howto create realistic stitched patch effect

[DAMJ]

the title says it all, how do you realisticly recreate a embroided patch effect.
think of militairy patches.

this pictures shows what i mean

http://e-patches.com/wp-content/uploadszsedc/2008/05/airsoft.jpg

http://www.emblemworks.com/zencart/images/sec.jpg

i have been fiddling around with the scribble effect. but i cant get the lighting to look right.

tnx in advance,
-Diego

[_scott__]

I find expanding the scribble effect and applying a gradient to the resuting shape helps a great deal.

[DAMJ]

by using the scribble and texturize effects I came up with this result.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/4590/68915484.png
I think it looks pretty good, except I want the stitching to stay in a 90 degree angel to the stroke on the corners and on the vertical sides of the rounded rectangle. any tips or workarounds?

[_scott__]

You would need to create a custom pattern brush to get the stitching to follow the path. Not easily done, but possible.

[DAMJ]

thanks, that worked quite well.

the only thing is you cant create a brush with the texturized effect turned on, so you have to remove the effect and then create a brush.

the "stitiching now follows the path in the corners. the only thing is that if you then re-apply the texture the texture still goes one way.
do you know a way to work around that?

[Bert_Philippus-Vf91WV]

Edit: Never mind misunderstood your issue.

Learn the appearance palette it is your friend.

Bert

[JETalmage · Accepted solution]

Embroidery border.

Store the Appearance as a Graphic Style. Apply it to any path. Create the original grad using only grays, set the Colorization mode of the Pattern Brush to Hue Shift or Tints & Shades, and the one Brush will serve for any color "thread".

JET

[DAMJ]

Thanx alot jet!

you solved my issue completely.

thanks again for taking the time to formulate this clear explanation.

-Diego

[Guest]

Hi, Thank for the short tutorial. It is very helpful but in my case I must be missing something because I can't make it work.

I follow this tutorial but when I get to the "pathfinder:merge" I don't know with which other shape I have to merge it.

If I skip the merge and drag it to the brushes, I get an error "The selected artwork contains an element that cannot be used

in a pattern brush". I found out that the problem is the gradient because if I do all the same without gradient then I can use

the artwork as a pattern. The problem is that I nedd the gradient to make it realistic. Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong?

Thank you very much in advance for your help

Carlos

[JETalmage]

You can't use grad fills in a Brush. So, as the instructions indicate, you have to:

1. Object>Expand Appearance. (Flattens the live Scribble Effect.)
2. Object>Expand...>Fill. Specify Steps: 20. (Flattens the live Gradient Fill into a set of discrete paths with normal solid fills.)
3. PathFinder palette>Merge. (Unions adjacent areas of same color, and punches areas of overlap. This is just to further optimize the Brush by minimizing the number of paths.)

These steps are all mentioned in the demo, but are not as explicitly spelled-out, because the assumption is the reader has read the manual and is familiar with the basic features and commands, and would therefore understand the "shorthand" instructions.

JET

[jay fresno]

In my case, the Round Corners effect doesn't give small round corners. What would I be doing wrong?

[Larry G. Schneider]

Try something larger than 0.001 in. That can't even be shown on the screen.

[jay fresno]

Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't get the round corner effect to work for me no matter what. But the round any corner script worked.

[Jesseham]

Not entirely relevant, but maybe helpful to anyone who happens upon this thread later (get it?  Thread! I crack myself up.)

I had cooked up a way to "embroider" a while back which might come in handy for the rest of the patch or whatever you might be making.

Source file here: http://www.illustratorhints.com/2010/05/embroidered-text-effect/

[jay fresno]

COOL!

[tromboniator]

Thanks, Jesse.

(That was sew funny. You have me in stitches. I'll needle little time to recover.)

[Jacob Bugge]

Maybe we shall all be stitched up before we knowhowto.

[Jesseham]

Ah, you guys are a rip!

[kcrossley]

Has anyone ever applied an embroidery effect to a logo? If so, how is that accomplished?

[DA341134]

Hi Guys,

I have been trying so hard to get the embroidery effect, but having mega trouble!

I am no novice to AI, but I don't know it is alluding me. I tried to follow Jets tutorial, but I get stumped with the scribble part and beyond. I private messaged him, but to no avail.

Can anyone lend a hand, it would be most appreciated!

Here is rough idea of what I am trying to do. It is the grey edges that I wish to embroider!!  Ugh!!

David