illustrator questions/problems. new question now

[hypernova]

i'm using illustrator...and for the life of me can't remember how to use gradients properly.

is the help file supposed to load without the internet?  nothing i've tried works.  heck, it doesn't load even with the internet.  i tried opening them from the folder, repairing from the cd.  nothing works.  i've read something about winace possibly conflicting with it.  anyone know anything about it?  don't wanna uninstall winace for no reason.

but, anyways, i have a bunch of directional arrows around my joy holes.  i'm trying to change the colors of the gradients, and i can't remember how to change the colors of all the portions of the gradient!  And, can you change a color of a portion of the gradient to "nothing" as in blend with the background?

so, who can help the idiot?

[GreenKnight37]

If I could remember and describe it properly, I would.  Gradients are overly difficult with Illustrator.

But from what I recall (I've only used them once before) you'll be dragging colors from the pallet window, down to the little tabs on the gradient scroll bar.

If that made no sense...

In the gradient window, you have a horizontal bar, with a few gray tabs on top.  Three or so tabs I think.  Drag a color from the pallet window down to that horizontal bar.  It should make a new, colored tab.  When you move that tab around, it will effect how the gradient looks.  (By now you'll already have placed the gradient in the image by the way.  It will change according to how you tweak the colors).

You can also remove those little gray tabs or colored ones by doing something to them...dragging them Off of the horizontal bar I think.

I dont have a ton of time to play with Illustrator right now to explain in depth, but hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea on how to get it working.

[BobbyG66]

Yep,  GreenKnight37 is right.

As far as making a clear section, that is NOT possible.
You can adjust the transparency to make it more see through, but that will mix the colors with what's behind it..

The gradient can be set to linear or radial.
Linear create straight lines and the radial creates circles centered in the shape.
If you would like to off center the radial gradient you need to use a clipping mask,
To do that create a shape larger than your arrow and place behind the arrow. The do a right click and select "Make clipping mask".
This is useful when drawing spheres also, makes them more 3D looking instead of an "eye" look.

Hope this helps!

BobbyG66

[hypernova]

i KNEW it had to be something easy!  thanks.

nuts on the clear choice though.

...turns out, just changing a color to the dominant color in the background.  looks just as good as having no color at all, as it disappears right into the background.  which happens to be black.

new question:

i want to place some objects (pictures.)  but there's unwanted excess around the pictures.  how do i render the excess part invisible?  i assume it has something to do with masks.  i'll try out some stuff, but i doubt i'll get it right.

[BobbyG66]

i want to place some objects (pictures.)  but there's unwanted excess around the pictures.  how do i render the excess part invisible?  i assume it has something to do with masks.  i'll try out some stuff, but i doubt i'll get it right.

Pictures (BMP's and JPG's) are raster images made up of pixels.
Illustrator is a VECTOR program.

Any picture you bring into Illustrator will usually have a 'box' around it of some color. Thre is no way to get rid of this box in Illustrator.

What you would have to do is finish your Illustrator drawing then open it in Photoshop to edit pictures.

If you only have Illustrator try this.
This is kind of a hack but, you can make a window or frame around the pic.
You can make a window by drawing a some sort of shape larger than your pic.
Then draw a smaller shape for your window and then cut it out of the larger shape.
Place this window in front of the picture and that will block out the extra stuff.

I did that once for some of my kids photos, looked pretty good.
Hope that makes sense.

Good luck
BobbyG66

[hypernova]

i actually figured it out last night.  all i had to do was place the picture, trace a pen (with no colors for the line or fill) around the parts that i wanted, then select that outline and the actual picture, made the clipping mask, and ta-da.  i end up with just the parts i wanted.

[BobbyG66]

OH YEA! 

I just tried that, it works MUCH better!

OK, I learned something today, can I go home now?