Transcripts
1. Intro: Hey guys, my name is Kyla and parson. I'm a graphic designer and illustrator based in Edmonton, Alberta. Ever since I could remember. I've been designing and illustrating in it has become a passion of mine. And I hope is the same for you. Over the past 10 years, I've been able to work on many different projects, such as illustrating my own coloring book, as well as working on award-winning logos and poster designs. Through this class, I want to walk you through one of illustrators, most hard to handle tools, the gradient mesh. Even the most accomplished designers have a difficulty controlling the gradient mesh and getting it to do what they want it to do. However, through this class, I will show you step-by-step how you can control the gradient mesh in order to make simple and even complex designs with a photo-realistic quality. We're going to have some fun today. I can't wait to see you in class.
2. Class Requirements: A basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator is definitely an asset to take this class. However, I will walk you through step-by-step so that even a complete beginner can follow along. I've prepared multiple images to use in this class, and you can take your pick or pick one of your own. I love using this technique with video game characters or even animated movie characters. I've also prepared worksheets that you can follow along with, as well as a PDF that goes step-by-step, the process that I will show you so that you can have a complete understanding. So go ahead and download the project files from the resource panels and I will see you in class.
3. Project Description: Your class project for today is to create a gradient mesh of a pepper. However, you don't need to limit yourself to just doing the pepper. Although I will show you the techniques and the tricks using the Pepper, actually these techniques can be applied to any object. So feel free to choose an image of your own choosing, or you can use one of the reference images that I've revised it and make sure to post your reference image in the project panel. I really want to see from the very beginning to the very end, the steps that you take to create your own gradient mesh.
4. Sections: This class will be divided into sections. First, I want to explain to you what a gradient mesh is and how it compares to other graphic images. Second, I want to walk you through the basics of the gradient mesh from how it works and how it functions, and how you can take full advantage of it. Thirdly, I want to walk you through the class project. I will show you step-by-step how you can take full advantage of the gradient mesh and apply it to your own project. Free to pause, rewind, or rewatch the video as many times as you need to have a full understanding. The gradient meshes a complicated tool and it gets away from us at times. However, if we take the process slowly, we will be able to take full advantage of it and truly learn to control the gradient mesh. Throughout the video, if you have any questions or concerns about how you're creating your gradient mesh, feel free to post in the discussion panel and I will answer your question as soon as I can. I can't wait to see what you create. So without further ado, let us move on to our first video, understanding what a gradient mesh is.
5. What is a Gradient Mesh?: All right, so we're going to start her first-class. We're going to talk about what is a gradient mesh. So in order to understand what a gradient meshes, we have to understand what kind of image it is. It is actually a vector image. To understand what a vector images we have to understand the difference between a vector image and a raster image. So you're probably familiar with raster based image is they use something called pixels. So you've probably heard of pixels before. It means that in this image it's made out of a bunch of tiny little squares, each given its own individual color information. So you're probably familiar with this type of image. However, you may not know exactly what a vector images. A vector image is actually built not using pixels, it is built using points. Means that within this image there are hundreds of little points. Each point is given a certain color information and it has a relationship with the other points as well. So the computer automatically feathers the color between 1 and the other. It makes a very smooth transition, no matter the size of the image. Pixels on the other. On the other hand, actually, the size of the pixel will change according to the size of the image. So if I expand these pixels, actually the square themselves will expand as much, say expands the box. However, the points, actually, the color between the points remains smooth because the computer is automatically feathering between this point and that point. There is no growth within the color itself because it is just these two points that error, um, have a relationship. Apart from the pixels being individual squares of color. The points is just a point on the artwork which has color information. And then from that point to another point, the computer will feather the information. So you can see that this light blue will feather into this dark blue. It means that no matter the size of this image, it will always have a smooth transition between the two points. But in the pixels, actually, the only way to get a smooth transition is if you gather the pixels closer together. The closer together the pixels are, the smoother it'll be. So the resolution or the smoothness of a raster based image is dependent on how many pixels are in the image itself and how close together they are. In a vector-based image. Actually, it doesn't matter how many points there are C, we only have four points, whether it's the size of the whole screen or if it's the size of just one square inch, the size of the Doesn't matter. That means when we expand these two images will actually really tell the difference, the raster based image, since it is made out of a bunch of pixels. When you expand the image, it's going to become pixelated, meaning it's going to lose a lot of its quality and smoothness. The vector-based image, because it is made out of points, these points will expand, but the computer will automatically feather the color between the points. So the smoothness of the vector-based image will actually not lose quality. So let's take a look at that. So here we can see a zoomed out image of the vector-based image. Also the raster based image. When you use zoom out the raster based image, you can start to see all the individual pixels that make up the image. And it really starts to become unnoticeable of what this exactly is. In contrast, we can see that they were asked her based image or the vector-based image. Sorry. If we expand it, it doesn't lose any of the quality. It actually retains all the smoothness of the gradients and also the smoothness of the edges themselves in the image. So this is a very powerful part of what a vector-based image is. And this is essentially what a gradient mesh is. It is a bunch of points with color information. And between these points, the computer will feather the colors between them to make a constant smooth gradation over the entire image. So it means that this image can be expanded to the size of an airplane or down to the size of a business card without any loss of quality. If we try to expand this image up to the size of an airplane, actually, it would start to get very pixelated and it really wouldn't look too pleasing. So that's the difference between a vector image and a raster image. And essentially, a vector-based image is created out of the gradient mesh, meaning using points to create all the depth of the image. So when we look at a vector and raster based image, just for your information, there are two types of files. The traditional raster based image is PNG, JPEG, and gifts. So you're probably familiar with these ones. In, on the other hand, in the vector based and there are something called SVGs, ESPs, PDFs and AI files, Adobe Illustrator files. These are the file types that you use a vector-based image. They're not as common because they're not used as common on the, on the web, but they are very powerful for additional media. So if you are a graphic designer, you definitely want to use vector-based images in your graphics, especially if you want to expand your graphics to a large-scale, like in logo design, you may want to put your logo on an airplane. That's just an example or a billboard, right? You don't want to lose the quality. So this is what a gradient mesh is. So before we ever start making a gradient mesh, I just wanted to show you exactly what it is in contrast to the traditional raster based images that you see every day. In this class, we're going to learn how to take a raster based image and apply a gradient mesh over top of it, recreate the image in a vector-based style so that you can have both the intricacy and the detail of the raster based image and the ability to expanded exponentially with the vector-based image. So let us continue learning about the basics of the gradient mesh.
