Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

ent shape mode. Shape modes are identical to pathfi nder operations,

save for the fact that they can be applied dynamically.

Meet the Pathfi nder Panel

In this fi rst exercise, I’ll demonstrate the basics of the Pathfi nder

panel using a whimsical exercise inspired by the movie Yellow Sub-

marine (an animated fi lm that was a vehicle for an obscure band,

since forgotten). You’ll learn the fundamentals of pathfi nder opera-

tions, and how different path combinations behave.

1.

Open the submarine artwork. Navigate to the Lesson

06 subfolder inside the Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 folder.

Locate the fi le Violet submarine.ai and open it. Inside

the artwork, you’ll fi nd a violet submarine, a red fi n shape, and

a yellow silhouette of a man. (We’ll call him Ringo.)

2.

Bring up the Pathfi nder panel. Open the Pathfi nder panel,

shown in Figure 6-2, by choosing Window→ Pathfi nder or

pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 (-Shift-F9 on the Mac). (Alternately,

you can click the

icon in the panel bar.)

3. Select Ringo and the submarine. Make sure the black arrow

tool is selected. Click the silhouette of Ringo, and Shift-click

the submarine to add it to the selection. (Note that

to select the paths, you need to click the edge of the

paths, not inside the shapes.)

4. Combine the shapes. Click the Unite icon ( ) to

combine the two shapes. Illustrator creates a new

path based on the outline of the two shapes, and

discards any path information inside the shapes,

as in Figure 6-3.

Note that Illustrator also assigns the yellow fi ll and black

stroke attributes to the new shape

—

the program uses the

attributes of the topmost object in the stack to determine

the new path’s attributes.

5.

Undo the last step. That’s all well and good, but Il-

lustrator has discarded information in the process

of creating the new shape, information you want

to keep. It would be better if the combination were

dynamic, so press Ctrl+Z (-Z) to undo.

Figure 6-2 .

Unite

Minus Front Intersect

Exclude

Merge

Divide

Trim

Minus Back

OutlineCrop

Figure 6-3 .

P E A R L O F W I S D O M

Pathfi nder operations are Boolean operations—

that is, mathematical operations that use Boolean

logic (such as AND, OR, and NOT) to calculate the

results. However, it’s not necessary to understand

Boolean logic to successfully use pathfi nders.

181

Meet the Pathfi nder Panel

6.

Combine the shapes dynamically. To force Illustra-

tor to make the joining dynamic, press and hold the

Alt (or Option) key while clicking the icon in the

Pathfi nder panel. Illustrator once again combines the

shapes, but this time it preserves the path informa-

tion for each subpath, as in Figure 6-4.

P E A R L O F W I S D O M

For those of you accustomed to the behavior of Illustrator CS3,

you’ll notice that the CS5 pathfi nder behavior is reversed

—

by default, Illustrator made the joining dynamic and required

adding the Alt or Option key to make it permanent. However,

the panel in CS5 behaves the same way as it did in both CS4 and

CS2; CS3 is the odd one out in terms of pathfi nder behavior.

7.

Change the shape mode dynamically. Since the

compound shape allows you to make changes to

subpaths on-the-fl y, it also affords you the freedom

to change the shape mode whenever you’d like.

Here’s how:

•

Deselect everything by clicking off the artwork

(or pressing Ctrl+Shift+A or -Shift-A).

•

Select Ringo independently by pressing and hold-

ing the Ctrl (or ) key and clicking his outline.

•

While pressing and holding the Alt (or Option)

key, press the Minus Front ( ) icon.

Now Illustrator is treating the Ringo subpath as a

“hole” that knocks through the submarine shape,

as shown in Figure 6-5.

It’s crucial that you press and hold the Alt (or Option) key

when changing pathfi nder modes dynamically. Without

this modifi er key, Illustrator attempts to create a permanent

change

—

but because only one path is selected, it cannot,

and instead greets you with a warning message.

8.

Move Ringo independently of the submarine. Ringo

should still be selected independently; click and

hold somewhere on the path and drag to center him

just below the submarine’s spout, his shoes barely

overlapping the bottom of the vessel. When you re-

lease the mouse button, a hidden fi gure is revealed,

as shown in Figure 6-6 on the next page. Maybe

Ringo was the walrus?

Figure 6-4 .

Figure 6-5 .

182

Lesson 6: Pathfi nder Operations