1
00:00:00.02 --> 00:00:02.04
- In this movie, I'll show
you how to create your own

2
00:00:02.04 --> 00:00:04.06
custom variable width profile

3
00:00:04.06 --> 00:00:07.00
that will appear in
this control panel menu

4
00:00:07.00 --> 00:00:09.02
that you can apply to any path outline

5
00:00:09.02 --> 00:00:11.02
in any document that you like.

6
00:00:11.02 --> 00:00:13.08
So by way of example,
let's say I want to create

7
00:00:13.08 --> 00:00:16.04
an infinity symbol that
matches this font up here,

8
00:00:16.04 --> 00:00:18.00
Adobe Caslon Pro.

9
00:00:18.00 --> 00:00:20.03
And so believe it or not, Caslon Pro,

10
00:00:20.03 --> 00:00:24.00
just like most fonts, does not
include an infinity symbol,

11
00:00:24.00 --> 00:00:26.02
which is why you normally have to resort

12
00:00:26.02 --> 00:00:28.06
to rotating an eight onto its side.

13
00:00:28.06 --> 00:00:30.05
The problem with an eight on its side

14
00:00:30.05 --> 00:00:33.04
is that it looks exactly
like a sideways eight.

15
00:00:33.04 --> 00:00:35.04
Compare it with his h over here,

16
00:00:35.04 --> 00:00:37.07
which has these thick vertical stems

17
00:00:37.07 --> 00:00:39.08
and this narrow horizontal shoulder.

18
00:00:39.08 --> 00:00:42.09
The sideways eight meanwhile
has thick horizontal elements

19
00:00:42.09 --> 00:00:46.06
and thin vertical elements,
which is why what we need to do

20
00:00:46.06 --> 00:00:50.01
is draw our own infinity
symbol, as I've done in advance,

21
00:00:50.01 --> 00:00:53.04
and then assign a variable
weight stroke to it.

22
00:00:53.04 --> 00:00:55.06
And so I'm going to go ahead
and click on this path outline

23
00:00:55.06 --> 00:00:58.06
with the Black Arrow Tool
in order to select it.

24
00:00:58.06 --> 00:01:00.06
And that way, I can see its anchor points.

25
00:01:00.06 --> 00:01:03.00
And next, I'll go ahead
and select the Width Tool,

26
00:01:03.00 --> 00:01:05.09
which again has a keyboard
shortcut of shift + w.

27
00:01:05.09 --> 00:01:08.04
And by the way, don't make
the mistake of just pressing

28
00:01:08.04 --> 00:01:11.01
the w key, because that's
going to get you a tool

29
00:01:11.01 --> 00:01:14.02
that doesn't even begin with
a w, which is the Blend Tool.

30
00:01:14.02 --> 00:01:16.02
All right, so go ahead
and select the Width Tool,

31
00:01:16.02 --> 00:01:18.07
and then double-click on
this top left anchor point

32
00:01:18.07 --> 00:01:21.08
and change the total width value to 10 pt,

33
00:01:21.08 --> 00:01:24.04
and then press the tab key
to make sure that it's being

34
00:01:24.04 --> 00:01:27.07
evenly distributed on both
sides, and then click OK.

35
00:01:27.07 --> 00:01:29.05
And you'll now see that the line weight

36
00:01:29.05 --> 00:01:31.09
up in the control panel is 10 pt,

37
00:01:31.09 --> 00:01:34.09
and that again represents the
thickest point in the stroke.

38
00:01:34.09 --> 00:01:37.00
All right, now I'll go
ahead and double click

39
00:01:37.00 --> 00:01:38.07
on this left-hand point right there,

40
00:01:38.07 --> 00:01:42.03
and I'll change its total
width value to 24 pt like so,

41
00:01:42.03 --> 00:01:43.06
and then click OK.

42
00:01:43.06 --> 00:01:45.00
And now we're just going
to go back and forth

43
00:01:45.00 --> 00:01:46.07
between those two values.

