- [Voiceover] In this movie,
I'll show you how to blend
between entire groups of objects.
So we're gonna start by blending this group of circles
into this one over here on the right-hand side,
so the top left one into the top right.
Then we'll blend the bottom left into the bottom right group
and then we'll take this entire top group,
and blend it into this entire bottom group,
in order to create this pattern of size-changing circles.
Now, this is one of those projects we'll be creating
entirely from scratch so,
as I'm sure some of you will be glad to hear,
there is no exercise file necessary.
So I'm gonna start by going up to the file menu,
and choosing new from template or,
you can press control shift N,
or command shift N, on the Mac.
And then, I'll go ahead and load
my center guides document.
And now, go ahead and select the ellipse tool
from the shape tool fly-out menu which,
if you went ahead and changed your shortcuts
back in chapter 11 along with me,
now has a shortcut of shift M.
Alright, now what you wanna do,
is click any 'ol place
in the upper left region of the document window,
to bring up the ellipse dialogue box.
And I'm gonna change both the width and height values,
to 70 points,
and then click okay.
Alright, now go ahead and click in the word transform
on the left side of the control panel,
and I want you to make sure the center point is selected
inside that reference point matrix.
And now, change the X value to 70,
and change the Y value to 70 as well.
So every one of these values, X, Y, W, and H,
are 70 points.
At which point, you can press the enter key,
or the return key on a Mac, to accept that change.
Now, go ahead and change the stroke,
that is, the second swatch here,
to none.
And then click on the first swatch,
and select this light shade of green,
that begins with R-217,
which is one of the default swatches
associated with the basic RGB document.
Alright, now you wanna switch to the scale tool,
which of course you can get by pressing the S key,
and then press the enter key, or the return key on the Mac,
to bring up the scale dialog box,
and change the uniform value to 90%,
and then click the copy button,
or you can press alt enter here on the PC,
or option return on the Mac.
Alright, now let's change the fill
associated with this guy, to white.
It's just gonna be the easiest way to work,
as opposed to creating a compound path,
that is to say.
Now, press the enter key or the return again,
to revisit the scale dialogue box.
Change the uniform value to 68,
and either click copy, or press alt enter,
or option return on the Mac.
And now let's once again, change the fill
to that very light shade of green
that begins R equals 217.
Alright, now press and hold the control key,
or the command key on the Mac,
in order to get the last used arrow tool,
which, in my case, is the black arrow,
and click on that outer-most circle.
It's very important you click on the outer-most circle,
and not one of the other ones,
in order to select the very first circle we created.
Now, click on the word transform once again,
up here in the control panel,
and I want you to change the X value to
1,008
minus 70.
Don't press anything yet, just make sure you've entered
1,008, which is the width of the art board,
minus 70, and then press alt enter,
or option return on the Mac,
in order to make a copy of that circle.
And I'm just gonna reset my zoom here,
by pressing control zero, or command zero on the Mac,
so the circle isn't quite so close to the edge.
Alright, now I'm gonna change the fill
to the next shade of green,
which begins R equals 140.
Alright, now that I've released the control key,
or the command key on the Mac,
I'm back to the scale tool.
And so I'll press the enter key,
or the return key on the Mac,
to bring up the scale dialogue box.
We wanna take the uniform value this time,
down to 50%, and click the copy button.
Now let's change the fill of that shape to white.
And then press enter or return again,
to revisit the scale dialogue box.
Change the uniform value to 62%,
and click the copy button.
And, if you're wondering where I got these values,
totally trial and error.
I just came up with something that I thought looked good.
Alright, now I'll click on the fill swatch,
and change it to that shade of green
that begins R equals 140.
Alright, now I'm gonna press and hold the control key,
or the command key on the Mac,
in order to temporarily get my black arrow tool.
And I'll click on this outer-most circle to select it.
And then I'll click on the word transform once again,
for bringing up the transform panel,
and I'll change the Y value this time,
you don't need to worry about the X value.
Change it to 672
minus 70,
and don't press the enter key, instead press alt enter,
or option return on the Mac,
in order to create a copy of that shape,
and let's change its fill
to the next darker shade of green,
which begins R equals 57.
