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How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator  in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator  in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create realistic Soccer ball in Adobe Illustrator. Creating an illustration like this may seem complicated, but we will try to keep it simple. There are many different ways to create a Soccer ball, but we will use the simplest method – tracing the reference image with the Pen Tool. The main challenge will be to achieve a realistic look of the ball by using simple gradients and just a few details.

Let’s get down to business!

We will be creating this.

Final-look in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

Tracing the Reference Image with the Pen Tool

Create a new illustrator document at 500 x 500 pixels in size. Open a reference image and lock the layer. This way the image won’t get in our way during creation process.

001 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

Create a new layer. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and try to draw the circle (don’t forget to hold a Shift key on the keyboard for creating a proportional circle) that will match the shape of the ball. Set the Fill color to white (#FFFFF) and a Stroke color to none. You can make this object invisible in order to be able to draw other parts of the pattern, but don’t forget to make it visible later.

001a1 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

With a Zoom Tool (Z) zoom in for easier drawing. Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and try to draw each part of the ball pattern. You will notice that the sides of the polygons are slightly curved.

002 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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Repeat the previous steps to complete other parts of the pattern as well. Set the Fill color of the each part to black (#00000) or white (#FFFFF) to match the reference image. You should end up with something like this.

004 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

005 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

Applying gradients

You have to admit that the ball looks quite flat. To be honest, it doesn’t look like a ball at all. To change that we will need to apply radial gradients. It will help us to create an illusion of 3D effects and to simulate the influence of imaginary source of the light. For that purpose we will use white-gray and black-gray radial gradients. Just imagine that the source of the light is above the ball.

As we have said, for the black parts we will use black – gray radial gradient.

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007 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

008 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

009 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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011 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

For the white parts create a nice white – gray radial gradient.

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013 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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019 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

The Final Touch

Our illustration begins to resemble a real ball. In this step we will create some details that would let help the ball look even better. Let’s create them.

With a Zoom Tool (Z) zoom in the illustration so we can be more precise. Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and try to draw the shape as it shown on the picture below.

020 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

021 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

022 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

023 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

024 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

025 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

Keep drawing small details for other parts of the pattern as well. It will create a nice depth for our illustration. Feel free to set the Fill color for some of the details to gray. This way it will look like shadows and highlights.

On the following screenshots you can track the process of creating a details.

026 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

027 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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029 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

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031 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

On the next pictures you can see all of the details we’ve created for the Soccer ball.

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033 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

034 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

There is one more thing to do. Select the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create an ellipse. Apply gray – white radial gradient. Select the Gradient Tool (G), and drag the anchor point on the top of the ellipse gradient down and in towards the center of the ellipse to skew the gradient. Make sure the gradient smoothly fades from gray to white inside of the ellipse as shown below. Send the ellipse behind the Soccer ball ( Shift + Ctrl / Cmd + [ ) and place it right underneath the ball.

035 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

And Voila!

Final-look1 in How to Create a Realistic Soccer Ball in Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial we have shown how to turn a photograph into realistic vector illustration by using very simple techniques such as, tracing a reference image with a Pen Tool and applying nice radial gradients. Feel free to use your creativity and imagination to create other types of sport balls. If you happen to have any questions feel free to post it in the comment section below. I hope you like the tutorial. Thank you for following along!

(rb)


How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

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 in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator  in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator  in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Many people have difficulty in drawing objects in perspective. Most of the time it helps if you have that particular object in front of you, but we still need our imagination.The most important aspects of perspective are size and distance. If you increase the distance between you and the object you are observing, you need to decrease the size of that object. That way you can achieve a nice depth effect in your illustrations.

In this post we’ll be learning how to create a cute pink piggy bank in perspective with the help of Adobe Illustrator CS4. Enjoy!

This is how the result will look like:

0352 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Body of the Piggy Bank

First, we’ll start with the body of the piggy bank. Select the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool panel and create an ellipse for our Piggy Bank. Let us add a gradient to achieve a round look. At this point we need to imagine a source of light above our Piggy Bank. According to that light, some parts of the ellipse need to be lighter and some darker, because light causes highlights and shadows:

00111 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Creating the Eyes

Now we are going to create the eyes of the Piggy Bank. With the help of the Ellipse Tool (L) create two ellipses, one bigger and one smaller (set the Fill color to dark pink). Make them overlap and choose Unite in the Pathfinder Panel:

0024 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Rotate the eyes a bit and place them on the Piggy Bank. You can see how the smaller eye makes the impression of the perspective. We will have to do that with other parts of the Piggy Bank as well.

