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In this video you will learn how to create custom brushes.
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[How to Draw in Illustrator] [Creating Custom Brushes Part 1] [with Mat Helme]
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We now know how to use the Paintbrush Tool, Blob Brush Tool, and Pencil Tool.
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Also we know how to manipulate our strokes and paths we created with those tools.
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Next let's take a look at creating our very own custom brushes in Illustrator.
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With the Custom Brushes file open, as well as the Brushes Panel,
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we're ready to get started.
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With Illustrator we have the option to create our very own brushes.
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As you already know there are 5 types of brushes Illustrator offers:
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Calligraphic, Scatter, Art Brush, Bristle, and Pattern.
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Let's take a look at creating a custom brush for each type.
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To create a new brush we have to have our Brushes Panel open as we already do.
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There are 2 ways to create a new brush.
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The first way is from the dropdown at the top right.
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We can select New Brush, or in the bottom right we have this icon for New Brush.
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Now we're given an option to select the 5 different types of brushes.
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Now you might notice 2 of them are faded out, and we'll get to those in just a second.
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Right now let's just focus on the Calligraphic Brush.
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So with that selected let's hit ok.
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Now we're given the Calligraphic Brush options.
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So we'll simply name it Calligraphic Brush 1.
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That's fine. That works for us right now.
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Now as you can see below we have these 3 options.
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we have angle, roundness, and size.
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Also notice the dropdown that says fix.
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Just like the Blob Brush, we have the option to keep it fixed or to select random.
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Now you'll also see pressure, stylus wheel, tilt, bearing, and rotation.
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As of right now you can select these because I have a tablet hooked up.
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If you don't have a tablet you won't see these. They'll be faded out.
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You'll have the option of fixed and radom.
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Random simply lets us set a variation between 2 numbers
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just like with the Blob Brush.
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Whenever I create a Calligraphic Brush,
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I like to get it as close to a calligraphic pen as possible.
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Also I like to keep the size around 5 point.
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Now you can see we have our new brush located in the Brushes Panel--
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Calligraphic Brush 1.
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With that selected let's go ahead and create a Stroke.
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Right now you can see we have the Fill on, so let's go ahead and turn that off.
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You can see we have a nice calligraphic brush here.
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I can bump up the size by using the right angle bracket--get a really thick line.
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So if I wanted to go back in and say bump up the size on this Calligraphic Brush
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that we just created, you simply double-click on the Calligraphic Brush
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in the Brushes Panel, and it brings up our options again.
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Select preview, and now you can see our brush here.
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So if I want to bump the size up,
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narrow it down, I can do all that from the settings.
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Select ok, and then it will ask me if I want to apply it to the Strokes that are currently
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on the canvas, and if I select apply to Strokes then it will apply it to this Stroke.
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Let's move on to our next brush, the Scatter Brush.
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Now for the Scatter Brush, remember when we created a new brush it was faded out.
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That's because we actually need an object to attach to the Scatter Brush.
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So let's go ahead and grab the Rectangle Tool and create
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a 10 pixel by 10 pixel solid object.
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There we go.
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So let's zoom in here and make sure it has a Fill.
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We'll go ahead and swap the Stroke and Fill.
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To create a new Scatter Brush, we can drag it into the Panel
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or by selecting the object and then going to Create a New Brush.
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So we can select it, drag it in,
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Create a Scatter Brush, or with the rectangle selected select New Brush,
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and select Scatter Brush, select ok,
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and you can see we have a lot more options than the Calligraphic Brush.
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Let's go ahead and we'll leave this Scatter Brush 1.
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Below that you can see our options for size, spacing, scatter, and rotation.
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We are also able to leave them fixed or random.
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Below that where it says coloration and then method,
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we have a dropdown, and right now it says none.
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Now what this does is it will leave the color of that object the same
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or as it is default.
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When we select the dropdown you can see we have other options:
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Tints, tints and shades, and hue shift.
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If we ever want to see a visual representation of each type of method,
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we can simply select this tips button, and it will show you.
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Tints displays the stroke of tints of the Stroke color.
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Portions that aren't black become tints of the Stroke color,
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and that remains white.
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Tints and shades displays the brush color in tints and shades of the Stroke color.
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Tints and shades maintains black and white,
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and everything between becomes a blend from black and white through the Stroke.
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Hue shift uses the key color in the brush artwork.
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So let's go ahead and try out our new Scatter Brush.
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We'll delete the object that we created,
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grab the Paintbrush Tool with the Scatter Brush selected,
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let's go ahead and create a path and get rid of the Fill,
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and you can see we have this very pixelated line
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which is attaching that square to it.
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So with our path selected let's double-click on the Scatter Brush 1
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that we just created, and let's give it some variation with size, spacing, and scatter
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as well as rotation.
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So we'll change size to random and make each one of these objects,
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which are the rectangles, random sizes.
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So let's vary them from 50% to 100%
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and then spacing the same.
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We'll put that to random and 50% to 100%.
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For scatter let's put it back to -285 and then +275 and then rotation -56 degrees
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and +75 degrees.
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Select ok, apply to Strokes, and you can see our brush looks tremendously different now.
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With a Scatter Brush, it's great for creating stuff like leaves on the trees
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or say bubbles in water.
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Anytime you want to attach an object to a path and display it randomly
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or basically have it push away from the path, it's great to use a Scatter Brush.
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Now let's create a custom Art Brush.
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Just like the Scatter Brush, we need to have an object to apply to the path.
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So let's create a scribble with the Pen Tool and resize it to 10 pixels by 10 pixels.
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So here's our scribble, and let's resize that down to 10 pixels by 10 pixels.
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With that selected, again we can either drag it in or select the New Brush icon
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and select Art Brush.
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We'll go ahead and leave the default name to Art Brush 1.
