ILLUSTRATOR: CANADIAN NINJA WARRIOR
A ninja (忍者, Japanese pronunciation: [ɲiꜜɲdʑa]) or shinobi (忍び, [ɕinobi]) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included espionage, deception, and surprise attacks. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai.
It can be quite tricky getting the hang of Adobe Illustrator, but if you take a step back and concentrate on the basics there's a range of options for creating great looking images. In this tutorial, we'll take a look at constructing a group of vector ninja characters using just the basic shapes and a variety of simple tools, making it a good start for Illustrator beginners. These are the tools highlighted in the tutorial, you will have learned the following by the end:
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UNDERSTANDING THE 'PATHFINDER' TOOL
THE PATHFINDER TOOL
You can combine vector objects to create shapes in a variety of ways in Illustrator. The resulting paths or shapes differ depending on the method you use to combine the objects. Add- Traces the outline of all objects as if they were a single, merged object. The resulting shape takes on the paint attributes of the top object. Intersect- Traces the outline of the region overlapped by all the objects. Exclude- Traces all non-overlapping areas of the objects, and makes overlapping areas transparent. Where an even number of objects overlap, the overlap becomes transparent. Where an odd number of objects overlap, the overlap becomes filled. Subtract- Subtracts the front-most objects from the back-most object. You can use this command to delete areas of an illustration by adjusting the stacking order. Minus Back- Subtracts the objects in back from the frontmost object. You can use this command to delete areas of an illustration by adjusting the stacking order. Divide- Separates a piece of artwork into its component-filled faces (a face is an area undivided by a line segment). Trim- Removes the part of a filled object that is hidden. Removes any strokes and doesn't merge objects of the same color. Merge- Removes the part of a filled object that is hidden. Removes any strokes and merges any adjoining or overlapping objects filled with the same color. Crop- Divides artwork into its component-filled faces, and then deletes all the parts of the artwork that fall outside the boundary of the topmost object. It also removes any strokes. Outline- Divides an object into its component line segments, or edges. This command is useful for preparing artwork that needs a trap for overprinting objects. |
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE PATHFINDER WINDOW, YOU WILL FIND IT UNDER 'WINDOW>PATHFINDER"
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