In this Adobe Illustrator Essentials lesson, you'll learn all about creating and editing shapes in Adobe Illustrator. Understanding how to manipulate basic shapes is essential for creating complex illustrations that can be used in animations.
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Another Way to Transform Objects
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There are multiple different shape tools, all which can be found under the Rectangle Tool by clicking and holding.
Click and drag to draw a rectangle.
Click and drag to create an ellipse.
Click and drag to create a polygon.
Once you've created a polygon, you can adjust the number of sides by dragging the small diamond icon on the bounding box.
Click and drag to create a star shape.
Once you've created a star, you can adjust the number or points, inner and outer radius using the controls on the bounding box.
With one of the shape tools, click anywhere on the artboard or canvas. You'll get a pop-up box where you can type in the exact parameters for the shape.
Shapes can have a fill color, which is the color inside the shape, and a stroke color, which is the outline. Set the colors using the buttons in the toolbar.
A red slash line through either the fill or stroke box means no fill or no stroke.
You'll learn more about color in an upcoming lesson.
In the Stroke Panel, there are options to adjust the appearance of the outline of a shape or path, including:
The miter limit controls at what point a mitered (pointed) join turns into a beveled (squared-off) join. The default miter limit is 10. This means when the length of the point is ten times the stroke weight, the corner is switched from a miter join to a bevel join.
Using the Selection Tool, first select the shape. Click and drag the corner widgets to round corners. This will round all corners at once.
If you want to select only one corner click the corner widget so that it's more bold than the others, then drag to round the corner. To round some, but not all corners at once, click corner widgets you'd like to round, holding shift to select multiple.
While dragging the round corner widget, use the up and down arrow keys to switch corner types.
Once you've rounded a corner, click on the corner widget holding Option/Alt to cycle through corner types.
In the Transform Panel, you'll see different properties depending on what type of shape is selected. From here you can adjust things like width, height, rotation, position and corner radius and type.
Note that if you create a custom shape, you won't have options specific to the shape in the Transform Panel. You'll learn more about creating custom shapes in this lesson (coming soon). Custom shapes are created either by not using the shape tool, or by adjusting the individual anchor points on a shape created with a shape tool.
The Reference Point on an object is the point where all transformations (think scale, rotation, reflection, or shear) will happen from. The Reference Point is very similar to what's called the Anchor Point in Adobe After Effects.
When a shape is selected and you're using one of the transform tools (Scale, Rotate, Reflect, or Shear) the Reference Point is indicated by a cross with a circle on top:
You can reposition the Reference Point when using one of the transform tools (covered below).
In the Transform Panel, you can adjust where the reference point is with the little grid of squares:
Using the Scale Tool allows you to scale the shape from the Reference Point. With the Scale Tool, click to move the Reference Point.
Option/Alt click the Reference Point to bring up a pop-up where you can choose the exact percentage to scale the object.
Using the Rotate Tool allows you to rotate the shape from the Reference Point. With the Rotate Tool, click to move the Reference Point.
Option/Alt click the Reference Point to bring up a pop-up where you can choose the exact degrees to rotate the object.
Using the Reflect Tool allows you to flip the shape from the Reference Point. With the Reflect Tool, click to move the Reference Point.
Option/Alt click the Reference Point to bring up a pop-up where you can choose the exact degrees to reflect the object.
You can also modify skew angles in the Transform Panel.
For more precise transformations, select a shape, then right click it. Go to Transform, then choose to either Move, Scale, Rotate, Reflect, or Shear the shape. This will bring up the same pop-up that allows you to type in exact values to transform the shape.
To repeat the last transformation, use the keyboard shortcut Command/Ctrl + D.
Now that you understand the basics of creating and editing shapes, you can start building more complex illustrations. In the next tutorial, you'll learn how to work with multiple shapes, including duplicating, aligning, and grouping.
