Illustrator Tip #19: Funky Cartoon Mascots Design

This is a very quick tutorial that will teach you how to draw funky music themed cartoon mascots. You can use it to tile it up to create a nice wallpaper or for book cover.
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Illustrator Tip #18: Quick Seamless Valentine’s Tiles

Valentine’s day is coming and in this tutorial, I will teach you a trick to create quick seamless heart tiles.  With this tip, you will be able to create seamless tiles in a matter of seconds. And the best of all, the effect is adjustable by changing the values in the Appearance Panel. So let’s see how to do it…
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Illustrator Tip #17: Broken Glass Effect

This great broken glass effect can be used for creating effective text effects for your websites or logos. The broken glass effect is relatively simple to create. Throughout this tutorial, I will teach you the skills needed to create this cool effect in Adobe Illustrator.
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Illustrator Tip #16: How to Make a Beveled Star

This tutorial will show you how to create a beveled star using adobe illustrator CS4. Using just the star tool, the line segment tool and the live paint bucket you will be able to replicate this 3D looking star.
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Illustrator Tip #15: Converging Points Together Using Average Function

This tip will show you how to use the unknown Average function in illustrator to converge points. In this diagram, I have a 3d extrude star drawn using path tool. However, the points doesn’t converge at the end. To solve this problem, select all the points you want to converge using Direct Selection Tools. In this case, I will only select the 3 anchor points at the end. Now go to Object>Path>Average. Select Both and click OK. The ends will now converge perfectly together!

Illustrator Tip #14: Pasting Smart Objects in Photoshop

Using both Photoshop and Illustrator is a common work flow process in many projects. In this small tip, I will show you how you can use Illustrator’s objects, shapes or text as Smart Object in Photoshop and still keep them editable in Illustrator.

In this example, I have created a shape using Star Tool, Pucker and Bloat Effect In Illustrator.

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Illustrator Tip #13: Cropping Images

This is what happens when you try to export your vector art from illustrator.  You realise the image exported out isn’t the same as the artboard or there are ugly white spacing around the image. So why does this happen? When you export an image, illustrator will calculate the bounding box of the whole area taken up by your image including the clipping mask and set that as the image area. This normally leaves a lot of white spacing around the image.
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