Blend Tool Not Making Smooth Color Blend

Check out Freeform Gradient, this will give you a nice way to create skintone at no time.

I know it's been over a decade since this question, but hopefully this answer helps anyone still struggling with no answer.

My Issue: Whenever I tried to blend two objects with a gradient fill, Illustrator would not allow me to press Make. 

Solution: Create two objects with single-color fills and blend them. Then click Object > Blend > Expand. Then select all the objects in the blend and use the eyedropper tool to select the gradient you're wanting to use. Bam, it works.

*Make sure you have your blend setting set to Specified Steps.

The blend "smooth color" option will break like this if there is another special effect, (fx), assigned to the appearance.

I was just having a similar problem. I fixed it by not outlining my shapes.

Hi I was having the same issue and realized one of my elements was a compound path. try going to object>compund path and releasing it. that should work.

I struggled just now with the same problem. I downloaded an EPS from istock which had smooth transitions in the blend in the file displayed on iStock, but when i opened the EPS file the transitions where filled with stripes. Selecting the 'smooth' option in the spacing box would not solve this problem. After some searching and trying i found an answer.

My top layer of grouped objects has an opacity of 80% and is filled gray with no stroke.

My bottom layer of grouped objects has an opacity of 0% and is filled white with no stroke

I then blend the two groups with the option 'specified distance' on 1px

With the blend group selected in you layers panel you see an 'opacity' link in your control bar

Click this link and deselect the option 'Knockout group'

This made my blend a smooth gradient like i was looking for.

Hi. I am having the same issue,in CS6. I have a tutorial where a blend is working as desired, then I am changing the two strokes defining the extents of the blend. When I change the opacity from 100% the blend has problems generating smooth colour. In fact when I change the opacity of one stroke, the blend degrades to a number of individual strokes. It appears that with the smooth colour setting, internally, Illustrator is creating discrete steps - just enough of them to give the illusion of a smooth colour blend. Here I duplicated the blend and changed the lowest path to 10% opacity. I then changed it to a different solid colour and this now clearly seems to be using steps. Answer - not 1005 reliable...

@KarynRH

This issue has plagued me for years!

Today I was having this problem again and I found this thread as a means to see if there was a solution. It basically told me what I do already - manually define steps.

However it got me thinking that there must be a reason why it works sometimes and not others.

The answer is - the tool needs data from which its calculations can derive the proper outcome.

What data does it need?

If you have a square with the colour R0 G0 B0 and another square of R255 G255 B255 and a Smooth Colour Blend is applied, then the tool's coding will get the larger of the value sets and minus the lesser of the value sets. In this case, 255 - 0 = 255. It then gets the distance between the two objects and divides this distance into value sets which define the best transition between the objects, perhaps R5 G5 B5 > R10, G10, B10 > R15 G15 B15, etc.

If both of the colours present in the squares were R255 G255 B255, then 255 - 255 = 0. Now you can't divide 0 with anything, or divide by 0 itself, so to stop Illustrator crashing, there would likely be some coding to the effect of "if X = 0 then X = 1". This is why you would be presented with 1 step when Smooth Colour Blend is used.

This can be made apparent when you create two squares with both R0 G0 B0, create a smooth blend, then change one of the squares to R2 G0 B0. 2 steps are created. Change this to R1 G0 B0 and you get 1 step. Change it to R0 G0 B0 and you are left with 1 step.

The Smooth Colour option for the Blend tool doesn't make a smooth colour based on visual aesthetics of a continual non-stepping graduation, but rather a calculated and approximated representation that does the thinking for you.

Why do some objects not blend correctly or despite ample colour value variation, still step incorrectly?

Perhaps you have some text "Smooth Blend" on two lines. These were create using the type tool, they were then expanded into shapes. You then copy it and change its colour. You create the blend and it steps badly. Why, if I have the required amount of variation in the colour values, does it still step badly?

Part of the Blend tool is not just about colour but also shape. So if the tool can't calculate a smooth transition between the shapes, it likely still has the clause "if X = 0 then X = 1". While I can't expand on how it would calculate this (I would assume it is based on X,Y coords for each node assigned on a path with some other algorithms to approximate transition shapes), but that's beyond me ; there is a way to fix it and make it work.

If you delete the copied expanded text, leaving the original in place, you can copy and paste it directly on top of the original. Selecting the two expanded text objects directly over eachother, you then use pathfinder (I like pressing alt here while clicking the Unite button then click "Expand" to ensure the operation has worked the way I want it). Now you have effectively made a new object with no "history". This object no longer holds the seperate node groupings of the expanded text object since it is likely that the expand command runs left to right, top down in creating the objects.

Now when you create your objects to blend, it will smoothly blend the shape and the colour.

Note: This "fresh object creation" trick can be used in any instance where an object isn't behaving properly.

@Cydward: With your example showing the stepping, you might need to apply this "fresh object creation" to overcome this fault in your transition.

KarynRH wrote: Jacob Bugge wrote: Karyn, You may (also) start looking at Gradient Meshes. That's next. I was going in what seemed to me the order of complexity - gradients, blends, and then gradient meshes. I used a gradient mesh once before while following a tutorial but that gave me a barely passing understanding of it. Thanks!

KarynRH wrote: I'm using Illustrator CC (on a Win7 Pro machine) at a beginner level, probably halfway to intermediate. I'm trying to learn how to blend colors together for highlights of various types (skin tones, clothing, light on objects, etc.) so that when I'm making a graphic for a project I'll have a decent idea of which tool/technique is best for the specific effect I need.

Not to take away from the topic and issues being discussed concerning blends but I think Jacob's suggestion in the very first post is the direction you need to head concerning the objectives you outlined in your initial post. You may also wish to look into the free plugin "Mesh Tormentor" for working with gradient meshes more indepth. I believe to achieve the results your ultimately striving for which you mentioned "(skin tones, clothing, light on objects, etc.)" then gradient meshes in general are where you need to spend your time and learning efforts for such things.

I've never used a gradient on one end of a Blend.  I always considered a Blend between two colors.  The advantage to a Blend over a Gradient is you can blend shapes with the Blend option.  Smooth Color should work between 2 colors, but may depend on the actual size of the Blend and perhaps Document > Raster setting.  I'm not sure about the gradient being one of the colors and may be creating a problem.  Try creating a new Blend using the flesh color of one ellipse, and the darker pink as the other ellipse.  Dupe the ellipses and create one set using Smooth color, and the other ellipse set use Number of Steps ( depends on size, start with 12 ).