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- [Narrator] In this

movie, I'll show you how to



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essentially paint using gradient mesh and



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a great thing about mesh objects is



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because you're transitioning colors



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in two opposing directions



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you can paint very soft

or out of focus elements



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such as these reflected clouds,



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in this left hand window.



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Now again I have a diagram opened here



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inside Photoshop that shows

how things are going to work



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and so were painting

every single point with



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blue three or blue four.



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So all the threes appear in white,



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all the fours appear in black,



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and we also have a few

white points up here



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in the top right, down left, and down here



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at the bottom behind the rear view mirror.



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All right, I'll switch back to Illustrator



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and here we are in the document so far



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I'm going to go ahead and zoom in here



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and notice if I try and select the window



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right at this location there,



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I end up selecting this

frame group instead.



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And so what I'm going to

do is select that group



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and I'm also going to

shift click on the outline



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of the rear view mirror



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as well as this bottom panel right here



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and then I'll go up to the object menu



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choose lock and choose selection



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in order to lock those objects



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and now I can go ahead

and select this window.



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Now, the first thing I'm going to do,



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is make sure my fill is active here



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inside the swatches panel



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and then I'm going to

change the fill to white



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because white is a good place to start.



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Then I'll go up to the object menu



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and choose create gradient mesh



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and I decided I needed

a total of five rows



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and four columns.



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The problem is that

everything is equally spaced,



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which is not what I want



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and you can tell we have

some very wavy lines,



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which means that we have those



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unwanted hidden points.



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So I'm going to cancel out



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and I'm going to work with

the mesh tool instead.



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And then I'll go ahead and zoom in



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and then I'll click at

this spot right here,



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to add my first row, and

I'll click right about here



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to add the top one.



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So this is going to be the bottom row



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and this is the top row



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and this will give me a chance to



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clean these guys up



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and create smoother rows in between.



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Now, if you ever need to test



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whether there are extra points



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and there usually are, by the way,



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then just tap the minus key in order to



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switch to the delete anchor point tool



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at which point you'll see that



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we do indeed have some extra points.



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So I'll click on each one of them



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to get rid of them



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and that's going to kind

of flatten the curve



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but that's okay



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it will give me way more control as well.



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And I'll click on this guy

to get rid of it as well



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and then I'll press the A key



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to switch to my white arrow tool.



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I'll click on this mesh point right there



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and I'll raise this control handle



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and I'll go ahead and

raise this guy as well



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so that we have a little more curvature



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and then I'll click on this segment,



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and I'll go ahead and drag

this control handle way over



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like so, and I might drag this

one inward just a little bit.



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All right now let's

create a couple more rows



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by switching back to the mesh tool,



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which you can get by pressing the U key



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and then I'll click on

this right hand edge



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a couple of times, like

so, to add two more rows.



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And this time around if

I press the minus key



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I can see no extra invisible points,



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which is very good news.



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All right now let's add some columns



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by pressing the U key to

switch back to the mesh tool



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and I'll click, let's

say right about there,



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and that is tragic to say the least.



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I'm going to go ahead and undo that column



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and I'll click up here instead,



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which will at least put the

top point in the right location



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but all the other points are out.



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Now notice if I press the minus key



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the problem is not access points



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the problem is that

the points that we have



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are located in the wrong place.



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So I'll press the U key to

switch back to my mesh tool



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and I'll shift drag this guy



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so it's very important,



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that you are working with the mesh tool



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so that you don't reshape the path



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and then I'll go ahead and drag this



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control handle up and

then I'll drag this guy



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while pressing the shift key



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and it'll drag the control

handle over a little bit



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and I'll drag this guy



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while pressing the shift key.



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So that I'm dragging along the row line



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and I'll go ahead and move this guy



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and I'll move this one as well.



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And it looks like this one



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wants to come over a little farther,



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so I'll shift drag it



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then I'll shift drag this guy



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to right there



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that's looking actually pretty darn good



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then I just need to adjust

these control handles



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until we have everything nice and smooth.



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And, by the way, I haven't mentioned this



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in a while but if you find that



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your control handle are snapping into



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undesirable positions



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than you can go up here to the view menu



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and turn off smart guides.



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In my case they're already off



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so I'm able to work pretty freely here.



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All right, now I still

have the mesh tool active



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and so I'm going to go ahead

and click right about here



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near the center of the rear view mirror



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and that gives me another lumpy column



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and so I'll try to unlump

it here a little bit,



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if I can, by dragging these guys around



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and of course I'm shift

dragging the mesh points



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to avoid messing up my pristine rows,



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they look absolutely great

so, I don't want to harm them



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and I'm going to drag this

control handle over a little bit



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so this stuff can be a little maddening



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over time



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and this is, by the way,

on of the great things



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about starting with a gradient



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is that you don't have to go through



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a lot of these early mashinations here.



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But the problem with

starting with a gradient



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is that instead of working

directly inside a mesh object



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you're working inside of a clipping mask,



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which is often times not

the way you want to work.



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Anyway, I'm going to

go ahead and shift drag



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this guy over to about there



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and then I'll drag this

control handle down.



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And now, with any luck,

if I click over here



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to create one more column



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it won't be all lumpy.



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And sure enough,



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it's kind of unlumpy,



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it's got a little bit of

lump up here at the top,



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so I'll just go ahead

and select this point



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and shift drag it with

the mesh tool once again



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so I don't reshape the path outline.



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And then I'll drag this control handle



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into a better position.



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Now we still have a little

bit of lumpiness going on



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but that's not the end of the world.



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This is still going to work very nicely,



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for our clouds.



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All right, now press the A key



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to switch to the white arrow tool



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and I'll go ahead and marque

these points right here



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these first four points,



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over here on the right hand side.



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And if you end up selecting something,



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that you don't want to select



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just go ahead and twirl open

the meshes layer right there



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and I'm going to lock that

second object from the top,



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which is the windshield



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because after all I

don't want to mess it up



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but it looks like I still

have the interior path



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of the car selected.



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We'll get to that, in actually,



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the next movie and I don't want to ruin it



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so I'm just going to

re-marque these two points



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and then shift marque these two



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and I'll go ahead and



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make sure the fill is selected

here in the swatches panel



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and I'll select blue four,



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in order to turn those points light blue.



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Now I'll marque these two points up here



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and I also want to shift

marque these three points



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in order to select these

five mesh points in a row



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and I'll change them to blue four as well.



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All right now we are going to

add some blue three to the mix



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but clicking and shift

clicking on these two points



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shift click and shift click on these two,



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so notice that we are skipping a row,



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and then shift click and

shift click on these two.



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Next you want to shift click

on this point right here



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and shift click on this one.



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So in each case we are skipping a row,



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on the right hand side



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we are skipping row lines



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one, three, and five.



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On the left,



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we are skipping row lines two and four.



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And now I'll go ahead

and select blue three



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in order to paint those

mesh points like so.



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All right now I'm going

to select the other points



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so this guy and this guy



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so click and shift click



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and then shift click on each of these two



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and shift click on each of these two



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and change them to blue four.



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And you'll end up with this effect here



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and that's all there is to it



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and so there you have one possible way



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to paint soft or out

of focus image elements



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using a gradient mesh



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here inside Illustrator.