Gradient Mesh Help Please

I am struggling to control the gradient mesh tool. I can't reposition anchors on the edge without reshaping the object. When I use the tool (not generating from the objects menu) it feels like a craps shoot. I never know where the mesh will intersect the edge of the object and I can't change it when it's there.
I've been looking for instructions for this online for days, but I can't find anything. I must have watched a dozen tutorials hoping they would explain it.
Thanks for any help you can provide!

OK if you hold the shift key and move the anchor it will do what you want look at the video
http://mysite.verizon.net/wzphoto/GreadientMesh.mov

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Gradient Mesh Help

I like the idea of the tool, but whenever I could really use apply it, it seems I mess with it way too much.
My particular problem at the moment is shading a kind of boomerang shape...like the sun was hitting it from the top.
I draw the boomerang shape and when i click inside of it with the gradient mesh tool it to creat a first division of the gradient i get some whacked out lines that are nearly impossible to edit and smooth out.
Is there any advice about creating the mesh or good tutorials about creating it in a complex shape?

We all just sort of learnt this technique a few days a go.
Draw you boomerang shape and select with the direct select tool the four most outer anchor points like such
Then go to Object>Create Gradient Mesh and enter your desired divisions like such
then make sure you have the fill select on the color proxy. Add your colors.

Convert live trace object to gradient mesh? Help please! :)

Does anyone have advice on turning a live trace object into a gradient mesh? Or some sort of workaround? We love the live trace tool, but cannot get the mesh to apply to it unless created by the pen tool first. Thanks for any help, using CS5.

Yes Monika has this right.
Ths is wha will happen toyour rt if you are first sucessful in creating shapes and then if you are successful in converting to gradient mesh.
You willlose your strokes and some of your strkes will be in part filed objects.
Best to do the live trace for the ink work and the gradient mesh as separate shaphes, but I do not think it is ncessary to lose you strokes by using tham ads clipping paths I think simply placing the gradient mesh objects behind the line work will do the trick.
Sort of like this

Need help with adding shadows to a shape (gradient mesh?...blur tool?)

