8 replies to this topic

[frax]

let's say I have lines without a fill (like country boundaries) and I want to create a glow out from them - what would be the easiest way to do that?

I have used the effects in Illy CS2, but one has to convert them to polygons by "outline stroke first" - is there a way to do it without polys?

[Nick Springer]

You can do it with a blend. Create 2 duplicates of the border line and make them both the color you want for the glow. Make the bottom one wide as the glow you want and the other one thin. Then set the wide line to 0% opacity and blend the 2 lines.

[frax]

thanks, will try that. I have never really learned/experimented very much with blends, so that is a new area for me...

[Matthew Hampton]

Conversely, in CS2 you can duplicate the line, increase the stroke to achieve the desired glow width, then set the thicker line to "align stroke to outside' and set its blending mode to 'multiply.'

Is the attached image the effect you were looking for?

Attached Files

•  Picture_23.png   86.28K   78 downloads

[frax]

thanks for the tip matt, but that is not really the effect I was thinking of her, I was more thinking of a glow or gradient.

[Rob]

Matt,

funny you should post this b/c I was just trying to figure out an offset/ribboned type of line in CS2.

Where does this "align stroke to outside" command stay? I used to do this in Freehand with an offset command, but that works differently in AI.

thanks,

rob

[Nick Springer]

This is what the blend should look like:

 blend.gif   7.47K   127 downloads

[Matthew Hampton]

Where does this "align stroke to outside" command stay?

It is cleverly positioned on the stroke palette <show options> above the dashed line inputs.

 Picture_24_copy.png   12.84K   116 downloads

[Rob]

yes, that is a fairly clever placement.

guess it's still obvious I'm still making the transition to cs2.

thanks.

rj