andrew's vector plugin's volume 15 manual for illustrator

Plug-ins notes

file:///C|/...ndrew/Products/Documentation%20NOT%20FOR%20RELEASE/Illustrator%20plugins/Volume%2015/GX15_Documentation.htm[30/10/2008 19:31:56]

'Heart' (Andrew's Vector Plug-ins Volume 15)

Introduction

The plug-in creates hearts. These in turn can be used in designs / combined / used as symbols and more

Andrew

Installation of heart plug-in

For the PC, please place the GX15_Heart.aip file in the

CS4: c:\program files\adobe\adobe illustrator CS4\plug-ins\graphicxtras



CS: c:\program files\adobe\illustrator CS\plug-ins\graphicxtras

10: c:\program files\adobe\illustrator 10\plug-ins\graphicxtras

For the MAC OS X, please place the GX15_Heart file into

Plug-ins notes


CS4: HD:applications:adobe illustrator CS4:plug-ins:graphicxtras



CS1: HD:applications:adobe illustrator CS:plug-ins:graphicxtras

10:HD:applications:adobe:illustrator 10:plug-ins:graphicxtras

(if the 'graphicxtras' folder does not exist, simply create it in the plug-ins folder or use another folder name if you wish. Youcan also just place the file in the top level plug-ins folder if you wish but putting it in a sub folder makes it easier to find at alater date)

Please note on the mac, you will find the plugin split into two sets, one for CS2/12 and one for CS1/11/10. Please place thecorrect set in your version. Also, for CS2, please place all the contents of the plug-in folder GX15_Heart into the plugin path(all the items are required)

Alternate plug-in installation location

Because of recent improvements in security, you may wish to install the plug-in sets in an alternate location such as an useraccount and not the default plug-in folder. If you are using a basic level account and one without admin features, you mightnot be able to save the AIP plug-in files to the usual folder. Set up an alternate or secondary plug-in folder in your useraccount and then copy the files there.

To specify an alternate plug-in for Illustrator ®

1) Go to the edit > preferences > plug-ins

2) Check the additional plug-ins folder option

3) Specify / browse for your required file in your user account (such as 'third party plug-ins' etc)

Installation of symbols

The symbols files (*.ai files) should be placed in the c:\program files\Adobe\Illustrator...\presets\symbols folder (or macequivalent). Access the symbols files via the windows\symbols menu (please consult the Illustrator documentation).

Installation of swatches

Swatches should be placed in the swatches folder and accessed via the swatches palette.

Initial use of plug-in

Please access via the filters menu of Illustrator ® via the <AVP Create> menu (CS3 CS2 CS 10)

Please access the plug-in via the object > filters menu (CS4)

Plug-ins notes


The plugin is split into 'six' screens, accessed via the buttons along the top of dialog.

The basic settings of the plugin can be found in the first page/screen. I would suggest, initially, create hearts using the basicdialog, then access the other screens to modify the heart(s).

Another start point, use the presets at the bottom of the screen or use the TUMBLE button to tryout a vast range of differentsettings

You can always reset the plugin by selecting the first preset 'reset'

Note: the sketch feature only works if the heart has a stroke weight already assigned (before the plugin) and also the repeatsof the sketches must be greater than 0 (for the other entries to be enabled)

Presets

You can find a selection of presets on the right side of the plug-in, these are useful as quick setups of different heart designs.As mentioned, the first preset is 'reset'

View / zoom

You can zoom in or out of the document via the view control in the bottom right

Applications support

Plug-ins notes


MAC OS X 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5

98 ME NT XP Vista

Adobe ® Illustrator ® 10 CS1(11) CS2(12) CS3 CS4

Questions

Please contact me on [email protected].

