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- [Voiceover] In this movie,

we're back to blending.



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And I'm going to show you

how to correct for problems



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that may occur when creating blends,



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using the dedicated blend tool.



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And so I'm going to start

by pressing Ctrl + -



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or Command - on the Mac to zoom out.



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And notice these two light

blue shapes right here.



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There's this guy,



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and then there's this one.



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So go ahead and select both of them



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with the black arrow tool.



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And now, imagine that I

want to create a sequence



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of blue rays across the top of the sky.



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Then I'd go up to the object menu,



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choose blend,



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and choose make.



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Or of course you have

that keyboard shortcut



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of Ctrl + Alt + B



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or Command + Option + B on the Mac.



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The problem is this didn't work

out the way I wanted it to.



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And that's because whenever

you're blending in illustrator,



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you're always trying

to pair anchor points.



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And so for example,



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the top right anchor

point in left-hand shape



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wants to map to the top right anchor point



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in the right hand shape.



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However, that is not what's

happened in our case.



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Very likely it's because I

created one of these rays



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by reflecting the other one.



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And so the direction

of one path is backward



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with respect to the other.



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As a result, it's anyone's guess



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how the anchor points are being paired up.



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But there is a solution,



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which to first press Ctrl + Z



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or Command-Z on the Mac



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to undo the creation of that blend.



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And then drop down to

the dedicated blend tool



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which look like a square

blending into a circle



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and then go ahead and click on it



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or you've got that keyboard shortcut of W



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which is just a leftover letter.



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Now notice that if I

hover over a path outline,



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I'm going to see a little

asterisk next to my cursor.



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That's telling me I'm beginning

the process of blending.



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So blending is a two-step process



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when working with the blend tool.



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You start by clicking on an anchor point.



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At first when you hover

over the anchor point



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you're going to see a little asterisk.



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So then click.



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And the find the matching

anchor point in the other shape.



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Hover over it,



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At which point you'll see a

+ sign next to the cursor,



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which says you're about to

add that shape to the blend



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And then click again.



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For some reason, that didn't work.



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And again, my guess is that this path



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is going in the wrong direction.



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So I'll press Ctrl + Z

or Command-Z on the Mac



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to undo that blend



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and I'll just try again.



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This can require a fair amount of patience



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and experimentation.



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I'll just go ahead and

click on this anchor point



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and then I'll click on the inside one



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on the other path.



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That is to say the top-left point.



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And I, again, get the wrong effect.



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So I'll just press Ctrl +

Z or Command-Z on the Mac.



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What gets me about this,



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is that I've already

tried this in advance,



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using this very same file,



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and I got the right

results right off the bat.



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So I'm not sure what kind of

sorcerer's magic is up here.



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But let's try it the other way.



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I'll start at this path this time,



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by clicking its top-right point,



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and then I'll click the top-right point



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in the left hand path.



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And this time I get the right effect.



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So even if you're working along with me,



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you might get a different result.



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Just one more thing I want you to know.



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I'll go ahead and press Ctrl

+ Z or Command-Z on the Mac



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to undo that successful blend.



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I want you to see that

in addition to clicking



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on an anchor point,



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you can also click on a segment.



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So for example



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I'll click the right hand

segment in this right hand shape.



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Then I'll click on the right

segment in the left shape,



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and that also goes ahead and

produces a successful blend,



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because I'm indicating this time,



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what segments should be paired

when creating that blend.



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Now I'm going to zoom back in.



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And I want to change

the number of intervals.



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Currently, I just have three



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but I want more.



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So I could go up to the Object menu,



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choose blend and choose blend options.



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But there's an even easier

way to get to this function



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when the blend tool is active.



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All you have to do is, once again,



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when the tool's active,



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or after you press the W key,



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just go ahead and press the Enter key



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or Return key on the Mac,



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to bring up the blend

options dialogue box.



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Then, turn on the preview checkbox.



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Change spacing to Specified Steps.



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Incidentally, Specified Distance



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is for when you know the distance



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between each one of your intervals.



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In our case it would have to

be higher than four points,



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unless we want a solid wall of light-blue.



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For example,



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I could try 40 points



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and that's still not doing me any good.



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So I'll take this value up to 100 points



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in order to create some

room between these objects.



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But I generally prefer to

work with specified steps,



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and so I'll go ahead

and select that option,



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and change that value to seven,



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and then click Okay.



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Finally, I'll just go ahead

and press Ctrl + Shift + A



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or Command-Shift-A on the Mac



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in order to deselect my artwork.



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And that is how you

correct for problem blends.



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By clicking on each of

two paired endpoints



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in independent path outlines,



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using the blend tool inside Illustrator.