing a path that made that troublesome section it's own object. After I figured it out, the process was less than a minute.(Gotta admit it took me five minutes to figure it out initially
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Got another question on AI
Lets say I have a shooting unwanted node outside a running line. Call it a "spike" node that you want to delete.
Compared to Corel, if I delete the unwanted node, it simply deletes it and smooths out the line between the two remaining nearest nodes.
In AI, deleting a node appears to really delete it and leaves it with a break. How can I just delete a node and have it do something similar to Corel?
Or do I have to always reconnect the broken nodes?
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If your anchor points are connected, deleting one using the delete anchor point tool (option in pen tool selection) should leave the remaining anchor points connected...
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Got another question on AI
Lets say I have a shooting unwanted node outside a running line. Call it a "spike" node that you want to delete.
Compared to Corel, if I delete the unwanted node, it simply deletes it and smooths out the line between the two remaining nearest nodes.
In AI, deleting a node appears to really delete it and leaves it with a break. How can I just delete a node and have it do something similar to Corel?
Or do I have to always reconnect the broken nodes?
In CorelDRAW removing a node to smooth out the line between usually works for me too, but there have been hundreds of times that I have had to undo the action because of those same unexpected "breaks" you describe. Never really explored the inside workings of nodes and have always just written it off to "some nodes are just funkier (and more key to the line) than others"
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"Got another question on AI
Lets say I have a shooting unwanted node outside a running line. Call it a "spike" node that you want to delete.
Compared to Corel, if I delete the unwanted node, it simply deletes it and smooths out the line between the two remaining nearest nodes.
In AI, deleting a node appears to really delete it and leaves it with a break. How can I just delete a node and have it do something similar to Corel?
Or do I have to always reconnect the broken nodes?"
Use the pen tool with the minus sign instead of deleting. You can smooth the adjoining points with their handles.
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Royster and Stinky:
Got it now on removing the nodes and keeping the path still complete. Side note. Compared to Corel, when you're working on the nodes, especially removing one, I find AI needs a lot more clicking actions to change back and forth between the nodes, the pen tool, and Direct Selection. I think Corel is a little more user friendly to get what you want in the node department.
Andy, I think that covers what you said too although I don't remember having a break when I have deleted a node using the mouse touch to select, followed by the delete key.
One more AI Question----for a few days, I think.
This image is not a skull, although it could be.
Say you have a mostly black image with tons of nodes on a transparent background and the intention is to put that image on a black shirt. I thought I would want to somehow flatten the entire image and put a black stroke (say 4 or so pixels) around the entire image and then convert the existing black fill to transparent and let the shirt color fill in the black.
I have not been able to figure out how to put a stroke around only the outside. I have not figured a way to remove all the nodes and my stroke attempt puts a stroke everywhere, outside and all over the inside.
Is there a simple way to effectively convert the image to maybe a bitmap to remove all the nodes, then create a black stroke around just the outside, then change the fill from black to transparent?
Thanks
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I am sure there are trade offs with both programs.....I use both but 90% of the time it is Illustrator....I think once you get better at either what seems like might take longer and/or more effort becomes quicker...So the gap narrows....
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Say you have a mostly black image with tons of nodes on a transparent background and the intention is to put that image on a black shirt. I thought I would want to somehow flatten the entire image and put a black stroke (say 4 or so pixels) around the entire image and then convert the existing black fill to transparent and let the shirt color fill in the black.
I have not been able to figure out how to put a stroke around only the outside. I have not figured a way to remove all the nodes and my stroke attempt puts a stroke everywhere, outside and all over the inside.
Is there a simple way to effectively convert the image to maybe a bitmap to remove all the nodes, then create a black stroke around just the outside, then change the fill from black to transparent?
Thanks
If I have your explanation right, make a duplicate, and fill all of it's parts with the same color, then merge (pathfinder pallet) or union, so it's one big piece like a silhouette. Go from there. And post the image, it's so much easier to advise on...
Steve
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Steve,
Did the Merge but still have nodes all over the place. Not what I expected.
