I really appreciate all the tips and tricks you shared - especially the keyboard shortcuts (with handy animations). Coming from a software development background, this methodology resonates with me as it's very systematic and streamlined.
Back in the day, one of my professors used to push key commands as being integral in a good work flow. That advice always stuck with me. Now here I am, sharing key commands with people over the internet. #fullcircle Thanks for checking out this video.
Very helpful! You are really an amazing instructor! Thank you for sharing the tips and techniques you use to make the process easier and faster. I look forward to using them all on a regular basis.
Key commands are such an important part of my workflow. I wanted to make sure my tutorials are easy to follow along with. Glad to hear that you found it helpful!
This is great - I was using the rotate and transform where you use the clipping mask - but I cannot figure out how to export the layers - only the one slice exports. This was really helpful... at least until I figure out how to export things! (ha ha) Thank you.
You are so welcome - That's always one of my big challenges when learning a new technique. Have to repeat it many times for it to become second nature otherwise it's pretty easy to forget.
Very Intelligent and Patient Narration of this tutorial that I watched. I have just started in Illustrator and found your techniques easy to follow. I did construct this Ornate Mandala Design but have a long way to go on my own. However all the best to you??
@@davewatkinscreative I try really hard to give positive feedback where I can! There is so much that people gripe and complain about these days! And there is so much awesome stuff to be glad/grateful about! Also - I really dig your playing cards and animations! Thanks for helping me level up my illustration/design game. :)
You're totally right that option works if your guides are unlocked. That's one of the interesting things about Illustrator. There can be a few techniques to accomplish the same task.
I would love to see a tutorial on what your process is for animating your patterns...just saying... really nice work! I have my students using cheater methods but this is so much cleaner and it is much easier to do something with the design.
Thanks for the comment Richard. Really appreciate it! I have experimented with lots of different techniques for creating these ornate radial patterns but I always find that this method provides the most control and as you mentioned the cleanest end result. I'll see what I can put together on the animation side of things for you.
It’s taken way too long…. But I finally posted the animation side to this tutorial. Thanks again for the suggestion and apologies for taking sooooo long!
Oh, YES! If you could do a tutorial where you take a Google map (of your home town for example) and turn it into something beautiful it would be fab. A beautiful but maybe a too sophisticated example are the maps from Vianina. All the best and greetings from Munich 🍻
Hi Alexandra - Thanks so much for the suggestion. I'll take a look and see what I can come up with on the topic. Might take a bit of time so stay tuned!
Hi Alexandra - The video I promised you is live! Hope that you find this new tutorial useful. Let me know the verdict! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zFS8T3iohxw.html
Just downloaded free trial for Illustrator and yours was one of the first videos I have watched, I was able to follow along and learn so many useful tips and tricks. Your video made me a little less concerned about committing to the program, can’t wait to follow along with your other videos. Thank you, great content! P.S where do I figure out how to outline path and condense to a compound path you mentioned?
Hi Cheryl - Thats exciting! Im glad I was able to help you make the jump into Illustrator. If you have a path selected that has a stroke applied you outline it by going to (Object>Path>OutlineStroke). If you have a group of objects selected and you want to condense them into one compound path you can use the pathfinder for that. The pathfinder options can be found at (window>pathfinder) and the option you'll want to use is called "Unite"
Sorry about that Jana glad you were able to figure it out.- It's been so long since I've used a windows system I didn't think about that when making my tutorials.
Not yet! That is my most requested video topic. I started one a while back but I wasn’t happy with the way it was coming together. Thanks for bringing it back to the top of my mind… I’ll have to jump back into it.
Did you ever make the video on how to animate our designs in After Effects? I couldn't find it but am REALLY interested. Thanks so much! Love your videos!
Hey Thanks! You're right totally possible to achieve the same result with the shape builder. I can't explain the reason why but I find myself using pathfinder more often than the shape builder. Force of habit I guess?
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So there's a few things to consider when condensing your artwork down into compound paths. The first is that you'll need to outline strokes as they can cause issues when merged together. The second is how you'll select the desired elements. I usually work in sections where I can use the key command to select all (CMD + A) and then merge that together. If you're looking to merge overlapping elements of the same colour you can pick up one path with the desired colour and then through the menus us Select > Same > Fill Colour from there I use the Unite feature in the Pathfinder. I have a pathfinder basics video that covers the unite function in the first 2 minutes ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AGOukmoaQOw.html Hope that helps!
