To achieve some really cool effects - in Illustrator, you can change things - like the opacity of artwork and apply what's called blending modes.
Opacity actually means - controlling how transparent or see through something is.
Applying blending modes to your artwork can change how color in one object - blends with the color beneath it.
Like in this example.
Let's see how making content transparent - using opacity can lead to amazing things - in your artwork.
I'll zoom into this poster.
Let's temporarily hide this lighthouse.
So go ahead and select it and choose Object, Hide, Selection.
We're going to make these mountains - look like they're reflecting in the water.
So we're going to copy - and flip the mountains.
Go ahead and select them, copy them, and then paste them - right on top by choosing Edit, Paste in Front.
Now to flip them, click Flip Vertically over here - in the Properties panel.
Then drag them into place.
To make them more see through, - in the Properties panel over here, you're going to see Opacity.
I'll just drag the slider to the left - to make the mountains more transparent.
Now, the clouds here - would also look better if they were partially transparent.
So let's select a few of them - with the Selection Tool.
And then come over here - and change the Opacity.
Notice how you can actually see - where they overlap.
Let's try something - a little different here.
Set the Opacity back to 100%.
Now we're going to group the clouds first, - and then apply Opacity.
So go ahead and group them.
Now apply the Opacity - and check out the difference.
It's applying the Opacity - to the whole group.
Now, if you were to ungroup the clouds, the opacity change would be removed - since it's applied to the group.
If you want to practice adjusting opacity, why don't you try adjusting the opacity for some other artwork in this design - like this color on the water.
When you're finished, - go ahead and show the lighthouse again by choosing Object, Show all.
Now I'll introduce you to blending modes or a way to blend colors between objects.
See how these circles in this final artwork - sort of blend into each other making new colors?
This is caused by applying - a blending mode to each circle.
Let's try it.
Select this circle, come over here in the Properties panel - and click the word Opacity and you should now - see the Transparency panel.
Click this Blending Mode menu here.
And you'll see a whole bunch - of blending modes here.
They're arranged in groups in the menu - based on how they affect the artwork.
For instance, - blend modes in this Darken group here, produce a result that's darker - than the color of the artwork on top or even underneath.
This Lighten group produces a result that's lighter - than either the artwork on top or the underlying artwork.
Let's try one.
Try Multiply first.
You're going to see the resulting color - is actually darker, since the color - where the circles overlap is multiplied.
To finish this logo, - you're just going to take this top circle, copy it and rotate it around, - so it looks like this.
You're going to use a command - called Radial Repeat.
We're going to let Illustrator - make the copies for us.
So first get rid of this circle - by deleting it.
Then with this circle selected, - go ahead and choose Object, Repeat, Radial.
You can see that it made a bunch of copies - in a radial pattern.
Now to adjust them, there're all these widgets out here - you can drag.
Let's just do this one, drag this widget so the circles - are a little bit closer together.
Then just drag it up - a little bit into place.
Now the circles are in a special group - called a radial repeat object.
You can see that here.
To be able to edit the circle separately, you're going to need to do something - called Expand this repeat object, that means break it apart.
So choose Object, Expand...
In the dialog box that opens - select Object and deselect Fill.
That just means - we want separate circles or objects.
Click OK.
Now, the circles are circles, - but they're grouped together, so we need to ungroup them.
Click Ungroup over here - in the Properties panel.
And if you look up here at the top - of the Properties panel, it's saying that they're still grouped.
So click Ungroup once more, and you can now see that each circle - can be moved independently.
Make sure all the circles - are still selected.
And then we'll apply a blending mode - by clicking Opacity.
I'm going to try something like Overlay.
Let's also try changing the colors - of some of these circles.
That way we get more - of a colorful pattern.
I'll do that with the Fill color over here.
I think they look pretty good.
To finish the logo - you can drag the tree onto the shapes.
There are so many amazing things - you can do with blending modes and Opacity together or separately to make your amazing artwork come alive.
Why don't you try experimenting - by applying different colors and even different blending modes - to the circles to see what you come up with. -