0032 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Let’s continue with the eyes. Since our imaginary source of the light is above the Piggy Bank we need to make a highlight on the eyes. Let’s copy-and-paste in front of the eyes. You can do that by selecting the eyes and then hitting Ctrl+C for copy and Ctrl+F for paste-in-front on your keyboard. That way, you’ve made a copy of the eyes.

Repeat that step to create another copy. With the upper copy, still selected, hit the arrow key on your keyboard and nudge the eyes a pixel or two downwards. Now holding the Shift key, select another copy of the eyes right below, and with both copies selected, hit the Minus Front in the Pathfinder Panel:

0042 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Change the Fill color of the new shape to light pink:

0052 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Now we are going to make another copy of the eyes. Don’t forget the magic shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F (to copy-and-paste infront). We will be using them a lot in this tutorial. Scale down a new copy a bit using a non-uniform scale. Just grab the middle handle on the upper side of the selection box and move it downwards. Do the same with the lower side of the selection box. Add a radial gradient as shown in the picture below:

0062 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Repeat the previous step. Scale the new copy of the eyes a little bit more and add a radial gradient:

0072 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Now we need two white circles for creating a pupil. But be careful, one of the circles needs to be smaller because it’s further away from us. Select both circles, right click and select Group (Ctrl+G):

0082 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Lets copy (Ctrl+C) and paste-in-front (Ctrl+F) those two circles. For the Fill color, choose brown and with the arrow key on your keyboard nudge them upwards one pixel:

0092 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Repeat the previous step but for the Fill color use a radial gradient:

0102 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Select the circles with radial gradient from the previous step and under Object > Path > Offset path set the value for Offset to -4. Set the Fill color to black:

0112 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Now make two small ellipses, set the Fill color to white and place them as shown in the picture below. Make sure that one ellipse is a bit smaller then the one closer to us (since that eye is smaller):

0122 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Creating the Snout

Once you are happy with the eyes you’ve created, we can move on to the next step. To create the piggy’s snout, choose the Ellipse Tool (L) once again to create an ellipse, setting the Fill color to white and placing it below the eyes we have just made. This will be a small highlight on the side:

0132 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Copy (Ctrl+C) and paste-in-front (Ctrl+F) the ellipse, nudge it one pixel to the left and add a linear gradient as shown in the picture below:

0142 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Repeat the copy (Ctrl+C) and paste-in-front (Ctrl+F) action to make another copy of the ellipse. Make the new ellipse a bit smaller and align it to the left with the ellipse right below. The Linear gradient from the previous step gives us the impression of the highlight. Gradients, shadows and highlights are very important aspects:

0152 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Make the copy of the white ellipse. Grab the middle handle of the selection box on the right and move it to the left for one pixel. Set the Fill color of the new ellipse to darker pink. Now we have achieved another highlight on the nose:

0162 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Now, let’s make a light reflection. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a bigger ellipse. Cover the upper half of the nose of the Piggy Bank with it. Also, we need a copy of the ellipse we created in the previous step (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F). Now select both of the new ellipses, the small one as well as the big one, and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Intersect button. This is how we will create a shape which will turn into a reflection:

0172 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Change the Fill color of the new shape to something lighter than the color of the nose:

0182 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

We are just a few steps away from finishing the Piggy Bank’s snout. Now, we need to create the nostrils. For that we will need two ellipses. One more time, the ellipse that is farther from you will have to be smaller. Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to create them. Add a radial gradient to both ellipses. The darker side of the gradient gives us a feeling of depth. Check out the picture below:

0192 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Select both ellipses and group them (Ctrl+G). Now we need two copies from them. Copy (Ctrl+C) and paste-in-front (Ctrl+F) will make those two copies. Select one copy and nudge it upwards one pixel. Holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, select another copy (placed underneath the nudged copy) and hit the Minus Front in the Pathfinder Panel. You can change the Fill color of the new shape to light pink (almost white):

0202 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Creating the Ears

I think we are on the right track to make a very cute Piggy Bank! Now let us create its ears with some shadows and reflections. Don’t forget, the Piggy Bank is usually made of plastic or clay, which means that we have to try to simulate that look.