6. Gradient Mesh Basics: So let's look at the basics of the gradient mesh. This year is a basic gradient mesh. How the gradient mesh works? It works in a grid system. There are four corners to the gradient mesh. No matter how complicated the gradient meshes, it'll always have four corners built into it. The reason why that's important is there will always be a top edge and bottom edge, right edge and left edge. The top and bottom edge work together. The lines of the mesh will always run from the top line to the bottom line and the red line to the left line. So we have to understand where the corner points are in our mesh and how the mesh will run over our object. And we will look at that a little bit later. But this is the basics of a gradient mesh. The next, we will look at the Bezier handles. So within a gradient mesh there are something called Bezier handles. So busy handles give you control over the mesh. So it allows you to move the mesh points and adjust the strength and direction of the mesh points. There are four or three different types of as a handles you want to take in to consideration. There's the corner points. The corner points actually worked independently from one another. So although this corner point has to Bezier handles, they can work separately from one another. Means that you can round off the corners and make whatever kind of shape you want. However the edge points, they work together means that while you try to adjust one, the other side, we'll do the exact opposite. So it will always try to create a smooth line in between these two mesh points. So you can create it softer or harsher depending on the mesh point. So like I said, the corner points work independently so you can make it smooth, leading to one edge on one side. Or you can end, you can make a corner point like that. Or you can round it off like that. So even though it starts out as a square, you can round it off and build it up into a smooth round object. As you see here. So what about the mesh point? The mesh points is what I refer to as the mesh points inside means there is one that goes vertically from the top line to the bottom line and one line from the right to the left. The top and bottom. The Bezier handles that are connected to the top and bottom, they will work connected. So it means that they will work in unison. However, they won't affect the right and left. So the right and left busy handles within it actually work together and the top and bottom so you can change them to however you want. So in this case, we can create a circle from that basic square by smoothing out the corner points and adjusting all the other points. So now you can create a very unique, complicated gradient mesh just using these different. The points. So this is the basics of the gradient mesh, busy handles. We've got the corner points that work independently from one another. We have the edge points that work in unison along the edge, smoothing out the, the line between the two corner points. And we have the mesh points within the inside of the mesh points that work in unison, top to bottom and left to right. So now that we understand that, let's look a little more in detail into the basic gradient meshes, how to build them. All right, so we have here three different objects. We have the basic square, we have a circle, and we also have a more abstract shape. So the basic square, when we transform it into a gradient mesh, we can see that it has four corners and it has a top edge, bottom edge, right edge and left edge. Same with the circle. When we apply a gradient mesh to it, it has the Bezier handles. It has a corner point similar to what we just created with the Bezier handles from the square, but it's already made within the circle itself. However, when we get to this more complex shape, it has many different points already attached to it. When we apply a gradient mesh to it, it tries its best to create the edge points. However, even though many edge points are created, it still has four main corners. It has this corner, this corner, this corner, this corner. And there is a top edge, bottom edge, right edge and left edge. In this case, when we see the Bezier handles and we see what's happening with them. Actually, they're not exactly working the way we would want them to work. The reason why is because the computer automatically fills in what it thinks should be done. But since it's already very complex form, it goes out of your control. So what I would suggest when you're making complex shapes like this, start with something simple, like the square and then mold the shape into the complex shape. Then you have control over how many points are created in it, as well as where the top edge, bottom edge, right edge and left edge by. If you don't use a simple form like that, you'll get a very complex mesh that is very hard to work with. So the Bezier handles control two different things within the mesh. They control the strength of the color or the amount of feather from 1 to another point. And they also control the shape of the mesh. So you can see here that there are three examples. There is the balanced feather, there is the unbalanced feather, and there is an overlap, which means it's a very harsh feather. So to create a balanced feather, all you have to do is create some distance between the two points and evenly distribute them. So from 1 to another, we find a point of similar distance from each edge. And that'll create a very even feather from one side to the other. But when we create an unbalanced one, we push one Bezier handle further towards one side and reduce the other side to itself. So it creates an unbalanced. We can see the purple is really pushing towards the pink. When we create an overlapped Bezier handle. Actually, these Bezier handles are overlapped from one to another, meaning it's stretched over top of each other, creating a very harsh feather within the middle, meaning the pink pushes really far and the purple pushes really far. And what does that create? It creates a very harsh line. So these are things to consider when you're creating your gradient mesh. You have control over how the colors will flow into one another. And also you can control the shape of the mesh. So you can control the outside of the mesh and also the mesh, the colors within the meshes well, so you can create a sort of wave by using an opposite, opposite direction. And you can also make a bulge by I guess doing an opposite direction in a different way and also creating a peak by really pushing that bulge and creating a very dramatic peak. Even. This is similar to the overlap where we see that when we overlap the object, it creates the harsh fade. So you have to consider that the shape of your mesh will also affect the how your color will fade into another. So these are just the basic things that I wanted to show you about how to control the busy handles within your gradient mesh. To control the mesh, how you want to. Last thing I want to talk to you about in the basics of the gradient mesh is how we can create a complex form. So how we're going to work through this class is we're going to create the basic shape. I always start with a basic rectangle. No matter what the shape is, I'm always going to start with the box. So the first step into creating a gradient meshes you first create a box. The second step is you're going to create a center point. You're going to create a line flowing from left to right and a line flowing from top to bottom. When you create this simple mesh, then you can start to form your shape. So here we can see the example of the simple box and we made a mesh. Then we're going to push that mesh and we're going to create the shape. After you create the shape, you have your general form there. Then we can start to build up the mesh. So for mesh one, which is very general, then we can add a second on each side. We can add it between the left and right and top and bottom. So we'll add four more lines. So we'll have mesh to mesh two will create the more complexities of the shape. Remember when we add a point, it'll find its middle value. So when you create this mesh, if it doesn't fit exactly how you want it, you pull and push the mesh to where you want it, want it to fit. So this is where you should be on Mesh 2. Third, you will add even more complexity to your mesh. Wherever you think you need more detail, you can apply more mesh points. But remember, always adjust the mesh points to where you want the next mesh points to lie. So this is the basic foundation of our gradient mesh tutorial. We wanna go from simple to complex. Always start simple, and then build upon that simple structure to create a very complex form. If you do it this way, you'll be able to create something very complex, but in the end, it'll be very simple for you to do. So. This is the principle that we want to use when we apply to our, our own creation of our gradient mesh.
7. Navigating the Screen: All right, So through this class, I just want to teach you quickly how I navigate through the process of creating a gradient mesh. So there are seven keyboard shortcuts that I frequently use when I create my gradient mesh. There might be others that I use, but these are the main ones that I want you to know about. So m is the rectangle tool. So when you press M on your keyboard, you can simply create a rectangle. That's awesome. U on the keyboard is your gradient mesh tool. When you click U on your keyboard and you have a shape, a rectangle made. You can click anywhere on the rectangle and you can create it into a gradient mesh. Now it's no longer a rectangle, it is a gradient mesh. When you use the a key on your keyboard, you can use the direct selection tool, meaning using this tool, you can pick and select any point and you can also use it to control your Bezier handles. So that's very important tool to use. The eyedropper tool is I on the keyboard. So now it is an eyedropper tool. If I have a point selected and then I click, I can grab a point in. I can grab color from anywhere on the screen. So this is another important tool. Now since I already clicked a and then I clicked, I can use the control key to toggle back and forth. So when I hit Control, I can use the direct selection tool to select a point and then I release it. It'll automatically change back into a dropper tool. However, what you want to take it consideration is you must always click a first and then I. If you have the normal selection tool, which is V, select it, and then you click i and control you will. I dropped the whole item. So you don't want that. You want to use a and then i. So now I can control toggle, click 1, control toggle, click the other points. And then just going back and forth from the direct selection tool to the eyedropper tool very easily. The third thing that I use frequently is the spacebar. Spacebar. When I hit space, it allows the hand tool to come up. And then when I click with my, my cursor or my mouse, I can pan around the whole art board to move from one to another. And the last one that I use frequently is if I use Control plus the space bar, this turns it into the Zoom function, so it allows me to zoom in and out of my, my artboard. So these are my basic keyboard shortcuts, shortcuts that we'll be using in the class. So I will also give you this document as a PDF if you want to keep it on hand. If you want to print it out, go ahead. If you want to just put it on your screen somewhere as you work through it, just as a reminder, that also is a great idea. So whatever works for you, take advantage of these keyboard shortcuts because it will definitely speed up your workflow when working with gradient mesh.
