Repeat Shape Outside of Shape

[rite_oak]

Hi, I am trying to make repeating shapes from this porcupine shape. This is just a poorly done example I tried making in photoshop using the stroke blending option.

This might be something that can only be done in Illustrator, I am not sure. I'd like to take the original shape of the porcupine and make it 3% bigger everytime but stay conformed to the shape. It's easy to do with a circle or square (using actions in photoshop) but not with an irregular shape like this. I'd like for each shape to be its own layer so I can change the color and opacity. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @rite_oak. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll help you figure this out in one way,I am sure our Experts will have 6 more ways to do this.

Here is a video I found on the internet that walks through a similar workflow that you can adapt into your work stream to get desired results: https://adobe.ly/4abWSf0

I hope this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[rite_oak]

Thank you Sameer, that looks like a great tutorial on strokes. I am going to post a better example of what I am trying to achieve. I think I explained it poorly in before.

[Conrad_C]

Is the demo below anything like what you want?

It adds multiple strokes to your irregular shape. 

You can change the color of each stroke instance. 

You can change the opacity of each stroke instance. 

It is all done in one layer, by adding multiple instances of the Stroke layer style.

The way I made each stroke 3% larger was to enter math into the Size field, and let Photoshop calculate it.

The first stroke Size is 8 pts, so each additional stroke must start from that 8 pts, and then add 30% to the previous stroke size. 

The expression to enter into Size for each stroke is:

(base stroke weight+(previous stroke weight+(previous stroke weight *.3)))

So for the 5 strokes shown, the Size expressions entered are:

Stroke 1: 8

Stroke 2: (8+(8+(8*.3))) …Photoshop calculates Size of 18

Stroke 3: (8+(18+(18*.3))) …Photoshop calculates Size of 31

Stroke 4: (8+(31+(31*.3))) …Photoshop calculates Size of 48

Stroke 5: (8+(48+(48*.3))) …Photoshop calculates Size of 70

[rite_oak]

Thank you for your answer Conrad. I am going to post a better example of what I am trying to achieve. I think I explained it poorly before.

[rite_oak]

In my new example, which is closer to what I am trying to achieve, I have a large blue rectangle. I duplicate that layer and shrink it 5% then change the overlay color. I do this over and over to the smallest yellow rectangle. I would like to do the same thing with the porcupine but the shape is more complex than a rectangle and it doesn't easily shrink over and over well. I'm looking for an automated way to do this in photoshop or illustrator. This is not an easy question so thank you for giving it a shot! 

[rite_oak]

[rite_oak]

Hi, just bumping my post up. I'm sure everyone is on break for Thanksgiving. Thanks!

[Conrad_C]

We might all be thinking about it. For example, I’m thinking that a way to automate this in Photoshop might be scripting, but I’m not good at writing scripts. I just thought of a way to do it in Illustrator using the Blend tool because it would interpolate quickly, but will have to look into it. 

In Illustrator and After Effects there is also a chance that their “repeater” features could help automate this, but again, haven’t had time to look into it. 

[rite_oak]

Thanks so much @Conrad_C ! I will also look into it and update this ticket. Have a good Thanksgiving!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

I don’t know if this is anything like what you want, but I gave it a try with the Blend tool in Adobe Illustrator, in the demo below. As a blend object, it’s easy to create intermediate colors by changing only the colors of the two end paths.

If you wanted more control over the intermediate colors, you could expand the blend (Object > Blend > Expand), and then use Recolor (click Recolor in the Properties panel or choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork) to interactively change the color palette.

Or, after using Expand, you could just select each individual path and change the fill color by hand if you wanted to, instead of using Recolor.

One thing I kept running into with both the Photoshop stroke layer style method (shown earlier) and this Illustrator blend tool method is that the outline is difficult to scale repeatedly as copies. This is because of the “teeth” that curl inward. They limit how much the other copies can become bigger or smaller before you get crossover of the larger and smaller outlines. This is all very easy with simple outlines like rectangles and circles, but not with more complex outlines that turn inward. 

[rite_oak]

@Conrad_C Thank you very much! I will try it. This may be a better way to do it this way instead of the way I originally wanted to. That's art!