Create snowflakes and Christmas tree decorations in minutes in Adobe Illustrator. 3D modeling in Adobe Illustrator

Creating an illustration of a disco ball can seem very difficult, and for good reason. In this Adobe Illustrator drawing tutorial, we will try to make this process as simple as possible. We'll be creating a really beautiful, sparkly disco ball using just Illustrator and our own sense of color. Overall, coloring the ball can be a real challenge, so be patient.

The final image of the disco ball.

Step 1: Create the basic disco ball shape.

In this part of the tutorial we will create a basic ball shape with small rectangles. Take Ellipse Tool (L) from the toolbar and click on the artboard Artboard. Change the Ellipse tool settings and set the circle size to 200 x 200 pt.

Now we need to divide our rectangle into small squares. To do this, open the item on the toolbar Object and press Rasterize. Leaving all settings at their defaults, click OK.

Select menu item again Object and press Create Object Mosaic. Set the width and height values Tile Spacing(Distance between tiles) and Number of Tiles(Number of tiles) as shown in the picture below.

This way we created a lot of small squares that we will use when creating a disco ball a little later.

But first, we need to do a little manipulation with this group of squares. In the layers panel Layers, expand the layer Layers 1 and remove the last rectangle in the list - Image.

If you saw only a group of small vector squares without a background, then everything was done correctly.

Tool Selection Tool (V) drag a group of squares into the panel Symbol. Make sure the type is set Graphic and click OK.

You can remove a group of squares from an artboard Artboard.

Now we need to prepare the circle created at the beginning of this tutorial. Take the tool Direct Selection Tool (A) and select the left point on the circle with it, then delete it using the key Delete on keyboard.

In menu item Effect select an item 3D → Revolve. Make sure that in the parameter Surface value was selected No Shading. This way we will avoid creating unnecessary parts of the ball.

At this step, it's time to apply the squares symbol we created earlier from the panel Symbol. To do this, click on the button Map Art. A new window will open. In the drop down menu Symbol select the squares symbol.

You will notice that the squares do not cover the entire surface of the ball. To fix this, at the bottom of the window, click the button Scale to Fit. You will see how the grid of squares covers the entire ball.

You can change the values ​​of the ball rotation parameters in the window 3D Revolve Options, or you can display them as in the picture below. By checking the box Preview You will visually see the process of changing the disco ball.

Now we need to break our object into components, for this we will use the command Object → Expand. Then we will execute the command to ungroup the ball several times Ungroup (Shift + Ctrl / Cmd + G). If you did everything correctly, then your panel will be layered ( Layer Panel) will look like the picture below.

“Disassembling” the ball with a tool Selection Tool (V) You will notice two ball layers and two path layers. Delete both paths and the unnecessary ball layer. Ultimately, you should be left with a ball consisting of layers, as in the picture below.

This completes the first stage of drawing a vector disco ball in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 2: Applying Color Gradients to the Disco Ball Vector Art.

In this part of the tutorial we will be turning a simple geometric shape - a ball with a lot of small mirrors attached to its surface - into an awesome vector illustration of a disco ball. We will have to find the exact combination of colors that will create not only the impression of a three-dimensional object, but also the effect of glitter with refraction and reflection of light.

At the first stage, using solid colors, we will select several groups of rectangles. To do this, ungroup the red ball Ungroup(Shift + Ctrl / Cmd + G) and select using the tool Selection (V) rectangles, as shown in the image below (remember to hold down the Shift key on your keyboard to select multiple).

We have to select a large number of groups of rectangles. To make your task easier, you can block already colored groups with the command Object → Lock → Selection(Ctrl + 2).

Now, take Ellipse Tool(L) from the Tools panel and click anywhere on the artboard. IN Ellipse Options set the dimensions to 200 x 200 pt and click OK. Send a new circle behind our disco ball (Shift + Ctrl. Cmd + [) and align these two objects horizontally and vertically with Align Panel → Horizontal and Vertical Align Center.

Now we need to transform this boring illustration into a beautiful and fashionable disco ball using color gradients. In this tutorial we will be using a golden gradient with the color combination below.

Apply a golden gradient to the circle behind the disco ball as shown in the image below.

To increase the effect of light refraction, let's set the fill color of some rectangles to white (#FFFFFF). You can edit individual rectangles within their groups, without ungrouping, in isolation mode Isolation Mode, which can be found in the right-click menu.

Play with colors, use different gradient shades.

To exit isolation mode, simply click on the bar at the top of the window.

