You've Got Style

Now that we fully appreciate the incredible power and unlimited flexibility of effects, let's learn how to apply and edit them.

We will begin by creating a 2 inch circle. The Elipse tool is packed with the rectangle tool in the toolbar. You can hold down the Alt key and click on the rectangle tool until the elipse appears, or just hit the letter "l" on the keyboard to access it. Click the elipse tool on the page and enter 2 inches for both height and weight. (Make sure you are in inches and not points.) Click OK.

A circle is now on the page and is selected. Keep it selected. Now matter how tempting it is to start clicking around on the page, don't do it. The circle must remain selected. Now you get to start applying some effects.

• Choose Effect>Distort and Transform>Pucker and Bloat. Click the preview button and, if necessary, move the box out of the way so you can see your circle. You get to choose whether you want your circle to pucker or bloat. I try not to be too bossy when it comes to personal taste. You can enter positive or negative numbers in the box, or just slide the little triangle up and down the line until you see something you like. When you are done, click OK.
• Choose Effect>Stylize>Drop Shadow. Again, click preview, play around with the adjustments and click OK. If at any point the preview box is grayed out and unavailable, you have been naughty and have deselected your circle.
• Lets do one more effect. Effect>Distort and Transform>Twist. Enter a number that you like for the twist.

You should have an new shape that looks nothing like a circle. You can assure yourself that it is still a circle though, by choosing View>Outline. All you will see is the circle, everything else is just appearance. Make sure you return to the Preview view and that the object is still selected.

Next we are going to really jazz things up using the Appearance palette. If it is not on your screen already, choose Window>Appearance. The Appearance palette should have the word "path" at the top next to a teeny picture of your circle. Pucker and bloat, twist, stroke, fill, drop shadow and default transparency should all be listed in the palette also. (If, not, you have accidentally deselected that circle again!)

Let's say that you have decided you aren't happy with your pucker and bloat choice. Instead of having to do a bunch of of undoing, you can edit it right in the Appearance palette. Double-click on Pucker and Bloat in the palette. The decision box for that effect will reappear on the screen. Make the changes you want and click OK. It's that easy.

What about some color? Right now, your object should have just a black stroke and a white fill. Click on Fill in the Appearance palette and select a color from the Swatches palette. Next, click on Stroke and choose a color for it also. If you want to make your stroke a bit thicker, adjust the stroke weight up in the options bar. (The default is just 1 pt.)

Now, we are going to get really fancy. Stay on Stroke in the Appearance palette. Choose Effect>Arc>Arc lower. Since you had only stroke selected in the palette, only the stroke of your object received that effect.

Next, let's do an effect on only the Fill. Click on Fill in the Appearance palette. Choose Effect>3D>Extrude and Bevel. Accept the defaults. 3D is one of the more awesomenest parts of Illustrator that I will be carrying on about in a later blog.

Not only can you apply effects to a stroke or fill individually, but you can also use the Appearance palette to create duplicate strokes and fills on the same object.

• Click on Stroke again in the palette then pull down the options menu. (This menu is accessed in the upper right corner of the palette by clicking on the little circle/triangle.) Choose Duplicate Item. Now, you have two strokes on one object. But since they are both exactly the same size, and color, it still looks like you just have only one. We are going to take care of that next.
• Click on one of the two strokes in the palette. Change its color. Still only see one, right? Well, that's because they are on top of each other.
• Staying on that same stroke, choose Effect>Distort and Transform>Transform. Change the Angle (at the bottom of the box.) I used 45 degrees.
• See the little triangles next to the strokes and fill in the Appearance palette? They are expanded, which means that all the effects that you have done to them are showing. That can get a bit confusing, so you might one to collapse them. You do this by clicking on the triangles. (Reopen them by clicking on the triangles again.)

Just for a little added zest. Try rearranging some of the objects in the Appearance palette. Drag the Fill between the two Strokes. (You just click/drag the Fill and release it between the strokes.) Play around with it some, it won't hurt anything if you mess it up. Remember, you can keep choosing Edit>Undo until you get back to a pre-messed state.

I figure that you are now thinking, "Gee, this is an extraordinarily beautiful effect! I wish I could save it and apply it to ALL my artwork." With a little help from the Graphic Styles Palette, you can!

• Keep the circle selected.
• Open the Graphic Styles palette. (Windows>Graphic Styles)
• At the bottom of this palette is a New Graphic Style button (right next to the little trash can.) Click on this button to create a new graphic style. There will be a new style showing in the palette. Double-click on it and give it a name. I named mine "Frank," but you might want to try something more descriptive like "3d warp bloat shadow."

Try drawing a new shape. I drew a curved line. While your new shape is selected, click on the graphic style you created. All of those effects that you so carefully created, will be applied to this new object.

Best of all, when you save this file, your wonderful graphic style will be saved also!

To be honest, this is really ugly. But, that's okay. We overdid it because we were playing around. With practice and a modicum of talent, you can come up with very lovely and distinctive effects. Give it a try!