I'm commenting because I really liked the video and at the same time, I would ask if you're willing to make a video about how you fit those block into shapes, like the animal's heads or even something else :) The interesting part would be to see how you decide the design. Do you build inside the shape or do you build the shape around something you started? I slowed the video when you showed the design and it seems more like you build the shape and the ornate it but it would be nice to see your process and how you think it. Nice video, very well explained. For selecting the same color elements, you could use the magic wand if you set it to select the same color (one click instead of two :p)
Hey thanks for the comment! When I'm building the animals and other elements I'll use both approaches. Sometimes I'll fit a prebuilt mandala into a space and trim it. Other times I'll build the design in place as I go. A few people have asked for a video about the mandala/animals so it's totally on my list of projects to do! You're right that the magic wand is an interesting tool. Especially when you introduce the tolerance settings and are able to select colours that are closely related. But for some reason I have always preferred to use the select menu.
@@davewatkinscreative No problem for the magic wand ^^ Sometimes I think it's weird that really good artists are using some ways to do something when there is an easier way but everyone has preferences ;) Thank you for the futur video about animals mandala :) I hope you'll have the time to do that ! Your work on the cards is amazing too, I really like the queen that we see at the beginning of the video in your back!
Really appreciate that! The queen card is one of my personal favourite pieces. If I ever end up with enough spare time I plan to make a full deck of cards in that style.
Thank you for the tutorial! I have a question about scaling down. How do you scale down exactly on the intersecting center? When I scale down, it moves my circle.
Hey there - When scaling down an object in Illustrator if you hold down the option key the transformation begins on the objects centre point. You can also hold down shift at the same time to constrain the transformation. Hope that helps!
Dave I'm hovering over my center point but the red "intersect" wording isn't coming up. I have smart guides checked and my snap to grid is on. Thoughts?
Hey Mandy - The snap to grid option will override the smart guide snapping that I was using in this tutorial. If you turn off snap to grid and still aren't seeing those labels you can go to Preferences>SmartGuides and make sure that you turn on "Anchor/Path Labels"
Hi Dave, I'm new to illustrator and wanted to follow along. However I am stuck at around 7:10 trying to rotate the pen drawn line 22,5 degrees. Firstly I can't access the rotate dialogue box by using 'R'. I have to go object, transform, rotate. Secondly when I rotate 22.5 the line remains in place on top of the original. When I click on the centre point it selects a different shape. Not sure if this makes sense, but hopefully it does. This happens in whichever order I do this in. Hope you can help?
Hey Colin. The key command 'R' is only used to access the rotate tool (which can also be found in the tool bar). To achieve the same result I demonstrated what you'll have to do is to have an object or group of objects selected then press R to use the rotate tool then you need to hold down the option key and click on the location where you want to set your centre point. This will pull up the rotate dialog box and will allow you to create copies around a centre point that was not the default centre of the object. Let me know if that solves your problem.
@@davewatkinscreative Thank Dave, that worked. The piece that didn't quite work for me was pressing the R at the right time ie prior to setting the degrees. This did not automatically bring up the rotate dialogue box so I had to open it after pressing R. I didn't do that yesterday. Many thanks, Colin
Thanks a lot. Big Up. I have one question, sometimes was hard to find the exact center point. Mostly find the guide line only. Is there any trick for it?
There are several things I do to ensure accuracy in Illustrator. It can be frustrating when points don't fall where you want them to! When working on a radial design like this I will place a large circle in a separate locked layer so that I can snap objects and rotations to its centre point using the smart guides (command U to toggle these guides on and off). I have also adjusted the snapping tolerance of the smart guides in the preferences to 10pt. This means your smart guides will snap to the centre or other guides/objects from a greater distance. I also verify that I'm placing objects in the correct location a lot by zooming right in to ensure correct alignment (holding the option key and using a scroll wheel will zoom in or out). Also be sure that "Snap to Pixel" and "Snap to Grid" are turned off in the view menu as those can sometime interfere with the snap to guide/point that you wanted to happen. Hope these tricks will help you out.
@@davewatkinscreative Thanks. I step by step did it. But somehow it shows me mostly the horizontal and vertical snap lines. Not the locked circle's center.
Glad you enjoyed the video. I actually do have those poker suits up for licensing on Adobe Stock. stock.adobe.com/ca/images/four-ornate-poker-suits/194540017
This is a great video, thank you! I'm on a PC and was able to follow everything (figuring out keyboard strokes for the PC) except the part at about 9min in where you make the three lines and circles. Do you know the PC keystrokes to copy and constrain to 45deg? Thanks!
Hey thanks for the comment. I believe the PC keyboard command you need is “alt-drag” to create the copy of the selected object + the shift key to constrain the transformation. Hope that helps!
@@davewatkinscreative googled it. I am on your geometric video, I want to learn how to do mandalas. I have windows. cannot duplicate the shape ugg sorry I am new to this
Hey! Just responded to your other comment with a run down of how I use the rotate tool and transform again key command to create my radial designs. Let me know if that process ends up working for you.
@@davewatkinscreative thank you for all your hard work! sharing your work flow as an artist is much appreciated and uncommon. You inspire me. Rock on brother, great channel.