Vectordiary

Illustrator Tricks: Honey Star

By Tony Soh Posted on December 19th, 2007

Get more out from your illustrator rounded corner effect with Divide effect.

1. Create a star

Select the Star Tool, and draw a star. Copy it to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C/Command+C as we will be using it later.

2. Rounded corner effects

Apply Effect>Stylize>Round Corners. Enter a value in the Radius field. Check the preview to get the amount of rounded effect you like. Expand the shape after that by going Object>Expand Appearance.

3. Dividing the corners

Press Ctrl/Command+F to paste the sharp corner star to the front. Select both shape and select Divide in the Pathfinder palette(Window>Pathfinder).

4. Delete away unwanted corners

Using Direct Selection Tool, we select the corners the unwanted corners and delete it away to get the final honey star shape.

Extra Tip:
We can use this method on any shape to achieve the combination of sharp and rounded corners using the Rounded Corners effect. As the shape will break into pieces after you applied the Divide command, you can combine the shape back by selecting all the broken shapes and apply Merge command in the Pathfinder.

Download source file (AI 8.0)

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Tags: Illustrator, star, tricks, tutorial

About The Author: Tony Soh

Hi. I'm the founder of Vector Diary. Illustrator is my passion and I have written numerous tutorials on illustrator helping people learn illustrator. My most popular tutorial on learning illustrator in 30 days has been a hit. It makes learning illustrator so easy and has benefited more than 20,000 people worldwide. Also, I've revealed some of my secret techniques in the premium tutorials. So don't forget to check it out!

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+Add Comment8 Comments

1. 
   Sugar February 1st, 2008

   I am using Illustrator CS2 so maybe that makes a difference in how this is done.

   But after you expand appearance in Step 2, it is finished. There is no need to paste a copy of the star on top, divide, etc.

2. 
   iStockdiary February 1st, 2008

   Hi Sugar,

   I’m using illustrator CS2 for this tutorial. You notice after you expand in step 2, you get a all rounded corner stars in Fig 2. Let’s say we want a more stylized shape, we still need to use the divide trick to achieve a star with both sharp corners and rounded corners.

3. 
   Tommy February 28th, 2008

   Nice basic tutorial

4. 
   tgrand September 4th, 2008

   it was fast and easy

5. 
   Steven October 29th, 2008

   Nice, another function that makes my work a bit easier

6. 
   design2d February 26th, 2009

   I’m with the CS3, but I don’t have Effect>Stylize>Round Corners, only Effect>Stylize>Glowing Edges?!? Couldn’t find corners anywhere. Anyone has an idea? Thanks!

7. 
   design2d February 26th, 2009

   Oh.. sorry ppl. I was looking at the Photoshop effects.. all ok

8. 
   NeGRa March 24th, 2009

   love it!!! thX!!