Vectips

Fit Text Frame to Content Script

Rype — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:55:10 +0000

Nathaniel Kelso created a couple of really handy scripts to fit text boxes to their content. This might seem like a really basic problem, but these problems are usually the most annoying. There is a script for a text box’s Depth and a script for the text box’s Width. If you work with a bunch of typography in Illustrator I’m sure they will come in handy. Thanks to John Wundes for pointing it out. Download the script here (you need to scroll down a little ).

Weekly Vector Inspiration #170

Rype — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:59:20 +0000

This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr Group.

M Magazine, C’est une maison verte by LA TIGRE

IL #40, Cover + Coverstory Design by LA TIGRE

mondo: toy story by strongstuff

Mic’s Chilli by Steve Simpson

Cavistons by Steve Simpson

Sangwine by Lydia Nichols

Glen Brogan

Ride by bandito design co

Andrew Kolb

dark-side cats by zutto

De Flore by ilya kazakov

Man-Tsun

The Pendoring Awards 2012 by Clement de Bruin

Infografía – Composta en la ciudad by Yurex Omazkin

Migros magazine by Lindedesign

Vintage Water Pistol by Glennz Tees

Flora by Invisible Creature

Print Mighty T-Shirt by Anna Johnstone

The Manual, Iss. 2 by Always With Honor

TV EMAs by Always With Honor

Trouble in Lost Woods by Always With Honor

Anchor Points: John Duvengar

Rype — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:57:04 +0000

You might recognize some of John Duvengar’s work from recent Weekly Inspiration posts. His Bigfoot illustration is one of my favorite illustrations I have come across lately. John’s attention to strokes and subtle textures give his strong vector shapes character and a slight non-digital feel. John has some great replies to the Anchor Points questions, so read on!

The Chat

Hey John, thanks for chatting with Vectips! To start, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi Vectips crew and community. It’s a great pleasure and honor to be part of Anchor Points.

My artist name is John Duvengar, which is an anagram of my real name. I choose it when I decided to quit law to become an artist. It was not an easy decision, but I felt I really had to live my dream. I started working as an illustrator for an economic review where i experienced various technics from traditional paper and ink to digital ones. The vector technic is now my favorite one because it allows me to have an extremely precise control of my trace. The few things that I need to work are: a good tablet, a good computer, a good chair and like to be listening to good music.

If you could magically turn into a Illustrator tool, what tool would it be and why?

My favorite tool is the paintbrush, because it combines the traditional hand gestural and the flexibility of the digital tools.

What’s your favorite Illustrator technique?

There is a lot! But I in particular like the halftones filter from the plugin Phantasm CS. I have lost so much time trying to do perfect halftones into illustrator before it.

Do you use any non-digital tools in your work?

All my designs are a combination of digital and no-digital technics. I always start working with quick and dirty sketches on my moleskine before choosing one of them to make it cleaner in a bigger size. Besides, I always dreamt about making completely non-digital comics one day, but I know it would be a huge challenge. This is my personal Holy Graal.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

I always have been very inspired by old comics and cartoons like Popeye, to name only one. I’m also very curious about street art and I began to understand a little more about contemporary art, especially abstract art. I’m currently doing some experiments in this field.

Thanks again for the interview! Any parting words of wisdom?

Be yourself, create your own style and make love not war!

Learn More About John Duvengar

ETERNAL MELODY

THE HAZY GIANT

MY BUDDIES

MAD PIRATE

BLACK ORCHID

THE COOLEST GUY ON EARTH:

MORRISON BRANDY

BOTS COLLECTOR

BIG FOOT

CLOCWORK MELON

ORANGE QUICK FOOT

Illustrator CS6

Rype — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:04:34 +0000

Illustrator CS6 is shipping! I’m sure most of you know and have already downloaded the the trial version, but if you haven’t, go and get it already! In the following post I breakdown some of the new features in CS6 and it’s not quite a review, just an overview at what is new. I want to use CS6 for a solid month in production work before I put up my review.

Adobe Mercury Program

The most significant change in Illustrator is the the Mercury Performance System. With the Adobe Mercury Program, Illustrator has native 64-bit support on Mac OS and Windows. You can access all the RAM on your computer to easily open, save, and export large files and preview complex illustrations. Mordy Golding has a good breakdown of what 64-bit Illustrator CS6 actually means and you can read more about the Mercury Performance System over at Adobe.

Flexible Interface

On the surface, Illustrator’s new interface looks darker, but there is a lot more going on under the hood. Now that Illustrator has a new 64-bit framework every panel had to be rewritten. Now a bunch of old issues have been taken care of and we can benefit from new technology. For example: inline editing of layer names, precise color sampling, UI brightness, and a lot more. Mordy has another great post on these enhancements.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pattern Creation

Creating patterns in Illustrator can be a tedious process but in CS6 the pattern process is greatly improved. Now pattern creation and editing is quicker and more intuitive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Image Trace

Illustrator CS6 comes with a new Image Trace engine tailored to create cleaner tracings with less paths, anchor points, and better color recognition than in Live Trace.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gradients on Strokes

In CS6 you can add gradients on a stroke along the length, across the width, or within the stroke itself. You will also have complete control over gradient placement and opacity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gaussian Blur Enhancements

Gaussian Blur and effects such as Drop Shadows and Glows are applied significantly faster than before. To improve accuracy, preview directly on the artboard rather than in a dialog box.

