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- [Voiceover] In this

movie, I'll demonstrate one



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of the most common things

people do with object blends



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and that's create custom gratings.



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So, for example, notice

these two rectangles.



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I have a dark blue one up here

at the top of my document,



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and a light blue one down at the bottom.



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If I click on one with

the black arrow tool



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and Shift + Click on the other,



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so they're both selected,



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and then, go up to the object menu,



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choose blend and choose make,



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or again, you can press Control + Alt + B,



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or Command + Option + B on a Mac,



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then, I'm going to create



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a straight-forward linear gradient.



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So a linear gradient is nothing more



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than an object blend

between two rectangles.



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Now, the same can be said

of radial gradients as well,



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except that you're working with circles.



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And so for example,

let's say I were to click



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in this yellow circle

with the black arrow tool,



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and then Shift + Click in the orange one,



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in order to select them both,



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and then, again, go to the object menu,



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choose blend, and choose make,



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I will create the equivalent

of a radial gradient,



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and to make that a little more clear,



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I'll go ahead and press

Control + Shift + A,



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or Command + Shift + A on a Mac,



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to deselect my artwork

and I'll also zoom on in.



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So that's pretty much all you can do



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with linear and radial

gradients inside of Illustrator,



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but if you're skilled in

the art of object blending,



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then suddenly, sky's the limit.



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So for example, I'll go ahead



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and move over to this

piece of artwork here,



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and notice these green

path outlines down here



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at the bottom of the document.



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I could click and this forward one



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and Shift + Click on the

one in the background



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in order to select those two shapes,



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and notice, they are quite obviously



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neither rectangles nor ellipses,



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and then, if I went to the object menu,



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chose blend, and chose make again,



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or press Control + Alt + B,



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or Command + Option + B on a Mac,



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then I can create this

nicely sculpted gradient



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that actually bends along

with the objects themselves.



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Better still, I'm not limited

to just two path outlines.



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If I press Control + Z,

or Command + Z on a Mac,



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to undo that blend and

then, I Shift + Click on



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these two intermediate path outlines,



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I can blend between them as well.



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Either by choosing that command,



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or, by just pressing

the keyboard shortcut,



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Control + Alt + B, or Command

+ Option + B on a Mac,



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and the objects by the way,



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are going to blend in the

order that they're stacked.



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So in other words, I'll undo

the blend just for a second,



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the object at the very

back is going to blend



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into the object in front of it,



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then into the object in front of it,



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and then into the front-most

object as we're seeing here,



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and so, if I go ahead and redo that blend



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by pressing Control + Alt + B,



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or Command + Option + B on a Mac,



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you can see that that is indeed the case,



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and now, I can change

the color or placement



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of any of these items

just by pressing the Akey,



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to switch to my white arrow tool,



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then, I would click off

the paths to deselect them,



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and I'll go ahead and click inside



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this path outline right there



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to select it independently

of the other ones.



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Then, I'll go up to

this first color swatch



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on the left side of the

control panel, click on it,



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and change it to the shade

of yellow right here,



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which begins with R equals 252



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in order to transform the

colors inside that gradient,



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and, I can add objects as well.



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Especially if I want to add an object



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to the front of the stack, and to do that,



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I'll go ahead and press the

escape key to hide that panel,



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and then, I'll select my rectangle tool,



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and I'll zoom out a little bit here,



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by pressing Control + Zero,

or Command + Zero on a Mac,



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and then, I'll make sure that

my Smart Guides are turned on



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here under the view menu,

which in my case they weren't,



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so I'll go ahead and choose the command,



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and I'll drag right here along

the bottom of the document,



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making sure to take in

those bleeds right there,



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until I create a rectangle

that's 690 points wide



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and approximately 22 points tall,



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and now, I'll once again press the V key



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to switch back to the black arrow tool,



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and I'll Shift + Click

on my blend to select it.



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Now, if I go up to the object menu,



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choose blend, and once again, choose make,



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I will roll that top object

into the existing blend.



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So it's not like a group

where you're grouping



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something inside of another group,



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instead, I'm just remaking the blend



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so it now contains five objects



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with this new rectangle at the top.



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Now, I don't want the

rectangle to be this color,



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so I'll press the A key,



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in order to switch back

to the white arrow tool,



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and I'll go ahead and click off



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the objects to deselect them,



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and then, I'll click inside the rectangle



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to select it by itself, and I'll click on



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the first color swatch up

here in the control panel,



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and I'll change it to this

darker shade of green,



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which begins R equals zero,

G equals 146, and so forth,



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in order to produce

this effect right here.



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Actually, I chose the wrong

color so let's try that again.



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Click to select it independently,



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and then I'll go up to

the first color swatch



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up here in the control panel,



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and I'll select this

darkish shade of green,



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R equals zero, G equals 104, B equals 55,



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in order to produce this effect here.



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Alright, now I'll just go ahead



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and click off the shape to select it,



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and I'll press Control + Zero,

or Command + Zero on a Mac,



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in order to center my zoom,



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and that's how you create an

all-together custom gradient



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between any colors and

shapes that you like



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using object blending

here inside Illustrator.