Hello. I'm an Illustrator novice, as you will be able to tell from my question. I'm somewhat familiar with the gradient mesh tool as well as the raster effects that Illustrator CS3 offers, but I can't figure out how to use them to do what I have to do.
Here's my situation. I'm creating a logo design. It is a musical note with a flame coming off of it. I want to add the appearance of the shape having shadows (yellow for the light areas, and red for the shadowed areas).
I can't get the gradient mesh tool to work because I'm assuming the shape is too complex. I understand that I could probably just create a bunch of different gradient mesh areas and just try to mesh them together, but is this necessary? ...and is chopping my shape into mulitple sections really the best method ? (it sure doesn't seem like the logical solution).
Then I tried using Illustrators blur effects. I'm concerned to even use them for a logo design, because the "blur" effect is raster, and with a logo; it's probably not wise to use anything raster, correct? Anyway...i can't get it to work. I created a shape using the pen tool to replicate the shape of the shadow. When i blur it, the blur is visable outside the original logo shape. I don't know how to make it stop at the path edge. Does anyone know how?
If anyone can please help me here, I would be more than grateful. I realize these questions probably stupid ones, but I just can't seem to figure out how to do this, despite reading tutorials and watching numerous youtube videos on the gradient mesh tool; I can't seem to figure out how to adapt it to my situation.
Here is the image I created in Photoshop. I am trying to duplicate it in Illustrator CS3.
[URL=http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=surefiremusicnote.jpg][IMG]http://img515.ima geshack.us/img515/9348/surefiremusicnote.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks Steve and Jet. I've spent the lasts 2 hours calling around to different print shops in hope that I can maybe trade labor for insight into their printing process. Problem is there seems to be a lack of 4 color offset printing companies who also offer spot colors. I really wish I had the money to take a class, but when I do, I will. I just contacted a few freelance designers who seem to have a lot of print work in their portfolios. Maybe they can teach me a thing or two, and in return I can drop them a few bucks or help them with something.
Jet, you've got me very concerned here. What do you mean by "It's not just a matter of selecting colors; it's also a matter of selecting the number of inks necessary to render them in the various reproduction methods in which the mark will be used"? Are you just stating the importance in using swatch books (Pantone)?
You mention the importance of a design being rendered in different forms (apparel, signs, promotional items..). So how should I go about doing this? Lets say a client wants a "mark" printed on all of the things you stated. Is it my duty to find out what printer they will be using before I submit design files to them? Is it the job of the designer to contact the print shop and get their profiles for different prints (glossy paper prints, matte paper prints, t-shirt printing, vehicle graphic printing)? This is all very time consuming, so should there not be extra charges when dealing with setting up different print settings for particular print jobs?
I've read the blogs of some successful logo designers. David Airey for example just submits his logo design to his client in eps form I believe (plus any requests). Should he be submitting a separate file for each intended use, or is this the job of the client and printer to work out?
You've got me extremely worried that I am going to really deal someone a bad hand here. As far as I know, this hasn't happened yet; but I'm glad you have me concerned. The sad part is that I do have a 2 year degree in graphic design and I didn't learn one thing about printing and it's association with color. The little I have learned is from the internet. I've checked out Amazon(dot)com for a good book on learning about color and print, but there seems to be a lack of recently written books (with reviews) regarding the subject. Can you recommend any?
I started doing freelance work because people would ask me to design a t-shirt for them, or a flyer for their small business. So I did. Now I have more people requesting my services. It's hard to turn down the money, especially in these times. But at the same time, I don't want to cause major headaches for anyone either. Until recently, I had no idea the complexity of the design to print process. Just 3 days ago, I purchased a monitor calibration device and my first set of Pantone guides. They should arrive shortly. I know, don't laugh.
My lack of knowledge regarding this whole thing has really got me questioning what I am doing. I figured all i really needed to know in Illustrator was to use the pen tool, since my use of Illustrator has been strictly for shaping logos.
There are just so many questions I have, and all can't be answered through a google search. I really don't like wasting your time with my ignorance, but I do appreciate your assistance. It takes some time for my little brain to absorb all of this, but I have been reading all I can from the endless tutorials and forum discussions available on the web. The problem I've found is that alongside the large amount of great info on the web, there is seemingly an equal amount of contradictory or partially inaccurate info as well. which only confuses me more. For example, most people say to design in cmyk for print (300dpi higher or vector). A rep from Pantone told me to create my designs using Pantones color swatch groups. Why would I want to start in Pantone? Don't all of their colors cost extra money (spot colors require a new printer plate and ink to be set up). Starting in cmyk seems like a more logical approach. Is he just trying to sell me Pantone?
Sorry for my redundant question regarding the concern for non-single colored paths not being able to join. You obviously answered my question with your example.
For your time, I would like to show my appreciation. If you wouldn't' mind leaving your paypal address, I can send ya a couple/few bucks. Books are great, but they can't answer all questions. Forums like this one are really very helpful and a great learning tool. I do realize I have to continue educating myself as much as possible. I'm not going to give up, that's for sure.
So, do you work for Adobe, or are you a graphic designer? Do you have a website with tutorials or a book I can buy lol?
It would be great to be able to see a walkthrough in the design process of a successful designer and the proper methods of designing for different forms of print.

Help please: gradient to follow shape 'swirl' then fade out to transparent

Hi
I was wondering if anyone could possible help me on the best way to go about what i would love to achieve...
Above is my shape that I have created (its a swirl to go above some text for a logo) I would like the gradient to follow the swirl around rather than being at a fixed angle that it is currently now. I am trying to create a light moving type effect really with the CYMK colours... I would like each edge at the LHS end to be either in colour then the centre bit to be fading to transparent (or vice versa - not decided yet) so the end looks like something similar to below.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I am relatively new to illustrator and only really know the basics of basics that have seemed to have got my by so far but would love to know & learn more...
Many thanks,
T

That's how I got to Carnegie Hall…Practice…Practice…Practice:and of course the subway I took and the ticket I bought.
It was a really good show and worth the effort.
You'll get there once you're familar with the tool.
A hint in CS 5 and beyond you can give an point in the gradient mesh transparency. Select the point and go to the Transparency Panel and lower the opacity and there you are.

