I was having trouble keeping the stars oriented straight up and down, instead of radiating around a center point. Thank you times a million! New subscriber on a 10yr old video! :)
Thanks, your motherly voice is nice to hear. I didn't look for the content but suddenly heared your calming voice. Keep it up! You worked in aeroplanes didn't you?
Thank you Helen for a helpful tutorial for a beginner such as myself. It was great to have some easy to understand audio explaining things also. Thank for sharing your knowledge with us!:)
This has been very useful, so happy I found this! But one question even though it's a long time you publish this, I now see that my stars are a bit to big, and I want to make them smaler, but when I try to change, I get the "original" star i the same size, but the rest of the stars in the right new size. I can't delete the star I'm using to re-size, then al stars will be delete, and I can't "re-size" or delete the one I use to make smaller size on the stars in the circle? Do you have any tips on how to change size on the object/star in the circle? Kind regards! :)
you helped me solve my problem! wanted to create a European flag, but all other tutorials included stars which where rotating itself as well. This is perfect although 6 years old! Cheers!
You so quickly brought up a new art board that has a blue color. Is that a blue rectangle over a white art board? Is there a way to recolor the art boards themselves? Also, is how quickly you brought up a new art board a video editing trick, or did you really create one that fast - and if so, how? I create new art boards by clicking on the art board tool, drawing one, and then I have to manually adjust the size (I usually like mine to be 12 x 12 inches). I do know how to copy art boards by dragging and using the alt key, but sometimes I wish there was just a New Art Board button that would bring up a new blank one for me in the exact size that I usually use. I guess I should keep an extra art board just for copying it, but I haven't been that organized, so then when I copy an art board, I have to delete the old artwork off the new one so I can have it blank. If there's an easier way, I'd love to know it! Thanks. I'm new at this - I've only been working with Illustrator for about a month, so I know I have a lot to learn. Remember the scene in Short Circuit where the robot reads books really fast? "More input!" I have often wished I could advance my knowledge that quickly. One more question - when you're placing the star in the middle of the circles, you say to hold down the Alt key and the Space Bar - do you mean Alt and Shift? Because when I hold down Alt and Space, it keeps asking me if I want to close the document, and I have to click Cancel. Am I doing something wrong?
This is a rectangle the size of the artboard filled with a gradient. You cannot change the color of the artboard itself. I am not sure why Alt + Space closes the document. I tried this on a PC and a Mac and it works just fine for me. That said, some Mac laptops have different key assignments that I've encountered before so that might explain the issue.
Loved and liked this tutorial.... Although, you did not start to discuss the steps for the title of the tutorial until 5 minutes in. Your video would have been immediately clicked on by me if it was only 3 and a half minutes long. Thanks!
Using the pen tool, I have been tracing letters and creating a path. I then use the scissor tool and the blend tool to add the stars. I practically just want to spell stuff out using the stars. However, when I use the blend tool the stars overlap regardless of the blend options. Please help me, I have been stuck on this for over 2 weeks and aligning star by star to create just a single letter takes hours.
Ok, so I am not sure what might be happening here, but the stars will overlap if your paths have sharp corners - it's a function of evenly spacing things around a complex shape. I wonder if you have considered using a pattern brush instead of a blend? If you are using a complex path you might get better value with a pattern brush made from stars - just a thought.
Yes. You’ll need to open the layers panel and then open the blend area. Inside that you’ll find the first and last star and the spine which is a circle. If you click to select the first or the last star then you can change the size of it, it’s rotation, it’s color etc. It’s just really important that you do this through the layers panel which is pretty much the only place that you can reliably select everything that you need to select to make your changes. Hope this helps!
Hello Helen .. Once again Thank You so much for this very good tutorial , you saved my time so much and please I wanna know how to apply them uniformly on a rectangle and how to apply a gradient to the entire shape of stars (not to individual star) ... !000 Likes to you
+KayKay Chats You can apply the stars to a rectangle by drawing a rectangle instead of a circle - you will still need to cut the rectangle to get the stars to go around it when you replace the spine. Then, when the shapes are how you want them to be choose Object > Expand Appearance. Select all the shapes and add a gradient fill - it will be applied to individual stars at this point. Grab the Gradient tool and drag it across the group of stars and it will be applied to the entire shape and not just an individual star. Let me know if you encounter problems with this?
Honestly saying ... I am very new to illustrator and your tutorials helping me a lot. Heartiest Regards and Thanks ... Keep good work up please its helpful for all ... more 1000 likes ::))
Do you mean a single letter like the letter A or do you want to actually write a word? If you want to write a word then you’ll probably better to use the Illustrator type on a path tool. That would work better in those circumstances.
When I have an odd number of stars the one at the top is off centre around the circle, how do you fix this so I have a star at the top that stays aligned in the top of the circle thanks?
+infinitesimotel Hi there. you can make sure that the star is at the top of the circle by making your 'cut' with the scissors at that position rather than on the side. If you make the cut at the top then there will always be a star in that position.
Hi, Helen. Thanks as always for your excellent tutorials. I noticed in this tutorial that you eyeballed the placement of the star in the middle and the path. Am I correct that if I wanted to not depend on my eyes (which is always a good idea!) I could use smart guides or the alignment tool to confirm that things are centered perfectly?
Sorry about that. You need to select the blend and the circle and then choose Object > Blend > Replace Spine. Then you grab the Scissors tool and click on an anchor point to 'cut' the circle so the shapes move around to fill the circle. If you have problems, please let me know.
Yes you can put 5 stars together on the circle if you take the scissors tool and make 2 cuts - you need to cut the circle instead of at the one point shown in the video in 2 places - those places will mark the area across which the stars will be placed. Then select the star blend and the little bit of the circle and replace the spline and it works really well. I just tested it for you so it will work. Let me know if you have problems? And, thank you for stopping by my channel.
how would i get the stars to all have the same orientation on the line, so that the 2 bottom points of the star are pointing towards the middle of the circle?
Michelle Bennett Hi Michelle. I wouldn't do what you are trying to do this way. I'd use copy and rotate. I also think you've posed an awesome question so I will make a video for you showing how this is done and post it next week. Probably Thursday morning so look out for it. It is pretty easy to do when you know how to get started and it has a lot of applications. Thanks for stopping by my channel and for posing such a good question.
Great question! When you use the Scissors tool to 'cut' the circle, click on the top most anchor point (instead of one of the side ones), and there should then be a star at the very top of the circle. Let me know if you still have problems.
Knixzenth Sandoval Hi there, thank you for stopping by my channel and thank you for asking this question! Now I've done some research and I have a solution for you. It's not as neat as the Illustrator solution but it does work so I think you will like it. I plan to make a video of the effect and I will move it up the posting list for you - so I think probably Tuesday next week it will be up for you.
Knixzenth Sandoval If you are still interested I just released a video this morning to help you do this exact thing in Photoshop - all done because you asked such a good question. You can find the video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-V_N7g10gM6M.html
Make a rectangle, fill it with a radial gradient and move the gradient to where you want it to be. then move the shape behind everything and you're good to go.
Helen Bradley going to try that..this is how you even do the main back ground..just curious..ps I have no probs getting a gradient on main back ground..