Other plugins are available on the site http://www.graphicxtras.com Upgrades are generally available, either as free updatesor inexpensive

updates/upgrades. Please store the reference serial number or details of order

Copyright

The plugins is copyright of 2005-2008, Abneil Software Ltd (Andrew Buckle). The symbols are royalty-free, feel free to use asrequired to the bounds of the license. Symbols are (c) 2005-2007 Andrew Buckle / Abneil Software ltd. This product wasreleased by Abneil Software ltd (UK based company)

Trademarks

Illustrator and Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. We have no connectionwhatsoever with Adobe. Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Plug-in use

Dialog - heart panel

This is the basic screen. Each screen has the presets (see the entry marked as 'reset' (excluding start positions)) as well aspreview. The presets fill a small selection of settings (across all screens)

'Heart height (p)': height of the heart from the 'bottom' of the heart to the heart 'dip'

'Curve distance (p)': The two curves at the top. The distance is from the 'middle of the heart'. To get the symmetricalheight you will notice the first distance is negative and the second (right side) is positive. This can be reversed if required orboth be positive

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.graphicxtras.com/

Plug-ins notes


'Curve height (p)': The two curves at the top have an additional height. The combination of the original height mentionedabove and the two curve heights, is the heart heart in total (though the heart can be smaller or taller depending on thedirection points which can stretch the curves further up or down or across.

'Slant (o)': The slant is the angle from the bottom to the dip. By default, the heart is upright but the heart can be slanted.

Plug-ins notes


Dialog - curve panel

Use this screen to modify the symmetry as well as the curves of the heart

'Curve length (p)': The curve has direction points and these have a length, the length of which, along with the angle,control the curvature of the 'main two curves'. The first two are for the left, the next two are for the right side of the heart

'Curve angle (o): Modifies the angle of the 'straight line' of direction points of the curve (left and right side). Create roundedor sharper heart curves.

Plug-ins notes


'Symmetric': The plugin attempts to create a heart that is symmetric. In most cases, the direction points, anchors, angles,etc will all match the left and right side of the heart. The plugin doesn't keep the symmetry when applied with a warp. Someof the fields are blanked out or disabled to avoid any input, as these fields are ignored while the symmetry setting is on.

Dialog - tweak panel

Use this screen to modify the direction points to create weird and wonderful variant hearts

'16 direction point' settings: These match the bottom and top anchor points and then the left and right anchors. Thedirection point settings are added to the existing direction point settings to modify the curvature of all the points as well asdistortions of the heart shape. Setting a few of the direction fields can create a totally unique heart shape. Some of thedirection points work best when the setting is negative to their counterpart positive setting (you will notice this if you tryoutsome of the heart dropdowns - some have 50 and some have -50.

Plug-ins notes


'Heart presets': a small selection of different heart setting direction point presets have been added. Some of the settings arethere to create pleasing heart shapes; some are there just to set things back to defaults or lower settings; and some arethere to set large values for possible use with the randomization settings. The heart presets are independent to the mainpresets

'Anchor': Instead of using the current anchor settings for the heart, if the anchor is set to off, the anchor is set at the centerof the heart. The anchor setting is more for experimentation and the actual anchor point varies depending on the heartformation (the reason why they have no labeling). Use to create many interesting and unique heart shapes

Plug-ins notes


'Interpolate': Interpolates the distance between points from the base of the heart. The interpolate percentage changes theshape of the heart.

Dialog - create panel

Use this screen to create multiple hearts, position, scale, and rotate the heart(s) as well as the sketch feature of the heartplugin

'Start position': A selection of positions for the heart. The default being your location for the center (default being thedocument center at plugin startup) but the center can be corners or the document frame or the bottom left hand corner orrandomized throughout the document or along the horizontal axis (vertical axis randomized) and more. Depending on thesetting, some fields are disabled.

Plug-ins notes


Heart bottom (p): The start or heart bottom position is the bottom of the heart

'Angle (o)': The heart is rotated by the set angle.

'Scaling': The heart is scaled, grown or shrunk. The scaling is set for the horizontal and vertical independently so the heartcan be thinner or wider or smaller. Scaling can also be negative.