8. The Set Up: Now let's start our project. So to create our project, Let's first create a new file. Doesn't matter what size your artboard is. I'm just going to go with a basic ten by ten and hit Create. Now what we wanna do is we'll save this project as and we'll do Gill share project. Save it to your desktop. Yes. And then I'll hit OK. So now we have it saved. Now we want to import our reference image. So go File, Place and go to the reference images. And for this class I'm going to be using this image of peppers. Skip ahead place. And I'm going to drag it out onto my art board. Here. I think that's a good place. I'm going to use this yellow pepper as my subject today. So I'm going to place it roughly in the center, maybe make it a little bigger like that. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take the layer panel. I'm going to duplicate it by dragging it down to the Add Layer button. And now we have to duplicate layers. The bottom layer I will call reference. The top layer, I'm going to rename as click and drop. So now we have to reference layers, one called loop, click and drop, and one called reference. I'm going to lock the click and drop layer and I'm going to hide it. I'm going to select the reference layer and I'm going to go up to the opacity and I'm going to switch it to 50 percent. So now our reference layer is at 50 percent and I'm going to lock it. Now with the reference layer selected. I'm going to add one more layer. This will be our artwork layer. So whenever you're working with Gradient Mesh, you're going to set up your layer panel in this way, you'll have a click and drop layer with full resolution reference image. Then you'll have your artwork layer, and then you'll have a half-hour or sorry, half opacity reference image and the full opacity click and drop layer. And you'll be working on the layer in between to create your gradient mesh. Although sometimes you may have multiple gradient meshes in between these layers, you will only be working on one artwork layer at a time so that you can get the best result out of your gradient mesh. So there you go. This is how you set up your gradient mesh file. And let us move on to the next class.
9. Break Into Sections: All right, So through this class I want to talk about section was on a talk to you about how you can divide up your work into manageable pieces. So today we're going to work through the process of creating this pepper into a gradient mesh. So in order to create this pepper into a gradient mesh, we need to simplify the shapes a bit. Meeting. It may be difficult to create this whole thing out of one gradient mesh. So in order to make it simple for us, we're going to have to divide it into sections. So we can divide it into two sections really easily by creating the stem and the pepper body. So we can see that here. We can separate it into two different sections. The stem as a one section and this pepper body as the section or a second section. So even these two objects, it might be difficult to create one solid gradient mesh for this whole section here. So what we would use then is we would create the section of the, pepper, the stem into two sub sections. We would create the stem itself as one and the stem base as the other. When we come back to the pepper body, we can look at it and we can distinguish three separate parts of the body. We can see that there's a top section. There is a sort of bottom section here, and there is a side section here. We can separate those three into three different parts and three different sub sections of the upper body, the top, bottom, and sides. When we do that, we'll be able to easily work with the pepper. And when, when, when we combine all the sections together, we will be able to form it into one cohesive gradient mesh.
10. The Basic Mesh: Alright, in this class we will break it down and start creating our gradient mesh. So the first section we're going to do is the top section. So we're going to begin by creating the top section in the in-between layers. So we have a click and drop layer, and we have our artwork layer, and we have our reference layer. Since we're working on the top layer, we will name our layer top, which is the top section of the bell pepper. Now what we're gonna do is we're going to create the basic mesh in order to make a mesh and make it manageable, we want to go from simple to complex. We want to start out as simple as possible and then add complexity over time. So in order to do this, we're going to start with a simple shape. We're going to create a simple rectangle, will create the rectangle. And what I'm gonna do is I'm going to make my click-and-drag layer visible. So now all I can see is the mesh itself or the layer outline itself. I'm going to line it up to where I think the top edges and the side edges will come. So I think that I want the mesh to run the bottom edge along this side here and the top edge along this side there. So I'm going to angle the mesh like this. I'm going to line up the top edge till it touches that edge there and line up the bottom edge till it just touches this section there. And I'm gonna do the same at the side. The side edge is going to be this side. And then also along this side. However, with this side, since I'm going to be blending these two sides together, I'm going to create it slightly bigger than what I think this mesh actually is. So it's going to dip into the bottom layer slightly. So this is the basic shape that we want to create. We want to create a bounding box around our subject or our top layer. It might be hard to see this bounding box in the outline. So in order to change the outline color, what we're gonna do is we're just going to go to the layer panel. We're going to double-click on the layer. And we're going to, we can pick any color we want. So for this one, I'm going to change it to black. Now. When I select it. Now it's a very visible black color at very easy to see against the yellow. So now that I created this, we want to create the gradient mesh. So how do we do that? Recreate it using the mesh tool or the keyboard shortcut you. What I wanna do is I want to line up in edge to edge mesh. So what I can start with, I can start by hitting the center. Creating two mesh points. But for this one, I'm going to go back and I'm going to just select an edge point where I think the center line will be. So I'm going to make a center line mesh point running a from this edge to this edge. So I feel like the center will be somewhere over here and I'm going to run it alongside here. So I'm going to create a mesh point. And then I'm going to move the mesh point to where I feel like it should be about their mood. This mesh point to where I feel like it should be. And I'm going to make the curve follow along the contour of the shape itself. So I feel like that's looking pretty good. So the first step is just to create that center mesh point. Now that we have the center top to bottom mesh point in line, we will create our side to side. So I feel like the side to side, we'll start somewhere over here. It should wrap around the pepper and it should end up somewhere over here. So I'm going to create that. So I'm going to click on the outside line. And as you can see, it didn't go exactly where I wanted to go. But that's okay. What I'm gonna do is I'm going to select this center mesh point. I'm going to bring it up to where I want it to be. However, what happened is this mesh point is a lot longer. This Bezier handles a lot longer and it made the other work, the other mesh point a little bit. So I'm going make adjustments where needed. So I'll adjust this mesh point. Make sure it's corrected. And now I have my curve where I wanted it to be. Now I have to change this angle to wrap around the edge. Make this a little less strong than I'm going to pull this one in to where I think the mesh point should end. And now I'm just shaping it to where I want that mesh point or that line to go. So this is the basic mesh. Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to take the corner points and I'm going to form them around the outside edge of my shape or my, my subject. So I'll bring them in to where I want them to be. So I think the corner should be there. I think that corner should lie a belt there. The corner should lie above there. And I think the corners go sure about there. So it doesn't look too great right now. But what we wanna do is we want to correct the. The mesh points. So here I'm going to make this one come in. I'm going to create that mesh there. And since I want this smooth, I'm going to try and make it smooth as possible. So again, I'm going to bring a little extra space to this mesh point. And I'm going to smooth out this line. This going to change this corner point, so it's nice and smooth. So I'm going to line it up with the other mesh point on that corner. So it's a smooth gradation. And then I am going to you just to work this mesh into the shape I want it to be in. So it's looking pretty good so far. Just aligning all the mesh points. And remember, you can correct. And since this will be behind this thing, this thing I might, I might put this layer in front. I can actually allow this to go back behind it a bit so that, that'll be okay. And then I'll do that. So there we go. We have a basic mesh. So now what we want to do with the basic mesh is we're going to use the click and drop method. So we can see right now if we turn off the click and drop layer, it's completely white. However, what we wanna do is we want to get the colors from the click and drop layer. We want to take the colors from the click and drop layer and apply them to our gradient mesh. So how do we do that? First, we're going to click the keyboard shortcut a, or it is the direct, direct selection tool. So we first want to click a. As for the direct selection tool, that means that we can independently click on any of the mesh points. And then what we'll do is we'll click the eyedropper tool or I on the keyboard. Now, if we hit Control and hold it, it'll switch back to the Direct Selection tool. So what that means is when we hold control, we will select the mesh point we want to add color to release control, it becomes the Eyedropper and then select the color. So what did that do? It gave color to that individual point there. Now we can do the same thing with all the points. Will control, click, Drop, control click Drop, control-click, drop. Your choosing the colors of the color right beside the mesh point you selected. So control-click, drop, Control, click, Drop, control, click drop, all around and hitting every point. Now if we remove the click and drop layer, what do we have? We have a little mess up. So we can see this layer here. We actually took the color from the mesh itself instead of the click and drop layer. So I'll go back to that, have that mesh points selected, and we'll click and drop. Now we go back and highlight. And now we can see that our gradient meshes coming out. It looks very good, very nice, smooth and even bell pepper top. So this is the beginning of our gradient mesh.
