Material Monsta (www.mecho.com.au)

Object > Blend > Make

• Select all the objects within each other
• Once you’ve “made” it, you can change settings in Blend Options.
• Can use a direct selection tool, pen tool to add anchor points which you can then manipulate.
• At any stage you can go back to your blend options to change the number of shapes and even release the blend.
• Good for pleating / folding where you want repeated shapes to look 3 dimensional.
• It can be any colour/shapes/ size.

Object > Path

• Normal Pen tool line (unjoined)— select the ends of the anchor points
• Object > Path > Join— joins up the shape and fixes most fill problems.
• You can add / remove anchor points and divide objects.
• Can also outline stroke of lines in the Path menu.
• New anchor points will be in place and you can manipulate the shape however you want.
• You can OFFSET paths in the paths menu > gives another extra layer of the stroke around your object.
• These tools can allow you to make intricate patterns which can be then turned into symbols / brushses— saving you a heck load of time.

Mesh Tool: (under gradient tool)

• Have an object you’re applying it to
• Drag your mouse over the selected object and click when you wanna place an anchor point.
• Makes a big “grid” of invisible ruler guides full of anchor points
• Can also be applied to lines and spheres/circles
• The sharper your curves are, the stronger the gradient will be. It’s importatnt to have SOFT lines.
• Play with blending/shading by changing the opacity in the transparency menu (right)

Pattern Swatches

• In your swatch library, you can find some general textile patterns which you can apply to shapes / objects as a colour.
• Look online and create your own to get what you wanna get.
• You can make images into a pattern as well— select the shapes, hit Edit > derfine Pattern > give it a name and it’ll appear on your pattern library