Tracing a Character using Adobe Illustrator

1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to this course on tracing a character using Adobe Illustrator. My name is particularly on, and I have been in the design industry for the past decade. In this course, we are going to learn how to take a reference image and then trace out a character. In Adobe Illustrator, we will learn how to apply colors onto our character, Create, Outline variations, and add in shading details as well. As we progress along the course, I will be sharing some tips and tricks that you should know that has been helpful in my career personally as well. Hope that you will enjoy this course and successfully trace your own character as well. I can't wait to see what you come up with. So let's start learning. 2. Creating a new Adobe Illustrator File: In this course, we are going to use Adobe Illustrator in order to trace out a graphics. And before we can start designing our stock, tracing out, what you need to do is you need to create a new Illustrator file. So once you open up Illustrator right here, you can go around over here on the Create New section, which allows you to create Illustrator false. So let me just go round and click on Create New right here. And then you can see that I have different presets that I can choose from right here, depending on what you want the content to before, Let's say e.g. for mobile phone, or for web, or for print, or for film and video, you can choose around different presets accordingly right here. In my case, I'm just going to go around and create a content. Let's see for the web right here. And I expect you to do the same for your project as well, because you're submitting your projects in the web platform itself. So let me just go around and select a web over here as well. So in the web we can see that there's various blank presets that we can select from. And we can also click on view all presets right here. And this bit different presets in even templates, as you can see right here. But we're going to go round and work around with a blank preset right here. So you can see that this is a common file. It does not really matter what size I twos because first of all, it is a vector-based graphics editing program. That is, Illustrator is a vector-based n. Then we are going to trace out the character. And we don't have a defined format. And also where no matter which size you choose, you can always resize your, your working area. And then even if you were to resize out the or editing works, it won't pixelate because it is a vector graphics after all. Well, let me just go round and choose, let's say a standard size right here. So let's just go around and select out 1920 by 1080, which is a standard as the format. You can also go around over here on the right-hand side and set the width and height in pixels accordingly however you want. And you can also select different, let's say, measurement units according to what you like as well. And set the orientation to portrait or landscape according to how you want. In my case, I'm just going to stick with the standard 1920 by 1080. That is as the format. And I'm not going to worry about the art boards right now or anything else. But I do want to make sure that the color mode is RGB. So there are essentially two types of color spaces. That is RGB color and CMYK. And RGB is for screen designs while CMYK is what print, because when printing it uses the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color, which represents the CMYK. Black being the end of the word black, that is k. And then you can also select RGB, which is more for screen that is red, green, and blue. According to how you want. In our case, we're designing completely for screen. Lets us go around for RGB color right here. If you happen to choose something else, then you can always scenes around the colors, color space or color mode later on. But you do get brighter colors with RGB compared to CMYK, because in screen you get brighter colors. You get the original display. While for CMYK, it simulates out the print colors right here. And it is an available and the advance here, you can see that that's the raster effects. So whenever you are designing, the end result is always in pixelated format, that is raster format. Depending on what kind of output you want, you can choose like normal screen that is 72 pixels per inch. Or we can choose high for print quality, that is 300 pixels per inch. Let's us go around and select the screen for now itself. That is because we are designing everything for screen right here in the preview mode, you can see you can enable pixel or overprint right here. I'm just going to keep to a default that is overprint because we are designing everything in vector and we don't anything to be pixelated. You can go around onto more settings right here and access out other options. As you can see the slide, this format as well. But let me just press cancel and click on Create. And what happens is that a new workspace will be loaded out right here and as the format. So what do you need to be aware of is in the left hand side, you've got access to all of the editing tools. While on the right-hand side you can see you have access to like layer options and so forth as we move along the course and as we require to use more of these tools, we're going to focus on them. But now we're just going to go around and focus on these things right here. That is the scroll bar, which allows you to move through the art board that you see right here and over here, another thing that you need to be aware about is the Zoom. And this is something that we're going to be using a lot. We can hold Control on our keyboard and use the scroll mouse button to scroll while we can go around and leave it to scroll it top to bottom, we can hold Alt to zoom in and zoom out using our scroll mouse button as well. And that is something that is handy to know when you are actually editing documents, are designing something with Adobe Illustrator. So this has been the process of actually creating a new Adobe Illustrator file with different settings and mine. And as we move along the course, we're going to focus more on the tracing part. But before that, we do need to learn about how we can work around with pen tool. So in the next video, we're going to focus on pen tool itself. 