The disco ball looks quite realistic, but there is one more thing that will improve it. Take Ellipse Tool(L) from the Toolbox and create a circle. Apply a radial gradient to it as shown in the image below. Make sure the left side of the gradient slider is set to opacity white up to 0%.

Make several copies of the circle (Ctrl/Cmd+C, Ctrl/Cmd+V or using the Alt key) and place them on some of the white rectangles of the disco ball, which will create a nice glow around the sparkling mirrors.

Our drawing is almost ready! You can add the rest of the touches yourself, relying on your taste or focusing on the picture presented at the beginning of the lesson.

At first sight, create a disco ball in Adobe Illustrator with all these small details it seems like a time consuming task. In fact, the technique with which we will create a disco ball today does not involve the use of complex effects. Anyone can learn how to create such illustrations in a very short time. So let's get straight to the point.

Create a new symbol

In reality, a disco ball is a sphere on the surface of which there are many pieces of a mirror (in our case, square). It is their creation that we will now engage in.

Take the Rectangle Tool and create a rectangle measuring 400 by 200 px. Fill it with any color.

With the rectangle selected, on the Object tab, select Rasterize. With this action we converted it to a raster image. Open Object again and select Create Object Mosaic. In the window that opens, change only the Tile Spacing and Number of Tiles parameters and click OK:

Removing the background image.

Now select the entire group of small squares and drag it to the Symbols panel, thereby creating new symbol. In the window that opens, change the Type parameter to Graphic and click OK.

We have created a new symbol that will be used later. We can delete the group of squares on the work area. We won't need it anymore.

Ball base

The symbol is ready and we can move on to creating the base of the ball. To do this, use the Elipse Tool to create a circle shape measuring 200 by 200 px. Take the Direct Selection Tool and delete the point on the left side.

Select the resulting shape and on the Effects > 3D tab select Revolve.

In the window that opens, change the Surface parameter to No Shading. Click on the Map Art button and in the next window, on the Symbol tab, select the symbol that we created earlier. In order to stretch the symbol to the entire shape of the ball, click the Scale to Fit button.

With the shape selected, open Object and select Expand. Now you need to ungroup the shapes (Shift + Ctrl + G) and delete the unnecessary ones.

Working with color

Ungroup the ball and take the Selection Tool. From the total number of squares, we need to create several groups that will be filled with color. Thanks to this, we will give the ball volume.

For clarity, I filled each group of squares with a different color.

Now we give each group a gradient fill. In my case, these are gray tones. Change the gradient angle to differentiate the groups.
For the background, create another circle shape measuring 200 by 200 px. Move this circle into them and fill it with a radial gradient.

Let's add a little shine. Create a circle shape and fill it with a radial white gradient. For the right gradient indicator, set the Opacity parameter to 0.

If you're thinking about drawing some beautiful Christmas decorations to go with your holiday card in your spare time, then you've come to the right place. In this lesson we will figure out how to draw New Year's toys in the Illustrator program in a few minutes, and we will also be the first to get acquainted with the Volumetric Image effect.

Method 1. In the first method we will use the Ellipse tool, gradient fill and blending modes.

Create a circle and apply pink fill color and dark pink stroke color.

Create a second smaller circle and place it on top of our first circle. Apply a radial gradient from white to black to the circle, blending mode - lighten.

Create two ovals for the highlights and the part where the Christmas tree toy is held by the ribbon, as shown in the picture.

Duplicate the smaller oval and select it with the larger oval, apply the Crop command from the Pathfinder panel to them.

Apply a radial gradient from black to white to the cropped oval and set the blending mode to Lighten.

From the remaining small oval we create the part where the Christmas tree toy is held by the ribbon, cutting off two edges. By the way, you can add a few more highlights to the ball if desired.

Making a thread loop using the Rounded Rectangle tool...

... and paint it with a golden linear gradient.

We attach our golden thread and our New Year's ball is ready.

Method 2. The second method that we will consider today is creating a New Year's ball using the 3D Image command from the Effects menu.

Create a circle using the Ellipse tool, and also use the Rounded Rectangle tool to create the top of our ball. Select our two objects and click on Connection in the Pathfinder panel.

As a result, we ended up with half the outline of a ball. Of course, we could have created such a shape using the Pen tool, but it’s unlikely that we would have gotten it this smooth the first time.

The last step is to add volume to our future ball; for this we go to Effect - Volumetric Image - Extrude and Bevel. In the window that appears, set the parameters as in the figure below, and then press the OK button.

