Mary Brown | COMD 1162 - E058 | Fall 2023

02 Discussion

Each week you will need to respond to two questions posted. Your response should be a minimum of 300 words for both questions. You should also include at least one response to your fellow students. The responses are a requirement for participation part of your grade.

Question 01 –

Why would you want to use the Appearance Panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other?

Question 02 –

If you changed your mind about the color and position of a stroke could you change it? How?

11 Comments

  1. Karen Alarcon

    Using the Appearance Panel in Adobe Illustrator offers several advantages over pasting shapes behind each other when creating complex graphics or illustrations. One example would be the ability to add multiple effects without altering the underlying shapes. More efficiency in file size and staying more organized, plus the ability to conveniently tweak and tune the appearance within one panel. Instead of pasting images on top of each other. The appearance panel also allows the control of the stacking order and the effects already making it a valuable tool for all illustration tasks. 

    If I am aware that I am not satisfied with the color and position of the stroke, I would definitely change it.To do so, I would first go to the appearance panel, the select the object or text that has the stroke that I want to change, check the appearance panel to find the stroke as one of the appearance attributes, then select it. To change the color, I would click on the stroke color swath within the Appearance Panel to open the Color Picker where I would select a new color. Now, to change the position of the stroke, I would click on the ā€œStrokeā€ text within the Appearance Panel to open the stroke options dialog box. In the dialog box, I would adjust the ā€œAlignā€ option to change the strokeā€™s position. After the desired changes to the stroke color and position, click ā€œOKā€ to finish applying said changes, which will update to the new color and position desired. 

  2. Jeremybitterhoff

    The Appearance Panel in Adobe Illustrator offers several significant advantages. One of the key advantage is the efficiency it brings to your designing workflow. When you copy and paste shapes behind each other, you end up with multiple separate objects and layers, which can clutter your workspace and make it messy. The Appearance Panel though allows you to apply multiple effects, strokes, fills, and other attributes to a single object or text, streamlining your workflow and keeping your project organized.

    The Appearance Panel also gives a lot flexibility. It enables you to fine-tune and adjust the appearance of an object within one panel. This means you can make changes to effects, stroke properties, fills, and more without the need to select and edit each individual shape separately. This saves a lot of time.

    If you change your mind about the color and position of a stroke applied to an object, you can modify it using the Appearance Panel. To change the stroke color, just select the object, access the Appearance Panel, locate the stroke attribute, and then click on the stroke color swatch to open the Color Picker, allowing you to choose a new color. To adjust the stroke position, again select the object, go to the Appearance Panel, select the stroke attribute, and click on the “Stroke” text to open the Stroke Options dialog box. Within this dialog, you can modify the stroke’s alignment, altering its position as needed.

  3. matt14

    Personally I would rather use the appearance panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other because the appearance panel helps me decide how I want to layer the shapes infant or behind one another. You can change the stroke on your shapes making it have thin or thick lines. Being able to change the color on your shapes is a feature in the appearance panel that is unique because not only do they have set colors for you to choose from but you can also pick your own shade of a color just by double clicking the color box. When you want to change the stroke for your shapes or your figures you can highlight them then in the appearance panel next to stroke you can even change how you’re lines are shaped. They can be thick or thin strokes and all you have to do to change the color of a stroke is to swap the fill box with the stroke box then to select a color you want your stroke to be. The appearance panel is just like a shortcut on the desktop so you don’t have to continuously search for things in the top search bar “Windows” and scroll down till you find what you need. All these shortcuts make it easier and a more efficient workspace In illustrator when creating logos or images.

  4. Maria Fernanda Montes

    Question 1: Using the Appearance Panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other offers several compelling advantages. Firstly, it enhances efficiency by allowing multiple attributes to be manipulated within a single layer, streamlining the design process and reducing the need for intricate layer management. Additionally, the Appearance Panel promotes non-destructive editing, enabling designers to experiment freely without the fear of irreversible changes to their designs. This approach also simplifies file structures, making them easier to manage and share. Moreover, precise control over appearance attributes and the conservation of resources are significant benefits, ensuring a more seamless and resource-efficient design workflow. In summary, the Appearance Panel is a powerful tool that empowers designers with greater flexibility, efficiency, and creative control in their graphic design projects. 

    Question 2: Absolutely, changing the color and position of a stroke in a graphic design project is not only possible but also quite straightforward, especially when using software like Adobe Illustrator. If you decide to alter the stroke color or position, you can do so easily by selecting the object, access the appearance panel, adjust stroke color, modify stroke position, fine tune stroke attributes by following these steps, you can easily change the color and position of a stroke in your design, ensuring that it aligns perfectly with your creative vision. This nondestructive approach allows for quick experimentation and adjustments, without the need to recreate or duplicate objects, making the design process more flexible and efficient.

    • Alyse B

      I really love your response. Super informative too. I could really tell by your response that you devoted time to explaining the material thoroughly. I can see clearly the effort it took to explain it in such detail and your mastery of the skill.

  5. Maximo Cardenas

    The appearance panel in Adobe Illustrator is an effective tool for keeping track of an object/shape with multiple visual effects. The appearance panel will allow you to add multiple effects to a shape, such as strokes and fills, managed in one easy to access panel. This is a much better option than copying and pasting multiple shapes behind each other in order to achieve the same visual. The appearance panel will allow you to easily manage every effect on the shape instead of having multiple shapes layered on top each other where every shape has different properties. The appearance panel also lets you easily arrange your effects in the same way you would rearrange layers, instead of having to search through a sea of duplicated shapes. Therefore, if you wanted to change an effect, like the stroke size or fill color, instead of trying to comb through a ton of shapes, you could use the appearance panel where all your effects are neatly organized. In short, it allows you to create multiple different visuals on one object without making needless and excessive shapes to represent different properties/effects.