3. Understanding the Pen Tool: Before we can start with tracing, what do you need to understand is the pen tool. This is the crucial tool that you require to know before you can start racing. So to do that, over here on the left side, you can see that this is the pen tool. So this is the pen tool that we're going to focus upon in order to start tracing. Once we click on the Pen tool over here, on the right-hand side, you see its properties as well. So with the pen tool, what you can do is you can click and it creates a point. You can click somewhere else. It creates another point. Click again, that's another point click, and you can enclose it to create a shape. So once the seed is created over here on the right-hand side, you can increase its stroke and it can change the fill color as well. Or you can also choose not to add any fill color. You can change the stroke size and you can also increase and decrease the opacity level. That is the transparency level of the seat that you created. There are different tools right here and we are going to focus upon them when we move forward with tracing. But what you need to understand with the Pen tool is you can create straight lines. And if I were to click and drag right here, then it creates curved lines as well. So it's with these straight lines and curved lines that we use in order to trace out anything. So if I were to go around, you can see the curved line over here as well. So now you get the straight line over here as well. You can click and drag to create a curved line. And then now you can see there's a curb once more, but sometimes you want a straight line right around from over here. In that case, you can hold Alt on your keyboard and click on this point. And now you can have, let's see, a pointy area right here. Or it can go around, hold Alt, click, and then you get a straight line right here. So this is what he can do and create out any shape that you want. And this is why it is very, very useful for tracing purposes. If I were to go around onto the left side and click and hold this pen tool, then you can see that I can add an anchor points as well. Meaning if I were to go around and click right here, then it adds in another point right here. So you can see that this is what you have. Let me just go around onto selection tool and select this shape first. And then go around onto the add to, that is Add Anchor Point Tool. Click, and you can see an anchor point has been added in. You can also go around over here onto Delete Anchor Point tool and click, and it deletes an anchor point right there. Let me just go around onto this safe and select it. And if I were to go around and remove this anchor point, you can see that the anchor point closest to one another, it gets a task out. What you can also do is let me just select this shape right here. You can go around and use the anchor point tool. If I were to go around onto any anchor point and click and drag. Now you can see that I can turn a point into a curve as well. Then I can utilize these handles right here, this like this. You can go around this out. You can utilize these handles to go around and make things as further right here, just like this as well. So another thing that you can do is with the anchor point tool itself, you can hold Shift on your keyboard to move it out or select the anchor point without making any changes, then you can select the other handle and make adjustments as well. So now you can see that how reliable it is to use pen tool right here. So I can turn this into a curve. I can hold sit right here, or I can go around and turn it into a separate angle. Or I can go around, hold, shift and click and then genes out the handles right here, hold shift and click, and then teens out VS handles right here, just like this. So this is what you have, as you can see, and you can hold shift and move out via the anchor point wherever you like as well. Click and drag around and you can see that it contains the position of the anchor point with a mushy. So you can go round and then you can add in, let's say anchor point right here. And then you can use the anchor point tool to add in details right here, you can click to convert it into, let's say a point again, dislike this. So this is what you have right here. We are going to use this very tool in order to trace whatever source image we have. And then we can create any type of graphics that we want. So we're going to continue with the same. Now. Next, we're going to see how we can work around with reference images and then arrange it so that we are ready to start tracing by using this very tool that is spent tool in Adobe Illustrator. 4. Arranging Reference Image to be Traced: Now that we have learned the basics of Pen tool, Let's just go around and delete out the synapse right here by selecting it and deleting it. And let's bring in our reference image that needs to be traced out. So to do that, I'm going to go around onto the File menu and I'm going to choose please, right? Yeah. Once I go around over here on my desktop, I have brought in an image right here, this like this. This is a sketch image. And I'm just going to go around on place. And that gives me this image over here on the mouse cursor. So I can click anywhere to let it go. So you can see that this is the image that you have right here. And you can resize the image according to how you want. But you need to hold sit because you don't want to destroy out the proportion right here, this like this. So this whole set and then resize so that the proportion remains as a test. I'm just going to go around, keep it right here and place it within this artboard whole set and displace this out. So over here you can see that this drawing is very, very rough and it doesn't matter when you're tracing. So you might draw out something very roughly. And then what you can simply do is you can scan it in and please set up like this. And it doesn't matter even if there's anything rough right. Beer because you are doing this. So tracing anyway and all of it will be removed. So if I were to select this outright here, then you can see everything is dark right now. Whatever your tracing is actually better if everything seems a bit faded. So to do that, you need to go around onto the