my expand wont work, can anyone help ?

[Callum219669785fwl]

Im extreamly new to illustrator and ive been following tutorials each day to improve, im following this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkDJuDHgltQ but im stuck at 3:30, they cut the video on the expand part so im not sure how to expand it, object > expand doesnt work because expand is grey, ive tried to re follow the video just incase i missed something, but, its still not working. can anyone help??? 

[Doug A Roberts]

I think they must mean Expand Appearance, because Expand wouldn't do anything in that situation.

[Callum219669785fwl]

ive tried that and the magic wand tool didnt do anything

[Monika Gause]

Please show what you have.

Make sure the layers panel is visible in your screenshot and the layer is open.

[Callum219669785fwl]

[Monika Gause]

And if you now click on one of the blue shapes with the magic wand tool, what happens?

[Callum219669785fwl]

nothing, its suppose to select all the blue things, but it selects the whole thing instead. 

[Monika Gause]

It shouldn't matter, but did you ungroup it first?

What happens with lower tolerance setting?

[Callum219669785fwl]

I put the tolrance to 1 like the video says and still nothing, and i tried ungrouping it still nothing

[Laura Coyle.]

By the look of your Layers panel, the dotted blue line is already expanded, maybe that's why you saw the command greyed out? If it started as a dotted blue stroke on a round path, it would look like one object (blue dotted circle) in your layers panel. Exanding it converts it to a bunch of individual dashes.

[Laura Coyle.]

Apologies for that not helpful answer, I need to watch the youtube tutorial you posted before responding!

[Laura Coyle.]

First of all, your art in the screenshot is not expanded - I can see that because of the green and yellow circles at the bottom of the art in the layers panel. They are circles as you drew them - if they were expanded they would look like tilted ovals in the layers panel.

You can't use the magic wand tool on this 3d effect art - it will not work. As someone else said, you need to select the art, choose Object > Expand Appearance. Then you can use the magic wand.

Make sure you select the coin carefully with the Selection tool - don't select parts of it in the layers panel, or have it selected on your artboard with something else. First deselect everything by clicking on the artboard with your selection tool, then click on the 3d object. Hope it works!

[Callum219669785fwl]

I'm sorry but it's still not doing anything. when I expand appearance it just goes into one object and the only thing I can select is the whole thing. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Ungroup?

[Monika Gause]

Please upload that Illustrator file to Dropbox or the like and post a link here.

[Callum219669785fwl]

does this help??

"C:\Users\callu\Downloads\Kieran Coombes CP logo.ai"

[Monika Gause]

We don't have access to your harddisk, so no.

[Laura Coyle.]

If you are using the new 3D feature (in Illustrator 2022), expanding the 3D object creates an image - it's no longer vector art. That means you can't select parts of it. The tutorial you posted was of the older 3D feature - now called "classic" in the Effect menu. Which version of Illustrator are you using?

[Laura Coyle.]

ok, back to the screenshot - you are in the new version I see. (Sorry I'm getting the hang of posting here, sigh)

[Doug A Roberts]

Edit: Ignore this, not paying attention.