11. Adding Complexity: So in order to add complexity, we don't want to mess with our basic mesh. We want to keep this as a fail-safe. So what we wanna do is we want to open up in our layer panel, the top layer. Now we can see that we have one mesh there. What we're gonna do is we're going to rename this mesh one. We're going to drag and drop this and create a new mesh. So we have two duplicates. We have the first one, we're going to lock this one and hide it. The second one we're going to rename two. And what we're gonna do is we're going to add on top of this mesh and create a little more complexity. We're going to keep the first one as a fail-safe just in case we mess something up. When we add our mesh, we have something to fall back onto. So as we add complexity, we're going to create more and more meshes within the layer in order to fall back to the previous step, instead of having to recreate it all over again. So now that we're working in the second layer, we have the second layer visible. We have the click and drop. They are visible. So what we're gonna do is we're going to start to add more mesh points. So when we're adding mesh points, we want to add them to the places we see a gradation in color. Now in our second layer, we're going to add mesh points in a specific way. We're going to form the mesh. We're going to make it so that every future point that we add will follow the desired path that we want. So in order to do this, we are going to make a center top, center, bottom, center right, and center left line. And these lines will follow the path that we want our mesh to follow in the future, we will start by clicking on the center line where we want it. We can see that there is a line that comes around. This edge here wraps around. So what we're going to do is we're going to create that as this center top line. So I'll create that mesh year. So what happened is it's sort of followed where we wanted it to go, but not completely. So I like this site here, so I'll just form it to where I want, but I'm not liking how the meshes over here, it's two. So if I have the Direct Selection tool, I won't accidentally select the eye and create another mesh point. Just keep that in mind. So what I'm doing now is I'm finding the mesh points. And I can't see. Mesh point where it is because it's hiding in the black. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to change my color to maybe a cyan blue. So now I can see my mesh point where it is. So here, I don't want it to be that aggressive. I'll pull it back a little bit. I'll also move it up here a little bit more. Get a little more angle in. And yeah, maybe I'll pull this one back a little bit. But since I have pulled down back, I got to reshape and we put these corner points. Each you, That's nice. So when you're creating your mesh is going to be a lot of refining. You want to really refine your mesh at this early stage, on these early stages so that it'll work for you in the future and not against you. So you want to create these early steps as good as possible so that your mesh will work for you instead of against you. So now that we have our top center, let us work on our bottom center. So I see these highlights following a certain arc here. I think I want to try to follow this arc. So I'll find where I want the center point to be about here. And then these mesh points are not exactly where I wanted, so I'm going to adjust them to where I want them. And then because I squeezed together these Bezier handles, I have to pull them and adjust them to where I want them to be. Okay? Now I'm going to form this mesh to where I want and the mesh to follow. I like that line here, follows along. Insert it goes in between. And I really want to pull this one back a little bit more. So since I did that, I also want to change where this corner point is. I think I want it more actually in the corner and not where it is currently. So that this line can follow all the way to the end. And I have this whole section here at the bottom as the dye guess right side of the mesh so that all lines will lead into this side. All right, so there's our top center and bottom center. Now we want to work on our left or right center and left center. So again, click into the UK. And now we'll find a spot where we want our AR right to follow along from the top plane to the bottom. So remember, there's four corner points. So it'll run between these corner points, down, in between these corner points. So it has to be a line between from here around the mesh. So I think I want it to curve around the outside like this. So I'm going to start and see where that gives me. So I added one right to the edge. And now I will adjust as I see fit. Just the process of refining until you get the shape to a belt where you wanted to go. And I feel like I should move this one up a bit. So that's not too bad. Now, we've got our top, bottom and right side. Now we'll do our left side. So we'll use our UK tool. We'll find the place where we wanted to lead from and follow. And I'll follow it along. So in-between these two highlights here and there's an open spot there where I can see fit nicely. So I'm going to use that as a reference. I'm going to click on the line just to create a single line and on move it into place I want to. So as you can see, since I created the original mesh, how I wanted it, the subsequent mesh points that I added fit right in between them. And now every mesh point that out ad will follow these lines in between this construction. So now that we have the basic construction of our mesh as we go forward, it'll be easier and easier to add more complexity and detail to our mesh without it going out of our control. Since we put in the effort to create this basic mesh, every subsequent point will be a lot easier to handle and control. We just gotta remember, start simple and then add complexity later, simple to complex. That is the rule of gradient mesh.
12. Coloring the Mesh: Now that we have our second layer complete for the mesh, what we wanna do is we want to use our click and drop layer. Now we can see when we take off our click and drop layer, it doesn't look exactly how I want it to look. Colors are all over the place. That's because our foreground color is the color that was put into every point that we added onto. So in order to fix that, what we wanna do is we want to click our direct selection tool and then click our eye dropper tool I. And now use the click and drop method. So we'll control click and then find the color closest to the point. And drop Control, click, drop, Control, click Drop, control, click drop. Now we want to add it to any of the points that we recently created. So any of the top center, bottom center, left, center, right center points that we created, we can add the color to those points. All the ones that we previously created that aren't affected. We don't need to add the color. However, since we did make some adjustments to these, these ones, we might want to just sample the color, although it may or may or may not have changed. So we'll click and drag. Yeah, and then we hide our click and drop layer and select outside. And now we can see our pepper is really gaining some form. We can see that we're getting that nice shadow on the one side, the shadow on the back side. And we could see the form coming out. Now if we look at the two, we can look at one and now we look at two. We can see how much complexity we already added with the second layer of gradient mesh. In our next lesson, we'll push this even further to add more and more complexity.
13. Adding Complexity Two: Alright, in this class we're going to add even more complexity to our Gradient Mesh. Let us begin by duplicating our number two mesh in the top layer by dragging it and adding a new layer. Now we'll lock the 12 and we'll hide them. Now we'll rename the copied image or the copy layer has three. So we're in our third step of complexity. The first step was the basic mesh. Let's go back and see these meshes. So the first step was the basic mesh, getting the contours, the form, and getting our center lines horizontal and vertical. Second, we went into our more complex mesh, creating the top center, bottom center, right center and left center lines creating the form. Now we will go a step further and add more complexity. So we'll lock R1 and to hide them. And now we're only working on our third layer. Remember, in order not to select something that you don't want to, make sure that the only layer that is unlocked is the layer that you're working on. In this case, it is the top layer and that third mesh. Now let's go forward and add some more complexity. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to make visible my click and drop layer so I can see where I want to add my mesh points. I'll click the UK and I'll zoom in a little bit and I'll see you where I want to add some mesh points. So what I really wanna do is I want to bring out these highlights. And also there's some more contrast in the back here. Let's start with the back because it is a more basic line. So I see that there is a highlight here, then there is a darker spot here. So what I can do in this case is I can say create a line here, and this follows that curve. But what I'm noticing is that I want it to follow above this dark spot. So I'll bring it up a bit. Now. Since I did that, these curves here don't work as well. So I have to adjust the points and correct some of these points to make them follow the curve I want. Okay. So we made one long line here. And that's going to separate that. Now what I wanna do is I want to create one more section right here. This'll be this darker section. And then if I follow along, I could see that there is a darker section that follows this line here, right in that center. And also back here there's another darker section. So this is our beginning of our adding complexity. So we want to separate it by where we want the gradation to happen. We can pull these over a little bit so that we get some gradation between the two. Now I also see that this side here is also lighter than this side here. So I want to create one mesh point to make sure this color here is different than this color here, I'll add one more mesh point like that. So I'll smooth out the lines a little bit. And there we have. Now at this step, what I wanna do is I want to do by click and drop method. I will click the button and then I'll click the I button. Now I'll Control click and drop, Control click and drop, Control click and drop. I can see that this needs to be pulled over. I control click on it. I can drag it to where I want it to go. Control those. Drill this line because this one was a newly added point. And now these points over here, they're all pretty light there, all this light. So I'll just have to find a spot where I'll get the color without touching the lines. I don't want the color of the mesh. I want the color of the object. So there. So now if we unclick and turn off our click and drop layer, we can see that we're getting some form in some shading In the back part of it. So if we turn it off and on, we can see that there's some form happening. All right, so that's adding complexity to the back section. Now, we'll add some complexity over to the front section. So we want to separate I think, these areas with the highlights in them. So let us do that more around. So clicking the Yuki, we're going to create a mesh points. So I want a mesh point on the outside of this, this highlight here. So I'll pull one, they're not too bad. And then on the other side of it there. And then I'll do one on the outside edge so that the top edge of it. So there. Now what I wanna do is I'm going to create 1 right in the center of this. Now it'll add a vertical and a horizontal line. So I'm going to click and drop the white, and I'm going to click OK. drew up the edge points that I just created around it. Now, if I look at it, we can see that it has created little more form in it. Let's create that highlight. But now there's also a second highlight over on this section. So I'll click the UK. And I think I'll create one more there. And In the middle, I'll put a highlight there. So here. So you can pull and drag each mesh point to wherever you want. If you don't want it to be perfectly centered, you can drag it around however you see fit. So you can curve the angle of everything. So now if we zoom out and click outside, we can see that it is creating that nice reflection that we see in our subject. All right, so that's looking pretty good. Now one thing that I'm noticing is that because I added some colors here, it is messing up with the gradation here. Not too bad, but it could be better this MOOC. So we can see that this point is really affecting everything up here more than we want it to. And also we're not getting this harsh line here, which we do want to see. So what I wanna do from here is I'm going to use this one as the color of the main decide. And then I'm going to create one really close and make it the darker shade. So we'll click you and then we'll find a spot near the bottom, really close. And we'll use this control drop and click into there. And this one here, click there. So now we have that nice shading shaded point. As I look, yeah, much better, much better. So we're getting the highlights. We're getting more complexity in the back. And we also created more detail and a sharper edge on the curve here to create that shadow. Now we'll work on this side over here. So let's create this highlight. So what do we do that? Let's click into it. Now I already see that we've made some lines here. We can actually use those lines. When we add some points there, we can drop it down a bit maybe and make it curved around. That's okay. This time it doesn't have to be perfect. We're just forming, making complex design in our subject. Now we want one that goes underneath. So I'll add a line underneath and pull that one down. And maybe this will follow. So here we can adjust the whole curve of that line, make it follow the contour of the shape a little bit more. Yeah, I think I like that. And then we'll add one more here. Now you have this box around the highlight. So each of these outer box is, we'll have a specific color, we'll have to add into it. And then we'll add one color to the center. So now we have the center of a highlight and we have our outside box that will gradually reduce the highlight and merge it with the color. So let's do our click and drop. Now, let's turn off our click-and-drag layer and see what's happening. Okay, So we have some stuff happening here and it looks not too bad. But if we look at it, we can see that down here It's getting a little too light. So I want to change that color to a darker. I could see that maybe I want to add a little darker line in between these points. So there's a little bit of darkness reading through here. So I'll add a line right in the middle, and I'll select the color, maybe a more yellow. And then this here, this is our lighter. And then to oppose that line, I want to get one more color on the outside here, a little darker. So now I should have a darker line later and then darker. See you but that turned out this. Yeah, not too bad. So we've got that dark, light, dark. This one really got to push to light. Now I can see that this highlight should be pushing really close to this mark over here. So what I can do is I can either add more points or I can use the Bezier handles. I can point using the direct selection tool and push this color over top of the other color. So that line becomes more of a harsh line. So I can really push that highlight into the section where the line is. So if I select out of it, you can see that line is appearing there. So let's take a look back at that. So now we have our click and drop layer and we have are adding complexity there. So looking pretty awesome honestly. So if we look at that mesh, we went from, let's go with our one who added the basic mesh. Then we went to the more complex mesh. Now we added a lot of complexity to this mesh. So this isn't the end result, but this is the third step where added a lot of complexity, added the highlights, added the shadow, and really created the form. We're going to push this even further in our next lesson.
14. Adding Complexity Three: All right, So this might be as far as you want to take your mesh, but let's do one more layer and add a little more complexity just to see what we can make. If we don't like it, we can always revert back to our previous layer. So in order to do that, let's make sure our previous layers are locked. We are going to drag down our third layer and duplicate it, lock and hide that third layer and rename the duplicate layer four. So now we're four mesh deep into our gradient mesh of the top layer. And this is where we're seeing a lot of the complexity, a lot of the detail. So what we can do now is we can just refine this a little bit more. We can add a little more complexity and really make it more lifelike and realistic, although it's already turning out awesome. So let's just keep going with it. And if we don't like it, we can always go back to layer number three and work with that. So let's move into the back here. Let's go back to our click and drop layer. Let's see what we can do. So there's a lot of dividends and creases and, you know, things that we can play around with. But the good thing is that we created a lot of layer lines already with our meshes that we created over here. So we can utilize those new layers over in this section. So first what we wanna do is we want to move some meshes into place. So here I can see that this layer, and we can probably make it a little darker. So you've got this layer could make it a little darker. Just click and drop and using the lines that we've already created to create a little more detail. So now that we did that, Let's see what it looks like. Not too much change. So let's look at our reference layer to see where we can fix things. So here, maybe I want this to be the lighter. As you're working on developing your complexity, just take into consideration that you are making a piece of art. You are making a design. So it doesn't have to look exactly like your subject, doesn't have to be an absolute likeness. You can put in some stylization. You can alter the characteristic of the pepper as much as you want, as much as you desire. You don't have to put as many mesh points as I've put in my pepper. You can smooth it out with less mesh points or you can apply different colors to different areas. Just play around with it. It's totally up to you. If you want to have their realistic quality to it. Yeah, you're going to have to really put in the work to form the meshes along the way the colors fall on your subject. However, you don't need to be so strict with that. In making of your meshes, you can stylize them however you want. So I think I'm liking that. So this is our mesh number four, and we added a lot of complexity to it. And then just turning off our click and drop layer to see where what else we can add. So I think I might add a little more darkness in this side here. So remember to have your direct selection tool clicked and not your selection tool. Because if you can click and drop with your selection tool, you will color the entire object the same color. So I have to reverse that, go back a few steps. And then a but in direct selection tool and click and drop. So now I can click and drag around. And then a little bit darkness down here, I think would be a good idea. I think I don't have much down there, so let's, let's add that in. Also down here. There is this line here and I'm going to add that in. Yeah. All right, so that is our top layer. I think the top layer is done. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to close that top layer and lock it. And then we will work on the next section in our next class.
