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- [Instructor] In this

movie, I'll introduce you



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to the powerful gradient mesh feature



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here inside Illustrator.



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Now notice that we're

looking at the bacterium



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which first appeared in Chapter Three



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on the Fundamentals course,

specifically in the movie



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called Zooming In and Out, and

just to refresh your memory,



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we ended up zooming in to

Illustrator's maximum zoom ratio,



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which is 64,000%, which

is sufficiently magnified



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to theoretically see individual bacteria,



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and you may notice that

this guy's body right here



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is filled with a gradient mesh.



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So let's see what that looks like.



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I'm going to go up to the View

menu, and scroll all the way



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to the bottom, at which

point, if you're working along



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with me, you'll see a

command called Diagram.



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If you choose that

command, it will zoom in



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on a specific portion of the illustration



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and it's going to turn on

and off a few layers as well.



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I'm going to turn off

the Diagram layer for now



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so we can focus in on

this object right here,



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and I'll go ahead and

click on it to select it



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with the black arrow tool

and I want you to see



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that in addition to the points

that surround the shape,



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we have a bunch of points

inside the path as well,



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and these are known as mesh points.



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Now I want you to notice the

difference between mesh points



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and anchor points, and it's very subtle.



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If I press the a key to

switch to the white arrow tool



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and click on this guy right

here, notice that it's a square.



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Squares represent everyday,

average anchor points



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in Illustrator.



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These guys however are diamonds



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if you can tell the difference



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and they represent the mesh points,



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and the interesting

thing about mesh points



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is that they can have

colors associated with them



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as we're seeing here

inside the Swatches panel,



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and if you want to see what that color is,



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just go ahead and switch

to the Color panel,



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which you can get by

choosing the Color command



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from the Window menu and

then I'm going to click



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on the flyout menu icon and choose HSB



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so that we're seeing the HSB sliders.



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You may need to expand your Color panel



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in order to make them visible,



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and so notice if I click

on this point right there,



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that it has a hue value of 200 degrees,



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a saturation of 100%, and

brightness of 100% as well,



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whereas if I select this point,

the brightness drops to 80%,



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and if I select this higher point,



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then the saturation drops to 80%



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and the brightness goes back up to 100%,



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and so what's happening is

that we're creating gradients



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between each pairs of

points, both going vertically



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and going horizontally as well.



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So rather than being limited

to a linear or radial gradient,



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both of which are

technically one-dimensional,



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we end up with a two-dimensional gradient,



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so gradients that are

going along with the shape



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or perpendicularly to it.



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All right, now because it's

hard to see the difference



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between these points, I've

gone ahead and captured



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a screenshot from a retina display,



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so a very high-resolution

display, and I've opened it up



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inside of Photoshop and you

can see if we zoom on in,



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that sure enough, the

anchor point is square



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and so the anchor points are

the standard sorts of points



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that we've seen in the past.



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They do not have colors

associated with them.



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These diamonds are mesh points,



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which define the color

contours inside the gradient,



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and then, if I were to scroll down here



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and zoom out just a little

bit, you can see that



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we also have what's known as a mesh patch



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which is the region

between four mesh points,



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and let me show you what that looks like.



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I'll go ahead and switch

back over to Illustrator,



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and I'll select that mesh

patch just clicking in it,



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and notice that all four

points surrounding the patch



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are also selected, and incidentally,



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in case you're having

problems selecting a patch,



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then press control + k

or command + k on the Mac



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to bring up the Preferences dialog box,



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select the second option over

here on the left-hand side,



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Selection & Anchor Display, and make sure



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Object Selection by

Path Only is turned off.



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We will be turning it on later

because it's very helpful



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to have it on when working

with gradient mesh,



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but right now, go ahead and

turn it off, and then click OK,



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and now you should just be

able to click inside a region



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to select it, and then you

can drag it around like so,



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so you can either drag an entire patch



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or you can click on a single

mesh point and drag it



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around as well.



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Now an interesting thing

to note about a mesh point



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is that more often than

not, it's a smooth point,



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but it's a kind of double smooth point.



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Notice that we have two

sets of control handles



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that are diametrically

opposed to each other,



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so they're bending up

and down like a seesaw,



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but then we have this other set as well,



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and so altogether we

have four control handles



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coming off of a single mesh point.



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So it behaves kind of

like a double smooth point



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if you will.



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All right, now let's say

you want to change the color



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of this point.



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Then just go ahead and dial

in a different color here



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inside the Color panel.



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I'll go ahead and change the

hue value to zero degrees,



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and you can see now we

have this blast of red



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that's associated with

this single mesh point.



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If you want to change the

color of multiple mesh points



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at a time, just go ahead

and click and shift-click



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on the desired points,

using the white arrow tool,



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and then I'll crank the

saturation value up to 100%,



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and I'll take the hue value

down to let's say 120 degrees



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in order to add a bunch

of points of bright green.



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Another option is to

select an entire patch



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by clicking inside of it

and changing the color of it



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to let's say purple and that's

going to add a blast of purple



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at that location, and notice

the colors are fading to blue



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at the other mesh point, and so again,



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we have this two-dimensional gradient.



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Notice that it's fading

more slowly over here



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in the central portion of the shape,



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and that's because there's a big distance



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between this column of mesh points



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and this column of mesh points over here.



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Now the control handles do change the way



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that the colors fade by the way.



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So notice if I drag these

controls handles around,



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I am going to change not only

the direction of the gradient



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but also the speed of the gradient.



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So notice if I drag this guy way over here



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and then I drag this one

back over this direction



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that we are going to have more

of a rapid transition right here



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in the middle, and so I could

go ahead and weight things



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more in favor of the

purple if I wanted to,



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or I could drag this guy

back and weight things



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more in favor of the blue.



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And so even though I've

made a big mess so far,



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that is my introduction to

the world of gradient mesh



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here inside Illustrator.