[CS4] Gradient Mesh- uneditable "helper" points

How do I delete the extra points that appear along a path when using the Gradient Mesh tool?
If you create an organic shaped object then convert it to a gradient mesh you get a cross pattern with handles at the mesh points. Adding more paths creates more paths. But sometimes these paths have invisible helper points which cause kinks when you try to edit the line. They try to maintain their original shape when the path is moved via the mesh point handles. Anyone who's worked with gradient meshes knows this. By deleting these extra points, the line becomes smooth and workable. It's absolutely essential for example when an additional line is added with the gradient mesh tool and the line takes a shortcut extending it beyond the parameters of the artwork. By deleting the points, the line can be edited and guided back inside the artwork's edges.
To see these extra points, press the + or - key while the mesh object is selected.
Previous versions of Illustrator allowed these extra points to be deleted. In CS you merely had to click the - key to change the pen tool to the delete pen tool. Clicking the points was identical to removing anchor points. Simple, easy and absolutely necessary.
In CS3 the minus-pen tool stopped working until after many hours of searching on the internet I found that by unchecking the "Snap to Point" in the preferences, made it work again.
I make my living by illustrating. The gradient mesh tool is a huge part of what I do. Without the ability to edit these points the tool is useless.
I hope they are still editable or I'll have to go back to CS3.
Thank you.
BD

StrongBeaver wrote:
Using the remove points pen tool does not work for me on gradient mesh points. The gradient mesh adds vertical or horizontal lines I want to remove either a point or an entire line.
rcraighead - Already tried your suggestion before asking, didn't work.
Use the direct select tool to select the anchor point you wish to delete then hit delete. The mesh will be deselected after you hit delete so you have to reselect it and you will see that the anchor point and mesh line associated with it are gone.
Ray-
The need to deselect the snap to point option in the preferences persists for CS 5 *** well.
this is how the direct select to and the delete key work out.
If you want just one line you have to select the point that intersects with the outer path.

Need help with Gradient Mesh

So I am trying to make a gradient mesh of the shape shown here...
But when I apply gradient mesh to it, I get a very unworkable result (as shown below) ...any suggestions on how I can make this?

This is a rectangle converted to a 2-row, 2-column gradient mesh and reshaped. Only nine points to deal with.
Peter

Perplexed by gradient mesh

I have used gradient mesh along time. Usually it does exactly what I want it to do so I never questioned how it worked. Today, I was working on a project and I can't seem to get the mesh to do what I want.
So I went out to do some research and I can't seem to find information on this topic anywhere. It seems almost mystical. So if there is a great resource that explains the logic behind how Illustrator choose the start and end point of a mesh line, please send it to me and I apologize in advance if this info is easily found.
Here is my problem. I have a curve. If I click into the curve where I want a mesh line, the mesh line doesn't follow the shape of the object.
Here is my shape
When I use create gradient mesh, this is the mesh that I get. My question is why didn't the mesh lines follow the curve of the object. The first two columns are fine but the last column is totally messed up. Why did it choose to use the points on the outside of the curve instead as the end points? I get similar results when using the mesh tool.
As far as I can tell there is no way to change this once the mesh is created. You can't delete an end point and you can't move it without totally rebuilding your shape.
I created a simplified shape with less points and it did the exact same thing.
Does anyone have any help or advice on this topic. I don't understand why you aren't able to control where the start and end point is of a mesh line when you use the mesh tool. How does it choose a start and end point? This just perplexes me. It just seems random to me but I am sure that is just because I haven't figured the pattern yet.

Scott is absolutely correct.

Gradient mesh kinks

I am using cs3 on a g5. I have little kinks in the outline of my gradient mesh shape that are impossible to delete or smooth out. Please help because I have a terrible deadline as usual!
Carlo

I've found that the way you get rid of these kinks is that you add anchor points on either side of the kink, and then you select those two anchor points and delete. This will delete all the "helper" points between the two points.
I don't get why you can't just edit the helper points directly. They show up as mini anchors when you use the Anchor+ and Anchor- tools, but clicking on them using the Anchor- tool does nothing (I guess the developer's never heard of the Principle of Least Astonishment). And then when you click on the anchor selection tool, the helper points all disappear—and that is the most insidious part, as you cannot see the helper points when you are using the convert tool or dragging the handles. So I spent many hours wondering why the vector on one side of the anchor seemingly would not obey/respond to any changes in the handle position.
Very, very frustrating until I figured out the adjacent anchors trick...
If this is indeed an intended behavior and something which has existed in all previous versions of Illustrator and also in CS5, then there must be some other underlying reasoning or usage method that I am not aware of.

Smooth Curves with Gradient Mesh???