44
00:01:46.07 --> 00:01:48.05
So I'll click on this bottom anchor point,

45
00:01:48.05 --> 00:01:50.08
change it to 10 pt and
press the enter key,

46
00:01:50.08 --> 00:01:52.05
or the return key on the Mac,

47
00:01:52.05 --> 00:01:54.08
at which point you may
notice that Illustrator

48
00:01:54.08 --> 00:01:57.09
has helpfully created a
bunch of width points for you

49
00:01:57.09 --> 00:02:00.04
over here on the right-hand
side of the shape.

50
00:02:00.04 --> 00:02:02.05
Unfortunately, they're
not in the right location,

51
00:02:02.05 --> 00:02:04.09
so what you don't want
to do is double-click

52
00:02:04.09 --> 00:02:06.06
on one of these anchor points like so

53
00:02:06.06 --> 00:02:08.09
and then enter 10 pt like we've been doing

54
00:02:08.09 --> 00:02:11.09
because you'll end up creating
this unfortunate effect here.

55
00:02:11.09 --> 00:02:13.04
In which case, just go ahead and click

56
00:02:13.04 --> 00:02:15.03
on that width point that you don't want

57
00:02:15.03 --> 00:02:17.08
and press the backspace key
or the delete key on the Mac

58
00:02:17.08 --> 00:02:18.08
to get rid of it.

59
00:02:18.08 --> 00:02:20.00
All right, now I'll go ahead and hover

60
00:02:20.00 --> 00:02:21.04
over the path outline.

61
00:02:21.04 --> 00:02:22.06
That's very important, by the way,

62
00:02:22.06 --> 00:02:24.01
that you hover over that path outline

63
00:02:24.01 --> 00:02:26.02
in order to see those width points,

64
00:02:26.02 --> 00:02:28.03
and then grab this guy
right here that Illustrator

65
00:02:28.03 --> 00:02:30.04
created for you, and drag it down

66
00:02:30.04 --> 00:02:32.05
so it snaps into alignment
with the anchor point,

67
00:02:32.05 --> 00:02:35.09
then double-click on it and
change that width value to 24.

68
00:02:35.09 --> 00:02:37.05
And then go ahead and grab this guy,

69
00:02:37.05 --> 00:02:39.07
drag him until he snaps into alignment

70
00:02:39.07 --> 00:02:40.08
with the anchor point,

71
00:02:40.08 --> 00:02:43.06
double-click on it, change
its width value to 10

72
00:02:43.06 --> 00:02:45.01
and click OK.

73
00:02:45.01 --> 00:02:47.07
And then I'm going to zoom
in on the center portion

74
00:02:47.07 --> 00:02:50.03
of the infinity symbol,
and notice right there,

75
00:02:50.03 --> 00:02:51.09
we have a width point.

76
00:02:51.09 --> 00:02:53.09
And you may recall,
this is that same point

77
00:02:53.09 --> 00:02:56.00
that the arrowheads were pointing to,

78
00:02:56.00 --> 00:02:57.08
and that's because this is the beginning

79
00:02:57.08 --> 00:02:59.04
of the path outline.

80
00:02:59.04 --> 00:03:02.03
And so you always have a
width point at this location.

81
00:03:02.03 --> 00:03:03.09
So go ahead and double-click on it

82
00:03:03.09 --> 00:03:06.03
and change its width value to 10,

83
00:03:06.03 --> 00:03:09.03
and then we should see,
yes, Illustrator went ahead

84
00:03:09.03 --> 00:03:10.07
and created one for me,

85
00:03:10.07 --> 00:03:12.07
and this one has perpendicular handles.

86
00:03:12.07 --> 00:03:13.06
Notice that.

87
00:03:13.06 --> 00:03:15.07
So these handles here,
go down into the right

88
00:03:15.07 --> 00:03:17.05
where these go down into the left.

89
00:03:17.05 --> 00:03:20.04
And that indicates that it
affects the other segment,

90
00:03:20.04 --> 00:03:21.07
the one that's crossing.

91
00:03:21.07 --> 00:03:23.02
So go ahead and double-click on it

92
00:03:23.02 --> 00:03:25.08
and change its width value to 24 this time

93
00:03:25.08 --> 00:03:27.06
in order to make it nice and thick.