In the same way, you can create other elements of the New Year's toy. In addition, in the Extrude and Bevel command, when you click on the Project button... you can immediately add previously created drawings that you want to place on our toy, these can even be simple lines or more complex elements.

The end result should be something like this.

Method 3. The third method is to create a New Year's ball using the Gradient Mesh tool. If you are not yet familiar with this tool, then I advise you to read the article An indispensable tool for a designer - Gradient Mesh, which describes the basics of working with it.

Create a circle using the Ellipse tool and paint it with any color, for example red.

Select the circle and go to Object - Create Mesh Gradient. In the window that appears, enter the number of rows and columns (4 each) and click OK.

Using the Direct Selection tool (A), we move the anchor points of our mesh so that later, when painting, they give the color transitions we need.

Now, let's start adding highlights to our ball using the same Partial Selection tool. In addition, we can shade the bottom of the ball using a darker shade of red for the fill. This way we sketched out the area of ​​light and shadow on the ball.

Now let's create additional highlights using the Pen tool and apply a mesh gradient to them in the same way.

Now let's create the part where the toy is held by the ribbon using a Rounded Rectangle or a Pen. Apply to it a linear gradient of white and gray shades, alternating with each other. As a result, we will get a ball like this.

These are the New Year's balls we learned to make today.

I have considered three different ways creating New Year's decorations, but you will already choose the one that you like best. You can save the created balls as a separate file and later use them to create various New Year compositions, decorate postcards or business cards, create New Year logos and emblems.

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In this tutorial we will draw a simple seamless pattern of balloons. Completing the tutorial will not take you much time, and the result will give you a light childhood mood. We will use Blend, work with object transparency, and also use Adobe Illustrator's absolutely amazing tool to create seamless patterns.

Final result

Start

Open Adobe Illustrator and create new document size 600 x 600 pixels.

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and hold Shift and draw a square to fit the canvas. Give it a sky blue fill and no stroke. With the rectangle still selected, press Ctrl+2. This will block the figure.

Clouds

Now let's draw clouds in our sky. Select the Ellipse Tool (L), set the first color to white and use circles and ovals to create clouds. For example, like in the picture below.

Select the ovals that make up one cloud and in the Pathfinder palette, click on the Unite button. Repeat the procedure with all the clouds.

Red ball

Using the Ellipse tool, draw a red oval. In the Transparency palette, give it an Opacity of 70%.

Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw white highlights on the top left and bottom right sides of the ball. It should look something like the picture below. Set the highlights to 60% opacity.

Transition/Blend

Using the Ellipse tool, draw a white oval on the ball as shown below. Don't worry about the location of the oval. Next, we will still change it.

Draw another smaller white oval inside the larger oval.

Give the large oval an opacity of 0%.

Now double click on the Blend Tool. Give it the parameters as shown in the picture below.

Select both white ovals and press Ctrl+Alt+B. This way you create a transition in the 25 steps above between the small oval and the large transparent one.

Using the Selection tool, select the entire object that was formed as a result of the actions you just performed, and set its opacity to 30%.

Now we need to adjust the object so that exactly the part of the ball that we want to make lighter is brightened. Using the Direct Selection Tool, select the smallest and largest ovals alternately or together to edit their position, size and angle. Use the Free Transform Tool. This is what you should end up with:

Blackout

Draw a large circle or oval of any color on top of the ball. Make the oval cover the ball, leaving only a small piece below, as in the picture below.

Select the oval that forms the base of the ball and duplicate it (Ctrl+C > Ctrl+F). Select a copy of the ball's oval and the oval covering the ball and in the Pathfinder palette, click on the Minus Front button.

Set the resulting piece to 20% opacity.

Tail

Under the ball, draw a small oval of the same color and degree of transparency as the ball itself.

Using the Pen Tool, draw a shape on top of the ball as shown in the picture below. Select the oval and the shape and in the Pathfinder palette, click on the Minus Front button.

Place the tail so that it touches the ball at only one point.

Let's draw a thread. Using the Line Segment Tool, draw a straight line from the ball down.

With the line still selected, choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen from the menu. Set the size to 4% and the Detail to 2. Select the Smooth option. The thread will begin to curl. Without deselecting the object, select Object > Expand Appearance from the menu. Without removing the selection, go to the Object menu again and select Expand.

Select the tail of the ball, duplicate it and place it on top of everything (Ctrl+C > Ctrl+F > Shift+Ctrl+]). Select the top ponytail and thread and in the Pathfinder palette, click on the Minus Front button.

