Explaining every effect in Adobe Illustrator…
in under XX minutes. First, some things you have to know: 1. Effects follow a non-destructive workflow,
which means any changes they make are reversible - you can always edit, hide, or delete them. 2. Effects interact with each other, so you can
stack multiple effects on a single object for increasingly complex visuals. If you think this looks cool, I’ll teach
you how to make this flower using a single object in Illustrator at the end of the video,
so stick around. 3. Effects and the Appearance Panel are best
friends. You can use the panel to view, edit, hide,
delete and move effects on any object. Oh, and you’ll find timestamps for all effects
down below, so just skip the ones you’re not interested. Now, let’s get to it! The 3D and Materials effect has so many customization
options that it actually has its own panel, and it took me over 25 minutes to explain
everything it does in a different video, so for a more in-depth look, check that video,
it’s right here in the card. In any case, here's a brief summary. There are 3 different tabs on the 3D effect:
object, materials and lighting. The Object tab has the most important setting:
the 3D Type. This is where you can define and customize
the shape of your 3D object, and each 3D type has its own set of options for customization. Below the 3D Type section, you can add and
customize bevels and at the bottom, you can rotate the object and adjust the camera's
perspective. On the Materials tab you can apply different
materials and textures to the object. You have the default material, very basic
and without any textures, and a selection of more complex and realistic materials from
Adobe Substance. At the bottom, you can customize the properties
of the materials and change how they look. Lastly, on the Lighting tab, you can add and
customize light sources. You can change the light settings using the
sliders, or select one of the presets. There’s a list with all the light sources
in the scene, and you can add new ones by clicking on the Add Light button. At the very bottom, you can turn on shadows,
which make the object way more realistic. On the top right corner of the panel you can
turn on rendering or open the render settings to fine tune it. The classic 3D effect is a legacy effect which
got replaced by the new 3D and Materials effect. You can still use it to simulate 3D vectors,
but it doesn’t have any of the ray tracing capabilities of the new panel. Unless your computer really struggles with
performance, I’d recommend using the new 3D effect over this one. Ok, that was already quite the start. And you know what, a pro tip from someone
who’s been using Illustrator for over a decade now: in this channel I’ve already
introduced you to all 87 tools, 43 panels and now 24 effects of Illustrator, and that’s
a lot of things to remember. That’s why for things that I don’t wanna
be bothered remembering, like all my passwords, I trust on the sponsor of this video: NordPass
Business. As graphic designers, we’re constantly online. We’re always juggling multiple online platforms,
client accounts and social media channels, not to mention making and receiving payments. And if you work with a team, the worry is
multiplied. That’s where NordPass Business comes into
play. NordPass is a password manager that simplifies
your digital life and keeps your sensitive information secure. Access your online account credentials from
anywhere, securely store payment methods, keep confidential information safe and updated,
and share access between members of your team to make collaboration easy - like it should
be! Say goodbye to the hassle of coming up with
strong passwords and worrying about data breaching. NordPass has got you covered with its Password
Generator and Breach Monitoring, so you can free up your mind for what truly matters - remembering
all those Illustrator shortcuts. With NordPass, you and your team won’t have
to worry about online security, and can focus on what’s important: being creative and
making beautiful designs. See NordPass Business in action now with a
3-month free trial by clicking the first link in the description down below and using code
ANDYTELLSTHINGS. Thank you NordPass for sponsoring this video. Back to business, the Convert to Shape effect
transforms the selected object into one of three shapes: rectangle, rounded rectangle
or ellipse. The shape size can be either absolute, which
means the final shape will have that exact size, or relative, which means the final shape
will add extra width and height to the original object. This effect is not particularly useful on
its own. However, when combined with other effects
or text, it can produce interesting results. For example, you can add a new fill to a text
object and use the Convert to Shape effect to create a box behind the text that automatically
scales as you type. Pretty cool, huh? The Crop Marks effect literally add 4 crop
marks on the corners of the selected object. Crop marks indicate where you want the printed
paper to be cut. Nothing less, nothing more. The Free Distort effect allows you to skew
and distort an object in any way you want. On the effect window you can manipulate the
object by dragging the 4 control points in the corners. It is similar to the Free Transform Tool,
but a little bit more janky to use. Still, it’s a useful non-destructive alternative
to add perspective - and yes, you’ll hear “non-destructive” a lot in this video. This is also the perfect opportunity to talk
about the stacking order of effects in the Appearance Panel. The Appearance Panel displays all the elements
that make up an object, such as fills, strokes, opacity and effects, and organizes them in
