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- [Instructor] In this

movie we're going to begin



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work on the hood right here,



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and along the way I'll

show you how to delete



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invisible, unwanted mesh points



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which are a real nuisance

inside the program.



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And they can be extremely

confusing at first.



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In fact I would go so far as to say



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they are extremely confusing always.



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In any event I'm going to switch over



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to the project file so far,



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and notice this hood path right here.



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It is another compound shape



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as we can see on the far left

side of the control panel,



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and so what I've got



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is this path right here

cut out of the hood.



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Alright so that's not going to work.



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I can't turn a compound

shape into a mesh object,



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and so what I'll do is

go to the Window menu,



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and choose Pathfinder to

bring up the Pathfinder panel.



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Again, with any luck, you'll

see the Expand button.



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If not, click off the

path, and select it again.



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And, once again, if you have that checkbox



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turned on inside the

preferences dialog box



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you're going to have to click on the



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path outline then click Expand,



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and that will go ahead and

convert the compound shape



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to a static path outline as we are



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once again seeing on the far

left side of the control panel.



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Alright, I'll go ahead and

hide the Pathfinder panel,



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and I'm going to zoom on in.



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And I could go up to the Object menu,



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choose Create Gradient Mesh,



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and then enter something like, let's say,



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seven rows and seven

columns at which point



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you're going to see the

various row segments



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bending into the bottom

of the path outline.



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And that's because Illustrator is



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trying to match the contour.



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Which, you know, makes sense.



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The way it's doing it

though is highly bizarre,



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and so what I'm going to do, to

make this clear, is cancel out.



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And then I'll go ahead,

and grab the Mesh tool,



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and I'll click let's say right about here



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in order to add a new row.



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Notice that it's kind of lumpy.



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See how it goes down at first then back up



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then down, up, and then down again



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even though there are

only two control handles?



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That should just make it arc

upward, and nothing more.



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It gets even worse if we

click someplace down here.



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For example I'll click in the

bottom right corner someplace



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in order to add this guy.



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There's no world in which

this control handle,



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and this control handle right there



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result in a path that goes above



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the control panel for one thing,



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and then has a couple of corners in it,



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and then starts arcing again.



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But what I want you to notice here



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is if I press the A key to

switch to the white arrow tool,



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and I hover over this corner

there's a point there.



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Notice that I can see

that there's a point,



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but if I click on it I can't select it.



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And even if I start

dragging that point around



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I end up moving the entire segment,



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and making a huge mess of the

path outline, and so forth.



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What's going on is Illustrator has created



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a bunch of invisible mesh points,



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and to see what those look

like I'll press Ctrl + Z,



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or Command + Z on the

Mac to undo that chance.



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And then you want to click,



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and hold on the Pen tool right here,



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and select the Delete Anchor Point tool



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from the fly-out menu.



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Or you've got the keyboard

shortcut which is the minus key,



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and the second you select that tool



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you will see all of those

invisible mesh points.



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None of which you want.



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They are not things

that you can manipulate



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so they are just going to get in your way.



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And so what I recommend you do



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is painstakingly click on every



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one of these interior points.



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You don't want to click on the one



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that initiates the segment.



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You want to click on

these guys, for example,



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and if you get this error message



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all it means is that you missed the point.



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Just click OK, and try again.



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You can even zoom in if you want to



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because, notice here, I've got a couple



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of mesh points right next to each other.



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So I'll get rid of this guy,



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and then I'll get rid of

this corner point there,



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and I'll get rid of this corner point



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in order to smooth out that segment.



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And now we have a couple

more right here, and here.



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Alright now what you want to do



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is the same thing where

this top guy is concerned



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so I'll click here to

get rid of that segment.



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To get rid of that point I'll click here.



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I'll click on that one, and that one,



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and that one as well,



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and then, finally, you

want to click on this guy.



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So leave the two extreme points



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on either end of the segment,



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but get rid of everything else,



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and it looks like I've got

something going on here.



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I don't actually.



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I'm going to leave that one alone



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because it's appearing

along the path outline.



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Alright now if I were to zoom out



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just by pressing Ctrl + Minus,



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or Command + Minus on a Mac a few times.



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Now I can switch to my white arrow tool,



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and I can go ahead and

select this point right here,



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and I can drag this control handle,



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and I can drag this control handle as well



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in order to more reliably,



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and predictably modify the

curvature of this segment.



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And the same goes for this guy as well.



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I'll bring out this control handle,



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and drag it out quite a bit like so,



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and I'll do the same with this one here.



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And you could even give it a



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little bit of a wave if you want.



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Now after this point you could



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switch back to the mesh tool,



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and you could add more rows if you like



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between



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those existing rows like so,



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and they're going to

end up looking smooth.



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You can't really create rows down below.



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For example, if I were to click here,



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I create a column line,



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and that column is extremely messed up.



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If I click over here then

I create a new row line



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that is a kind of compromise

between the one above it,



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and the curvature of the

path outline down below.



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So, in other words, I'm

still going to struggle



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with this path because of its shape.



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That's not what I want



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which is why I'm going to show you



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an easier way to approach this object



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in the very next movie.