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Next we have width we can leave fixed or random.
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Then below that we have brush scale options.
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We can either scale it proportionately, stretch to fit stroke length,
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stretch between guides, this being the guide down here,
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which right now it's pointed down as you can see in the direction.
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We can go up, right, or left, and this is just how it's going to place it on the path.
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Again we have the colorization, and if we have any questions about
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which one to choose we can simply select the tips and see our examples here.
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Below that we have options where we can flip along or flip across.
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We have overlap options right next to that.
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This has to do with the corner folds.
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So we can adjust the corner folds to not adjust,
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or we can adjust the corner folds to prevent overlaps.
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I can show you that in just a second.
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Let's take a look at the scaling proportionately
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with the right direction.
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Let's go ahead and delete our object, select the Brush Tool,
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we have no Fill, black Stroke, and we have our new brush selected.
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You can see when scaling proportionately it goes across the whole path,
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and it's scaled up because it's scaled proportionately.
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Now we can stretch to fit as well, and what this will do is it will keep it the same size
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and stretch it across the width from left to right because that's the direction we're going.
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You can see we can get almost a charcoal effect there.
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Then below that we have the option to stretch between guides,
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and this will give us a start and endpoint, and we can actually move those.
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Then our flip options at the bottom--we're able to flip along which is left to right
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and then flip across which is top to bottom.
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Let's select ok and apply to Stroke.
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Let's zoom in here to get a better look.
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Now let's make a path with very hard-angled corners here.
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Now you can see with those hard-angled corners when I select overlap,
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and I don't adjust the corners and folds, we get that flat top,
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but when I adjust it to prevent overlaps, we get that nice sharp angle.
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Again we can play around with these settings.
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That's how you create a custom Art Brush.
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Our next brush is the Bristle Brush.
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To create a Bristle Brush, it's the same exact way as creating a Calligraphic Brush.
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We simply create a new brush from the Brushes Panel,
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select Bristle Brush, select ok,
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and remember the Bristle Brush is made to emulate a paintbrush.
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So we are given all of these options.
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We can change the shape. By default it's at round point.
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Then from the dropdown you can see we have all of these options:
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Round blunt, round curve, round angle, round fan--this is great for texture buildup--
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flat point, flat blunt, flat curve, flat angle, and flat fan.
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This is going to be one of those brushes where you're just going to want to
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create a brush and really play around with the settings to get it just right
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for whatever project you're working on.
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So for this example, let's go ahead and create a round fan,
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and right now we're at 3 mm.
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Let's bump that up just a little bit.
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Bristle length--
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let's really fan it out here.
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Bristle density--let's drop that and get almost a watercolor-type look.
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Thickness--let's drop it down to fine.
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That's just dropping the size of the bristle itself.
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Paint opacity--drop that down a little bit.
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Stiffness--this is the actual flexibility of the bristles themselves.
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This comes in handy when we're dealing with a tablet because the pen
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will act as the actual paintbrush.
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Select ok.
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That right there is the Bristle Brush.
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Again this is great for buildup.
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If we want to build up some color here--
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and these area all paths. Very cool.
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Our last brush is the Pattern Brush.
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Let's go ahead and create this very simple 4-dot pattern.
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Let's go ahead and drag that into the Brushes Panel.
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Select pattern brush, and we'll go ahead and leave the name to Pattern Brush 1.
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Next we have scale, so let's go ahead and drop that down just a little bit.
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After that we have spacing, and this is the spaces between the patterns.
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Let's go ahead and push that up to 20%.
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Below that you will see a side tile, outer corner tile, inner corner tile, start tile,
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and end tile.
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Now each one of these tiles does exactly what the little icon below it says.
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So our default tile is the pattern that we just dragged in,
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and that would be our side tile.
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Then next to that we have our corner tile which displays the corner
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of the actual path we create.
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It will attach a specific pattern if we choose one for that.
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Below that you'll see a list of currently existing patterns in the Swatches Library.
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Now right now we don't have any.
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We just have the original that we created.
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Then on the right you can see we have the flip options,
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which are the same flip along which is left to right, flip across which is top to bottom,
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fit which is stretch to fit to the path.
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We can add space to fit, approximate the path, and then again we have colorization.
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Let's go ahead and select ok.
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You can see we have our new pattern here.
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Let's delete our pattern we created, grab the Paintbrush Tool,
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and with no Fill, black Stroke select our Pattern Brush and create a pattern.
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Now with those paths selected, let's double-click on the Pattern Brush
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select preview, and now we can play around with the options.
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So spacing is at 20%. Let's see what it looks like at zero or 100.
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You can see it spaces it out along the path.
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So the same width of the pattern is placed between the patterns on the path.
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Flip along won't look too much different
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because our pattern is for the most part symmetrical.
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But since we have a little bit of a curve in our path, you can see it adjust just a little bit.
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Then for the fit options--fit to stretch--we can add space to fit or approximate path
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and again play around with these options.
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Let's select ok.
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Now for example purposes, let's go ahead and create a triangle with the Polygon Tool.
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We'll just hit the down arrow and create a triangle here.
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We'll have a solid Fill for it,
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and let's go ahead and drag that into our Swatches Panel.
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Now we have a new pattern there.
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Let's delete that, and with this path selected let's double-click on the Pattern Brush
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that we just created.
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Now you can see we have a new pattern swatch 2 here.
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Now that's the new pattern that we just dropped into the Swatches Panel.
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For the side tile we'll go ahead and leave the default,
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but for the corner tile let's add this new pattern.
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Select ok, apply to strokes.
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Now with the Rectangle Tool, with the rectangle selected,
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let's select the Pattern Brush we just created,
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and you can see in the corners here we have the pattern we just created
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and we assigned to the corner tile.
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That's how we create a Pattern Brush.
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