15. The Next Piece: All right, Now that we've got the top layer done, we will move on to the next layer. I think we'll move on and start working on the bottom layer here. So what we'll do is we will create a new layer. So on the top layer or on the reference layer, I guess we'll create a new layer and we'll rename this layer bottom. So now we have our top layer and we have our bottom layer. What we're gonna do is I'm going to lock and hide the top layer. And I'm going to turn on my click and drop layer. So now with the bottom layer selected, I'm going to basically do everything that I just did with the top layer, but now on the bottom layer. So we'll try and work through the process of creating the bottom layer step-by-step, just as we created the top layer. So we'll start with our basic mesh or basic bounding box. And we'll set it up in a way that seems right. So I think I'll have it going around this way and from this end to that. So again, giving myself a little more room at the, this section where it'll blend in together. I think this area might need to be more angled like that. Okay, and then push this over here and over here. Alright, so that's good for that. Now we'll click the Yuki will create our gradient mesh. So I think I'm just going to click right in the center. I'm going to make two lines and I'm going to right off the bat, just start working as I'm creating the basic form. I'm really looking at the form of the pepper. And I'm trying to use the forum to guide the contours of the mesh so that every point is systematically placed so that the top edge, bottom edge, left edge and right edge are placed in an inappropriate spot. So the lines that run from top to bottom inside decide they will flow over the pepper organically and create a, a very good structure. So yeah, there we go. So we've got our basic mesh there. Looks pretty good. So we'll open up the bottom layer. We'll rename that one. We will duplicate the bottom layer, we will rename that to, and we'll lock and hide the first layer. Now we'll add complexity to this second layer. As we build up our initial meshes, we wanna take the time to make sure all the geometry works very well. So smooth out all the lines, make all the angles work for you so that all the points that you will place in the future will follow these paths. So if your lines at this early stage are very sloppy and your angles are all, all over the place. Actually, that's going to be way harder to work with as you add complexity. But if we take the time now to make a basic structure, it'll be easier when we build complexity. And now we will click and draw. So click and drop. And quick, quick and dirty. During the initial meshes I am click and dropping every single point so that it has a solid foundation and it's easy to work with as it gets more complicated. So there we go. So we've got a little more complex, a little more color that are more of a variation in there. And that's step two. So what we'll do is we'll duplicate layer 2 will lock and hide it. And now we have Layer 3. So now at layer three, we are going to continue adding complexity. So we'll go back to our YOU tool. Make the click and drop layer visible. And now we're going to add some more complexity. So what I'm thinking when I'm making my lines here is I'm just looking at the lights and the darks where I can make points that will separate light from dark. So at this point I can see that it's really dark at the end of the mesh, but it gradually gets softer. So the harsher the line is, the closer I'm going to put the mesh is together. But the more gradation, the further apart I want my gradient mesh lines to be. So I'm taking that into consideration. Now. I am developing on the highlights here. So I'm wrapping the mesh on the exterior of the highlight to block in the color. And then I'm placing points strategically within there to create the highlight areas so that it will only run off to a certain point. And as I'm making and creating my complexity, I'm also going along with my click and drop layer, adding the color as I go and not just at the end, because I might forget where I've placed. New lines are where I want the color to be. So if you go back and forth between adding your lines, adding your mesh, and using your click and drop layer. It'll make the process of adding complexity a lot faster and a lot easier. And you'll also see the result as you go. You'll also be able to see where you might need to add more color or take color away. So definitely go back and forth between adding mesh points and the click and drop later. Yeah, there we go. All right, Let's duplicate this one more time. And lock and hide it for. And we're going to just add some more complexity to this one. So let's see where were we can add it. As you develop your gradient mesh, you can see that all the lines that I'm placing in the fall perfectly where I want them to go. The reason that is is because I took the time to create a solid foundation and lay out my mesh in a way that as mesh points are added v to just fall into place. So really take the time and in the initial stages so that you can easily work with your mesh as you go along. So here I'm just correcting some points of the mesh and I'm making sure that everything is aligned well before I start to add more points. Because the more points I have, the harder it will be to work with. But if I get a solid foundation at the beginning, actually it'll be very easy to work with. So now I'm just trying to find where I can add the colors. I'm going back and forth between my click and drop layer, seeing where the colors are. Our highlights are going to be where I want to add color. And here I'm selecting many points that are Around one area. If I selected one color per point, and actually it may not develop a good gradation. It might not look as pleasing. So in order to smooth things out, I'm selecting multiple points that are in a certain area and selecting one color at a time. As you go along continually correct all the points and smooth them out so that if you do add in more points in the future, they will run along that line and not be difficult to work with. So make sure you take the time to control your mesh and make it how you want it. Think about where you want your mesh lines to fall and organize your current mesh accordingly so that it'll fall right into place. There we go. That looks better. Really got that highlight section in there. Well, alright, so that is our second mesh. So if we look at it with the other mesh on top, yeah, it looks pretty awesome, looks pretty clean. In our next, in our next lesson, we'll see how we can blend these two together so that they merged seamlessly.
16. Blending Meshes: All right, So what we're gonna do now is we're going to work on blending the top and bottom meshes together so that this line that we see here, this harsh line will pretty much disappear. In order to do that, we first have to line up the mesh a little bit better than it is currently. So we're going to try and line the bottom mesh up so it matches the top mesh. So with the click and drop layer not visible, we can see both the top and bottom layer. So here what we can do is with the bottom layer selected and the directly, Direct Selection Tool selected. We're going to just move some of these points over so that this bottom layer of the mesh can line up nicely with the top layer. Layer. Let's zoom in so you can see exactly what's happening. Pretty well lined up this edge. Right now. Now that we have that edge lined up, we'll go to the second edge so we can see where the edge points are. We're going to just line them up with the mesh over the top layer. And that's pretty good. All right, so we already have pretty much lined up there. All right, so how do we get rid of this line? What we wanna do is we want to basically merge or blend the top layer into the bottom layer. So how do we do that when they're on two separate layers? So for this one we're going to lock the bottom layer and go back to work on the top layer. All right, so the top layer is, has some overlapping points. So what we're gonna do is you're going to stretch them out slightly over top of the bottom layer just like that. So you should have a nice area where it's covering your bottom layer. Alright. So now what we're gonna do is we're going to go and select the bottom layer. And we're going to take the color from the, we're going to select the top layer n, take the color from the bottom layer directly beside the point. So we're gonna do our click and drop method with control and the eyedropper, make sure they're direct selection tool is the one you are switching to. And then click Enter APA. And I think that will be it. So already it's a little more smooth. Right here is a little different. So we're going to add one more because there's a little more tone there to change that. All right? And we're going to add one more point right here and capture the color of the bottom. All right, so that's part of it done. It already looks a little smoother. But how can we make it even more smooth? So we're going to select all of the bottom points. So select all of the bottom points using your ear direct selection tool, and shift. Click on each of the points. Now, what you're going to do is you're going to go up to the opacity of the mesh points and you're going to drop them down to 0%. What's that? What that's gonna do is it's going to fade from 0%. No opacity, meaning you're going to see only the bottom layer and it's going to fade into the next point on the top layer. So now moving over to the point you haven't selected, select that point, and then select the next point, shift, select and drop the opacity. Move over to the next points. And opacity drop it as 0. And then we'll do it one more time just right here and drop it to 0. And that's it. Now, when we look at it, Actually, we don't see that harsh line anymore. It is seamlessly blended from the top layer to the bottom layer. It looks like one solid piece. That's just awesome. So that is how you blend two meshes together.
