Create a Reusable Isometric Grid Pattern in Illustrator

[Music] hi everybody Simona here from vector3 in this tutorial I would like to show you how you can create an isometric design we're going to create an isometric cast color that you can see here on the screen and the most important thing for an isometric designed here in Illustrator is to set up your grace the contrabass to set up your grid but I would like to show you in no way you can set up a grid really quickly with grid patterns so here let me show you right away how we can go about it the first thing we want to do before we set up our grid is actually go to deal smart guys when we turn on the smart guides this really helps us to lock our points and paths into place so again you can find those smart guides under view and then which is going to click smart guy after that we want to find the polygon tool so the polygon tool we can find here in the tool bar so when I click on the rectangle tool here and hold the mouse button all the way down here is to polygon tool so we selected and now you can see crosshair icon here on the screen so let's just click once on the artboard and we'll get the pop-up for the polygon I'm simply having the radius set to 60 pixels and decide to fix we want to create hexagons the hexagon is really the best way to set up your isometric grid so once you put in 60 pixels for the radius and number six for the sides just click OK the only thing we need to do now we need to tip it will just simply using the transform panel now the transform panel we can find over here on the bottom if you don't have it open in your setup simply go to window and scroll all the way down to transform in Adobe illustrators you see we have some nifty add-ons to the transform panel we can now precisely rotate an object or shape and we simply have to select the shape and then here in the polygon angle we'll set it to 30 degrees and watch what happens now if I deselect it stands on his head on the point so to speak really precisely at 30 degrees now let me zoom out for a second so we see the whole artboard first we're going to select our hexagons will shrink it down now we can either use again the transform tool here and I could just make it smaller by 50% so instead of 120 in height I'm just typing 60 and if I want it even a little bit smaller I can maybe even set it to 25% of his original size all I need to do again is zoom in so I'm using the zoom tool so we see exactly what we have to do next we want to create a pattern and then when the pattern is set up we can use it as a grid and turn it into a guide but first let's change the stroke into 0.25 and then we want to use the pen tool so here in the toolbar we'll select the pen tool and as you can see because we have our smart guides turned on no matter where I click it gives me extra information here on the screen it will tell me when I'm right on an anchor point and then I make a line a straight line or a curved one so first we want to create a vertical line we want to divide our hexagon so I click once and then again on the bottom here I'll also do that with the diagonal lines and another one here as far as you can see now it does not snap directly into the corner but we can easily fix this so first we're going to use the zoom tool and zoom in very closely so here just I'm going to select the direct selection tool and I select the Anchor Point and then I'm trying to place it onto this anchor here of the hexagon but you can see it does not want to snap onto it first we have to check under view if we have anything snapped and you can see down here we have checked snap two pixels you want to make sure that nothing is ticked here no snap to grid no snap to pixel notion up to point so I will uncheck this here and now if I select point II of our line with the direct selection tool again I can place it directly on to the corner point now I want to repeat this and make sure that all of the other points line up as well so each time I'm just going to the corner and make sure everything is placed properly and since we are working with the smart guides they really help us and tell us when we're on the other anchor point so one more last check down here and I think we're okay and then last corner fix here and that's it so now if we zoom out now this is our setup for our grid first it doesn't look like much just a hang tag on with a vertical line in two diagonal lines but if you can see here and imagine the plane on top of here and let me just select all of it go to object and lock selection and start drawing a rectangle following the top shape here you can see that we're creating our first plane and then if I choose a darker color and I create another shape following the lines of our hexagon this will help us to create a ligh symmetric setup now let me delete those and now let's set this hexagon with the lines up for an isometric grid pattern first we have to unlock everything again and then we select it and I think we should even set our stroke much smaller so let's set it to 0.125 points and then let's zoom out a little bit we need to create repeating patterns first we're going to group it so we go to object group and then we're going to create a copy I'm simply pressing the option key here or the Alt key on the keyboard and then drag a copy on top of here you can see that with the smart guides it helps me read intersect and then a let go now if i zoom in I want to make sure they're aligned properly and as I can see everything is aligned okay now back to the selection tool I'll select both then I go to object pattern and I select make now we have a pop-up that now a new pattern has been added to the swatches panel you have a choice to check here don't show again but if you always want to have this showing up so you know you've got a new pattern here in your swatches panel just leave it as it is so we press ok and now we can see how it repeats of course it doesn't repeat properly it needs to be bodied up we need to change the bounding box here around our pattern so here in the pattern options we simply have to check this tool here and now we can actually resize it but we need to be really precise so first let's just click done and let's go back and actually measure things now I need to find out the width of our object so I'm selecting it the width is twenty five point nine eight one pixel now I'm going to copy this value and then I'm going to dispatch this panel since we already have a pattern what in here all we have to do is double-click it and it opens it up again with the pattern options panel I want to make sure that this is not checked so it does not keep the proportions and for the width I'm going to activate again the pattern tile tool I'm going to paste the value that I've just copied as you can see it'll move it straight next to each other now I'm clicking done again now first we need to find out the exact height and we need to hide from this part here of our hexagon all the way down to the bottom now as you can tell this would be three times this line here now since we set up our hexagon as a radius of 60 pixels with six sides I know that each of those sides is 60 pixels long but we shrank it down and remember we shrink it down and made 25% of his original so all I have to do is divide 60 by 4 which makes 15 and then I have three lines here and then again add it up multiplied by three which makes exactly forty five pixels now I'm going to open up our swatches panel I'm going again to choose the pattern tile tool and then for the height here