94
00:03:27.06 --> 00:03:29.02
All right, now we need to zoom out

95
00:03:29.02 --> 00:03:31.06
and check that illustrator
has not messed with

96
00:03:31.06 --> 00:03:33.09
the left-hand portion of
the shape, which it has

97
00:03:33.09 --> 00:03:35.02
unfortunately.

98
00:03:35.02 --> 00:03:37.08
It went and added the
total of three handles.

99
00:03:37.08 --> 00:03:39.09
And to tell which one is
good and which one is bad,

100
00:03:39.09 --> 00:03:40.09
just hover over it.

101
00:03:40.09 --> 00:03:42.09
So this one has a width
of 10, that's good.

102
00:03:42.09 --> 00:03:46.04
This one has a width of 9.691, that's bad.

103
00:03:46.04 --> 00:03:49.04
So I'll click on it to select
it and press the backspace key

104
00:03:49.04 --> 00:03:51.05
or the delete key on the
Mac to get rid of it,

105
00:03:51.05 --> 00:03:53.04
and that also gets rid of that lump

106
00:03:53.04 --> 00:03:55.02
that Illustrator created.

107
00:03:55.02 --> 00:03:57.03
Notice this area is really lumpy

108
00:03:57.03 --> 00:03:59.09
thanks to the fact that
right next to the width point

109
00:03:59.09 --> 00:04:02.02
that I created, that has
a width of 24 points,

110
00:04:02.02 --> 00:04:06.07
we've got one that has a
width of 23.944, which is bad.

111
00:04:06.07 --> 00:04:08.05
So I'll go ahead and
click on it to select it,

112
00:04:08.05 --> 00:04:10.07
and press the backspace or
delete key to get rid of it.

113
00:04:10.07 --> 00:04:13.09
And then this guy right
there is wrong too, 10.537.

114
00:04:13.09 --> 00:04:16.03
I never created anything like
that, so I'll click on it

115
00:04:16.03 --> 00:04:18.07
and press the backspace key
or the delete key on the Mac

116
00:04:18.07 --> 00:04:19.08
to get rid of it.

117
00:04:19.08 --> 00:04:22.01
And then I'll just hover
my cursor over the path

118
00:04:22.01 --> 00:04:23.04
to make sure that I'm seeing

119
00:04:23.04 --> 00:04:24.07
three width points on the right,

120
00:04:24.07 --> 00:04:26.09
three over here on the
left and two in the middle,

121
00:04:26.09 --> 00:04:28.04
and that's exactly what I want.

122
00:04:28.04 --> 00:04:30.01
At which point, I'll go
ahead and press the V key

123
00:04:30.01 --> 00:04:32.03
to switch back to the Black Arrow Tool.

124
00:04:32.03 --> 00:04:35.07
And notice now that we
have an infinity symbol

125
00:04:35.07 --> 00:04:37.09
that does not look like a sideways eight.

126
00:04:37.09 --> 00:04:40.08
It looks like it matches
the actual stroke weights

127
00:04:40.08 --> 00:04:42.09
of Adobe Caslon Pro.

128
00:04:42.09 --> 00:04:44.08
All right, now let's go
ahead and save it off

129
00:04:44.08 --> 00:04:46.05
as a variable width profile.

130
00:04:46.05 --> 00:04:48.07
You can see a preview
of the profile up here

131
00:04:48.07 --> 00:04:51.03
in the control panel, but
it has not yet been saved.

132
00:04:51.03 --> 00:04:53.03
So just go ahead and click on that option

133
00:04:53.03 --> 00:04:55.03
to bring up this pop-up menu.

134
00:04:55.03 --> 00:04:57.07
And then click on this
Add to Profiles icon

135
00:04:57.07 --> 00:05:00.04
and let's go ahead and call this guy Trio,

136
00:05:00.04 --> 00:05:03.09
after this trio of
lumps, and then click OK.

137
00:05:03.09 --> 00:05:05.07
All right, now let's test out the profile

138
00:05:05.07 --> 00:05:08.00
and make sure it looks
like this line right here

139
00:05:08.00 --> 00:05:11.01
by clicking on a line above
it and then, once again,

140
00:05:11.01 --> 00:05:13.02
clicking on the Variable
Width Profile options,

141
00:05:13.02 --> 00:05:14.05
scrolling down to the bottom

142
00:05:14.05 --> 00:05:16.09
and clicking on the width
profile that we just created.