With the scale tool still active,
press the enter key, or the return key on the Mac,
to bring up the scale dialogue box,
and take the uniform value down to just 20%,
and click on the copy button,
and I'm gonna change its fill to white,
and then you wanna press the enter key,
or the return key to visit the scale dialogue box
for the last time.
Change that uniform value to 36%,
and then click on the copy button.
You can barely see the thing any more,
but still, we wanna change the fill to
that shade of green that begins R equals 57.
Alright, now
go ahead and press the escape key to hide that panel,
and press the V key to switch back to the black arrow tool,
and marquee these three shapes to select 'em.
And then, click on the word transform once again,
up here in the control panel.
And with that center point selected,
you wanna change the X value to just 70, that's it.
And then press alt enter, or option return on the Mac,
in order to make a copy of those shapes over here,
in the upper left corner of the art board.
Alright, now click transform again,
in order to revisit this panel,
and change the Y Value to 672 minus 70,
but this time you don't have to press alt or option.
Just press the enter key here on the PC,
or the return key on the Mac,
in order to move this guy,
to the bottom left corner.
Alright, now we need to group everybody,
but independently.
So, with these guys selected,
I'll go up to the object menu,
and choose the group command.
Or you can press control G, or command G on the Mac,
which is what I'm gonna do from this point on.
I'll partially marquee these guys,
and press control G, or command G on the Mac,
partially marquee these guys,
press control or command G,
and partially marquee these guys,
and press control or command G.
Alright, now it's time to blend,
so go ahead and click on this group,
and shift click on this one,
and go up to the object menu,
choose blend, and choose make,
or you have that keyboard shortcut of control alt B,
or command option B on the Mac.
Now, by default illustrator's tryin to pack in
just one too many circles.
I'll come back to that in a moment.
Right after I get done marquee-ing these two guys,
and then pressing control alt B,
or command option B on the Mac,
in order to blend them.
Alright, now shift click on the top blend,
so that both blends are selected,
and then go up to the objects menu,
choose blend, and choose blend options.
And you wanna go ahead and change your spacing setting to
specified steps.
Then turn on the preview check box,
so you can see what happens on screen.
Click in this value that now reads 11,
and press the down arrow key, to take it down to 10.
At which point, that looks great to me,
so go ahead and click okay to accept that change.
Now, it'd be great, if I could blend
this blend with this one,
by going up to the object menu,
choosing blend, and choosing make.
But, that's just going to connect the two blends,
as we're seeing right here.
And so, what I have to do
is expand the blends before I re-blend them.
And to make that occur,
go ahead and press control Z, or command Z on the Mac,
to undo that last blend,
and then go up to the object menu,
and choose expand.
And that'll bring up a dialogue box,
asking you what it is you want to expand,
namely the objects, and the fills,
which is exactly what you want.
So, with those two check boxes on,
just go ahead and click okay,
in order to accept that result.
And now, if you click off the shapes,
and then click on this guy,
you should see that is one group upstairs,
and then we've got another group down below.
Alright, so
go ahead and select 'em both,
by clicking on one, shift-clicking on the other,
and then go to the object menu,
choose blend, and choose make,
or press control alt B or command option B on the Mac,
to make this blend right here.
That's too many circles once again,
so return to the object menu,
choose blend, and choose blend options.
Switch to specified steps, turn on the preview check box,
click in that value that reads seven,
and press the down arrow key to take it down to six,
and then click okay.
Alright, at this point it struck me,
that the vertical spacing is a little bit tight.
And so the easiest way to edit this blend,
is to double click on it,
in order to enter the isolation mode.
And go ahead and click on the top group right there,
and press shift up arrow,
in order to raise it 10 points.
Then click on the bottom group,
and press shift down arrow, to lower it 10 points.
And then just go ahead and press the escape key,
in order to exit the isolation mode,
click off the objects to de-select 'em,
and turn off the guides layer,
which frankly, we never even needed in the first place.
And that is how you blend between groups of objects,
and then blend between groups of groups,
to produce a mostly dynamic pattern
of size-changing circles,
here inside illustrator.