With the Pen Tool (P) selected, try to draw the inner part of the ear. You may have some difficulty with this part, if you are unsure how the Piggy’s ear should look. If you have that problem, try to find a picture of a pig, or maybe you have a Piggy Bank at home. The thing is, we cannot draw the whole ear at once. We need to break the drawing down to a few steps — drawing the inner part of the ear, the outer part, the edge and the shadow. So, the first part will be the inner ear. You can use the same radial gradient from the previous step:

0212 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

For the outer part of the ear we will need lighter colors. We will use a Linear gradient as shown in the picture below:

0222 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Yet again, we’ll need highlights and shadows. First, select the outer part of the ear and make two copies. Nudge one copy one pixel to the left using the arrow key on the keyboard. Now select both copies and hit the Minus front option in the Pathfinder Panel. Do the same thing for the inner part of the ear. You will end up with a nice edge on the ear which will look like a highlight from the light. Don’t forget to change the Fill color of the highlight to light pink (almost white):

0232 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

If we add an ear shadow it will make our Piggy Bank more realistic. Just select the Pen Tool (P) again and try to draw a shadow of the ear. Once you are satisfied with the shadow, select all parts of the Piggy Bank’s ear, group them (Ctrl+G) and under right click, choose Arrange and select Bring to Front. The color of the shadow should be a bit darker then the color of the Piggy Bank’s body. You can add a small light area to the outer part of the ear, just to add an accent of the highlight:

0242 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

The other ear should be smaller, it should be behind the Piggy Bank because we are not able to see that part of the body. It should also contain darker and lighter parts. Lets break the ear down into pieces. The steps are quite similar to the steps for the first ear. Just take the Pen Tool (P) and draw the inner and outer part of the ear, create an edge of the ear, rotate it a bit if you have to, make it slightly smaller then our first ear and make sure it’s behind the Piggy Bank:

0252 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Adding Details

Now we can make a few details for the Piggy Bank. One of them is the cute curly tail. Take the Pen Tool (P) again and draw the swirl path. Now we need a small black circle. Choose the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the bottom anchor of that circle and while holding down the Shift key, pull it downwards. Grab the new shape we’ve just made and drag and drop it into the Brush Panel. Choose New Art Brush under the brush types. In the Art Brush Option Panel, make sure to set Tints for Colorization Method. Change the Stroke color of the curly tail to pink (same as the back part of Piggy Bank’s body):

0262 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Creating a Reflection

We can also make a reflection of the window on the Piggy Bank. Select the body of the Piggy Bank. Make a copy of it (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) and scale it down a little bit. Now we need to add some anchor points and to delete others in order to get the path which we’ll be using to draw the rest of the window reflection. Using the Pen Tool (P) we can add anchors and with the Direct Selection Tool (A) we can select the anchor points we need to remove and hit the Delete key on the keyboard.

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This is the path we will be using to complete our window reflection:

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0292 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Deselect the new object we’ve just made and grab the Pen Tool (P) again. Let’s make two paths like in the picture below. Set the Stroke to 2:

0302 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

We need to expand those strokes. With both paths selected under Object select Expand. Now, holding down the Shift key, select the shape of the window reflection and under the Pathfinder Panel hit Minus Front:

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Change the Fill color of the window reflection to lighter pink:

0322 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Final Touches

Using the same techniques, we can draw the shape of the slot where are the goody coins come in on the Piggy Bank’s back. Using a linear gradient should be a good way to achieve the depth effect required:

0332 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

To make the legs, we’ll need the Pen Tool (P) once again. Draw four legs. Two of them need to be sent behind the Piggy Bank (right click > Arrange > Send to Back). For those two legs use linear gradients. The darker part of the gradient will simulate the shadow of the Piggy Bank’s body:

0342 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

You can add highlights to the parts exposed to light. For other parts, just create shadows. Oh, and don’t forget the mouth:

0352 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator

Use your imagination and make different faces for the Piggy Bank. It can be fun. Here are some of my results!

0362 500px in How to Create a Cute Piggy Bank in Perspective with Adobe Illustrator
I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Using all these techniques we’ve used here, you can create pretty much anything. Just don’t be afraid to experiment with colors, gradients and shadows. Use them wisely and you’ll be able to achieve great realistic looks for your illustrations. Keep in mind to follow all the rules for perspective drawing. If you happen to have any questions feel free to post it in the comment section below. Thank you for reading!




Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Advertisement in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?
 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?  in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?  in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Following along this tutorial you’ll be learning how to use the Pathfinder Panel in Illustrator CS5 with its very useful features. Combining various forms with the Pathfinder tools, we can create nice shapes. Applying the gradients and colors to those shapes, we can achieve great results by creating a nice depth and perspective. Highlights and shadows are very helpful as well and make the artwork look very realistic.

Don’t forget to use the techniques wisely. Using this simple one you can create a nice artwork of a cup that can be used in a variety of ways, such as an icon in the Web design field or even for coffee shop menus. Now, let’s get down to business!

This is how the end result should look like:

Final-Image-cup-of-coffee in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a Cup Shape

First, we will create all the elements needed for the cup and after that we can continue with applying gradients and solid colors.

Set the document size to 500x500 pixels:

000 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool panel and create a circle:

0011 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Direct Selection Tool code>(A), select the upper anchor point of the circle and remove it by hitting the Delete key on the keyboard. This way we’ll remove the upper part of the circle:

002 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) from a Tool Panel and click on the endpoints of the shape from the previous step. That way we’ll close the path:

003 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Take the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create the ellipse as it shown in the picture below. Make sure that endpoints match. You can adjust the position of endpoints by using the Direct Selection Tool (A):

0041 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

005 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now use the Pen Tool (P) and draw the handle for the cup. Set the Stroke to 14:

0061 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

We have to make the bottom of the cup more flat if we don’t want to spill the coffee. Just grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a path as it shown in the picture below:

006a1 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select the green part of the cup and the path from the previous step and hit the Divide button under the Pathfinder Panel:

006b in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Ungroup (Shift+Ctrl+G) the green shape, select the smaller part and hit the Delete key on the keyboard:

Applying Gradients

Time to apply some colors and gradients. Since our cup is white, we will apply mostly white-gray gradients. Darker parts will simulate the shadows.

For the cup we will be using radial white-gray gradient. According to the imaginary source of the light above the cup (upper left side) so the left side of the cup should be lighter.

0082 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Let’s create the edge of the cup. Select the pink ellipse and under the Object choose the Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -2:

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Now we have two ellipses. Set the Fill color for the larger ellipse to white ( #FFFFF ):

0101 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The smaller ellipse represents the inner part of the cup. Since the imaginary source of the light is on the upper left side, that side of the interior will be darker:

0112 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Let’s edit the handle a little bit. In that order we need to expand the path first. Select the handle and under the Object option, choose Expand:

0121 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Make sure that the handle is not too big or too small for the cup. You can add some details. Take a look at your cup at home and try to copy the look of the handle.

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create two ellipses as such:

0131 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Holding the Shift key on the keyboard, select the handle as well. Under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Unite option:

0141 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we have to adjust the anchor points a little bit to make a smooth shape of the handle:

0151 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The handle should be within the shadow because it is on the right side of the cup (source of the light is the left side, and the handle is on the right side). Let’s apply a darker gradient and later we can add some reflections as well:

0161 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating Details

Let’s create two fancy golden lines! The first step would be to select the larger ellipse and duplicate it (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Holding the Shift key on the keyboard, move the copy downwards.

Now we need to remove the upper anchor point. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) from the Tool Panel to do that. Just click on the anchor point and hit the Delete key on the keyboard. Remove the Fill color and set the Stroke color to green:

0171 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Stroke to 4 and under the Object hit Expand:

0181 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we have to duplicate the shape of the cup. Hit the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F (for copy and paste-in-front). Select the copy we’ve just made and the line and under the Pathfinder Panel choose Intersect:

0191 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Apply the golden linear gradient:

0201 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Repeat the previous step to create another, thinner line:

0211 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the shape of the cup twice. Move to the right side of one of the copies and select both copies. Choose the Intersect option under the Pathfinder Panel:

0221 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now duplicate the new shape we’ve just created and move it to the right side, scale it up a little bit and rotate it. Select both shapes and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0231 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Feel free to change the position and the angle of the new shape. Play around until you achieve the right look. Set the Fill color to white and lower the opacity to 40%:

0241 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw the path. Set the Stroke to 3:

