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- [Voiceover] In this movie I'll show you



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how to introduce some texture into your



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custom gradient, using dynamic effects.



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Specifically, we'll be

going for this grass texture



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right here, but there's all

kinds of stuff you could do.



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Alright, so I'll go ahead

and switch over to my



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pre texture file and I'll

click on those rolling hills



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with the black arrow tool, in

order to select that blend.



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You know it's a blend because

it's identified as such



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in the far left side of the control panel.



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Alright, so lets say you

want the hills to bob up



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and down a little more aggressively.



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The first thing I'll do is

press Ctrl + H or Command + H



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on the Mac in order to

hide my anchor points.



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In that way we can just see

things better on screen.



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And then, I'll go up to

the Effect menu, choose



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Distort and Transform, and

let's start with Tweak.



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I'll go ahead and choose

that command and then I'll



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turn on the preview

checkbox so you can see how



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things are buffeting up

and down in the background.



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I'm gonna go ahead and switch

from relative to absolute.



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And I'll take the

horizontal line down to zero



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because we really don't need

things moving back and forth.



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We need the gradient

intervals to move up and down.



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And we can do that by raising



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this vertical value right here.



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And I'm pressing shift + up

arrow in order to increase



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the value in increments of 10 points.



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And as you can see at 60 points we get



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a whole lot of action going on.



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It pretty much ruins

any smooth color effect



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we might have had previously.



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But, it gives us a lot of extra

action in those intervals.



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You also have the option of deciding



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what it is your modifying.



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Anchor points controls the

placement of anchor points,



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so if you turn that off,

you're just going to move



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the so called control points here.



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Those are really the

control handles however.



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And you can even decide

well I actually just want to



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move the handles that are

going out of the points,



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not the ones that are going in.



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Or you can try the

opposite effect like so.



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And each time you're

going to get something



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different out of it.



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So it really depends if

you want gentle rolling,



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in which case you want to

modify the control handles



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and not the anchor points,

or if you want a bunch



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spikey action, in which

case you want to modify



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the anchor points and possibly



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leave the control handles alone.



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Alright, so doing this for

the sake of demonstration,



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I'm going to cancel out here.



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And now let's say we want a wavy effect.



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So for example, imagine that

instead of editing grass



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this were supposed to water.



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In that case, you would

go up to the Effect menu



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and choose Distort and Transform

and choose Zig Zag instead.



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And now I'll go ahead and

turn on the preview checkbox.



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And you can see a bunch of

spikes going on in the background



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and you can increase the

size of those spikes by



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switching from relative to

absolute if indeed relative



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is selected for you in the

first place, and then we



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can increase that size value

to something like 20 points.



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And notice we're getting all kinds



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of additional spiking going on.



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If you want these to be more gentle waves,



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then switch your points from

corner to smooth like so,



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and you'll get more of a rippling effect.



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And if you want soften things

down a little bit further,



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then decrease this

ridges per segment value.



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And I'm gonna take it down

to either one or I think two.



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I think two ends up looking better.



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And then I might take that

size value back down to 10.



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And so you have all

sorts of options there.



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I'll go ahead and click

okay to apply this option.



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And then I'll show you what

happens if we follow this up.



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By going to the Object menu,



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choosing Blend and then

choosing Blend Options.



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And lets switch spacing

to specified steps, turn



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on the preview checkbox

and then take this value



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down to something like 10,



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or I might even take it down to five



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just so we can really see what's going on.



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And now notice the rolling

action that is associated



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with each one of these intervals.



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Alright, I'm gonna go

ahead and cancel out.



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And also press Ctrl + Z

or Command + Z on the Mac



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a couple of times apparently in order



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to undo that zig zag effect.



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For a grassy effect what

we need to do is return



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to the Effect menu,



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choose Distort and Transform

and choose Roughen.



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And now I'll go ahead and

turn on the preview checkbox



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so that you can see that we have a ton



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of very rough intervals indeed.



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Alright, I'm gonna switch

from relative to absolute



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to start things out here

and I'm gonna leave the size



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value set to five points.



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That's the size of each one

of these ripples by the way.



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So if you wanted more spikeyness



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you would increase that value.



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But a size of five is going to

work fine for this document.



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And then I'll tab over to

the detail value and take



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it up to 30 per inches.



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So in other words, 30

blades of grass per inch.



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And if you wanted things to

be smoother, that is to say



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you want to use smooth points

instead of corner points,



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you could go ahead and switch this



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points option if you want to.



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But I want the spikier action

associated with corner points,



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so I'll leave this option set

to its default and click ok.



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Now I'll just go ahead

and zoom in a little bit,



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so we can see things a little better.



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You can undoubtedly see these

spikes up here at the top.



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But if you're working along

with me you should be able



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to see some action inside

the gradient as well.



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To make the grass effect

a little more obvious,



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go to the Object menu, choose Blend,



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and then choose Blend Options



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and then switch the spacing

options to Specified Steps



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and take this value all

the way down to five



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and turn on the preview checkbox.



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And now you can see an awful lot of



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cartoon grass action inside this document.



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In which point, I'll go ahead and click OK



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to accept that effect.



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And of course because you're

working with a dynamic effect,



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you can revisit your

settings anytime you like by



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going to the Window menu

and choosing the Appearance



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command and then here

inside the appearance panel,



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just go ahead and click the word Roughen.



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Turn on the preview checkbox

and then for example and take



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this detail value up to

60 per inch, at which



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point we'll see even more blades of grass.



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I'm pretty happy with 30 however.



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So I'm just gonna go ahead and cancel out.



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And then you might want to

press Ctrl + H or Command + H



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on a Mac in order to bring

back those selection outlines



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because after all whether

they're visible or not



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is saved along with the illustration.



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And then finally I'll go

ahead and zoom out by pressing



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Ctrl + zero and I'll

press Ctrl + Shift + A or



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Command + Shift + A on a Mac in order



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to deselect the artwork.



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And that's how you add text

to your custom gradient.



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By going to the Effect menu and choosing



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Distort and Transform

and then experimenting



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with either Tweak, Zig Zag



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or Roughen here inside Illustrator.