143
00:05:16.09 --> 00:05:19.08
And at first, it's going to
look like it's not working right

144
00:05:19.08 --> 00:05:22.01
but that's because the
line width is set to 1 pt,

145
00:05:22.01 --> 00:05:24.00
meaning that at its thickest,

146
00:05:24.00 --> 00:05:26.00
the stroke is just 1 pt wide.

147
00:05:26.00 --> 00:05:27.09
And so if you want to see it properly,

148
00:05:27.09 --> 00:05:31.03
you need to take that line
weight up to our desired maximum,

149
00:05:31.03 --> 00:05:33.09
which is 24 points, and
then press the enter key

150
00:05:33.09 --> 00:05:35.07
or the return key on
the mac, and everything

151
00:05:35.07 --> 00:05:37.01
should look great.

152
00:05:37.01 --> 00:05:39.01
All right, now the thing
about width profiles

153
00:05:39.01 --> 00:05:41.08
is that unlike swatches and selections

154
00:05:41.08 --> 00:05:43.08
that you save here in the Select menu,

155
00:05:43.08 --> 00:05:46.05
they are not part of the active document.

156
00:05:46.05 --> 00:05:48.07
Rather, they are global preferences

157
00:05:48.07 --> 00:05:51.04
that transfer automatically
between one document

158
00:05:51.04 --> 00:05:52.03
and another.

159
00:05:52.03 --> 00:05:54.07
So if I go ahead and
switch documents like so,

160
00:05:54.07 --> 00:05:57.04
then let's say I want
to stroke these hills,

161
00:05:57.04 --> 00:06:00.00
I'll go ahead and click
on one of the hills

162
00:06:00.00 --> 00:06:02.05
and shift click on the other
with my Black Arrow Tool,

163
00:06:02.05 --> 00:06:05.02
and I just need to establish
a base stroke here.

164
00:06:05.02 --> 00:06:08.00
So I'll go ahead and change
the line weight value to 20 pt,

165
00:06:08.00 --> 00:06:10.03
and press the enter key or
the return key on the Mac,

166
00:06:10.03 --> 00:06:13.01
and I will get two uniform
strokes as we're seeing here.

167
00:06:13.01 --> 00:06:15.04
And now I'm going to shift
click on this green stroke,

168
00:06:15.04 --> 00:06:18.05
which, as you may recall, is 30 pt thick.

169
00:06:18.05 --> 00:06:20.05
And it already has a
variable width stroke.

170
00:06:20.05 --> 00:06:23.08
So the profile option up here
is going to appear blank.

171
00:06:23.08 --> 00:06:26.04
That's okay, you can
override it just by clicking

172
00:06:26.04 --> 00:06:29.05
on that blank field and
choosing Trio once again

173
00:06:29.05 --> 00:06:32.09
in order to assign that profile
to all three path outlines.

174
00:06:32.09 --> 00:06:34.07
And then if you want the strokes to match

175
00:06:34.07 --> 00:06:36.00
so that we're not seeing this difference

176
00:06:36.00 --> 00:06:38.00
between the green and black down here,

177
00:06:38.00 --> 00:06:40.05
then go ahead and click
on the second color swatch

178
00:06:40.05 --> 00:06:42.09
up here in the control
panel and select black.

179
00:06:42.09 --> 00:06:45.02
And now, I'll go ahead
and press the escape key

180
00:06:45.02 --> 00:06:46.07
in order to hide that panel,

181
00:06:46.07 --> 00:06:49.02
and I'll press ctrl + shift
+ a or cmd + shift + a

182
00:06:49.02 --> 00:06:52.00
on the Mac to deselect my paths.

183
00:06:52.00 --> 00:06:54.08
And that's how you create your
own variable width profile

184
00:06:54.08 --> 00:06:57.01
that you can assign to any path outline

185
00:06:57.01 --> 00:07:00.01
inside of any document that you like.