instead of 52.6 443 I'm going to type 45 pixels and now if i zoom out you can see that our pattern gets repeated perfectly next to each other now of course you want to give it a name here not called no pattern so we'll simply call it isometric grid and then we click done and now if I hover over our little swatch here you can see the name isometric grid and now we are ready to create our isometric grid guides so first let's zoom out I'm going to set the stroke to none then I'm going to choose the rectangle tool and then I'm going to draw a rectangle the size of our artboards and I'm going to fill it with our isometric grid pattern now it looks a little bit small but when we swim in it looks perfectly so in order to use your pattern over over again with a new document another artboard are just like for future designs for your isometric designs the best way to go about it is to save your pattern once your pattern is saved you can always open it up again and again so first we're going to the swatches panel and then we click the flyout menu and then we go and select all unused now this selects everything we really don't need if you have extra color groups here you can just add them as well and then delete all of them simply by clicking the delete swatch bottom down here now you'll get ask again and then we just click yes and if we have something else in here and our swatches panel that we don't want we'll just select those again and then delete them as well then I'm clicking the delete button again and now all we have left is our swatch here now we're going back to the flyout menu and then we scroll all the way down to the bottom which says save swatch library is a I this will save an AI file or illustrator file and it will place it into the proper folder right away with an illustrator on your computer so let's click it and then here in the pop-up what you will see is that it automatically will put it in swatches so let's call it isometric pattern and then we'll click Save now for example we're going to open a new file doesn't matter what size now when we have a look here in the swatches panel you can see there is no isometric patterns but don't worry it is saved and you can open it up again simply go to the flyout menu scroll to open swatch library and then all the way down here to user-defined and now here you can see the isometric pattern that we saved now which is click it and we have a new panel opening up this our pattern for the isometric grid now next what we want to do we want to turn this pattern here that we have into a guide and let me show you how to do that now usually when you draw something a line or shape you can set it as a guide you simply have to go to view guides and then make guides now this is a pattern that we've created and I selected the rectangle where we filled the pattern in now if I was to choose here make guides all disappear we are not seeing any guide so we have to undo and first expand our patterns this won't change anything here with our swatch pattern this is yours to keep you've created it and it's a new swatch panel now first we want to make sure we have the rectangle selected and then we're going to object and then we going to choose expand here on the pop-up we'll only have one option we'll check the fill and then we press ok now we have to do something else it still won't help us if we turn it into a guide so let me show you if I go down to view guides and then make guide it still says can't make the selection in to guide guide cannot be created or released within the selected object type so what we have to do is we have to go back to objects with our stuff still selected go down to the clipping mask and then choose release now watch what happens now we released a clipping mask but you can see we have all these rectangles happening as well all of those rectangles are clipping masks and since we release them they'll see them now on top of our pattern they don't have a stroke or a fill but they're there so if we were to turn this into a guide they would be turned into guides as well and that we could really confusing now let me show you how we can get rid of those little rectangles see if I deselect we won't see them if we switch to the outline view you can see that they're still there so let's go back to the regular view now first we have to undo things so we'll select it we go to object ungroup then again object ungroup and probably one more time again object ungroup and maybe a fourth time when I hover over any of the shapes and I can easily select one of these rectangles those rectangles do not have a feel nor do they have a stroke and since I have the smart guides still on and I hover with the selection tool over it I can easily identify it we also have a big rectangle the main rectangle that was used for the clipping mask now I'm going to select this as you can see here we have no fill and no straw now we want to select everything that has no fill and nostril but if we were to go about it one by one it would take forever but there's an easy way to select even object I don't have a fill or a stroke so let's go up to select same and let's choose same fill and Stroke now this will look for everything that does not have a fill and a stroke so once we selected as you can see now in the screen it selected every single rectangle that has no fill and a stroke now all we have to do now is hit the delete button on the keyboard and delete those objects and now we have just our pattern not just the zoom in really close to show you that's all we have left just a pattern that we've created just select all of it and then go back to view guides and now choose make guides we have now turned our pattern into an isometric grid guide and if i zoom in you can see I have set my guides to a light blue yours might look a little bit different and let me quickly show you where you can change that under illustrator preferences guides and grid here you can change the color I set it to a custom color a blue grayish color so that's easy on the eyes when you create your isometric designs and now since we have still the smart guides on and we have guides that help us to draw our objects let me quickly show you how we can create our isometric custom designs really nicely and easily with those guides so let me just select a color set it as a film use the pen tool and then I'm going to click and create my shapes that I need for my isometric designs and as you can see I can turn our guides on and off so simply press either the command or control key and the semicolon on the keyboard guide is gone guide is back we also want to make sure that the guides are locked so just make sure that you guys are locked so we don't select them and that's it this is the setup for our isometric grid next I'm going to show you how you can create your castle tower with this isometric grid the convenient speed video I hope you can join me and watch the next video and see how we can use this particular isometric grid pattern for your creations of isometric design hope to see you in the next video that

Channel: Vectortwist

Views: 78,349

Keywords: isometric grid pattern, reusable isometric grid, isometric grid illustrator, how to create an isometric grid, isometric grid, isometric grid tutorial, isometric illustrator, adobe illustrator tutorial, adobe illustrator, how to create grids in illustrator, illustrator tutorial, illustrator isometric, Isometric design

Id: dKXW3l5onMo

Length: 15min 52sec (952 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 28 2017