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FILLS
Fill is a color, pattern, or gradient inside an object.
The fill you bring to an object can form the entire shape of
the object (no outlines), or its path can be stroked, giving it an edge of one kind or another. Fill is a design element unique to the world of digital illustration. Such “coloring-in” comes in five basic types: solid, pattern, transparent, gradient blends, and gradient mesh.
gradients and color blends
Linear blends travel in a given direction, which is adjust- able. You can create gradients from just two colors (top left shows white and black creating a grayscale gradient), you can make them using parts of the color spectrum, or you can have them cover the entire rainbow. There is a Blending Tool that allows you to create a single gradient that covers multiple objects.
solid and pattern fill
Most graphic applications offer tools for creating blends from any mix of source colors. However, if there are not enough shades allocated to a particular hue in the bitmap depth for a given image, visible “banding” can occur.
When you use solid or pattern fill, you apply a visual treatment to areas of objects conscribed by paths.
A gradient fill must be created each time you choose to fill an object. These can be saved as swatches.
transparent fill
Transparency is how much you can see an object beneath another object. Transparent fills often require that you work in levels.
gradient mesh
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CHAPTER 4: ILLUSTRATION [ 159 ]
With a quick adjustment of a box marked Opacity, you can change an object’s fill from 100 percent solid to any degree of transparency. An entire aesthetic has evolved from the ability to stack multiple layers of artwork and then precisely adjust the “see-through ability” of each layer, including subtle gradients that feather opacity down to 0 percent. Such mixing of transparency levels also blends colors.
The letter Q and the colored strokes display a progres- sive decrease in opacity from 100 percent on down at intervals of 25 percent. The five colors layered atop the word transparency predictably “cut” the solid black type below. But when the colors overlap, the resulting hues
Perhaps we are getting into Illustrator esoteric here, but in logo design and other forms of illustration you may want to know about the mesh object tool and how it works with graduated blends of color. You begin by creating a fine mesh on an object and then manipulating the color characteristics at each point on the mesh.
A gradient mesh blend is often used to create a three- dimensional appearance. There is a Mesh Tool that creates and edits meshes and what are called mesh envelopes. Combined with gradient fills, this yields an extremely versatile and powerful illustration technique. Heather Ben-Zvi
are anything but predictable.
Jamie Kruse
Gradients and color blends achieve a smooth merge or transition from one color or tone to another.
Computers create flows of value and hue with a precision that is impossible for the hand and eye alone. There are a variety of approaches including linear blends and radial blends, which are sampled.
Radial blends move from a central point outward. The example above suggests concentric circles, smoothly transitioned. The purple one could be a ball with frontlighting. Heather Ben-Zvi
A gradient mesh is a single, multicolored object on which colors can flow in different directions.