- [Instructor] We're going to wrap things up
with a really great use for a hex pattern.
And so, even though Illustrator ultimately
renders out every single pattern as a rectangular tile,
having the option to work with hex patterns
is really super useful, especially if you're working
with a hexagonal object like this orthogonal cube.
In other words, by orthogonal
I mean there is no perspective.
And so, we're going to take this cube
and turn it into this pattern right here.
First thing you want to do is select
the contents of the top two layers
by clicking in the top right corner
of the first layer here inside of the Layers panel
and then shift-clicking in the top right corner
of the next layer down.
And now, just to get a sense for how large this object is,
go to the Window menu and choose the Info command,
and that will tell you the width and height.
And you might want to write these numbers down,
especially since the width value is so detailed.
So we have a width of 561.184 points
and then we have a height of 576 points.
And so, just jot those numbers down.
They'll come in handy in a moment.
All right, now go up to the Object menu,
choose Pattern and choose Make
in order to enter the pattern editing mode
and this time we're going to switch the tile type
from grid to the icon that looks like our orthogonal cube,
which is going to be hex by row.
Notice that it has vertical edges on the left
and right side just as our cube does.
So I'll go ahead and choose that option.
Now notice that things are looking pretty tight
so I'm going to go ahead and change this width value
from 567.1845, so, we have
an extra decimal there, to 561 like so.
And then, I'll tab to the height value
and I'll change it to 576, which doesn't quite do the trick.
So, what I'm going to do here is just zoom on in
so that I can see things pretty tight
and I'll click on the height value
because, obviously, we've got a gap at the top,
and I'll press the down arrow key until
everything comes into alignment,
which happens for me at a height value of 552.
Now, in truth, I do want to have a little bit of gap
between each one of the cubes,
so I'll click after the width value and I'll enter plus 24
and then I'll do the same with the height value.
I'll enter plus 24 for it as well
and I end up with this effect right here.
At which point we don't have to worry about the overlaps
because there are none, so all I need to do
is name this thing, let's say Cube Pattern
and then press the Enter key followed the Escape key
in order to exit the Pattern Editor.
All right, now I'm going to zoom out actually by pressing
Control + Zero or Command + Zero on the Mac.
And, assuming that your Smart Guides are turned on,
go ahead and select the Rectangle tool
and then drag from one corner to the other
of the rectangular bleed boundary
in order to create a big rectangle as we're seeing here.
Now, I don't want a stroke,
so I'll go ahead and change it to none.
And then I'll click on the fill swatch
and I'll select Cube Pattern in order
to fill the rectangle with those cubes.
All right, now, I don't really want
this rectangle to be in front of everything,
so I'm going to go ahead and drag this red square
down the layers stack until it becomes purple
when it hits that back layer.
And then I'll right click inside the document window,
choose a range and choose Send to Back,
or you have that keyboard shortcut
of Control + Shift + Left Bracket
that's Command + Shift + Left Bracket on the Mac.
All right, now I want to colorize this artwork
and so I'm going to switch to the Appearance Panel
and I'm going to add a fill by clicking on
the Add New Fill icon,
or, of course, you can just press Control + Slash
or Command + Slash on a Mac.
And, I'm going to put this new fill behind the pattern
and I'm going to change it to a light shade of brown
so it's just this one that begins R = 198.
All right, now I want to mix the pattern with that color
and so I'll go ahead and select the pattern,
click on the word Opacity and either choose
the Luminosity mode or if you loaded D keys,
you can just press Shift + eight.
And notice that we're now seeing
the word luminosity associated with that pattern.
And that's a little strong as well,
so I think I'll click on the word Opacity again
and take that value down to 33%
in order to produce this effect here.
And, you know what, I think actually
this shade of brown is wrong.
I'm looking for this one that begins R = 199.
All right, that looks better to me.
Now we have a bigger problem,
which is that the cubes don't align properly.
And so, I'm going to go ahead and click on that pattern fill
and then I'll go up to the Effects menu,
choose Distort & Transform and choose Transform
or, if you loaded D keys,
you have that keyboard shortcut of Control + E
here on a PC or Command + E on a Mac.
And now I'm going to turn on the Preview check box
and I'll click on the horizontal value
and I'll press Shift + down arrow
in order to move the pattern over to the left.
And as you can see here, I'm running out of cubes
and that's because I've got
the Transform Objects check box turned on
and so I'll just go ahead and turn that off like so
and then I'll click inside that value again
and continue to press Shift + down arrow
until it looks like things are aligning pretty well.
And now I need to scoot the cubes up
so I'll click on the vertical value
and press not Shift + up arrow,
but Shift + down arrow in order to move the cubes like so.
All right, I don't think we're aligned exactly right,
but this is pretty close, so I'll go ahead click OK
and then I'll zoom in by Control + space bar clicking,
that's a Command + space bar click on a Mac,
until we can see things very nicely.
Notice our alignment is indeed off,
so I'll just go ahead and click on the word Transform
in order to revisit my settings.
I'll turn on the Preview check box
and I'll take that vertical value up in order to nudge
those background cubes downward a little bit.
And then I'll click in the horizontal value.
And, of course, you want the Preview check box to be on.
And I'll go ahead and press the down arrow key
in order to scoot things over to the left.
And so, if you're following along with me,
and you want some specific values,
I have a horizontal value of negative 374
and a vertical value of negative 96.
At which point, I'll just go ahead and click OK
and now I'll press Control + Shift + A
or Command + Shift + A on Mac to deselect my artwork,
press the F key a couple of times
to switch to full screen mode,
then I'll press Control + zero
or Command + zero on a Mac to center my zoom,
and I'm nudging this zoom value down here
in the bottom left corner of the screen,
by the way, in order to zoom in as far as I can.
And that, folks, is at least one way
to take advantage of a hexagonal tile type
here inside Illustrator CC.