top on Opacity section. And let's just say, I just want 30% of opacity right here. You can see it is faded out right here. This is very good because when you draw on top of it, then you know that it is actually drawing, that is tracing right here. You can also set to 50% if you feel it is too much. But in my case, let's us go around and I'm just going to select 30 right here. Whenever you're tracing using pen tool, you're going to trace it on the top of the reference image. And to make sure that whenever you're tracing, nothing moves on. The D layer is not accidentally selected. That is, the CAPTA is not accidentally moved. Then what you can do is you can simply lock this layer. So to access the layer option, you can go round onto the right-hand side where you see the layers as you can see right here. And everything that you make an illustrator is rinsed out in layers. So as we go around and then stock tray the tracing process, we'll learn more about how layer works as well. So over here on the layer, so you can see that this is the drawing and this is in a particular layer. If I were to go around and click right besides this icon right here, then you can see it as long as the icon allows me to hide or show the layer right here, the layer is hidden. Now the layer is showing right here. This is useful as well. But once I do this, now I won't be able to make any changes to this particular drawing. But if I were to click on the lock icon again, now I can move it or resize it, as you can see right here. Click on the Lock. It is locked into place and this is what you want as well because you don't want to move out the scatter right here. So what you do now is you start creating new layers, and then on the new layers you start the tracing process. But let me just delete the layer itself because we are focusing on the image tracing arrangement right here. This is basically what you do. You bring in the images or sketch right here that you want to use what racing. And if you wanted to trace out images, you can do that as well. It does not have to be drawings. The process is the same, but you just need to make sure that the others are clear so that the tracing is easy. So now, since we have the reference image ready and we're ready to trace, we're going to go round and continue tracing using the pen tool in the next video. 5. Tracing using Pen Tool: Now that we have our reference image ready, lets us go around and start tracing out the image right here. So let's just go round and then I'm holding Alt and using the scroll mouse button to zoom in and out right here. So let me just go around and zoom in over here. What it can do is you can go around and select the Pen tool. Over here you can see that it says the pen tool is not usable. And if I were to click then nothing happens. That is because there is only a locked layer that we previously added in. That is this reference image layer right here. If I were to go around onto the layer section, you can go around and add in a new layer right here, this like this. Now you can see that the pen tool is active. Let's just go round and then start tracing out. Whenever we're tracing, if we want to fill up colors in it where we want to make sure that it is an enclosed. See. Even though the reference lines are rough, we're going to make sure that the trees is quite simple. That is, the trace is quite clean. I'm going to start from, let's see, e.g. over here. And I'm going to click. And over here you can see a line. Lets us go around and create a curved so that you can see that it covers up this section right here. You can see that there's a fill over here. I'm not going to worry about the film and I want a straight line from over here. So I'm going to hold Alt on my keyboard and click on this point like kit. Once I do that, I can simply go around and click and drag to create a curve. And from that point you can see that it is a point by k. So let me just go round and then choose this outright here, just like this. So this is what you have. And I'm just going to go round and press backspace because that is not what I want. So I'm just going to go round and see that I actually created out a new point right here. Let me just press backspace right here. From over here itself, I can hold Shift and click so that it connects back onto that area. I'm just going to go round and click and drag on this very point Vi k. So let's just go around and keep the references quite small right here. I'm going to go around and you can see that there's too much curve over here. So let me hold Alt and click. And then I'm just going to go round and then click and drag right here. You can see again, I'm going to go round hold Shift right here so that it can expect. And then there you go. We can go round over here and then click right here. And then we can see that we can continue forward all the way up till here. Dislike this, lets us go round and then drag this out right here. And you can see that we roughly placed on the head, right yet. I'm going to go round on to the selection tool and select this. And I'm just going to select no fill because the fill is quite getting on the way right here. And let me just go around, increase the stroke size a bit right here, four points so that it's much more clearer. Let me just take the pen tool right here and then let's just trace around the ears as well. So this area is where it'll be quite empty. So I'm not really going to worry about closing it. So I'm just going to go around right here, click and drag this around over here. So I'm going to go round, hold Alt, click, and then I'm just going to go round click and drag to make the ears right here. I'm not going to go around and worry about this anymore. Let me just press backspace and then you can see that I can correct it out over here, this like this as well, if it is not really perfect. So I'm just going to go round, hold Alt and click and drag around right here. Press enter right here, just like this. And there you go. There's the C. Let me just go around and do the same with the other ear as well. But since it's in a different perspective, we can see that it is quite different right here. I'm just going to go around right around through this section and then click and drag. And there you go. There's the ear right here. Dislike