17. The Irregular Shape: All right, so now for this lesson we're going to tackle the outside layer of the bell pepper, which is a little more of a irregular shape than the other two, which is quite circular or rectangular in nature. This one is more curved. It's got this, this div ID here. So how do we tackle that? And let's see about that. First. That's lock and hide both the top and bottom layers underneath the bottom layer. And let's make a new layer and label its side. All right, so we're gonna go through the same process. We're going to start with a rectangle and we will form it. So what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to make this rectangle about the size and width that I want it to be for the mesh. However, for this shape, what I see is that it's a big curve. So I think that top layer, that top point here is going to be curved this way and the bottom layer will be curved this way. So I'm going to keep it straight up and down for now. And then I'm going to adjust after I create the mesh. So in order to do this, I'm going to create the mesh. I'm going to start just by doing the top to bottom. So from the top to the bottom, I'm going to create one mesh point. Now, with these points, I'm going to create the curve of the mesh. So here I'm going to move this down here through the center point to where I think it should be. And then move this center point where I think it should be. Now I'm just going to work at lining up the lines and creating a very solid foundation for all the future mesh points to follow. So I'm angling the ends of the mesh so that it curves smoothly in the direction I wanted to go. And it follows the form of the complex structure. Even though it's complicated, you want to get the general floor form and the contours of the shape outline will be able to go in with future points and add in all the dividends and the curves later on. But for now you want the very basic general form. It sort of looks like a macaroni. So you want to build this structure first before moving on to making any complicated mesh points and detail. Remember, always go simple to complex. And then as you move along, you will really get used to figuring out where you can add these points into your structure and then just click and drop along the way. And you'll have a very good structure. All right, that is my initial mesh. And let's move on. Let's go and lock the first one. I had the first one, and then the second 12. And let's add complexity. Let's add our top bottom side side. Now I'm going in and I'm going to add a little more detail. I'm going to add my top center, left, center, right center and bottom center lines. When I do that, what I'm looking for is I'm looking at points of variation, points that are contrast. So whether that be in color or in shape, you can see that the two bulges, that of the pepper that make the contour of the shape a little more irregular. So I'm focusing on those two points with my, my top, top center and bottom center because those are the points that the shape has a variation. So I'm going to create that shape using these two points. Then I'm going to go through and I'm going to find the variation in color, whether that be the highlights area or that be the shadow area. And then I'm just adjusting the points along the way so that any future points that I've placed in there, we'll follow right between the previous mesh. So make sure you focus on building a solid foundational structure so that when you build further onto your mesh, it'll work for you and not against you. Remember simple to complex. And then as you go remember to click and drop and add the color so that you won't have to work to add so much color in the end. And there we are. So let's duplicate that and rename it three. And now we're going to add complexity. So as I'm adding complexity to this pepper, I'm looking at the points of contrast. I'm looking at where I can add a shadow and where I can edit light. And remember where there is high contrast between two points or an area that is light and dark. Remember, you can move your points closer together, but when there is a very gradual contrast or a large gradation of very smooth gradation over a large, large space. You want to separate your points for their part. So here I have them close together at the end, but then I am gradually moving them further apart to increase the gradation. So this is what I'm doing here, but then I'm going to apply the principles that we've learned to the, the highlight. I'm going to color block in the highlight using mesh points so that the internal colors are the lighter colors and they are blocked out by the external colors, which would be the natural yellow of the pepper. By using the color blocking technique, I'm isolating the color of the highlights from the color of the surface of the paper. So that only the inside of the mesh points will be affected by the highlight and it won't travel outside that area to affect the rest of the surface of the paper. So here I'm just blocking in where the highlight is, placing some mesh points inside it and clicking in dropping the color around it so that the highlight is only within the context of the mesh point barrier that I created. And now I'm just clicking and dropping and creating specific mesh points where I see the points of contrast. Beautiful. It's coming together. All right, for a move on, let us just duplicate this layer, lock it. And next mesh layer is four. So now we'll continue in our adding complexity. So here I'm just going back and forth between the click UNDRIP layer and my mesh to see where I can add the highlights and shadows. So as I'm going along, I'm creating new mesh points and clicking and dropping to do parts of the mesh at a time. And then going back to the click UNDRIP layer to see where I can correct it. So I'm looking at the points of contrast with shadow and with the light. Wherever I see that there can be more or less shadow, more gradation, I'm going to work on creating mesh points or controlling the mesh points in that area to make the form and the structure look real. So here I'm adding in one more of the highlights on the bottom half of the structure. And I'm just laying out the color blocking technique. Since I already laid in some mesh points, it's very easy for me to just go along and add a few more mesh points within so that I can add the highlight very easily. I'm just going along to add as much detail as I see fit. And then as I go along, remember just click and drop along the way. So there you're adding the color of the points you added so that you don't have to go back and Riyadh every single point. However, if that's what you want to do, you definitely can, but it'll just take a little more time. Here we go. All right. So I think that looks pretty good. I'm fairly pleased with how that turned out. So now let's just turn back on our bottom layer and turn back on our top layer. And our pepper is coming along beautifully.
18. Thinking Outside the Mesh One: All right, so let's take a look at this step. Let's see how can we dissect this stem and make it into a manageable gradient mesh. So first off, we want to start simple to complex, but in this case we want to make the mesh bigger than the subject itself. So what do I mean by that? Let's create a shape. So the rectangle tool, and let's create our shape. So we wanna make it roughly the size of what we want and angle it accordingly. So about there. And we want to make it slightly bigger than the actual size of the mesh that we want. And there's a reason why. And we'll go over that. But for now we're going to start with this and we will shape our basic mesh into the curve of this stem. So let's go to the tool. We're going to create one mesh point just at the end. And then from there we're going to take the ends and we're going to form the curve of the mesh. When you're making a basic mesh, just get the general form of the shape. Don't worry about any of the detail, the curves, but just get the general form and then as we go on we can add complexity. All right, so we've got our basic mesh now let's do our click and drop. All right, There we go. So that's our basic mesh. So let's go into the stem layer. Let's name that one, duplicate it, and rename it to and lock and hide the first layer. Now let's add our top, bottom and left and right center. So Yuki, here as I'm adding more complexity to the mesh, I'm just looking for the points that there is a contrast in color and I'm guiding the mesh points around that contrast and using those to anchor the rest of my shapes. So here I can see that there are points in the structure that actually run off the side of the mesh. So I'm taking that into account. And when I'm building my mesh and building it bigger than a need to, because some of the color will actually run off the edge of the mesh. So if I made it directly against the sides of it, actually it would be difficult to work with. So now let's do our click and drop. So to the points that we just added, we will do our click and drop method. All right, So this move we got so far. So let's move on to our next part. And let's go to duplicate and change to three, hide and lock the previous mesh. And let's add some complexity. And it's really, it's really sculpt this, this mesh into what we want. So let's hit the UK. And we're going to create some of this texture as well. As some of these highlights. So let's start with this main highlight here. Here I'm using the color blocking technique. I am creating a bounding box around where the highlight is so they can only reach a certain area within the mesh. All right, so now add this, this, there's some shadow here. As I'm building the shadow area of the mesh points, I'm seeing that there is a dramatic change in color in one area and they gradually softens. So where it's very sharp, I'm going to pull those mesh points closer together, but as it gradually softens, I'm going to separate those mesh two, make the feed very soft. So let's continue to add some more texture, to add some more lines. Let's say this highlight here. As I add more mesh points, I'm continually going back and forth between the click and drop method and my mesh points so that I don't miss any color as I'm creating more mesh points. So this one will be a really complex mesh in the end. But after we've made establish the basic form, it'll be easy to get all the detail. So let's create a little bit more and then we'll move on to add more texture. So let's just get this, this rim here. Here I'm taking my time to add in mesh points in creating the general form of the shape. I'm creating. The separation between the lights and darks, the highlights and the shadows. So that when I add texture to it, when I add more complexity, the lines that I add will fall perfectly into the structure that I've built. So take your time when you're building this first foundational structure. So I think that'll be our third one. Will duplicate that. And we will lock and hide and add the fourth layer. All right, So now we'll add some more complexity to this one will really, will really push it to get all the detail. As I add more mesh points to the structure, you can see that the meshes starting to fall just perfectly into place where I want it to. The reason is because I have taken the time to build a solid foundation so that whenever I add new mesh points, they fall into the structure that I have built. And as I'm going along, as I add more mesh points, I'm continually going back to that click and drag method so that I can add the color at the mesh points specific spot on the stem. Because the stem color actually varies quite a bit from section to section. I'm continually going back and forth and redoing my click and drag methods so that all the texture can be there and add it as I go. So if you take your time with the beginning this park and go at relatively quickly. Yeah, I'll add one more layer to this, one more layer of complexity just to get some more detail into it. And then we'll finalize it by forming it into the actual shape of the stem. As I'm adding this last section of complexity, I'm going around and seeing where I can add that complexity where there's variation in colors. I'm also adjusting the mesh points so that they're not in such a linear order, moving them apart or closer together. So it makes more of an organic texture. Rather than a straight linear texture. So as I do this, I'm creating the feel of the pepper stem. All right, so I think that looks pretty good. That's as far as I'm going to take this gradient mesh. But now we want to get rid of all this outside, outside stuff that we don't want. So we want to make it the same form as this stem. So what do we wanna do is we want to, when the first block, this number five, so that we can't click on it. And we want to click on the click and drag layer. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna take the curvature tool or the pen tool. And now we're going to create an outline of the pepper stem. So using the pen tool or the curvature tool, take your time and create an outline of the pepper stamp. So you're going to create a shape in which we can use as a clipping mask to mask in where our gradient mesh lies. There we go. All right, so what did we just make? Let's hide it. We made a shape. So what we're gonna do now is we're going to make all layers visible. And we're gonna make it unlock all our mesh layers. We're going to select them all. All right? And then what we're gonna do with all of them selected, we're going to right-click and then we're going to say Make Clipping Mask. Now, all the mesh layers are contained in this one clip group. So the clip group is holding all the mesh layers. So now all we can see is this one. So what we can do from here, if we wanted to, we can loop inside the clip group so we can lock the outline clipped layer and lock it and hide all the other layers and only have five. So if we wanted to, we can still work inside on the mesh. Yeah. So it's pretty awesome. So even though we're inside the clip group, we can still work on the mesh. So we started with the mesh and created the clip group. But you can also create the clip group first and then lock it and then work with inside the clip group to get all the mesh working properly. So it's up to you to decide which way you want to go. I usually make my mesh first and then I do my clipping mask later. But you can also do it first and work within the clipping mask itself. That is how we use the clipping mask for gradient meshes and thinking outside the mesh itself. On the next video, we will work on the stem base.