Hi everyone! For a school project I was to render an everyday object and I chose a pepper. I created the pepper with the mesh tool and also rendered it with the gradient mesh, now my instructor says that I need to have really smoothe curves but I have way too many anchor points so I don't know how to fix the curves. He said I might have to restart but please someone help me. I don't want to redo the whole thing.
Thank you.
Eagerly waiting for help.

You don't actually need to redo it in order to reduce the number of grid lines. With the gradient mesh tool it's possible to delete them.
Although I wouldn't consider this "way" too many. But you've got a problem with the dark spots in the upper right corner. It's too small to see the details there, but it looks like the grid lines overlap each other. try and fix that and then check if the points at the border are colored euqally.

Creating gradient mesh object, object turns into gradient mesh object w/ white fill

Creating gradient mesh object, object turns into a gradient mesh object w/ white fill automatically.
I would like this to be a stroke object as I cannot see the picture that I am trying to recreate.
Illustrator is not allowing me to change the white fill into a stroke after I create the gradient mesh object.
Here is the image when I try to create the gradient mesh object, I do not have the white fill option chosen and the image still
becomes a white fill gradient mesh object.
Please can anyone help??
Thank you.

Sure. A gradient mesh won't have strokes. It will always have fills. If you want no fill, you need to set the opacity of a single mesh point to 0%. But you actually don't want to do that for the complete grid, because it will be very time consuming to adjust this back to 100 percent for every single meshpoint when coloring them.
Instead the usual setup is with the two layers. This allows you to see the gridlines and the template. Then you first adjust the grid (color doesn't matter for this). Then you pick up the colors from the template to color the single mesh points. From time to time you switch into preview to admire your work.

Can i save a vector with gradient mesh as isolated .PNG?

Hi,
Can i save a vector with gradient mesh as isolated .PNG?
It has some effects, so if i'm taking it out from the blue background it becomes darker.
Any advice? I need it isolated png for using it in an iOS app.
Many thanks

I am using Illustrator CS6, on Mac.
I can't copy and paste the "cloud" into a new document to save it, because it looses the effect of those filters (since the background is no longer behind it).
Sorry if im not explaining it right, i'm a beginner in illustrator. Can i group both the "cloud" and the blue background, to get just one shape: the realistic white cloud?
P.S: i can make a link with the .esp file of the clouds, if it helps.

Gradient mesh transparency problem when saving for web

Hi,
I created a shadow using a gradient mesh but I can't seem to figure out how to set the mesh points to multiply. As a result, when I do save for web, the white parts get saved as opaqe areas and the shadow png can't be placed on a colored background. Help.

...and aside from what Monika said, consider the limitations of transparency handling in web image formats as well as what impact the differences in handling of transparancies between browsers may have on the web site design.
Mylenium

Using gradients with the gradient mesh tool

So I have a basic knowledge of using the gradient mesh tool, but in my current project I need the gradients within the object to fade from black to transparent (it will be used for a one-color tshirt). I've tried to do this a couple different ways. First, I created a solid white rectangle (no stroke) then created a 1 row 1 column flat gradient mesh on it. Added the points I needed, even added the color, and the fade is exactly the shape I need, but I can't figure out how to get rid of the white, and just have the black fade to transparent. I also tried creating a rectangle with a linear gradient fill, clicked expand and selected gradient mesh, but as soon as I press ok it changes it to solid black. I included a cropped picture of what I'm talking about. All the tail feathers need to have that black fade but without the white, it needs to fade out to transparent like the other gradients around it. I put a color background behind the image to make these areas easier to see. It seems like there should be an easy solution, but I'm not sure how to do it. Any help would be really appreciated.

Edit: set all mesh point to black.
Assuming that your version of Illustrator allows it, you can get what you want by adjusting the opacity of the mesh points, something like this:

Gradient mesh tool and scribble effect

Hi
Was hoping some bright spark can help me! I am trying to apply a scribble effect to an object that is colored with a Gradient Mesh. Is this possible and if so how is it done?
I can apply a scribble effect to a normal gradient but not a gradient mesh.
Thank-you
John

Here I made the gradient mesh into a patern fill by draging it into the swatch panel and then fillinf a rectangle path with that swatch it is tricky gettting the fill to fill the whole rectangle without showing the pttern seams.
But once you have it correctly palce you can then apply the Scribble effect if you want to scale it you have to expand the appearance.

Gradient Mesh Help Please

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