layers. Changing the order of these layers can change
the final look of the object. Let's take this square as an example. It currently has two layers: a fill and a
stroke. If we add a Free Distort effect, it will appear
at the bottom of the stack and distort the object. Let’s also add a Drop Shadow effect - don’t
worry, we’ll talk about it later in the video. It appeared once again at the bottom of the
stack and added a shadow that matched the shape of the object after the distortion. But what if we move the shadow above the distortion? The result is quite weird, but it makes sense
if we think about it - we’re first applying the shadow to the object, which is a square,
and only then distorting it. Here's another cool thing: we can also apply
effects to individual fills or strokes. For example, if we drag the Free Distort effect
inside the fill layer, only the yellow fill will be distorted while the stroke remains
a square. Similarly, if we move it inside the stroke
layer, only the black stroke will be distorted. The same is true for the Drop Shadow effect,
which only affects the stroke when we move it inside the stroke layer. So many different looks with just 2 effects,
right? The Pucker & Bloat effect moves the anchor
points towards or away from the center of the object. Dragging the slider to the left pushes the
anchor points outwards, making the object spiky and pointy. Dragging it to the right, pushes the anchor
points inwards, making the object round and chubby. Pucker is very good at making sparkles and
stars, while Bloat is perfect for making cute flowers. Since this effect manipulates anchor points,
even if two objects look the same, the number of anchor points they have will change how
the effect looks. The Roughen effect adds a random texture to
strokes and fills, creating a hand-drawn look. This is a really cool effect for when you
need something to look more natural and hand-made, or just to add visual interest. There are 2 main controls on the effect: size
and detail, and the easiest way to understand them is by looking at a simple line. Size adds distortion away from the original
path, while detail adds distortion along the path. If you look at a straight line, you can also
think of them as vertical distortion and horizontal distortion. You also have the option to use relative or
absolute size. Relative uses percentage, while absolute uses
a fixed number. This affects how the effect scales - with
relative size, the effect scales up or down with the object. With absolute size, the effect stays the same. At the bottom you can also choose if you want
the distortion to have smooth curves or sharp corners. Oh, and different from the Pucker & Bloat
effect, Roughen is not anchor point dependent, so even a straight line with only 2 anchor
points will be distorted. The Transform effect allows you to apply basic
transformations to the object, like scale, rotation and position. For scale and position, you can change vertical
and horizontal parameters independently. On the options section, you can apply the
effect only to the object, to the pattern or both, as well as reflect and apply the
transformation randomly. This is one of those effects that look simple
and straightforward on the surface, but offer you a wide array of possibilities to create
very complex things. At the very bottom of the effect window you
have the option to create copies, and the cool thing is that every copy will stack another
instance of the effect. So if you’re rotating 10 degrees and scaling
down 10 percent, each subsequent copy you add will be rotated another 10 degrees and
scaled down another 10 percent, allowing you to create beautiful geometric patterns with
just a few clicks. Just be very careful when making copies, because
this effect can have a huge impact on performance depending on how complex the object is and
how many copies you’re making. The Tweak effect moves anchor points and handles
randomly, for a more chaotic look. It’s a very odd effect, I’m not gonna
lie. Even though it is random, you do have sliders
to control how much distortion you want, either vertically or horizontally, and if you want
to use relative or absolute values. Basically, when you apply the effect it defines
a random ratio between each anchor point and handle, so even if you crank up the distortion,
the ratio between them stays the same, or at least that's what I could figure out, since
there’s barely any information about this effect on Adobe’s website. It’s worth noting that every time you apply
the effect, it generates a new random seed, so even if you have multiple objects with
the same anchor points, each one will look different. It would be nice thought if there was a button
on the effect window to generate a new seed and have a different distortion. This effect works similarly to the Roughen
effect, but it is anchor point dependent, so just like Pucker & Bloat, the number of
anchor points and where they are placed will influence how the Tweak effect looks. At the bottom of the effect window, you'll
also find options to modify anchor points or handles, both in and out. However, lllustrator calls them "control points"
here for some reason. Leaving anchor points unchecked keeps all
the anchor points in place, and just moves the handles, and vice versa. To sum it up, the Tweak effect is kinda confusing
and poorly explained. I won't say it's completely useless, but I
can't think of many practical uses for it. It's good if you want to create random scribbles
or shapes that look really, really wild. The best way to explain the twist effect is
to imagine that you are placing the object inside a vortex. Literally, that’s all it does. The effect only has one controle, which is