that. Once that is done. And then just press backspace. Backspace right here because I don't want that. You can see that the head is pretty much traced. Let me just go around over here and here you can see that there's this mount see right here that we can work around with later on as well. So I'm just going to go around over here and work around with the mouth seep. So let's just go around right here and create out the mouth shape as well. So this is what you have. Let me just go round and click and drag this around right here, hold out. And then I'm just going to go round and give it give them out, save and then close the seat from overhear this like this and there you go. That's a single seat right here. So let me just press Control Z. This is what I want right here. Press Enter. So that's this eyes right here. And we know that the eyes is round, so I'm just going to go around and instead of taking a shape, I'm just going to the pen tool itself. I'm just going to go around taking the Ellipse tool and then I'm just going to go round, draw the eye right here, this like this. Okay, I'm just going to go round. We'll sift, make an exact circle like this. This is what you have as you can see, and I'm just going to press Control C and Control V to create a duplicate. And then I'm just going to resize this and keep the eyes right here just like this as well. So we know that the other eye is identical. So once we select both of these seats, we can hold Alt and our keyboard and click and drag it out right there. And there you go. The other CPS there as well. Don't worry if some of the seeds does not look quite good yet. Because we can fix them out later as well. So this is what your habits you can see. Once this is done, let's just go around and trace up the body over here as well. Or we can also do is add in some details over here as well. So you can see that there's a detail over here. Let's us go around and create out this detail. So let's just go around. You can drag it and you can click and drag it over here as well. And then I'm just going to go round and overlap this out, doesn't matter. And you can see that this is what you have as well. So we can refine this later on. So we're just going to leave it as it is. We just want to finish the tracing first, right? Yep. So once that is done, Let's just go around and trace out the body. Now, this is the body right here. So I'm just going to go round, click and click and drag right here, just like this. Let's just go around the body right here, click around over here, and then click around. And we had this like this as well. Click around and then create an enclosed seep right here, and then click around over here, create the curb, press Enter. So this is what you have. So once that is done, we're going to go round with the with the legs right here, this like this. So this is what you have some just going to go around, click and click and drag right here, click and drag. And then I'm going to click to end it out. And then I'm just going to go round, create the curve over here as well. And this is the leg right here that's like this. And I'm going to click, and then there you go. This is the leg, right yet. Press enter, so that is what you have and for the other leg as well. So let's just go around, click and click and drag up the leg right here, this like this. And I'm going to click to create a point. Click again, and then I'm just going to go round. Let's just press Control Z. Let's create a bit of a curve right here, and I'll click and drag this out right here, this like this, and click. And then I'm just going to go around and pull this out right here, this like this, and press Enter. Once you do that, you can see that these are the legs right here. And then if I were to go around over here, I'm going to go around and click and click and drag right here just like this. And then you can see that the curve is already there. So I'm just going to go around and drag. And there you go. This is what you have. So if I were to go around and click, you can see that I am creating this arm over here that's like this as well. And there you go. The arms are pretty simple, so it's quite easy to trace as well. I'm going to go around over here, do the same for this arm right here. So this is what you have. And then I'm just going to go around and click and drag it. And then the arm is behind the body itself. So it does not matter what CPU draw right here, because when you color them out, everything will be hidden anyway. So this is what you have right here. And for the legs or shoes or whatever it might be, we're just going to go around and trace it out as well. So this is what you have. Click and drag this around right here, and click and drag this around right here. This one as well, and then this one as well. And then we're just going to go around and click and drag out right here, this like this. So once this is done, I'm just going to create a copy of this by holding Alt and by clicking and dragging this C right here. Hold Alt, click and drag and you can see that this is what you have, right? Yeah. And we have the tracing complete, as you can see, it's just like this. Now for this we can just go around and make an adjustment. So you can go round onto the pen tool and add an anchor point right on to this area, as you can see right here, we can go over here and add an anchor point right around over here, another anchor point as well. And then I'm going to use the anchor point tool right here, hold Shift and then click and drag this out inside. And since this is the mountain itself, what happens is that we can go around and then you can see that this is what you have. I'm holding Shift while we're teasing out the mine right here. You can see that this is what you have right yet. So you can see that this the mouth and then it is inside now. And then we're going to cover this up later with the colors so it does not really matter, right? Yeah. And you can see that our character tracing has been complete now. And the next step now is to start coloring. And that is what we're going to do in the next video. 