Little help with AI (not Artificial Intelegence, lol)

[1964GN]

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.

[Colin]

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

[Sbrem]

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

[Frog]

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.

[screenxpress]

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 

[Frog]

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

[screenxpress]

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?

[royster13]

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...

[Frog]

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"

[StinkyDaddy]

"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.

[screenxpress]

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

[royster13]

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....

[Sbrem]

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

[screenxpress]

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.

[IntegrityShirts]

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.