Jazzy Vector Effects: Production Graphics with Wendy Peck at webreference.com

Jazzy Vector Effects: Vectors Can Be Fun

Selection of effects added to the same rectangle in Adobe Illustrator. No action beyond click-and-drag was added to any of these effects. Illustration programs have always been best at the 2D effects. Now many of them have added a generous selection of instant, and editable, 3D effects.

Perhaps the holiday spirit is falling on me, but somehow revealing a basic technique just does not seem appropriate this week, no matter how useful. So I am going to go where there is more fun – into effects.

But I am not going there with what you would expect. When I say effects, my guess is that most of you fall immediately into Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro mode. I admit, both of those programs have more effects and variations than I can live long enough to try.

Most of the current crop of vector programs, including CorelDraw, Illustrator and (the hybrid) Fireworks, have much to offer for special effects. Even those of us who are on record as loving vector programs, like yours truly, tend to forget how much special effect power is hidden behind the wonderful, object-based plain facade.

Well, let's bring them out of the closet and see what they can do. There is no way that I can do justice to this subject in one short tutorial, so take my lead and start to do some of your own exploring. You are in for a wild ride if you think of your vector programs as the bread and butter cousins of the sexy raster programs. They may not flaunt it, but they sure do have what it takes.

To restrict the subject a little, since I can picture me still here weeks from now, gathering one more little idea, the effects in this article have to be nearly instant. No full-page descriptions allowed. After all, isn't that what an effect is supposed to do for you?

This time we will look at Adobe Illustrator. We will take the same look at CorelDraw 10 and Fireworks in the coming weeks.

Wendy Peck is a working Web designer and writer living in NW Ontario, Canada. https://wpeck.com

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Jazzy Vector Effects Tutorial Index

Jazzy Vector Effects: Vectors Can Be Fun
Illustrator Twists and Bends
Click and Drag Styles
A Style of Your Own
Change a Bushel of Graphics with a Click