6. Coloring the Traced Graphics and Layer Rearrangement: Now that we have traced out, everything, lets us go around and start coloring this. To color this, since we created an enclosed space, it'll be easy to color them up. So let me just zoom in by using the Alt button and scroll mouse button right here. That is Alt key and scroll mouse button. I'm selecting the C. Let me just go around over here onto the seat fill tool and you can select out any color that you want. So I'm just going to go around and select green, white, and green is applied. The character does not look great yet, but it doesn't matter. So we're just going to go round, select another sheep, and lets us go around and fill it out. Over here. A dark color right here, because I want to create some variations. But you can see that this seep should be at the top right here. Let me just press control that you can go around. And genes around this seek to be on the top by expanding the layer area right here. And now, depending on the arrangement of the layers that you see right here, everything is stacked up in the same order over here on the mean editing area as well. So for that, I'm going to go around over here, select this shape. As you can see, I can hide this heap as well to see what it is. And it can go around, pull this up onto the top of the seat right here. So you can see that this is the sheep and this is another C. You can see that the eyes are getting hidden right here because now the seat is on top of the ice sheets right here. I'm just going to hold shift and select the other seep as well. And it can move everything down right here, this like this. And now you can see that the eyes are on top again. This is what you have. Let me just go around over here. And now I want the same color as this SIP applied onto the shape as well. So in that case, I'm going to go around over here and take the eyedropper tool click. And this is what you have. And you can see that since the ship is at the top, you don't see the lines right here. That is exactly what I want as well. I'm going to select this shape. And then I'm going to take the eyedropper tool click. And this is what you have. If you have to move this outside, you can see that it takes the first and last point right here, even if the shapes are not connected, and then it fills it up with the color. If you fill up color with undulated shapes like this, let me just press control that Vi k to move it back. Once this is done, you can go around over here, select this out as well. So I'm just going to go around and take this color itself just like this. And I'm going to go around over here for this hand as well. Then I'm going to take a sample and then apply the safe as well. But this hence would be behind this character. So I'm just going to go around and select out this shape right here. Once you select it, as I scroll up, we can see the duct right here denoting the selected C. So you can just go around and bring this behind the other layers right here. And let me just bring it behind the C right here, and it is backward as you can see. Let me just go around over here onto the feet area right here. Let me just take the eyedropper tool like this. And there you go. You can see that this is what you have for the Sous. Let me just go around and select something like a brown color. And you can see that it is applied. But you can see that this layer is on the top of this layer, but I want it quite opposite. So I'm just going to go around, rearrange out the seeds right here, and you can see that everything has been rinsed. Let me just go around over here onto this save. And over here I want to apply white for both of these. So I'm just going to select white as well. And for both abuse to pupils right here, let me just select black and you can see that it's already starting to look good. You can go around over here and since this is the mouth, let me just go round and apply red right here. And this is what you have right here. As you can see, the character is ready. So this is what you have and this is how we filled up the C over here. Let me just go round and genes out the color right here to something like this. And you can see that a detail can be added in over here as well. We're not going to work around with that. I don't want to apply any other sheep. And you can see that this is a separate sheet right here, but I just wanted to add in a bit of detail. So all I need to do is grabbing the pen tool right here. And then I can just go around, click and click around right here to add in a detail like this as well. And then press Enter. And there you go. This is the detail that you have right here. You can see that this is the mouth right here. And you can see that right around over here. It has not looking that great. So you can go round over here and take the anchor point tool, hold, Shift, and then move this around right here, this like this, and make adjustments according to how you want as well. So this is what you have as you can see. So this is what you have right here, and we can make further adjustments to it later on as well. And as we progress along, we'll choose different types of lines. And that will create, let's say, a better output for this as well. But let me just go round and delete this right here. And you can see that this is the seat that we have right here. And we just want to go round and then at the stake out. So we want to see behind this, we're going to make some adjustment because I'm not happy with the initial output right here. So over here you can see that this is the sheep. So let's just go round and then adjust the shape according to how it is here. So I'm just going to go around over here, add in the anchor point is still here. So I'm just going to go round over here and then select the anchor point and click and drag this out right here. Click it. And I'm going to go around, hold, Shift, click and drag this around over here, this like this. And there you go. We got the seat ready. So once that is done, you can go around and then pull this out right here. And you can see that it is much more better like this as well. Just press Control Z, click and drag this out and then pull this out right here. And you can see that this is what you have now for the mouth. But what I'm simply going to do is I'm going to go around over here and select out the pen tool and then click and drag this around right here, this like this, and then apply a mouse right here. So I'm just going to hold up and then