All ELAR Monsters have been scanned, but each image needs to be copied to your Vector Graphics Project folder from the Student Shared drive. Don't forget to rename the file!

We need to edit the monster image with Photoshop to get it ready to be a good reference image for working in Illustrator. This includes cropping and leveling to get the right amount of detail visible in Illustrator.

Now we need the monster reference image in Illustrator so we can draw over it. If your image has specific colors that you want to use, you can create separate samples of ones you feel are important.

Here's a sneak peak at our destination - After Effects.  The puppet pin tool makes animating  the tentacles pretty straightforward. It didn't work well with the ears. The head layer has an Outer Glow keyframed to change size and colors. A separate glowing horn was impossible merged with the head, although it could have looked quite "magical".

Examine your drawing, think about the order the different layers will be in and what parts of your monster you may want to animate. It's super-simple to combine paths onto a layer - not so easy to separate them later.

Most of your work at the beginning needs to be done not with the Brush, but with the Blob Brush tool. Do the biggest parts first and make the brush as big as you need to do the work quickly. (use the bracket keys [ and ] to change the brush size. DO NOT OUTLINE.

Once you have painted in a shape with the Blob brush, you should almost always reduce the number of anchor points using Object --> Path --> Simplify Path. Moving the slider to the left will make the shape much easier modify.

Many of the body parts will be easier to create if you use the Stroke tool. You can apply a gradient across the stroke instead of along the length of it for some very special effects. Strokes can even be outlined to create a standard shape, although gradient strokes don't fare so well.

We've used a couple of different stroke profiles, but you need to know you can create your own and even save them for later use. If the color remains solid, when you outline the stroke you can then add to the new shape with the blob brush tool or use the eraser to remove parts. Having anchors around the shape means you can adjust it any way you like.

We've experienced the linear and radial gradients, but did you know there is a 3rd option in Illustrator? Freeform means you can place points or draw lines with different colors, with no limit to your imagination. No excuses anymore - the gradient plan is now Unlimited!