Attached is the test image I'm using for practice.
Object is to ultimately create a 3 pixel stroke of black around the entire image and then change the green to transparent so the only colors that could be printed are black (stroke) and white fills.
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For this one, copy the white and green grim reaper, paste a copy and move it off to the side, then change the fills of it to the same color like blue, then pathfinder>merge
Outline the blue with a white stroke, align it with the green/white art, send it to the back so it's behind the green/white but you can see the white stroke poking out around the outside of green/white reaper.
Object>Expand the stroked blue reaper's white outline.
Select all, pathfinder>merge, then ungroup.
Select only the green and delete, then put it on a black background.
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Steve,
Did the Merge but still have nodes all over the place. Not what I expected.
Attached is the test image I'm using for practice.
Object is to ultimately create a 3 pixel stroke of black around the entire image and then change the green to transparent so the only colors that could be printed are black (stroke) and white fills.
Yes, that's a strange one; it says Mixed Objects, but under the Object menu, it's grouped, go to ungroup and get the message "Can't ungroup objects." Hmmmm, used Flatten Transparency, then it would ungroup. So I decided to zoom in, keyline and find some overlapping problems, and a few spikes here and there, and some double lines. I reverted, and gave a try what Integrity mentioned, (drag a copy to the side, fill it with a single color, then Merge) it still leaves all of those strokes. So, then I Flattened Transparency, hit merge, it still left a pile of strokes, but then hit Union (upper left Pathfinder pallet) and that removed the rest. Now, you can your outer stroke, and line it up with the original. It's usually not quite this difficult, but thanks for the challenge, that was fun. (I gotta get a life...)
Steve
Steve
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Steve,
Thanks for trying so hard on a really crappy image. I knew there were bum nodes even when I tried to clean up a few things.
Let me try to find and post a simpler one with the need and that should be easier.
Don't waste any more time on that one please.
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Okay, here is a simple ghoul image in black and white.
Lets say I wanted to print this one on a black shirt. I would need to knock out out the black and let the shirt do that, but would want an outside stroke of white to give it the outline
How would I change black to red for example (any color not to be screened or printed) and an outside white stroke for the outline?
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Okay, here is a simple ghoul image in black and white.
Lets say I wanted to print this one on a black shirt. I would need to knock out out the black and let the shirt do that, but would want an outside stroke of white to give it the outline
How would I change black to red for example (any color not to be screened or printed) and an outside white stroke for the outline?
this one is too easy, lol. 1. Make a spot color of white, and assign it to the white part of the image. 2. add a stroke to the black, and make sure it's the spot white, Align it to the outside of the black shape on the Stroke pallet. You don't have to knock out anything, it's a one color white ink print. Print, choose separations, and print the white, all done.
Steve
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You're right, that one was too easy.
But I think I got the idea. I'll go play with some more and reach out if I hit a new block.
Thanks all
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Steve,
Did the Merge but still have nodes all over the place. Not what I expected.
Attached is the test image I'm using for practice.
Object is to ultimately create a 3 pixel stroke of black around the entire image and then change the green to transparent so the only colors that could be printed are black (stroke) and white fills.
Yes, that's a strange one; it says Mixed Objects, but under the Object menu, it's grouped, go to ungroup and get the message "Can't ungroup objects." Hmmmm, used Flatten Transparency, then it would ungroup. So I decided to zoom in, keyline and find some overlapping problems, and a few spikes here and there, and some double lines. I reverted, and gave a try what Integrity mentioned, (drag a copy to the side, fill it with a single color, then Merge) it still leaves all of those strokes. So, then I Flattened Transparency, hit merge, it still left a pile of strokes, but then hit Union (upper left Pathfinder pallet) and that removed the rest. Now, you can your outer stroke, and line it up with the original. It's usually not quite this difficult, but thanks for the challenge, that was fun. (I gotta get a life...)
Steve
Steve
It had a bunch of stray points that wouldn't merge for me as well, but once I put the expanded stroked copy behind the main art and merged, they all went away and I was left with clean art. Lucky I guess!