Scatter Brushes From Gradient Filled Objects

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Scatter Brushes Can Be Made with Gradient Filled Objects.

Over at Illustrator World someone posted a question about Scatter Brushes from Gradient-filled objects. The consensus was that this was not possible (I think even the Adobe instructions say not with gradients, blends etc.). Amazingly I think there is a way around this.

I am not an expert at this topic but I remembered something from way back about having to remove the clipping mask sub-layer in the layers panel to get something like this to work. I tried and that failed but I did find an answer to this. Try it and see if I am right please.

Create your object and apply the gradient (e.g., a circle for a “sphere”).
Expand the object and gradient.
Then go Object>Clipping Mask> Release.
Now Ungroup all.
Carefully select the the back object (a square here) that appears behind the sphere and drag it away (Can delete it now). You are left with the ungrouped sphere with the gradient. Select all by marqueeing (or I suppose group it).
I find I can now make the scatter brush.

Again let me know if I have stumbled upon an answer because it sounds pretty radical if I have. It does seem to work with all my attempts – so it is possible.

I may not be describing this method in the best way (or using the right technical terms) so please add to this if it sounds useful for others.

I attach an example - spheres painted as scatter brush.

[davecross]

Yup, it works...
Check out this video tutorial (and others) on the Layers magazine web site. There are a number of tutorials that originated on this web site that have been transfered to layers.
http://www.layersmagazine.com/illustrator-custom-brushes-2.html

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. A couple caveats here. I think your tutorial is where I learned about removing the clipping path layer - so kudo's to you on that neat tip.

On your tutorial you deal with Art brushes and I think it does not work so well on scatter brushes as you have to still remove the backround object before you can make a circular gradient scatter brush. However, that is just a different way to attain the same final result and I would not have figured out the other way had I not remembered your "remove the clip path from the layers panel" trick.

More significantly I think is the problem with more complex objects which I describe below in a little more detail (see the attached figure to respond to the various steps).

OK here are the steps I use for more complex images. See Figure.

Step 1: Create shape(s) and use Pathfinder>Add function.
Step 2: Apply gradient. Then Object>Expand Appearance. Then Object> Expand (Fill and Stroke Dialog Boxes Checked).
Step 3: Object>Clipping Mask>Release. Then Object>Ungroup. Remove (Direct Selection Tool) the back object (the rectangle in Step 3 Figure)
Note after this for complex objects that the gradient "fill" no longer covers the entire shape "area". So use Selection Tool and expand the color to cover the shape area (see Step 5).
Step 6: Select all and run Pathfinder>Divide. Note: lines do not appear smooth anymore but come cleaner when saving the final project (eg., as jpegs). Zoom in and using the Direct Selection tool clean and trim away the outer "extraneous" bits to leave a nice clean shape (as you originally started with) complete with a gradient "fill".
Step 7: Shows that you can now create a Scatter Brush with such gradient "filled" objects.
Step 8: Use the Scatter brush to create the artwork - changing the stroke color dialog allows for different colored objects if the setting was made for Colorization Tints and Shades when making/saving the brush.

As mentioned earlier there is not all this fuss if you just use a circle. Just trim/remove the background square/rectangle - see Step 3 above and proceed to make scatter brush.

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

There have been some really neat comments and great dialog on this topic over at Illustrator World. The gist is that it is not really possible to make Scatter brushes with gradients (rather you end up with a series of lines looking like a gradient at low mag but visible as expanded lines at high mag.). But using blends gets you a much better looking gradient-effect that is more easily made into the various brush types.

Gary.

There is much more lively discussion over at Illu World, so as this site maybe is in its death throes you might try over there - It is free to register for the Forums and there are on-line free magazines that might have something of use/interest. See you over there!?