Sorry about the lack of updates to this blog. I’ve been very busy lately with a number of projects and I have been unable to post anything here. Since I have been working at a furious pace lately I have stumpled over some cool techniques and processes that I will be sharing here soon.
Before the end of 2005 I will start updating again more frequently.
I will be available to answer any questions you have so post them if you got them.
On a side note I have gone back to using Illustrator 10 more. The main reason for this is the Brush tool is very frustrating. I try to draw a circle with the Brush and it comes out deformed looking like a square. I have tweaked all of the tools I know of but nothing helps to rectify el problemo. This kind of sucks because CS2 has so many other cool features, but I can’t afford such slow moving or frustrating tools.
Anyway-see you soon!
Brian
This is a really great way to create rain or power effects or some really cool speed-lines.
Step 1.) Grab a brush with a thick middle and thin edges and quickly touch the screen in a pattern that makes some cool lines like in the picture. Under the Step 1 title you can see what the brush looked like by itself.
Now SELECT them all with the BLACK ARROW(Area Selection Tool.) then go into the MENU bar at the top of the screen and select OBJECT>EXPAND APPEARANCE this converts the brush lines into solid objects that Superman can look through. While you are there in the OBJECT menu go ahead and GROUP the brush lines.
Step 2.) On a new LAYER above the speed lines you just made draw a MARQUEE like the one shown. What we will do here is chop off the top of the speed lines to place them inside a panel.
Step 3.) With the ol’ Black Arrow select the brush lines and the Marquee and go into the PATHFINDER menu and select SUBTRACT FRONT. This subtracts the shape of the Marquee we made from anything under it, hence the name SUBTRACT FRONT.
Now we have this really cool Speed Line look with a straight edge that we can place against the panels edge.
If you really want to add some sweetness to this effect you can grab the splatter looking default BRUSH and a WHITE STROKE and splatter some white over the tips of the lines. It really looks cool!
Here is a Close-Up of the SUBTRACT FRONT tool in the PATHFINDER PALLETTE. It’s the one with the handsome Red Circle surrounding it’s little picture. 
This effect works really well in Illustrator 10 as well as Illustrator CS2.
What a great day. I went out and got the upgrade to illustrator CS2!
I love this program so much. I talked to Todd Macadangdang from Illustrator last year at Comic-Con and told him some of the features I didn’t like in Illustrator Creative Suite and how I wouldn’t upgrade until some of the functions of some of my favorite tools were fixed. Something they did in CS really bugged me and it made it very difficult to do what I was doing in Illustrator 10.
Man! Adobe really change Illustrator for the better with Creative Suite 2.
Some of my favorite features so far are the ability to save Templates easily, the ability to arrange and save the toolbars to your prefereance, the ability to save brushes quickly and effortlessly. I still have no clue how to do it in Illustrator 10. Now it’s a simple button.
I really, really love the Live Paint Bucket tool. If you like coloring anime style you have got to get this program. You can color anime style with a few clicks.
Some features really speed up my drawing time as well. The LIVE PAINT BUCKET feature can fill in ink lines for me very quickly. Some things that would have taken an extra 10 minutes of redrawing can be done now in less than a second.
Don’t despair if you don’t have CS2 yet. Many of the things I will be talking about can still be done in Illustrator 10. I’ll still be thinking with an ILLustrator 10 mind for a while until I learn all the new features.
However some of the new features are easy to learn and very intuitive.
Let me know if you have CS2 yet!
