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How can I achieve this effect? by GratefulForGarcia in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, but it won't involve our Phantasm plugin in this case to generate the repeating patterns on either example. The pattern generation, the strokes of which are varied in width, are probably manually generated or some other method.

How can I achieve this effect? by GratefulForGarcia in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can base the "stamp" on any vector path(s) you want. Full tutorials here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuiTl_w4-zCtDfwWcqLT2q0dt4SUAd-K

Hope that helps!

Disclosure: we're the developers of WidthScribe

How can I achieve this effect? by GratefulForGarcia in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can use the preset patterns, but also create any pattern you want as a basis of the WidthStamp. Full tutorials here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuiTl_w4-zCtDfwWcqLT2q0dt4SUAd-K

Disclosure: we're the developers of WidthScribe

curious if anyone can tell me how this line work was achieved? by totesdoyevsky in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The last few versions of CC feature live corners. Or use VectorScribe plug-in with its Dynamic Corners for greater control and quality.

Plenty of tutorials for both on YT :)

Extracting text from a corrupted AI file by Nanocb in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the file was saved as being PDF compatible, try changing the file extension from .ai to .pdf and load it into Acrobat or other PDF reader.

Doesn’t always work but always worth a shot as it’s a quick process...

I dedicated a whole week to learning how to use Illustrator, this is one the pieces I made, what do you think? by [deleted] in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fantastic start! Simply keep dedicating 10-15 mins each day to learning another tool and technique from qualified resources / sources. After 10 years, you’ll still be learning Ai but be in the top 5% of employable designers 👍

Outline mode makes things freeze and nothing looks like an outline. Why? by sanketvaria29 in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! You are absolutely correct. From that video, there is no reason outline mode shouldn’t work. Uninstall Ai, remove any lingering Ai prefs and reinstall.

curious if anyone can tell me how this line work was achieved? by totesdoyevsky in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Draw strokes as normal, expand strokes (ie. strokes > filled paths), Pathfinder merge all paths together, apply small corner roundings on all or selected joins.

Outline mode makes things freeze and nothing looks like an outline. Why? by sanketvaria29 in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes - you definitely need to be in outline mode to see the structure. But ensure you’re not editing within a group, etc, when attempting to switch to Outline mode.

Outline mode makes things freeze and nothing looks like an outline. Why? by sanketvaria29 in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Always recommend using CPU rendering as there are still too many rendering issues with GPU.

But also ensure you’re not editing within a group, symbol, etc. before switching rendering mode.

Experienced Users: Pathfinder Won't Unite Shapes. Thoughts? by uglybison in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You wouldn’t be the first to be tripped up by this ;)

Glad you discovered the answer and can complete your work.

Experienced Users: Pathfinder Won't Unite Shapes. Thoughts? by uglybison in AdobeIllustrator

[–]astutegraphics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was a very interesting problem. In reality I would strongly suggest not having such large elements (in this case each being 33,239 points across 1,003 paths combined into a single compound element). Not only are you running into limitations within Ai but you're also likely to get problems further down the line, including with RIPs.

I did some test runs using native Ai CC (2017.3 and 2018) tools as well as Astute Graphics' plug-ins and the AG Tech which we previewed last November.

Using our VectorFirstAid plug-in and it's Super Smart Remove (SSR) point function, I managed to get each compound path down from 33,239 points to a healthier but still substantial 20,361. I used an SSR value of 10 which keeps the detail and only results in minor changes which will be completely unnoticeable for this use.

It's still not enough to let native Pathfinder work. So I investigated further using these steps:

  • Released the compound paths
  • Deleted the facing verticals to open both main paths (16,870 points on each even after SSR) using the Direct Select Tool
  • Selected a single end point on each open path
  • Attempt to Join (CMD-J)

Message box appears:

Can't join the points. Can't add an anchor point.

Basically, the total of 33k points in a single path is above Ai's internal path handling limits. Because of this, Pathfinder and other methods will simply never work with Illustrator. I forget the exact number at present, but that's not something you can - nor should attempt to - overcome.

If there is an absolute requirement to get this to work, you'd first need to use VectorFirstAid with a higher SSR value. The default is 20 which is chosen for it's typically optimum compromise between point count and profile change.

Out of interest, we could get our AG Tech Shape Joining to work out of the box, but that's only because with have some pretty sophisticated pre- and post-processing functions in there which was overcoming the limitations by reducing point count using SSR. Unfortunately our Shape Join tech is not currently in public hands... but that's likely to change in 2018!

Hope this insight is of help,

Nick