Plug-ins notes


'Number of hearts': By default 1, can be multiple hearts. Great for filling an entire document (set the start position to all ofthe document). Useful if setting the random fill or other random settings for a wonderful range of experimentation with theheart shape.

'Color options': A number of color options to apply to the 'secondary' stroke of the heart, the sketch color. The color optionsinclude random color options, swatch options, black ink options and more. If there is no stroke weight pre-assigned, nothingwill be visible. If the repeats setting is set to 0 then the color options is not enabled. Use the color option setting to create avariety of sketchy heart designs

'Sketch weight': Assigns a stroke weight and overrides the pre-assigned stroke weight. Each secondary path created basedon the heart design is assigned this stroke weight. The stroke weight can be randomized between 0 and the set value tocreate light and dark lines for the heart. The stroke weight value is in 1/10th of a point.

Plug-ins notes


'Sketch shift': This shifts the secondary heart paths by the supplied distance. The sketch randomization is on whether or notthe 'sketch shift randomization' is on, the only difference is the points / direction points vary, creating a more curved /random design. If the randomization is off, the secondary hearts are just placed at random distances from the originalwithout any bend / curve etc. A high setting of shift applied to the heart will create a rougher pencil sketching effect and avariety of different heart designs. A low setting will result in lines a lot closer to the heart as well as keeping a general heartappearance.

'Sketch repeats': If set to 0, the sketch feature is ignored. If set to 1, only one heart based on the heart shape, will becreated. The higher the setting, more sketch hearts will be created, resulting in a slower preview but probably a moreinteresting sketch effect

Dialog - settings panels

All the checkbox on and off / true or false settings

'Fill (R)': The fill of the heart is randomized. If there is no fill, the setting is ignored. Also the randomization requires thecurrent color setting to match the document color setting (CMYK matching CMYK)

'Fill swatch (R)': Fills the heart with randomized swatches from the swatch palette. Requires a fill to be already set (no fillwill mean the plugin ignores the heart swatches). The fill needs to match the document color. This can require some setup,say you wish the heart to be filled with variants of blue, then you will need to setup the swatches with a number of blueswatches (or green or purple or gradients)

'Stroke (R)': Requires a stroke to be already applied, otherwise ignored. Like fill, requires the stroke to be the same colormode as the document. The stroke is filled with random colors.

Plug-ins notes


'Width(R)': Requires a stroke (with width) to be applied and works based on the current stroke width, so if 10pt width thenthe randomization will generate widths of 0 up to 10 randomized.

'Opacity (R)': Randomizes the opacity of the created heart

'Style (R)': Applies a random style. This will require some setup of the styles palette. Some styles are process intensive.Perhaps you might want to create many 3D or sketchy styled shapes

'Heart (R)': Randomizes the settings on the first screen 'heart' from 0 to settings

'Curve (R)': Randomizes the settings on the second screen 'curve' from 0 to settings

Plug-ins notes


'Drop shadow': Creates a basic shadow a couple of pts away from the original. Not totally effective as the heart shadowinherits the style from the heart, and if this is a photoshop plugin or color effect, the shadow also ends up the same way, Thisis requires as it is tricky to determine different styles (the possibilities are endless), some alter the form of the heart andothers solely the color etc

'Shadow direction': Ignored if drop shadow is not enabled. Instead of placing the shadow at 10 / 10 points from the heart,the direction of the heart can be randomly varied.

'Shadow opacity (R)': The opacity of the generated shadow is varied

'Half fill shadow': Instead of creating a black shadow, the shadow is based on the fill color (or half of it)

'Shadow scaling': Instead of just having a shadow based on the size of the current heart, the heart shadow is scaledvertically to create different kinds of shadow.

'Create points (R)': Randomizes the creation of points for the heart. Some hearts may end up with no points (a dot) if set,but most will end up with shapes and forms in between.