19. Thinking Outside the Mesh Two: Alright, so now we're going to start our next lesson and we're going to work on the stem base. So the base part of the stem here. So what we're gonna do is we're going to put it right underneath the stem layer. So let's go to the top layer here, add one layer and then rename it stem, ace. All right, using this, we're going to build up our mesh from basic to complex, starting with the rectangle. Yeah. So a little bit bigger than we want, but that's going into the stem base. That's rename this one and duplicate it. Lock and hide and rename. Next copied layer to let us add more comp, complex meshes to this one. As I'm building the structure for this mesh, I'm just looking at the contrast in colors around the stem and the stem base where they connect. And I really wanted to build my structure around that contrast and use that as a guide for all my future mesh points to lie. And now I'm going through and using my click and drop method just to capture the colors right now. All right, that's looking pretty good. Let's duplicate the second layer and name it three. I didn't lock the second layer and just work on number three. So let's use the mesh tool again. And we're going to create some more detail. As I'm creating the mesh points for this structure. I'm just looking at the shape and looking where the light falls on the structure. I'm placing the mesh points at points of highlight and points of darkness. And I'm trying to follow the path of the mesh along those sections so that as I add more mesh points, they will also follow along those lines. This however, is a very organic structure. There's not going to be many linear lines. So we're going to have to adjust and move the mesh points and change the curves a lot. To capture the or Gatwick nature of the stem base. Make sure you go back and forth between your reference click Add Drop layer and your Your actual gradient mesh so that you can see where you want to add the contrast where color might be missing. So that you can add in the colors as you go and create this structure very well. Remember, if you create a basic structure, you'll be able to add a lot more detail later on very easily. So you might have to go back and forth, create a structure and you might have to revise it. However, if you build a structure really well at the beginning, as you add more complexity, it'll just be a very smooth and easy process. So take your time with this, always clicking and dropping so that you capture the colors as you go rather than waiting to the end. Just so you can have a constant guide of where you want to add more colors and what the current state of your meshes in. All right, so I think that's good for the mesh three. Let's build it up one more time. It's going to mesh for and have some fun when you're creating your gradient mesh. Really push it beyond what you think you're capable of. Playing around with the mesh points, play around with how they're running along your form. And play around with how many mesh points you would pad. There's no limit to the amount of mesh points you have. But the more points you have, the more difficult it will be to work with. So that's why I always go simple to complex. If you build your basic structure well, you can add a lot of complexity with relative ease and always go back and forth and add a as you add new mesh points, definitely click and drop and capture their color. And go back and forth between your click and drop reference layer and your gradient mesh to see you where color might be missing or where you can add more color. So as you can see, as I'm adding more and more mesh points, I'm capturing the color as I go in. And even though it looks complicated, it really isn't. I'm just adding more mesh points in capturing the color. That's pretty much it. Alright, so I think I'm going to leave it there for this mesh. So what are we going to do? We're going to lock up that layer. We're going to open our click and drop layer. And we're going to grab our curvature tool. And we're going to create a basic outline of the stem base so that this shape that we're creating here, it will be able to contain all of our gradient meshes on the stem basal layer. Right? So now that we got our outline created, but what will we do? We will unlock all our mesh layers. We will make them all visible. So you can see that here. Now what are we going to do? We're going to select them all right-click, Make, Clipping Mask. Perfect. That's, so now I'll turn on our stem layer and look at that. Just remarkable. That is a beautiful complete pepper. Photorealistic, completely vector. Amazing. You guys did it.
20. The Final Touch: All right, So we created our final product of the gradient mesh pepper. So before we wrap up the class, we want to add one more touch. We want to add maybe a shadow. So in order to make this shadow, we need one more layer. So underneath your side layer, let's add one more layer, name it shadow. Now on this layer, we're going to create a gradient mesh and we don't need the reference. We're just going to free form gradient mesh of our own. So how we do that is, again, start with a rectangle, start with the basic mesh. Doesn't matter what color, but I recommend a darker tone, maybe a deep blue. And then all you do is think of the perspective and the angle and where you want your shadow to lie. So about like that. Alright, maybe angle it slightly like this, right? So that should be good. So now using the UK, let's create it into a gradient mesh. So let's form it into more of a round, round shadow structures around the form, the base form of the pepper. Ok, so now we got that. Let us select the outside edges and you're going to turn them to white. Okay? Take all the outside edges, could change them to white and just have the center point is here, darkest point. That's your deepest shadow. Now you can take the UK and along the edge right underneath where your subject is, git add one more point in the middle. So this will force your shadow to be directly underneath that point. That'll be the deepest point. And then it'll immediately get darker behind. It'll feed back a bit more, which is what we want. So if we look at it now, it's already, it's already pretty good. Good luck in shadow. So what we wanna do now is all we're going to select those outside edges. And we're going to change the opacity to 0%. So the outside edges, you're going to change to 0%. Right? So now we have a beautiful shadow of our object. And what we're gonna do is we're going to change the transparency of it, of the mesh to multiply. So now if we put it on a base of some sort and you can make a rectangle. We can color it. And then what we'll do is we'll take our rectangle and put it underneath our mesh. And no matter what color it is, the mesh will blend nicely with it. So we have a beautiful, yeah, that's nice. But we can also do is we can make this a gradient. So let's go to their swatches. Select a gradient and what kinda gradient that we want. Let's go to our gradient window and let's give it some color. Make it a blue gradient. And maybe it's dark, a dark blue like that. And we will change the angle of the gradient to 90 degrees. And awesome. Now what we can do is we can duplicate all entry Make. I'll click and drag the gradient, turn it around, press it up against the bottom one, and stretch it up. And now we have a beautiful background for our gradient mesh.
21. Final Thoughts and Thank You!!!: Wow, we made it to the end of the class. You guys have stuck through it, through a long, long journey. And I really want to thank you. Honestly, gradient mesh is a very time-consuming process. However, the result is amazing. You now have a vector-based graphic that is infinitely scalable. If you wanted to, you can blow your work up to the size of a building without losing any quality. No matter what size it is, it'll remain crisp and clear. I want to encourage you to take the skills that you learn in this class and apply them. Try to make something that you never thought you could be for. Maybe a watch, maybe an iPhone, maybe even a self portrait, which I have done and used it as a banner for this class. It means that no matter how complicated and item may seem, it can be created using the gradient mesh. Just remember the principle, simple to complex also. Please remember to post any work that you've done in the project panel. Let's encourage each other showing off the amazing things that you guys have made. If you're on Instagram, please tag me in your post or use the hashtag, mastering gradient mesh. And then we can't, we as a community, can encourage one another and inspire each other to grow in our creative journey.