So that wraps it up with working with your basic gradients. The next topic is working with something called a Gradient Mesh. So to get started with gradient meshes, we use some basic shapes, sort of like we have done in some of the previous lessons, just to give you a feel for how they work, and then we will get into using gradient meshes on an actual sample file.
So here's what I'd like you to do. Hit your D key on your keyboard, again to reset filling your stroke, grab your Oval Tool and give yourself some kind of an oval to work with here. Now the idea of a gradient mesh is a little bit different from a gradient, a traditional gradient transitions from one color to another color or as you saw from one color to another color, to another color, to another color, something like this.
A gradient mesh allows us to put a grid or a mesh on top of an object and assign colors to different points or different intersecting lines on that mesh. It's pretty cool; you can create some pretty neat effects here.
So if I am going to get started with a Gradient Mesh, the first thing that I do is I set a base color for my object, and it doesn't really matter what your base fill color is, just make sure that your Fill Color Swatch in the bottom of your toolbox is on top and I will start with a blue for example, there we are.
Now there is more than one way to create a Gradient Mesh. One of the more simplistic ways to get started with gradient meshes is to use the Gradient Mesh Tool in Illustrator's toolbox. So grab your Mesh Tool and what I am going to do now is just single-click wherever I would like to have an intersecting line. And I can put these intersections wherever I want, all over my object, something like this. I can take these points here and move them around; each of these points also has a set of direction lines. I call them teeder todders here which I can move and manipulate.
Now it looks pretty nifty, but what does it actually do? Well, I am going to switch over to my White Arrow Tool and I will target one of my mesh points here and then I will go back to my Swatches Palette, I will pull this guy over so we have him handy here and I will assign a new color to that point. Now rather than the gradient going from left to right or from top to bottom, the gradient now disperses from the center of this point here. I will use a different color so you can see this more dramatically that's the idea here. So now I can take this point and literally move my gradient around on my object wherever I want.
I can use my direction lines here to tug and pull my gradient. If I want my color to stretch across the shape, I just pull on the anchor point direction line or pull the direction line back towards the anchor point to shorten it.
Now you can get some pretty neat effects here with your gradient meshes. I might use rather than an orange, maybe something a little bit darker like a blue, I could come along here, and of course I can continue assigning colors to the different anchor points here.
Now, you will also have anchor points around the outside of your object as well which you can of course begin applying colors to, something like this. So hopefully this is giving you a good sense of how gradient meshes might work. So maybe I decide that the bottom area of my object here is going to be dark and the top right corner of my object here is going to be closer to my light source. So I might decide to use lighter shades of blue here.
Now it might look complex here, it just takes a little bit of fiddling around to get these different effects. Now that looks pretty cool and hopefully that gives you a basic understanding of gradient meshes.
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