0251 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Under the Object hit Expand:

0261 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both, expanded path and the reflection and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0271 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Using the same technique create few more highlights and shadows:

0281 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we can add a shadow and a highlight on the handle of the cup. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create the ellipse as it shown on the picture below:

028a1 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the handle of the cup (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) and by holding the Shift key on the keyboard, select the ellipse and the copy we’ve just created. Hit the Intersect button under the Pathfinder Panel. Set the Fill color to #C2C2C2:

0292 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a highlight is pretty much the same. Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the handle twice. Move around one of the copies, scale it up or down, rotate; try out several things until you are happy with the result. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Set the Fill color to white (#FFFFF):

030 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a Saucer

For the saucer we’ll need the ellipse. We can’t create a new one because we need to stick to the same exact perspective we’ve created for the cup. Fror that reason, we will duplicate one of the ellipses we created earlier.

Holding the Alt key on the keyboard, click on the larger ellipse and drag it downwards (don’t forget to hold the Shift key for straight drawing):

0313 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Under Object select Arrange > Send Back:

0321 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Scale up the ellipse for our saucer a little bit and duplicate it (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Grab the lower middle point of the selection box and drag it downwards (non-uniform scaling up). Now we have to move the ellipse upwards to make the side points to match:

0331 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Next, duplicate the old ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Select that copy and the new ellipse and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Ungroup (Shift+Ctrl+G) the new shape and erase the upper part. You should end up with something like this:

0341 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The next step would be to apply gradients and colors to our saucer. After that we can add more details. For the lower part of the saucer we will use a radial gradient:

0351 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

To the upper part of the saucer we will apply the linear gradient:

0361 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we need a white edge for the saucer. Duplicate the ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) twice and nudge one of the copies to the left side for 2 pixels. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0371 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Fill color of the new shape to white:

0381 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Do the same for the other side. Create two copies, nudge one of them for 2 pixels to the right side and create a nice white edge by using a Minus Front button under the Pathfinder Panel:

0391 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the big ellipse and scale it down. Set the Fill color to #EDEDED. That is the spot where we actually place the cup — the middle point of the saucer:

0401 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate twice the big ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) and nudge one of the copies downwards:

0411 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Set the Fill color to #EDEDED. This way we’ve created the inner shadow on the saucer:

0421 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

We need a small ellipse to put under the cup to simulate a tiny shadow from the cup. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6:

0431 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the middle ellipse twice (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Nudge one of the copies 2 pixel downwards. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6. This way we’ve created the inner edge of the middle part of the saucer:

0441 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and draw the shape as it shown on the picture below. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6 and lower the opacity to 46%:

0451 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Take again the Pen Tool (P) and draw the path as you see on the picture below.

0463 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Stroke to 4 and under Object select Expand:

0471 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the big ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Select the copy and the curve we’ve just made and hit the Intersect button under the Pathfinder Panel:

0481 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Apply the linear golden gradient to the curve. Use the same golden linear gradient we used previously for the golden lines on the cup:

0492 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Using the same technique create a thinner line:

0501 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

For the end we’ll create one more reflection (but if you like you can create more than just one). Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the largest ellipse of the saucer, scale it down and place it more to the right side:

0511 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Holding the Alt key on the keyboard click on the green shape and move it to the left side. This way you’ll create a copy of the green shape and change the position of it at the same time:

0521 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both ellipses and hit the Minus Front button under the Pathfinder Panel. Grab a Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and draw the small curved path. Expand the path under Object > Expand. Select both, expanded path and the green shape we’ve just created and hit the Minus Front under the Pathfinder Panel:

0531 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Fill color to white. Adjust the position, size and the angle of the reflection we’ve just made:

0541 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The last thing is to add the shadow under the saucer. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create the ellipse. Under the Object select Arrange > Send Back. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6:

0551 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

And Voila! Our cup is ready:

Final-Image3 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Final Note

Just keep one thing in mind. Perspective is very important. You have to try your best to stick to it during the entire creation process. You can always add more details to the cup as much as you like. It also helps if you look at the object simultaneously while you are creating it.

Feel free to experiment and try out different things. You can easily create interesting shapes and forms using the Pathfinder Panel with all its features. I hope you liked this tutorial. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in the comments section below.


