[Deep Dive]

[Applying Effects Graphic Libraries & Styles with Mat Helme]

If you ever want to apply multiple effects to an object and save them,

you're just in luck.

Inside Illustrator's graphics panel, we can do just that.

The panel also comes packed with a ton of graphical presets

in the graphics library.

To understand what a graphic library and graphic styles are,

we first need to make sure we have our graphic styles panel open.

So let's go to Window and select Graphic Styles or use the shortcut key, shift F5.

Now this panel, the graphic styles panel,

is here to create name and apply sets of appearance attributes.

Any graphic style used or created

within the current viewed document is stored here.

With that said, let's take a look at some graphic styles.

To do that, we need to go to Window, Graphic Style Libraries, and select one.

Let's select 3D Effects.

And what I'm going to do is merge the 3D effects

right next to the graphic styles panel.

So now we're able to switch back and forth.

So if I go ahead and delete all the graphic styles in the panel,

and then from the 3D effects panel,

drag and drop an effect to the rectangle,

it then applies that graphic style to that object.

And what the graphic style is comprised of is different stokes, fills, and effects.

And we can see those in the appearance panel.

So with that object selected, you can see it's comprised

of 3 different strokes, a 3D extrude and bevel effect, and a fill.

Also, you can now see that graphic style has been added to

our graphic styles panel as we're using it in this document.

Another way to add a graphic style to an object

is by selecting the object and then selecting the graphic style.

And again, it's been added to our graphic styles panel

as we're using it in the document.

And these are all of the default 3D effects you can apply to your objects.

Next up, we have the additive for the blob brush,

and we can view those graphic styles by going to

Window, going back to the Graphic Styles Library,

and selecting Additive For Blob Brush,

or in the bottom left of the 3D effects panel, you'll see this arrow,

and it will load the next Graphic Styles Library,

which is the Additive For Blob Brush.

So let's take a look at those.

Here you can see I have 4 objects

that have all been created with the blob brush.

Now what this graphic style does is it applies

that effect to the blob brush object.

So when I drag that effect out and apply it to the object,

you can see it's applied,

but you only see the path of the object when it's selected.

That's because there's no fill.

So when we select a fill color,

you can then see that effect has then been applied to that object

as long as there's a fill color.

So if I grab the blob brush tool

and create an object,

select the object, and then apply the effect--

make sure it has that fill color,

you can see the effect is then applied to the blob brush object.

And that is the Additive For Blob Brush.

Next up, we have the Additive Graphic Library.

Now the additive graphic styles simply add graphics to the object.

So with this object selected,

I can then select one of the graphic styles from the additive panel.

And again, make sure there's a fill.

And you can see that there's now been another rectangle added to it.

And you can add all of these other styles as well.

After the additive panel, we have the Artistic Effects.

And again, let's drag and drop,

and you can see all these effects applied to the rectangles.

Those are the artistic effects.

And after that, we have Buttons & Rollovers,

which appear to be created in the Web 2.0 era.

When you adjust the objects,

you can see how the effect is then re-rendered to the object.

And after Buttons & Rollovers, we have the Illuminate Styles,

which are gradients that can e applied to objects

as well as stokes.

Again, these were probably created in the Web 2.0 glossy era.

And then we have our Image Effects.

So play around with these as you wish.

And we have our Neon Effects after that.

These actually look pretty cool with text.

Now you can see we have some neon lettering.

After the Neon Effects, we have the Scribble Effects,

and these simply apply a scribble effect to the object.

And you can see this object here.

When we open up the appearance panel,

you can see with this object,

it has multiple scribble effects applied to multiple fills within the one object.

After the Scribble Effect, we have the Textures.

And these simply apply textures to the objects.

After that we have Type Effects.

And again, these can be applied to type as well.

And after the Type Effects, we have the Vonster Pattern Effects.

Now these patterns are created by Von Glitschka

who is a very talented illustrator and designer,

and these patterns are basically comprised of

repeated patterns on multiple fills.

This being the background color and this being the repeated pattern.

And lastly, let's take a look at creating our own graphic style.

So with our object selected, let's go ahead and apply

a 3D effect to it with the Extrude and Bevel.

And let's bump up the height on the bevel.

Select okay.

Let's head over to the appearance panel.

And with the object selected, let's add a new fill.

And then on that fill, let's apply a Photoshop effect

where I'm going to select grain and

bump up the intensity.

And for gain type, let's use soft.

Select okay.

Next let's pull out the appearance panel

and the graphic styles panel,

and with our object selected,

let's grab the thumbnail on the upper left hand corner of appearance

and drag it into the graphic styles.

And now you can see we have a new graphic styles.

So when we double click that, we can rename it.

We'll call this new style.

And when we create a new rectangle,

we can then apply our new style to that object.

Also, we have the option to save that graphic style

the same way we can save swatches

as well as load other graphic styles into our Illustrator file.

And that is how you use the graphic libraries and styles in Adobe Illustrator.