Prof. Mary Brown | COMD 1162 - E058 | Spring 2023

05 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 –

What choices do you have in Blend Tool options when creating a blend?

Question 02 –

Which tool in the Pathfinder Palette in Illustrator creates separate shapes for overlapping items when it is used?

7 Comments

  1. Sarah

    When creating a blend using the Blend Tool in Adobe Illustrator, there are several options that you can adjust to control the appearance and behavior of the blend. Here are some of them. Type (not ‘text’ type): You can choose between three different types of blends: Smooth Color, Specified Steps, and Distance. Smooth Color creates a gradient-like blend between two objects. Specified Steps create a stepped blend with a specific number of steps. Distance creates a blend with a specified distance between each step. Spacing: You can choose to specify the distance between each step in the blend. Specified Steps: If you choose the Specified Steps option, you can specify the number of steps in the blend. Preview: You can choose to preview the blend as you create it, or to create the blend without previewing. Reverse Spine: You can choose to reverse the direction of the spine that you draw. Smooth Color Options: If you choose the Smooth Color option, you can adjust the spacing and interpolation options to control the appearance of the blend. These are just a few of the main options!

    The “Divide” tool in the Pathfinder Palette in Illustrator creates separate shapes for overlapping items when it is used. When you select multiple objects and click on the “Divide” button in the Pathfinder Palette, Illustrator will divide the objects into separate shapes at their overlapping points. This can be useful if you want to work with the individual shapes separately, or if you want to create cut-out or negative space effects. After using the Divide tool, you will notice that the shapes that were overlapping are now separate, and the overlapping areas have been removed. You can now work with these shapes individually and apply different fills, strokes, or other effects to each one. It’s worth noting that when using the Divide tool, the resulting shapes will be grouped together, but you can ungroup them by selecting the group and pressing “Shift + Command + G” on a Mac or “Shift + Control + G” on a Windows PC. (I personally find having both MAC and PC commands helpful because I have a PC at home but we work in MACs at school.)

  2. Mark James Laurel

    In the Blend Tool options you have three choices. Those three are Smooth Color, Specified Steps, and Specified Distance. Smooth Color creates a smooth transition between the colors of the objects that are blended. Which automatically creates a gradient effect. Specified Steps allows you to manually set the position of each step in the blend. You can use this option to create custom blends that follow a specific path or curve. Specified Distance allows you to specify the distance between each step in the blend.

    That tool is called the “Divide” tool. This tool is useful when you have created overlapping shapes and if you want to separate these shapes from each other. When you have divided them, you can now either fill in those shapes or leave them be.

    • Jamil

      Mark,

      Dang, I knew I got that last one wrong! Lol, I thought it was the ‘Exclude Overlap’ option but obviously its ‘Divide.’ Thanks for posting because now I know what it is and wont forget this time.

      -Jamil

  3. Jamil

    After opening a new project in Illustrator, if you navigate up to the tool bar and click Object > Blend > Blend Options, a small dialog box will pop up. Under ‘Spacing’ there is a drop-down menu that lists three different options for Blending. Those options are: Smooth Color, Specified Steps, and Specified Distance. The first option, ‘Smooth Color,’ enables Adobe Illustrator to automatically calculate how many steps there will be in any given blend that you do with color involved. It’s designed to be optimized for the smoothest color transition possible. The second option, ‘Specified Steps,’ determines exactly how many steps there will be from the beginning of a blend to the end of a blend. The third option, ‘Specified Distance,’ determines the distance between each step within a blend. And it measures the distance from the further most left of one object, to the further most right side of the next object. 

    I’m not entirely sure or maybe I just can’t remember lol. But I think the specific tool in the pathfinders palette options that separates shapes that overlap is called ‘Exclude Overlap.’ It’s the last of the four options on the panel. When two shapes overlap–two circles for example–when you highlight both of them, and then click the exclude overlap option, it will remove the area where the shapes overlap and then keep everything else.

  4. Haileson

    When using the blend tool you have three options: Smooth Color, Specified Steps and Specified Distance. Smooth Color creates a gradual blend between the objects and their colors. Specified Steps blends the objects using an amount of steps you choose. Specified Distance gives you the ability to change the distance between each step in the blend.

    The Divide tool within the pathfinder tab creates separate shapes when objects are overlapping. When the the Divide tool is used you can now alter the newly created shapes or leave them be.

  5. Parth Patel

    There are several choices available when using the Blend Tool in Adobe Illustrator to create a blend. Blend Method, Orientation, Spacing, and Blend Options are available with the Blend Tool. You may pick between Smooth Color, which produces a gentle color transition, and Specified Steps, which specifies a predetermined number of intermediate steps between objects, using the Blend Method. You may choose whether the blend objects should align to the page or to the route between them using orientation.

    The “Divide” tool in Illustrator’s Pathfinder menu separates overlapping objects into distinct forms when it is utilized. When chosen, the Divide tool separates overlapping items into distinct forms based on the extent of their overlap. This tool efficiently separates the overlapping routes and provides unique shapes for each overlapped area. By instantly separating and isolating overlapping parts using the Divide tool, you may further customize and manipulate the design. It is very helpful when working with specific areas of overlapping artwork in Adobe Illustrator or creating unique shapes

  6. britney

    In illustration there are different ways kinda of blend options. The specified blend and specific distance is what blends out the object based on how many steps or spaces between the object you want to have it. Another blend tool option is the smooth color, which spreads out the color. Kind of giving it a gradient type of look but using the same color if you prefer.

    The tool that gives the pathfinder palettes is when you have a design you will then press on divide and from there that is when the shapes and all objects on your board will separate into its shapes. It will also work well when the shapes are overlapping and you use the divide tool to show how they overlap. 

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