Give the thread a gray color.

Select the bottom highlight on the ball and give it a lower transparency. For example, 20%.

More balls!

Draw a green ball. Using the Ellipse Tool, draw a green circle. Duplicate it several times and position it as shown in the image below. Select all the circles and combine them using the Pathfinder palette.

Set the resulting shape to 70% opacity. Draw the highlights using the same pattern as for the red ball.

Duplicate the highlight object on the red ball (the one we did with the Blend). Place it on the green ball and edit the small and large ovals as you see fit. Duplicate the object three more times to lighten areas throughout the green ball. Duplicate the string and thread from the red ball and place them on the green one. Give the tail the color and transparency level of the green ball.

Make another ball from the blue circle using the same pattern.

"Fluffy" the clouds

Let's use the Blend tool again. Select one of the clouds, copy it and paste it into the background (Ctrl+C > Ctrl+B). Use the Scale Tool to enlarge the lower cloud. Now give it an opacity of 0%.

Select both clouds and press Ctrl+Alt+B. (Make sure the Blend Tool settings have not been changed.)

Do the same with the rest of the clouds. You can make their edges more or less blurry by experimenting with the size of the clouds.

Pattern

Select all the elements that make up the red ball and press Ctrl + G. This way you have grouped the shapes that make up the ball. Do the same with the remaining balls so that they are easy to control when making a pattern. Select all the balls and clouds and select Object > Pattern > Make from the menu.

Arrange the elements the way you like. Duplicate them, experiment with the scale and angle of inclination. Focus on the blue frame that limits your pattern. It should look something like the picture below. When you're done arranging the elements, simply double-click on any empty space.

The pattern appears in the Swatches palette. We can apply it to any object. For example, a circle:

Final result

That's all. This is what our pattern looks like on a blue background:

In this tutorial, we'll experiment in Adobe Illustrator to create cool gradient effects of bright colors flowing into one another. To begin with, we will create bright balls, which we will later modify using the Warp tool. All objects will remain in vector format, which means that you can use them in any type of work and scale them to any required size.

Step 1

Gradients of this style are very popular lately. They can be seen in various design projects in branding, mobile applications and even on iPhone X backgrounds. Each time you choose new colors and create different highlights, you can create a unique object.

Step 2

To get started, create a new document in Adobe Illustrator of any size, but use the RGB color mode to get a full palette of vibrant colors at your disposal. Tool Ellipse / Ellipse draw a circle. Hold Shift so that the circle has ideal proportions. Remove the stroke and select a bright fill color.

Step 3

Take the tool Gradient Mesh and click anywhere inside the circle. Change the color of the dot that appears to another bright shade. This can be a shade of the background color, or vice versa - a contrasting color.

Step 4

Add another point to the gradient mesh and select a different color. The colors will smoothly flow into one another, creating beautiful transitions.

Step 5

When you add new points inside the circle, additional points are automatically created along the edges of the shape. Select them - several at once - using the tool Lasso / Lasso.

Step 6

Try to select new interesting shades by moving the sliders in the palette Color. Using a tool Eye-dropping / Pipette select a color, then double-click the fill in the toolbar to open the color picker just like in Photoshop.

Step 7

Continue selecting points using the tool Lasso / Lasso and add new colors. Try to make sure that there are practically no areas left with the original fill color.

Step 8

Select only the extreme points and give them a light shade. This way you will get a glow effect. The circle should be filled with different colors, creating gradients that smoothly transition into each other.

Step 9

To mix colors, use the tool Twirl / Funnels under the instrument Warp/Deformation in the toolbar. Double click on the tool to configure the settings. Adjust the size of the funnel close in size to the diameter of the circle and reduce Intensity / Intensity up to 10%.

Step 10

Gently click in the center of the circle to blend the colors a little. Make these changes in short clicks to avoid unsightly and excessive curling.

Step 11

Double click on the tool Twirl / Funnel again to reduce the brush size. In our case it is 200px.

Step 12

Use a smaller Funnel to create swirls in different areas of the circle. Again, make small changes, with short clicks, so as not to overdo it.

Step 13

Create multiple circles to create a beautiful collection of different circle gradients. It is very exciting. Experiment!

Step 14

Circles look good, but we can go further and create abstract shapes. Do it with a tool Warp/Deformation. Click and drag around the circle to deform the object.

Result

As a result, you can get very cool results. Even a slight distortion will create a stylish figure. Distort the shapes more to create a fluid effect.