For all of you who expressed interest in knowing how I created the effect I tweeted about on August 30, here you go!
Original Tweet: Would you believe that this intricate pattern is made of just one circle? http://twitpic.com/2jn10v #Adobe #Illustrator #AppearancePanel
First of all, I believe that this type of pattern has a name, it is called a Guilloché pattern. All it took was a simple circle and a cool background color. The results depend on many factors, like the size of the artboard, and the size of the circle itself. So you may get varying results. Here's what I did in 7 easy steps:
Here's the finished Illustrator file if you need it: Guilloche_Rufus.ai (AI CS5, 168 KB)
Step 1. Create a new document. Here are the settings I used:
Step 2. Create a circle using the Ellipse Tool. Mine is 280pxx280px, and placed on the artboard at these coordinates:
Apply a 0.5 Stroke Weight to it.
Step 3. With the circle selected, access your Appearance Panel, and add a Distort & Transform… > Pucker & Bloat... value. I used 98%:
Step 4. With the circle selected, access your Appearance Panel, and change the values in Distort & Transform… > Transform... Here's what I used:
That's a pretty cool effect already!
Step 5. Let's now add a nice background gradient. You can create your own, but I went to my Swatches Panel and opened one of the many libraries available in Illustrator: Open Swatch Library > Gradients > Color Harmonies. Create a rectangle the size of your artboard and fill it with "Primary Complementary 2". Send it to the back.
Step 6. If there is a fill to your circle, remove it now. Change the Stroke color to white. we're almost there.
Step 7. With the circle selected, access your Appearance Panel, and change the Blending Mode of your Stroke to Overlay. Wohoo!
And this is how your Appearance Panel should look:
Change any values, especially the Pucker & Bloat, or Transform ones, and you'll get your own, very personal intricate Guilloché patterns. Have fun with Illustrator.