angle, and the more you turn it up , the more twisted the object becomes. I can see some uses for it, but if you set
the angle to a high enough value, objects kinda start looking all the same. It also creates some imperfections along the
curves which I’m not very fond of and would be enough for me to avoid using the effect. I would like to see this one improved and
perhaps with a little more options added. The Zig Zag effect works exactly the same
as the Roughen Effect, but instead of random distortion, it distorts in a zig-zag pattern. Other than that, all controls are the same. Size distorts vertically away from the path,
and segments distort horizontally along the path. Relative and absolute switch between percentages
and fixed numbers, and at the bottom you can leave the zig-zag sharp or rounded. The only thing I really hate about this effect
is that it adds a fixed number of ridges per segment of the path, so unless your object
has every segment the same size, this effect looks really dumb. The way around this problem is to add more
anchor points, but that really shouldn’t be the way it works. Zig Zag is a cool effect. Despite the limitations, it works great to
great badges and stamps or to just add some detail to a simple shape. The Offset Path effect is pretty self-explanatory. When applied, it offsets the path by a specific
amount, either inwards or outwards. On the effect window there are 3 parameters. First, you can input how much the path will
be offset, and it’s worth nothing you can also input negative values to offset inwards. Then you can choose the corner type. There’s miter, round and bevel. And lastly, you can define a limit for the
miter join, which is basically an angle threshold for the sharp corner to turn into a miter. The Offset Path effect is particularly useful
in workflows where you’re stacking multiple fills, strokes and effects, and you might
need a layer to be bigger than the rest so you can see it. You could also use the Transform effect to
increase the size of a layer, and for some shapes that might work, but Transform will
literally just scale the object up, while Offset Path will enlarge the path by a consistent
amount all throughout the object - look at the difference between these two stars. The Outline Object is a very confusing effect
and Adobe does a terrible job at documenting its softwares, so not only I have never used
this effect in the past, I also couldn’t find much info about it to base my explanation. What I did find out is that this effect is
mostly used to add strokes to images. If you ever tried to add an outline to an
image in Illustrator, you know it is not possible. However, if you select the stroke in the Appearance
Panel and add the Outline Object effect, the stroke shows up. You can also use this effect to show a more
precise bounding box around text objects. However, you also need to open the Preferences
Menu and toggle “Use Preview Bounds”. This makes such a huge difference, look. Yeah, this is borderline useless, so if anyone
knows a better use for this effect, please let me know in the comments. I know a lot about Illustrator, but even my
knowledge only gos so far, so help me out here. Now, Outline Stroke, on the other hand, is
much more useful and easy to understand. This effect basically transform the stroke
into a filled object, it works just like using the Expand option on the Object Menu. This can severely change how effects are applied
to the object. Effects like Roughen produce quite distinct
outcomes depending on whether Outline Stroke is applied or not. Without Outline Stroke, the Roughen effect
distorts the original path along which the stroke runs. When Outline Stroke is applied, the stroke
basically turns into a rectangle, so the Roughen effect distorts the outer edges of the stroke,
and not the original path. The same happens with effects like Warp. Since the outlined stroke is treated as a
rectangle, the distortion caused by Warp is much more noticeable. The Pathfinder effect is a non-destructive
way to combine shapes using the boolean operations from the Pathfinder Panel. To apply this effect, you need to group at
least two objects. Once you have the group selected, go the the
Effects Menu and choose the operation you want. If you don't get it right the first time,
you can access more options by opening the effect window through the Appearance Panel. At the top of the window, you'll find a drop-down
menu with all available operations. Most of them combine the shapes in some way,
while the last three deal with color, which we will discuss shortly. Pathfinder operations deserve a video of their
own, they are too many and too complex to explain in this video, so I recommend you
just scroll through them until you get the result you want. Some are very easy to understand, like intersect,
which deletes everything but the parts that are overlapping, or exclude, which does the
opposite. As for the last 3 options, here’s the deal. First you have Hard Mix. This operation compares the color channels
(RGB or CMYK) of both objects and selects the darkest value for each channel to create
a new color. In the blue and yellow we are using, the darkest
values are 56 for red, 189 for green, and 88 for blue. Comparing the resulting green with the green
from the Hard Mix operation, we can see that it is a perfect match. Soft Mix, on the other hand, despite the similar
name, is not exactly the opposite of Hard Mix. Soft Mix makes the underlying colors visible
through the overlapping artwork. In practical terms, it is making the yellow
object transparent, but only where the two objects overlap. If you expand the objects through the Object