Plug-ins notes


'Direction (R)': Randomizes the direction points from 0 to the current settings. No effect if all the direction points are set to0 (tweak panel)

Dialog - settings1 panel

Additional settings such as jitter and pattern

'New layer': Places the heart and shadow on a new layer (all the hearts are placed on the same layer if the number of heartsis greater than 1)

'Symbolize': Places the heart into the symbol palette. Doesn't take the shadow or the warp envelope.

'Warp': Applies a random warp to the heart, the warp shape remains on exit from the plugin so you will need to expand thewarp envelope. Also has a weird setting of turning the fill color gray (occasionally..)

'Scaling (R)': Applies a random scaling to the heart

'Angle (R)': Randomly rotates the heart

'Jitter scaling (R)': Applies a subtle scaling jitter to the heart to create smaller or slightly bigger shapes

'Jitter center (R)': Applies a subtle jitter to the position (more useful if set to the user defined position as the jitter wouldbe lost if random center is set)

'Jitter fill (R)': Applies a subtle jitter to the fill, requires the correct document color mode and a fill and also doesn't do

Plug-ins notes


much if the random fill is set as all jitter is totally lost. Say you start with a blue shape, the jitter will create subtle blue shiftsin color

'Jitter stroke (R)': Same as the fill but for the shape stroke

'Jitter width (R)': The current width is jittered, so if set to 10pts then the jitter will create say a 9pt path stroke width orweight and 11 pts etc randomly

'Sketch shift': Ignored if the repeat sketch is 0. If set to ON, the anchor / direction points are randomized and the shape ofthe heart will be more sketchy. If OFF, the shape of the heart will be the same but at random distances from the originalheart

'Sketch weight' Randomizes the weight applied to the sketch heart (s) from 0 to current set value (other dialog), creating amore varied sketchy effect and weight of sketch pen.

'Basic pattern': Duplicates and creates a tile / pattern of the current heart, takes into account the sketch and shadow andfill etc but not warp. Once you have the 'tile', please use the define pattern, if required, to create a proper pattern forIllustrator (for fills etc)

Buttons

The plugin comes with a small selection of buttons marked 'shuffle' etc.

Shuffle button

Randomizes the settings, but is only useful if there is a random element set (i.e. one of the (R) marked options).

Tumble button

Randomizes a number of the settings between minimum and maximum (though not all). Useful for experimenting with theplugin

Tweak button

Modifies some of the settings and tweaks the approx end result.

Jitter button

Jitters some of the settings, altering the settings plus or minus.

Boost button

Increments settings. Not all settings are modified, most are untouched.

Drag buttons

Plug-ins notes


Some of the fields have 'drag' buttons. You can modify the setting beside the button by dragging across (in most cases) or upand down the document (such as with the height). Hold the shift down to change the settings, release the shift to stop anyfurther update

Example 1 - Heart pattern

The plugin now comes with a basic pattern feature. It is a fairly basic pattern, it doesn't handle overlaps nor envelopes. Youcan use the end result as a tile or define as a pattern and re-use as a fill if required

1) Fill the document with hearts. To do this, set the placement dropdown to 'place heart anywhere' (otherwise all the heartswill be placed on top of each other)

Plug-ins notes


2) Set the number of hearts to something more than 1 or 2 (otherwise it is a very limited pattern)

3) Set the random fill to on and this will generate a different color for each heart (though it does depend on the initial hearthaving a fill and the correct document color being used). Also added drop shadow for some depth

Plug-ins notes


4) Set the basic pattern, it is very basic... that is the reason for the name of the setting

5) Here is one example generated by the shuffle (randomization of color etc)

Plug-ins notes


6) Another example quickly generated by the shuffle button

7) Click OK and save this one

Plug-ins notes


8) Select the tile and then define a square (via the rectangle tool), align, and then clip via pathfinder. Goto the edit menudefine pattern command and define the tile as a new pattern. Give it an unique name (otherwise Illustrator will object to arepeat name...)

andrew's vector plugin's volume 15 manual for illustrator

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