{"rowid": 131, "title": "Random Lines Made With Mesh", "contents": "I know that Adobe Illustrator can be a bit daunting for people who aren\u2019t really advanced users of the program, but you would be amazed by how easy you can create cool effects or backgrounds. In this short tutorial I show you how to create a cool looking background only in 5 steps. \n\nStep 1 \u2013 Create Lines\n\n\n\nCreate lines using random widths and harmonious suitable colors. If you get stuck on finding the right colors, check out Adobe\u2019s Kuler and start experimenting.\n\nStep 2 \u2013 Convert Strokes to Fills\n\n\n\nSelect all lines and convert them to fills. Go to the Object menu, select Path > Outline Stroke. Select the Rectangle tool and draw 1 big rectangle on top the lines. Give the rectangle a suitable color. With the rectangle still selected, go to the Object menu, select Arrange > Send to Back.\n\nStep 3 \u2013 Convert to Mesh\n\n\n\nSelect all objects by pressing the command key (for Mac users), control key (for Windows users) + the \u201ca\u201d key. Go to the Object menu and select the Envelope Distort > Make with Mesh option. Enter 2 rows and 2 columns. Check the preview box to see what happens and click the OK button.\n\nStep 4 \u2013 Play Around with The Mesh Points \n\n\n\nPlay around with the points of the mesh using the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow in the Toolbox). Click on the top right point of the mesh. Once you\u2019re starting to drag hold down the shift key and move the point upwards. \n\n\n\nNow start dragging the bezier handles on the mesh to achieve the effect as shown in the above picture. Of course you can try out all kind of different effects here. \n\nThe Final Result\n\n\n\nThis is an example of how the final result can look. You can try out all kinds of different shapes dragging the handles of the mesh points. This is just one of the many results you can get. So next time you haven\u2019t got inspiration for a background of a header, a banner or whatever, just experiment with a few basic shapes such as lines and try out the \u2018Envelope Distort\u2019 options in Illustrator or the \u2018Make with Mesh\u2019 option and experiment, you\u2019ll be amazed by the unexpected creative results.", "year": "2006", "author": "Veerle Pieters", "author_slug": "veerlepieters", "published": "2006-12-08T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/random-lines-made-with-mesh/", "topic": "design"}