- In this chapter, we'll add what I'm calling
device independent shading,
and the idea is this,
we have a black and white version of our logo
for single-color reproduction
and we have a spot-color version
for conventional pre-press.
Now what we need is something that looks great
big and backlit,
as well as onscreen,
by which I mean kiosk, dedicated display or the web,
which gives us permission to get creative with our colors
without concerning ourselves with the usual output headaches
like half tones and banding.
In other words, we're now free to introduce shading
in the form of gradients.
In fact, what we're seeing here is the product
of three overlapping gradients working together,
subject to translucency and blend mode.
At the same time,
we're maintaining that turquoise and blue color scheme
that we established in the previous chapter,
although, and we have to be careful here,
we're doing so subjectively.
So it's gonna help if you have
a discriminating sense of color
and you're working on a calibrated system.
But that doesn't mean we're just flying
by the seat of our pants here.
We can still work by the numbers
and come up with something distinctive and reproducible.
Now, in this movie, we're gonna do
a little bit of housekeeping
and get our file ready to go.
And then in the next movie,
we'll begin to introduce some gradients.
Now, the first thing I need to do
is retrieve that version of the logo
that traces around all of the elements,
including the planet here
and the interior of the rocket.
And that shape is located on this layer right here,
fused art, which is the black and white version
of the graphic.
So what I'm gonna do is click on that layer to select it.
You don't need to make it visible, by the way.
Just go ahead and click on it
here inside the Layers panel,
and then bring up the flyout menu
and choose Duplicate fused art.
And now I'm gonna drag that guy
above the solid colors layer,
and I'm gonna go ahead and modify it
by double-clicking on an empty portion of the layer,
and I'm gonna change its name to gradients.
And then I'm also gonna change the color
to, let's say, Violet,
just to set it apart from the other layers,
and I'll click OK.
Now what I wanna do is create a copy
of this turquoise Earth right here.
So I'll go ahead and click on it.
And this is that element that's found
on the solid colors layer.
Now I'll copy it by pressing control c,
or command c on the Mac,
and now I can turn off that solid colors layer,
just to keep it safe,
and I'll turn on the gradients layer here.
Go ahead and click on the gradients layer
to make it active.
Make sure,
here inside the flyout menu,
that Paste Remembers Layers is turned off.
Then you can press control f, or command f on a Mac,
to paste a copy
of that object.
Notice right now it's a group,
as we can see on the far left side of the control panel,
but because we're gonna be filling these shapes
with a continuous gradient,
I really need it to be a compound path,
so I'm gonna go up to the Object menu,
choose Compound Path and choose Make.
Now we'll convert it to a compound path,
as we're seeing over here
on the left side of the control panel.
So in other words, it doesn't matter
that it started off as a group.
It is now, in Illustrator's mind,
a single path outline made up of two subpaths,
and therefore, it will share a common fill.
All right, now the next thing I need to do
is select the text
by partially marqueeing it with the black arrow tool.
Now I'm gonna set it back to that RGB Black
up here in the Swatches panel.
So notice the fill is active,
so I can just go ahead and click on that swatch
in order to change the fill of the text.
But I'm actually gonna double-click on it
in order to bring up the Swatch Options dialogue box.
And just so I'm clear on what's going on,
I'm gonna change the name of this color
to RGB Black,
which is the darkest black that there is.
Now I'll go ahead and click OK
in order to accept that change,
and I'll click off the text to deselect it.
All right, so much for the housekeeping.
We are now ready to begin adding gradients,
starting in the very next movie.