Menu, you’ll see that both Hard Mix and Soft Mix also divide the objects into its
component faces. And finally we have Trap, which is a bit more
complex and may not be so commonly used. When two overlapping colors are printed using
the CMYK color mode, they can sometimes leave a white gap between them. Trapping creates a small overlap between the
colors to prevent this from happening. This is an oversimplification, but that’s
basically what it does. The Rasterize effect is a non-destructive
way to Rasterize objects. Rasterize basically means to turn into a raster
image, an image made out of pixels, like a JPEG or a PNG. The other option is to select Rasterize on
the Object Menu, but this way you won’t be able to toggle the rasterization on and
off, or continue to edit the vector object. It’ll become an image and end of story. With the Rasterize effect, you can preview
the object rasterized, while still maintaining the ability to edit it and even apply other
effects. On the effect window, at the very top you
can choose color model and resolution. Usually, you’ll use 72 for digital and 150
or 300 for printing. On the background section, you can choose
to leave it transparent or fill it with white. On the options section, you can turn on anti-aliasing,
either optimized for art or text. Anti-aliasing is a technique to smooth out
jagged edges and reduce pixelation by blending colors along the edges of objects. Finally, you can offset the outer bounds of
the image by how many pixels you input here, and check this box to automatically create
a clipping mask using the shape of the vector itself. Drop Shadow is perhaps the most used effect
in Illustrator, or at least the one I used the most. It’s a pretty simple and easy to understand
effect, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few cool things about it. Drop Shadow is very self-explanatory - it
adds a shadow behind the object. You can define the opacity of the shadow,
the X and Y position and the blur, which is basically how soft the shadow is. At the bottom, you can choose between a specific
color or a darkness value. The darkness option basically uses the color
of the object itself and gradually adds black to it, creating a shadow that has a little
bit of the object color in it - in our case, a shadow that is a little bit yellow, and
not straight up black. In my opinion, this looks way more realistic! You can also change the blending mode of the
effect. Blending modes deserve an entire video of
their own, but basically they are ways to blend a color with everything that’s below
it. By default, de effect comes with the multiply
effect selected, which darkens what’s below. But if you select the screen blending mode
and choose a brighter color, you can actually turn the drop shadow into a glow effect. Pretty cool, huh? The Drop Shadow effect is also the first raster
effect on the list, which means that the effect itself is a raster image, and not a vector. You can see that by zooming into the shadow
to see the pixels showing up. This happens with every effect that requires
some sort of blur. The resolution of raster effects is selected
when you create a new document. However, if you want to change the resolution
later, you can do it by going to the Effect Menu and choosing Document Raster Effects
Settings. If you’re familiar with Photoshop, you already
know what Feather does. If not, don’t worry, it’s super simple:
the Feather effect blurs the edges of the object in a soft fade to transparent. It’s honestly an effect that I probably
used once or twice in my life, but hey, maybe it’s just not something useful for my style. Perhaps you will find lots of use for it. I did, however, used it on my Neumorphism
tutorial, to get the blur on the edges of the buttons. If you’re interested, it’s in the card
up here. The Inner Glow effect is kinda like Drop Shadow,
but inside the object. There’s not much to control in this effect
- you can choose blending mode, color, opacity and blur, and we already know how all of this
works from the Drop Shadow effect. At the bottom you have the options Center
and Edge, and toggling between them inverts the starting point of the glow. If you set the blending mode to Multiply and
pick a dark color, you can also use this effect as an inner shadow. Ok, hear me out. If Inner Glow was kinda like Drop Shadow,
Outer Glow is literally Drop Shadow, just without the X and Y position. It’s literally Drop Shadow with position
set to 0. Absolutely the same effect, no difference
at all. The Round Corners effect lost a bit of its
use with the introduction of live corners, but it’s still a great way to round corners
in a non-destructive way. The effect is as simple as it gets: it rounds
sharp corners. You have one option in the effect window,
which is the radius of the roundness. Scribble is such a fun little effect. It’s the easiest way to turn your design
into a sketch or even a child drawing. The effect turn any fill or stroke into scribbles,
and there is a lot of customization options. First, we have a drop down menu with a ton
of presets. Some are more contained, some are more chaotic. They’re a great place to start customizing
the effect. Then, we can choose the angle in which the
scribbles go, as well as the Path Overlap. This is basically an Offset Path inside the
Scribble effect. If you drag the slider to the left, it offsets
the scribbles inwards, and if you drag to the right, it offsets outwards. Below, there is a Variation control that adds
some randomness to Path Overlap. If you set Variation to 5 pixels, for example,
the value you selected in Path Overlap will randomly fluctuate between -5 and +5 for every
