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Outlining a group of objects

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
July 7, 2011
3 replies
81334 views

Heya, I used to work with Corel before, and there was an option - contour, which simply made a contour shape of whatever art I had selected. Now since I moved to Ily, I eventually run into this problem, having the need to aquire same effect. If I have a group of objects, which contains different shapes, blends, 3d effects and what not, and I want to make a contour for the final object which I can use as a shape on it's own (can be filled, apply a drop shadow effect etc), how would you achieve this in Illustrator CS5? It is also important that the size of this contour to be exactly the same as the original art. Many thanks for your time / advices!

Correct answer _scott__

Simply Group the objects then use the Appearance panel to apply strokes, fills and effects to the group.

T

Tik77Author

Participating Frequently

Awesome replies, thanks guys!

Another thing - not sure if I understood this right. I know you can make opacity or normal masks using a shape. It can be a simple shape, a compound path or compound shape correct? But can we use a group as a mask for another group / shape? As that was one of the uses for this contour you see :> Like in my original post, if I have a complex group - a mix of object types with different fills, strokes, mesh fills or even 3d effects, if I copy that group and place it in front of itself can I make a mask out of it without geting anything weird happening? (I actually never tried this, am sort of old school type, hence why was trying to do it similar to Corel but using Illustrator functions). Thanks again for all your inputs, much much apreciated.

T

Tik77Author

Participating Frequently

Oh Scott, and: If you simply want the contour of the grouped shape... You can copy the art to a new location, select it and choose Pathfinder > Unite. But not all the grouped objects are overlapping, I did try that and wasn't giving the desired result. I had that problem when I was sketching a character in ilustrator using brushes or pencil tool and had several paths that did not intersect or overlap with others in the design, giving me a problem when was trying to color the artwork. Then I found a very lovely tutorial on internet (how someone designed mastermind character) and their method was: after completing the sketch, select all the paths and use merge from pathfinder, then draw a filled rectangle behind the artwork, merge again, then delete the unwanted parts. Such things / methods are not that intuitive within illustrator often leading to dead ends when trying to achieve something that seems simple at first look :>

_scott__

Brainiac

Tik77 wrote:
ut not all the grouped objects are overlapping,

In that case, offset path would probably work better. Then make a compound shape or group with the resuting paths. Everything is really dependent upon the actual art. Certain methods work best in specific circumstances.

I do a lot of product renderings which use custom brushes and pattern fills. I've found that if I need a contour line for these it's best to expand all the brush strokes and remove pattern fills (on a copy of the art) before using Pathfinder Unite or merge. (Ai chokes when merging some patterns and brushes).

T

Tik77Author

Participating Frequently

And on a separate note, is it possible to create a copy of a piece of art that was made in CMYK or RGB, into Grayscale? Am not that experienced with ilustrator, I know about recolor artwork but that seems very painfull to achieve by eye adequate results. Thanks again!

Mike_Gondek10189183

Brainiac

Select Your Artwork

Edit >> Edit Colors >> Recolor With Preset >> 1 Color Job (in next window change color to a=100% Black on bottom left)

_scott__

Brainiac

Actually I use a different method for greyscale...

Select art > Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to Greyscale.

Mike's method works fine, but since there's already a dedicated menu item for greyscale, I just use that.

The reason why I was expanding was because I was needing a different [entity] / object as that shape contour, with which I can work independently of the original items group. Suppose if I just copy it and then paste it in another place would have same result?

If you simply want the contour of the grouped shape... You can copy the art to a new location, select it and choose Pathfinder > Unite. That will make a single shape of the objects with the exception of meshes or 3D objects. If you've got gradient meshes or 3D effect objects, you want to use Path > Offset Path, Set it to 0 for the ofset, then expand to get the path.

_scott__Correct answer

Brainiac

Simply Group the objects then use the Appearance panel to apply strokes, fills and effects to the group.

T

Tik77Author

Participating Frequently

Hey Scott, thanks for your answer, but this is not really working well. For example I have a piece of art representing a video camera made from several no stroke shapes with the 3d revolve / extrude effects. If I apply a stroke to that, either to each piece or as a group, the whole design is compromised.I uploaded an image of how the art looks like in the upper part, and in the bottom what I want to achieve (I quickly draw the bottom image myself with couple shapes just to illustrate). All I am interested in is the outside part of the image, a contour like (which of course can be filled etc). Thanks again for any help :>

H

headrowwilson

New Participant

You need to expand the group of objects, ungroup, the use the addition command in the pathfinder palette. This should create a silhoutte of the objects. Then got then go to object>path>offset path to make the outline.

Tedious process. A function like that would be super helpful though - most other design programs have had that function for years.

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