Panel Enhancements

Below are some of the panel enhancements thanks to the new 64-bit framework and interface changes.

Inline editing in panels

Efficiently edit names in layers, swatches, brushes, artboards, and other panels directly in the panels themselves without using intermediate dialog boxes.

Color panel enhancements

Sample colors faster and more precisely using an expandable color spectrum in the Color panel. And now, copy and paste hex values into other applications more quickly.

Transform panel enhancements

One of my favorite enhancements is the Scale Strokes and Effects option, thanks to its new availability in the Transform panel.

Type panel improvements

Use arrow keys to change fonts in context for selected text. Glyphs for caps, superscripts, and more. It can now be accessed in one place, the Character panel.

Control panel enhancements

Quickly find what you need in a more efficient Control panel, now with consistency across options, anchor point controls, clipping masks, envelope distortions, and more.

Dockable hidden tools

Tear off and dock previously hidden tools, such as the Shape and Pen tools. Dock tools horizontally or vertically for a more efficient workspace.

Workspaces with rooms

Move fluidly from workspace to workspace with support for rooms. Achieve consistency across your work areas and maintain layout changes until you actively reset them.

Weekly Vector Inspiration #169

Rype — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:47:37 +0000

Daniel Ting Chong

Pharos NoteBooks by Daniel Ting Chong

Twist & Curls by Daniel Ting Chong

Konstantin Shalev

Characters and Typography by Konstantin Shalev

Alexander Kostenko

Skiing by Khuan Cavemen Co

Khuan Cavemen Co

Google x Collabo Arts by Stubborn Sideburn

zutto

Alphabetcha by Nathan Walker

Marceline and Kim by Glen Brogan

Kawaii Luncheon Meat by Jerrod Maruyama

Ricky Powell by Travis Price

Brownbook by Studio Muti

beatles: yellow submarine: titlecard by strongstuff

mondo: adventure time: thank you by strongstuff

double rainbow bridge poster by strongstuff

The Avengers Poster by Tyler Stout

Stanley Chow

Hulk Avengers poster by Ken Taylor

Move Pattern Tiles Manually

Rype — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:31:59 +0000

I get some great email questions from Vectips readers and sometimes they even answer their own questions, making for great tips! Which leads me to… you can use the tilde (~) key to mannually move pattern tiles. For example, select an object with a pattern tile applied to it, hold down the tilde key, and move it with the arrow keys or one of the selection tools! Pretty handy.

Pattern tile available through the Mid-Century Modern Vector Mill Crate

Weekly Vector Inspiration #168

Rype — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:27:06 +0000

BIGFOOT by John Duvengar

Eternal Melody records by John Duvengar

Mad pirate by John Duvengar

JAMROCK Magazine Spring 2012 by Hyaku

Good Trips by Khuan Cavemen Co

Good Toys by Khuan Cavemen Co

Australia by Khuan Cavemen Co

And Thus A Flaming Skull was in a Chokehold by Justin Gray

Penn & Teller by Glen Brogan

Ryan Raschbaum

SURGE Collection 2012 by Fuse Collective and Adrian Knopik

The Big Lebowski poster by Olaf Cuadras

Graphic Design for NIKE 2012 SP by Filter017

Esquire US by Tim Boelaars

Icons by Tim Boelaars

NIKE AIR JORDAN – Y O T D by Ginger Monkey

I Love White Rabbit by Iván Aquino

QWERTY people by Alon Braier

World of LEGO by Alexandra Malysheva

FISHDOM by Alexandra Malysheva

Lab Partners

PENDULUM OF DEATH by RUA RuelJunAndaya

Pullman Yards Custom Lettering by Eric Waetzig

Weekly Vector Inspiration #167

Rype — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:01:33 +0000

Seb NIARK1 FERAUT

Rainbowl by Gabriel Mourelle

Gabriel Mourelle

Tea for Friends by Gabriel Mourelle

Zhero by Gabriel Mourelle

Cycle Cycle by Richard Perez

Seattle Weekly by Invisible Creature

Flora by Invisible Creature

Adventure on a Small Floating Island, Part I by Justin Gray

Adventure on a Small Floating Island, Part II by Justin Gray

Darwin Yamamoto

NOT FAR FROM OUR IMAGINATION by Pavel Enzi

COMICS Philosophy and Practice

Judge Dredd 2 by Lee Hasler

Nike t-shirt April 2012 Octopus by TokyoCandies

Zombie News by Glennz Tees

The Master of Suspense by Dave Perillo

Bebop by Matt Kaufenberg

Brutally Cool by Joshua Budich

Alex Perez

mondo: avengers: hawkeye by strongstuff

online game Airport by st-valentin

Andrew Nye

Illustrator CS6 Gradients on Strokes Sneak Peak

Rype — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:05:44 +0000

Adobe made another Illustrator CS6 sneak peak video. This time showcasing Gradient Strokes in CS6! It has always been a work around to create faux gradient strokes in Illustrator. This usually included faking the strokes in the Appearance panel or creating complicated blends. According to the video, this will be a great deal easier in Illustrator CS6. I’m looking forward to the changes. How are the changes stacking up for you? Thinking of upgrading?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Weekly Vector Inspiration #166

Rype — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:58:24 +0000