Stretching images for Control Panel Overlay

[ras2a]

Hi

I've started using Adobe illustrator to design an overlay for my control panel.  I want some sort of 'LCARS' type design (trekkie fans wil know what I mean).  I've found a couple of decent 'spacey' type backgrounds ..you know the sort of thing: swirling nebulae, vast planetoids etc - I just don't know hot to stretch the image to cover the control panel if the image is a standard resolution of 1024 x 768 etc.  Does anyone know how to do this or am I being incredibly dense?  I am designing in 'full scale' and have set dimensions in millimetres.

Thanks a lot - Any help would be ace!

Craig

[RayB]

I'd say you're being dense.  

Just select the picture, then use the SCALING tool. (it's about mid-way down the side tool bar. Looks like a swaure with other symbols around it).

Of course if you're using Illustrator 9.0 or higher, you should just turn on the bounding box. (Choose VIEW from the menu, and make sure it says "Show Bounding Box")

Now you sould have 6 little squares around anything you select. Just use those to pull and stretch your image as you need.

[etumor]

Hi

I've started using Adobe illustrator to design an overlay for my control panel.  I want some sort of 'LCARS' type design (trekkie fans wil know what I mean).  I've found a couple of decent 'spacey' type backgrounds ..you know the sort of thing: swirling nebulae, vast planetoids etc - I just don't know hot to stretch the image to cover the control panel if the image is a standard resolution of 1024 x 768 etc.  Does anyone know how to do this or am I being incredibly dense?  I am designing in 'full scale' and have set dimensions in millimetres.

Thanks a lot - Any help would be ace!

Craig

If you're planning on printing it out, you're probably going to need something higher res than 1024x768.  There are space pictures (nebulae and such) that are very high res pictures, but you have to look around a bit to find them.  I have found several print-resolution images over the years that I've used on Marquees (most of them from astronomy sites, but I don't remember the exact locations right now).

-Jeff "etumor"

[ras2a]

excellent - thanks a lot!

Craig