(ik)


Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Advertisement in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?
 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?  in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?  in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Following along this tutorial you’ll be learning how to use the Pathfinder Panel in Illustrator CS5 with its very useful features. Combining various forms with the Pathfinder tools, we can create nice shapes. Applying the gradients and colors to those shapes, we can achieve great results by creating a nice depth and perspective. Highlights and shadows are very helpful as well and make the artwork look very realistic.


Don’t forget to use the techniques wisely. Using this simple one you can create a nice artwork of a cup that can be used in a variety of ways, such as an icon in the Web design field or even for coffee shop menus. Now, let’s get down to business!

This is how the end result should look like:

Final-Image3 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a Cup Shape

First, we will create all the elements needed for the cup and after that we can continue with applying gradients and solid colors.

Set the document size to 500x500 pixels:

000 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool panel and create a circle:

0011 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab a Direct Selection Tool (A), select the upper anchor point of the circle and remove it by hitting the Delete key on the keyboard. This way we’ll remove the upper part of the circle:

002 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and click on the endpoints of the shape from the previous step. That way we’ll close the path:

003 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Take the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create the ellipse as it shown on the picture below. Make sure that endpoints match. You can adjust the position of endpoints by using a Direct Selection Tool (A):

0041 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

005 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now use the Pen Tool (P) and draw the handle for the cup. Set the Stroke to 14:

0061 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

We have to make the bottom of the cup more flat if we don’t want to spill the coffee. Just grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a path as it shown in the picture below:

006a1 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select the green part of the cup and the path from the previous step and hit the Divide button under the Pathfinder Panel:

006b in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Ungroup (Shift+Ctrl+G) the green shape, select the smaller part and hit the Delete key on the keyboard.

Applying Gradients

Time to apply some colors and gradients. Since our cup is white, we will apply mostly white-gray gradients. Darker parts will simulate the shadows.

For the cup we will be using  radial white-gray gradient. According to the imaginary source of the light above the cup (upper left side) so the left side of the cup should be lighter.

0082 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Let’s create the edge of the cup. Select the pink ellipse and under the Object choose the Path>Offset Path. Set the Offset to -2:

0091 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we have two ellipses. Set the Fill color for the larger ellipse to white ( #FFFFF ):

0101 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The smaller ellipse represents the inner part of the cup. Since the imaginary source of the light is on the upper left side, that side of the interior will be darker:

0112 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Let’s edit the handle a little bit. In that order we need to expand the path first. Select the handle and under the Object option, choose Expand:

0121 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Make sure that the handle is not too big or too small for the cup. You can add some details. Take a look at your cup at home and try to copy the look of the handle.

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create two ellipses:

0131 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Holding the Shift key on the keyboard, select the handle as well. Under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Unite option:

0141 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we have to adjust the anchor points a little bit to make a smooth shape of the handle:

0151 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The handle should be within the shadow because it is on the right side of the cup (source of the light is the left side, and the handle is on the right side). Let’s apply a darker gradient and later we can add some reflections as well:

0161 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating Details

Let’s create two fancy golden lines! The first step would be to select the larger ellipse and duplicate it (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Holding the Shift key on the keyboard, move the copy downwards.

Now we need to remove the upper anchor point. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) from the Tool Panel to do that. Just click on the anchor point and hit the Delete key on the keyboard. Remove the Fill color and set the Stroke color to green:

0171 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Stroke to 4 and under the Object hit Expand:

0181 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we have to duplicate the shape of the cup. Hit the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F (for copy and paste-in-front). Select the copy we’ve just made and the line and under the Pathfinder Panel choose Intersect:

0191 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Apply the golden linear gradient:

0201 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Repeat the previous step to create another, thinner line:

0211 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the shape of the cup twice. Move to the right side of one of the copies and select both copies. Choose the Intersect option under the Pathfinder Panel:

0221 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now duplicate the new shape we’ve just created and move it to the right side, scale it up a little bit and rotate it. Select both shapes and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0231 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Feel fee to change the position and the angle of the new shape. Play around until you achieve the right look. Set the Fill color to white and lower the opacity to 40%:

0241 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw the path. Set the Stroke to 3:

0251 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Under the Object hit Expand:

0261 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both, expanded path and the reflection and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0271 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Using the same technique create a few more highlights and shadows:

0281 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we can add a shadow and a highlight on the handle of the cup. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create the ellipse as it shown in the picture below:

028a1 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the handle of the cup (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) and by holding the Shift key on the keyboard, select the ellipse and the copy we’ve just created. Hit the Intersect button under the Pathfinder Panel. Set the Fill color to #C2C2C2:

0292 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a highlight is pretty much the same. Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the handle twice. Move around one of the copies, scale it up or down, rotate; try out several things until you are happy with the result. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Finally, set the Fill color to white (#FFFFF):

030 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Creating a Saucer

For the saucer we’ll need the ellipse. We can’t create a new one because we need to stick to the same exact perspective we’ve created for the cup. Fror that reason, we will duplicate one of the ellipses we created earlier.