line of the scribble, giving it a more loose, natural and hand-drawn look. Then, we have some line options. You can change the stroke width, curviness
and spacing. Stroke width is self-explanatory, and while
it unfortunately doesn’t have a variation control, curviness and spacing do. Curviness controls the behavior of the scribble
at the end of each stroke. If set to angular, the end of the stroke will
be a sharp corner, and dragging the slider to the right adds curviness, making it, again,
more loose and natural. Variation will work the same way as previously
explained, adding randomness. I personally like to keep curviness at 0 and
then add a little bit of variation. Spacing controls the space in between each
stroke of the scribble, from tight to loose. This severely affects performance, since a
tighter scribble will have more lines drawn. Be careful not to drag this slider all the
way to the left, as it will draw so many lines that Illustrator might crash. Well, at least mine did. It’s worth mentioning that you can apply
separate Scribble effects on the fill and the stroke through the Appearance Panel, since
the settings that look good on the fill, might not on the stroke. SVG Filters are effects aimed at web design. I really don’t know much about web and programming,
so as much as I try to learn and explain how SVG Filters differ from other effects, I will
eventually leave something out or say something wrong. So, for this one, I’ll restrain myself exclusively
to information from Adobe’s website, and here’s what they say. SVG effects differ from their bitmap counterparts
in that they are XML-based and resolution independent. In fact, an SVG effect is nothing more than
a series of XML properties that describe various mathematical operations. The resulting effect is rendered to the target
object instead of the source graphic. Illustrator comes with a list of default,
pre-installed filters, which you can access by clicking on the effect on the Appearance
Panel. On the effect window, you can access the XML
code by clicking on the FX button, or write your own code and create your own filters
by clicking on the plus button. Warp is, once again, a non-destructive way
to apply something from the Object Menu - this time, an Envelope Distort with Warp. The Warp effect uses a mesh to distort the
object in many different ways, which can be selected either through the Effects Menu,
or on the effect window itself. After selecting the style you want for the
distortion, you can use the Bend slider to change the amount of distortion you want to
apply. Using negative values will invert the mesh,
distorting the object in the opposite direction. You can also apply the bend to the object
either horizontally or vertically. In the distortion section you can add perspective
to the bend, either horizontally of vertically. Now, as promised, here’s how to stack a
million effects and make a beautiful yellow flower using only a single hexagon. We’ll start with the hexagon. In the Appearance Panel, we’ll change the
fill color to yellow and add a Pucker & Bloat effect to create the first layer of petals. All effects should be applied to the respective
fill, and not to the entire object, so make sure you always have the right fill selected
before applying the effects. Then, we’ll add a new fill, paint it a darker
shade of yellow, and drag it below the petals. We’ll add another Pucker & Bloat effect,
but this time we’ll also add a Transform effect to scale down and rotate the fill. Now we have 2 layers of petals. Next, we’ll add a new fill, paint it a lighter
shade of yellow, and keep it at the top. Once again we’ll add Pucker & Bloat to make
the petals and Transform to scale it down. Now, all the petals are done. For the central part of the flower, we’ll
add a new fill, keep it above the petals, and paint it brown. Then, we’ll add a Convert to Shape effect
set to ellipse, and a Transform effect to scale it down and make it a more even circle. For the leaves, we’ll add a new fill and
paint it green. We’ll drag it below the petals later, this
way we can see what we’re doing. We’ll once again convert it to a circle
using the Convert to Shape and Transform Effects. Then, we’ll add a Zig-Zag effect for a nice
jagged edge, and a Free Distort, which is probably the trickiest part. With this effect we’ll be not only be adding
some perspective to the leaf, but also offsetting it to the side. The goal is to keep the right edge of the
leaf aligned with the center of the flower. Finally, we’ll add another Transform effect,
set the anchor point to the right, make two copies and rotate them 120 degrees. Now we can finally drag this fill below the
petals. If we’re not happy with their position and
size, we can mess around with the settings of the effects until they look how we want. The last step now is to duplicate the leaves,
change the fill to a darker shade of green, delete the Zig-Zag effect and edit the first
Transform effect to squish it down. There you go, a beautiful yellow flower using
only one hexagon a multiple fills and effects! Let me know if you managed to do it or if
you encountered any problems. Thank you once again to NordPass for sponsoring
this video. Check the link in the description for a 3-month
free trial of NordPass Business using code ANDYTELLSTHINGS. If you enjoyed this video, check this other
one here. A special thanks to all my Patreon supporters
who help me make high quality content like this one. More on how you can support the channel in
the description down below. Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave
a comment if you have any doubts. Thank you so much for watching and have a
great day. Bye!