  6. Salma Sherif

    1. The Appearance Panel in graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator offers numerous advantages over manually pasting shapes behind each other. It enables designers to efficiently apply multiple attributes, such as strokes, fills, and effects, to a single object, streamlining the design process and saving time. A key benefit is non-destructive editing, allowing designers to modify attributes without altering the entire design. The Appearance Panel also simplifies stacking order control by providing a visual hierarchy of attributes. Live effects can be applied and adjusted in real-time, enhancing creative possibilities. Global changes become effortless, ensuring design consistency. Additionally, the Appearance Panel optimizes resource usage by keeping design files leaner. When exporting designs, it offers a cleaner and more error-resistant process. In summary, the Appearance Panel enhances efficiency, creativity, and control in graphic design, making it an indispensable tool for designers seeking streamlined workflows and dynamic, non-destructive editing capabilities.
    2. You can change the color and position of a stroke in graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator. To alter the stroke color, select the object, access the Stroke panel, choose a new color from the available options, and the stroke color will update accordingly. To change the position of a stroke, select the object, open the Stroke panel, and adjust the stroke alignment settings. Options typically include aligning the stroke to the inside, center, or outside of the object’s path. After selecting the desired alignment, the stroke will reposition itself accordingly. These adjustments are crucial for fine-tuning the appearance of your designs, allowing for flexibility and creative control even after applying strokes to objects.
  7. Fahima

    Adobe Illustrator’s Appearance Panel which provides several key benefits then copy and paste. It increases the productivity in your design work. When you copy and paste patterns or shapes it creates numerous distinct elements and layers. The Appearance Panel, on the other hand, enables you to add many effects, strokes, colors, and other properties to one element, it speeds your workflow. Like Adobe Illustrator and copy paste, there are multiple parts where the presenter uses the appearance panel to adjust the shape and stroke and generate different effects on the objects or type by using the distort and transform effects. The outcomes were either an effect in three dimensions, a sophisticated network of strokes created by copying strokes they were simply offset the initial design. Which could be readily replicated by copying and pasting and utilizing the pathfinder, shape builder tools. However, some features, such as drop shadows, just canā€™t be done in any meaningful way with other techniques.

    If I change my mind about the color or position of a stroke, I should be able to do simply by navigating to the Appearance Panel. Before making any changes, I’ll need select the object/text I wish to edit, then click on stroke in the appearance panel. I should be able to modify the weight, cap, corner, or align stroke, depending on what I wish to change. If I want to modify the color of the stroke, I will click on the box next to “stroke” and make the necessary color changes.

     

  8. Keshawn

    It is more effective to use the appearance panel rather than pasting shapes behind each other because it provides you with a lot of elements to develop your work. These elements include fills, gradients, stroke and effects. They keep your workspace controlled and enables you to easily edit an object. On the other hand, adding more shapes makes the process a bit more complex. A advantage that we donā€™t see in using the appearance panel is that it minimizes the size of the file.

    If I changed my mind about the color and position of a stroke I could change it using the appearance panel. I select whatever object I want to edit, go under the sub-panel of stroke and fix whatever I want. I can alter the fill, weight and alignment of the stroke. This prevents you from making new layers and making the work drawn out.

  9. Jada Bellille

    Why would you want to use the Appearance Panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other?

    • I’d use the appearance panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other because using the appearance panel saves time and has commands that duplicates the shape/object on one panel.

    If you changed your mind about the color and position of a stroke could you change it? How?

    • If I encountered a situation where I wanted to change the color and position of the storke, I would access the appearance panel and select the stroke’s fill color then to change the stroke’s position using the alignment and distribution tool
  10. Alyse B

    Question 1: Why would you want to use the Appearance Panel instead of pasting shapes behind each other?

    1. Using the Appearance panel in Adobe Illustrator offers several advantages over simply pasting shapes behind each other. The Appearance panel provides a non-destructive and flexible way to apply and manage multiple appearance attributes to a single object. The Appearance panel allows you to stack multiple appearance attributes (such as fills, strokes, effects, etc.) on a single object without altering the underlying structure. This means you can easily modify or remove any applied effect without affecting the actual shape. The Appearance panel allows you to easily reorder appearance attributes by dragging and dropping them within the panel. You can also edit the attributes individually without needing to select or isolate specific shapes. The Appearance panel supports the application of various effects, such as shadows, glows, and distortions. These effects can be applied to the entire appearance of an object, providing a more dynamic and creative result than stacking shapes.

    Question 2: If you changed your mind about the color and position of a stroke could you change it? How?

    1. In Adobe Illustrator, you can easily change the color and position of a stroke, even after it has been applied to an object. Use the Selection Tool (V) to select the object with the stroke whose color you want to change. Go to Window > Color to open the Color panel if it’s not already open. With the object selected, click on the stroke color swatch in the Color panel. Choose a new color from the color picker or select a predefined color. The stroke color of the selected object will be updated instantly with the new color. You can also change the position of the stroke. In the Stroke panel, you will find options for adjusting the alignment of the stroke. These options include “Align Stroke to Inside,” “Align Stroke to Center,” and “Align Stroke to Outside.” Finally you click on the desired alignment option to change the position of the stroke.

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