Holding the Alt key on the keyboard, click on the larger ellipse and drag it downwards (don’t forget to hold the Shift key for straight drawing):

0313 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Under the Object select Arrange > Send Back:

0321 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Scale up the ellipse for our saucer a little bit and duplicate it (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Grab the lower middle point of the selection box and drag it downwards (non-uniform scaling up). Now we have to move the ellipse upwards to make the side points match:

0331 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Next, duplicate the old ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Select that copy and the new ellipse and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Ungroup (Shift+Ctrl+G) the new shape and erase the upper part. You should end up with something like this:

0341 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The next step would be to apply gradients and colors to our saucer. After that we can add more details. For the lower part of the saucer we will use a radial gradient:

0351 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

To the upper part of the saucer we will apply the linear gradient:

0361 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Now we need a white edge for the saucer. Duplicate the ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) twice and nudge one of the copies to the left side for 2 pixels. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button:

0371 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Fill color of the new shape to white:

0381 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Do the same for the other side. Create two copies, nudge one of them for 2 pixels to the right side and create a nice white edge by using the Minus Front button under the Pathfinder Panel:

0391 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the big ellipse and scale it down. Set the Fill color to #EDEDED. That is the spot where we actually place the cup — the middle point of the saucer:

0401 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate twice the big ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) and nudge one of the copies downwards:

0411 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Set the Fill color to #EDEDED. This way we’ve created the inner shadow on the saucer:

0421 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

We need a small ellipse to put under the cup to simulate a tiny shadow from the cup. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6:

0431 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the middle ellipse twice (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Nudge one of the copies 2 pixel downwards. Select both copies and under the Pathfinder Panel hit the Minus Front button. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6. This way we’ve created the inner edge of the middle part of the saucer:

0441 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and draw the shape as it shown on the picture below. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6 and lower the opacity to 46%:

0451 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Choose the Pen Tool (P) again and draw the path as you see in the picture below:

0463 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Stroke to 4 and under the Object select Expand:

0471 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Duplicate the big ellipse (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). Select the copy and the curve we’ve just made and hit the Intersect button under the Pathfinder Panel:

0481 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Apply the linear golden gradient to the curve. Use the same golden linear gradient we used previously for the golden lines on the cup:

0492 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Using the same technique create a thinner line:

0501 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

For the end we’ll create one more reflection (but if you like you can create more than just one). Duplicate (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F) the largest ellipse of the saucer, scale it down and place it more to the right side:

0511 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Holding the Alt key on the keyboard, click on the green shape and move it to the left side. This way you’ll create a copy of the green shape and change the position of it at the same time:

0521 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Select both ellipses and hit the Minus Front button under the Pathfinder Panel. Grab the Pen Tool (P) from the Tool Panel and draw the small curved path. Expand the path under the Object > Expand. Select both, expanded path and the green shape we’ve just created and hit the Minus Front under the Pathfinder Panel:

0531 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Set the Fill color to white. Adjust the position, size and the angle of the reflection we’ve just made:

0541 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

The last thing is to add the shadow under the saucer. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) from the Tool Panel and create the ellipse. Under the Object select Arrange > Send Back. Set the Fill color to #C6C6C6:

0551 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

And Voila! Our cup is ready:

Final-Image3 in Anyone Up for a Cup of Coffee?

Final Note

Just keep one thing in mind. Perspective is very important. You have to try your best to stick to it during the entire creation process. You can always add more details to the cup as much as you like. It also helps if you look at the object simultaneously while you are creating it.

Feel free to experiment and try out different things. You can easily create interesting shapes and forms using the Pathfinder Panel with all its features. I hope you liked this tutorial. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in the comments section below.


(ik)


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