- [Instructor] In this movie, I'll show you how to work
with the Dedicated Mesh tool.
All right, so I've gone ahead and restored the saved version
of my artwork.
So, to get back to where I was, I'll go up to the View menu
and choose the Diagram command.
And then I'll turn off the Diagram Layer here inside
the Layers panel.
And I'll go ahead and click on my object to select it.
All right, so we've seen how you can modify
individual mesh points using the Wide Arrow tool.
So I'll just go ahead and click on one and drag it
around here.
But, let's say I want to go ahead and move this anchor point
along a consistent column line or a consistent row line.
In that case, I'll go ahead and undo that movement,
and I'll zoom in as well so I can better see
what I'm doing.
And I'll drop down to the Mesh tool, which looks like
a little mesh, and it has a keyboard short cut of U.
And now notice that I can drag these points around
once again if I liked, just as I was
with the Wide Arrow tool.
Big difference is that I can't select multiple points
at the same time.
So shift clicking on a point doesn't do you any good.
However, shift dragging does, and so I'm going to undo
that last movement right there, which requires me
to press Control Z, or Command Z on a Mac, a few times
in a row.
And then, rather than just dragging this guy up and down,
I'll press the Shift key as I drag.
And notice, with the Shift key down, that the column line
is remaining consistent.
I could just as easily maintain a consistent row line
if I want to, it all depends on the direction
of my drag.
So that's the result, by the way, of shift dragging
a mesh point using the Dedicated Mesh tool.
Notice also that you can drag the control handles around,
just as we saw in the previous movie.
But let's say that you want to drag all four
of the control handles at the same time.
Then, press the Shift key as you drag those control handles
and they will move in lock step with each other.
Now it's important to remember that this only works
with the Mesh tool.
If you switch back to the Wide Arrow tool, and you try
dragging one of these guys while pressing the Shift key,
you'll get the usual behavior where you snap
the control handle to the nearest 45 degrees.
All right, now let's say you want to add and delete
mesh points.
Then, go ahead and switch back to the Mesh tool,
and I'll scroll up here.
And notice that my cursor has the little plus sign
next to it.
And if I click at this location right here,
I'm going to add a new mesh point right at that location
that is colored with whatever color was active
here inside the Color Panel, or for that matter,
the Swatches Panel.
And that's going to be the color of the last mesh point
that I was working with, which is why I'm adding
a dark blue at this location.
Also worth noting, because I clicked in the middle
of nowhere, I added a new column as well as a new row.
So, I'll go ahead and press Control Z, or Command Z
on a Mac, so you can see what's happening here.
Notice, when I click right there, I add a new column
and a new row of lines to my gradient mesh.
If you only want to add a column, then click
on an existing row.
If you want to add a new row, then click
on an existing column.
All right, now let's say you want to get rid of a row
or column, then you press the Alt key, or the Option key
on a Mac.
And then, notice if you hover over an existing mesh line,
you'll see a minus sign.
And so, if I were to Alt or Option click on a row,
then I'd get rid of that row.
If I was to Alt or Option click on a column,
then I'd get rid of it.
And if I were to Alt or Option click on a point,
then I will get rid of the row and the column
that's associated with that mesh point.
And again, you can only add and delete rows, columns,
and mesh points using the Dedicated Mesh tool.
All right, I want to end with a few tips for changing
the color of points.
I'll go ahead and switch over to the Swatches Panel here.
And notice, if you have the entire shape selected,
and you click on a different color, then you will change
the color of every single mesh point in the shape,
which is obviously going to ruin the gradient.
So I'll press Control Z, or Command Z on a Mac,
to undo that change.
Now, obviously, I can select an individual mesh point
like so, and then select a different color
from the Swatches Panel if I like.
Or you can drag and drop a swatch.
So, I'll go ahead and drag this shade of orange
right here, and I'll drag it and drop it
onto this mesh point.
And even though this one's selected over here,
I changed the color of the deselected point.
And so, that's just a function, once again,
of dragging and dropping.
You can also drag and drop a swatch into a mesh patch,
if you prefer.
That is to say, the area between four mesh points.
All right now, here's a final way to color a gradient mesh
that requires that the mesh be deselected.
And so, I'll go ahead and press Control Shift A,
or Command Shift A on a Mac, to deselect the shape,
and then I'll select the Eyedropper tool, which you can get
by pressing the I key.
And now, let's say I go over here to the Color Panel
and I design a custom shade of orange, let's say.
Or maybe I'll go ahead and make it a kind of brown
by taking the hue value down to 30 degrees,
and you can see we've got a saturation value
of 100% and a brightness of 40%.
And now, as opposed to clicking with the Eyedropper,
press the Alt key, or the Option key on the Mac,
which is going to flip the direction of the Eyedropper
and fill it, as you can see right there.
And then click someplace inside the gradient mesh.
And in my case, I've gone ahead and filled in
an entire patch.
If you want to be more precise, then press Control Y,
or Command Y on a Mac, so that you can see your row
and column lines.
And then Alt or Option click at the intersection
of a row and a column.
And now, if I press Control Y, or Command Y on a Mac,
you can see that I changed the color of a specific
mesh point.
And that's how you work with the Dedicated Mesh tool
as well as how you assign colors by dragging and dropping
from the Swatches Panel along with Alt or Option clicking
with the Eyedropper tool.