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- [Voiceover] In this

movie, I'll introduce you



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to the color guide panel,

which automatically generates



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a library of swatches

related to a base color.



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And while that might not sound

like the most exciting topic,



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it's actually super useful.



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And so notice I have a

couple of designs here



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from the Fotolia image

library, about which



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you can learn more and get

deals at fotolia.com/deke.



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And while I'm very happy

with the path outlines,



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I want to introduce some color.



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So to keep things as

straightforward as possible,



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we'll be using fills, no strokes,



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and I've gone ahead and combined

everything that's filled



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with the same shade of gray

into a single compound path.



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So, for example, if I go ahead and



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click inside this area

of medium gray here,



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I will select all the other subpaths



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that are filled with medium gray as well.



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All right, so to change

to fill, of course,



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I would click on this first swatch



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on the far left side of the control panel,



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and I would select one

of my default swatches.



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Now this happens to be

a basic RGB document.



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It could just as easily be CMYK.



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You're gonna see very similar colors.



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And so, let's say I

decide I want to start off



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with this shade of blue here, R0G113B188.



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But that's not exactly the

effect I'm working for,



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and so to customize the color,

I would press the shift key



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and click on that first swatch.



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And if you're working along with me,



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that's probably gonna

bring up the RGB values.



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I prefer, however, to work with HSB,



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because it just makes more sense



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to start with a core hue value



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and then determine the saturation,



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that is to say, the color

intensity, and the brightness.



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And so, I'm gonna set that

hue value to 210 degrees,



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which is blue, and then I'll

take the saturation value



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down to 77 percent, and

I'll take the brightness



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down to 77 as well, and

don't worry about the fact



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that Illustrator has

to updates the values,



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it's just trying to find

the nearest RGB equivalent,



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at which point I'll just go

ahead and press the enter key



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or the return key on a

Mac to accept that change.



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Now I'll click on this

rectangle in the background



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right there, the dark gray

one, and I'll go ahead



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and click on that first

color swatch again.



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Now the problem with the default swatches



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is that, with the exception

of these browns here,



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as well as these very dull browns,



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which don't really work

very well for this design,



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we have a lot of garish

colors at our disposal,



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such as this shade of

orange, which means that



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after applying something that

looks more or less right,



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I'm gonna once again have

to press the escape key



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to hide that panel and then

shift-click on that color swatch



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to bring up the HSB values,

and then I might dial in



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a hue value of 20 degrees, and set both



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the saturation and the

brightness values to 77 percent



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once again in order to

achieve this effect here.



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And then, of course, I could continue



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to dial in more and more colors.



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Now, this specific

illustration contains just five



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different compound paths,

so relatively simple.



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But you could imagine

working at this rate,



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this process might still

take me 15 minutes or so



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of goofing around trying to

figure out exactly what I want.



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What if you know, however,

that this shade of blue



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right here is exactly

what you're looking for,



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and you now want to find

some colors to complement it?



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Well then, go ahead and

select the blue object,



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and then go up to the Window menu



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and choose the Color Guide command



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to bring up the Color Guide panel,



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and you'll see this group of colors here,



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which is based on the selected

color or at least it will be



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as soon as you click on

that first color swatch.



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So currently, we've got a bunch of colors



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that are based on this first

color swatch right there,



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and then you might say,

"Well, that's kind of nutty



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that you have to click

after selecting the object.



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Shouldn't it just know that's



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the color you want to work from?"



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Well actually, no, because

notice, if I go ahead



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and click on this color

swatch, this first one,



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in order to instruct Illustrator

that that is my base color,



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and then I want to change

the color of this shape



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in the background, if

I were to click on it



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and that would switch the base

color, I would be in trouble,



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because I would no longer be seeing



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the colors I actually want to work with.



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So now at this point, I

could go ahead and click



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on a different color in

order to change that fill



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and, by the way, you'd want

to make sure in advance



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that your fill is active here

inside the Swatches panel.



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All right, I'm gonna switch

back to the Color Guide panel,



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and while these colors are great,



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I've got a total of

five colors in this set,



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as well as a bunch of

shades and tints by default.



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Incidentally, you might be

seeing a different set of colors,



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and that's because if you click on this



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down-pointing arrowhead, you have a bunch



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of different so-called

harmony rules to choose from.



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And so I'm currently looking at tetrad 2,



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and this is a point at which

a lot of folks lose patience,



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because what in the

world does "analogous" or



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"triad versus triad three" and so forth,



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and they do have very specific meanings,



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as I will demonstrate in

detail in the very next movie,



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but for now let's just go ahead

and choose something simple



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like complementary two,

which gives us a whole bunch



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of color complements, as

we can see right here,



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and then I can decide, I want

this guy to be this color



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right there up in the top strip,



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or I could go with a darker shade.



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So notice we have tints

over here on the right,



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once again by default,

which are brighter and



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less saturated colors because

we're introducing paper white.



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And then over on the right-hand side,



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we have darker, less saturated colors,



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because we're introducing black.



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I'm gonna go, let's say,

with this color right here,



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or I could brighten it up

just a little bit, like so.



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And then I'll go ahead and

click on this black rectangle,



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over here on the right-hand

side behind the white one,



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and I'll change it to this shade



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right there in the fourth row.



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All right, now I'll go ahead and click on



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one of these bright gray colors,



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and I'll switch them to a

pretty bright shade of blue



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right there, but of course you

can totally go your own way.



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You can select any color you like.



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And then I'll click on one

of these white rectangles.



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They're both part of a

single compound path,



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and then I'll set them

to the lightest color



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in this fourth row, in order to



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produce this muted effect right here.



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And now I'll deselect my

artwork by pressing Ctrl-Shift-A



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or Command-Shift-A on the Mac.



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All right, so there you have

a very basic introduction



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to the time-saving Color Guide panel.



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In the next movie, I'll

show you how to work with



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every single one of these harmony rules.