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- [Voiceover] In this

movie, I'll introduce you



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to a Command known as

reverse front to back



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which is designed specifically

to work with blends.



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And the idea is this,



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blends don't run from left

to right or top to bottom,



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instead they work from the back forward



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and so the blend begins at

the rear most selected shape



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and ends at the front most shape



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and to see what that looks

like, I'm going to go ahead



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and turn off a few layers here.



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I'm going to click and

drag from the face layer



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down to the back layer.



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So that pretty much all

the layers are turned off



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and then, I'll turn on the

Blobs Layer right there,



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which contains these four ellipses.



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Then, I'll go ahead and select them all



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by clicking the top right right

corner of the blobs layer,



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here inside the Layers Panel,



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and then I'll go up to the

object Menu, choose Blend



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and then choose Make, or I

have that keyboard shortcut



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of Control Alt B, or

Command Option B on the Mac,



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and that isn't what I want at all.



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The problem is because all

four ellipses were selected



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all four ellipses are now

caught up in a single blend.



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That begins by the way right here,



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and you can tell that's the

case because that dark green



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ellipses being covered up

by a bunch of intervals here



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and then it goes to the right



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and then ends over here on the

left hand side of the screen.



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Now, you could bust things

up by modifying the spine



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right there and so for example,

I could press the A key



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in order to switch to the Wide Arrow Tool.



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I could click off the

Blend to deselect it,



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and I could marquee, ever

so carefully, on the inside



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of these intervals here so

I've selected just the straight



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segment in the middle and now

if I press the Backspace key



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or the Delete key on the Mac,



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I'll bust up that single blend

into two independent blends.



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But, it also messes

things up as you can see.



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I end up with this dark

green shape over here



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on the right hand side



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and it's not actually

properly engaged in the blend.



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So, the better solution

is to press Control Z,



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or Command Z on the Mac, to

restore the original shapes.



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Then press the V key to switch

back to the Black Arrow Tool.



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Partially marquee these

two guys to select them



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independently and then

either go to the Object Menu,



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choose Blend and then choose Make,



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or you can take advantage of that keyboard



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shortcut Control Alt B or

Command Option B on the Mac,



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and now, I'll just repeat the process



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for the left hand ellipses.



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I'll select them and then

I'll press Control Alt B



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or Command option B in

order to blend them as well.



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Alright now the problem with these blends



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is that they are beginning

with the dark green shapes



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and they're ending with

the light green shapes,



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which means that the darkness

is getting under emphasized



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and meanwhile, that doesn't really work



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with the bird very well.



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Notice that these edges are

running in the wrong direction.



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Instead of contours going out



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over here on the right

hand side for example



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they're going inward,

which is not what I want.



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So one option is to press the A key



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to switch to the Wide Arrow Tool



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and click on this big

ellipse, for example,



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to select it independently

of the other one



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and you can right click

inside the document window,



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choose Arrange, and then

choose Bring to Front,



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or you have that keyboard shortcut



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of Control Shift Right Bracket,



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that's Command Shift

Right Bracket on the Mac,



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which gives us this much

better effect right here.



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But, because this is

such a common mistake,



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Illustrator gives you a dedicated command



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and to see how that

works, I'll just go ahead



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and press Control Z, or

Command Z on the Mac,



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to undo that change,

then I'll press the V key



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to switch back to my Black Arrow Tool.



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I'll click on the Right

Hand Blend and Shift click



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on the Left Hand one, so

that I can modify them both



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at once, by now going up to

the Object Menu, choosing Blend



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and choosing this final

command in the Submenu,



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Reverse Front to Back,



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which ends up generating

this effect right here.



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Which is exactly what I'm looking for.



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Alright, now I just want

to move the big ellipses



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tighter to the bird



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and I'm going to do that by

first turning on the Back Layer,



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just so I can tell what I'm doing



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in the context of the larger illustration,



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and then I'll press the A key to switch



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to my Wide Arrow Tool,



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and I'll press Control Shift A

or Command Shift A on the Mac



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to deselect the blends,



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then I'll click inside

this dark ellipse here



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and move it tight to the birds body



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so that we get just a

little bit of that edge.



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In other words, if I

were to press Control Z,



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or Command Z on the Mac,

to undo that maneuver,



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we'd have this big huge flat

area of dark green right there,



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which is not what I want.



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I want to tuck it underneath the bird,



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so I'm going to move it pretty

tight to that purple body.



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I'll do the the same thing for

this big dark green ellipse.



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I'll go ahead and click

inside it to select it



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and then I'll drag it

over tight to the bird



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and I'll press Control Shift

A, or Command Shift A on a Mac,



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in order to deselect the artwork.



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And by the way, on the off

chance that you're not seeing



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smooth transitions, then just

go ahead and press the V key



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to switch back to your Black Arrow Tool.



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Click on one Blend,

Shift click on the other.



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Go up to the Object Menu.



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Choose Blend and then choose Blend Options



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and change Spacing to Smooth Color



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because depending on the

order you're working in,



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it's very possible you might

see your specified steps value



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set to five as a result of

what you did to the grass.



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In which case, once

again, just change Spacing



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to Smooth Color and everything

should be hunky dory.



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At which point, I'll just

go ahead and click okay



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to accept that change



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and I'll press Control Shift

A, or Command Shift A on a Mac,



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to deselect my artwork.



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And that's how you

adjust the stacking order



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of the path outlines inside of a blend



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in order to modify the

color bias, as well as,



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the contouring of a custom

gradient here inside Illustrator.