click and drag right here and cover these outright yet. So now for this, I'm just going to go round and apply out red color for the mouse right here. And I'm just going to go around and move this back right here. So I'm just going to go around, move this back, move this back right here, this like this. And I'm just going to go around and keep it around over here. So this is what you have, as you can see. Once that is done, we are going to go around over here onto this particular shape right here. And then we can go round things around the opacity just like this. And you can see that we have this character, right? Yeah, this like this. So we have done the basic coloring, as you can see this like this, and we can go around and make further adjustments now, do to give a different look to the character. And that is exactly what we're going to do. Once everything is traced out. Now, you can hide out the base layer and you can see that this is how the character looks now and we can make further adjustments to it. So as we progress along, we're going to see how we can further make the character according to how v1. 7. Outline Variations: We have our character right here. And for the character, what you can do is you can get different variations, routines, the look of the character as well. So right now you can see that the character looks quite simple, but let me just go around and hold alt and then scroll out to zoom it out. And I'm going to select all of the character right here and move him to the left side. Now I want to create variations by creating duplications of the character. So to do that, I'm going to hold Alt and click and drag, and there's a duplicate version of the character. As you can see, let me just select all of these. Hold Alt and I can drag them out over here as well. So now what I can do is I can select out and keep all of them right here. Why I did this was to create variations of the character. So I'm just going to go round, zoom into the first character right here, and let me select it out. So what I want to do right now is work around with the outline right here. So now, right now everything is uniform. You can increase the stroke size over here for the cat as well. So right now the line is uniform, so it does not look very interesting. But if you want to make it look like a traditional cartoon, you may want to give it a hand-drawn look. So I'm just going to go around, select all of these right here. And instead of uniform, let me select width profile. And you can see that you get like HUD stroke somewhere and soft stroke in other places. You can go around over here and then select out something like this right here, which gives it an uneven shape. For the hands, I feel that it is fine. But for, let's say this spot right here, I want this shape right here. So you get a bit of a detail as you can see this like this, and at the character looks much more interesting. Let me just go around and zoom in onto the section. You can see that there's a line variation. The character looks most interesting. But if I were to go around right here, you can see right around on this particular section right here, it does not look very pleasing. So depending on what you select, you can see that this is how it looks as well. So you might want to make some adjustment right here. So I'm going to go around over here and take the net, say Anchor Point Tool, hold, Shift, and then click and drag this out right here. And you can see I can make variations right here to make it look much more natural. So let me just go round Meet the Team. This right here. And you can see that there's the detail right here. Or you can go around and use the arrow keys right here. Let me just go around and keep it together. And you can see that it looks much more balanced out like this. Let me just go around, keep it right here so you can see it looks much more balanced now. So similarly you can go around, apply different line variation. So this is the before and the after, as you can see right here. So with a line variation, let me just go round and then delete this out. I'm just going to go around and use that line itself as the base point. So let me just go around and hold Alt and click and drag this around. Another line variation that you can work with as you can give the, applying the color of the text itself. So this is the color. So I'm just going to go around over here, select the same color as well. We can do that as well. I'm just going to go around and meet that color a bit darker. And this is what you have right here. Let me just see in this state and this is what you have. As you can see, I'm going to go around and take the same color right here. So let me just go around, select the same color and you can see that this is what you have. Again, I noticed something so you can see that the line over here is quite sharp, so I'm just going to go around and utilize this one itself so it looks much more natural and pleasing right here. So I'm just going to go around and select out this line variation over here as well. So you want to make sure that it looks okay. Now, with the other seat right here like this, this and then this, I want the same outline, some holding Shift to select all of them. And now I'm going to go round, take the eyedropper and take the sample, and you can see that the color changes out. Similarly for this one, I'm going to go change the color as well. So for this one, let me just go around over here onto the outline and take this as well. So this is what you have. So I'm just going to go round over here and then teens the color to this green because I selected that out. And over here I'm just going to go around, make it a bit darker and press. Okay, you can see that there's the variation right there. I'm going to go around over here and select out the green over here as well. And that is what you have so you can see the color variation taking place. So for this one, I'm just going to go round and select out a gray color because I don't need to take samples of everything right here. And immediately you can see that the Chapter 13 Does that. You can go around over here and select out, Let's see, brown right here, maybe a dark color, brown or something. Just press Control Z. I'm going to go round over here and not this, but let me just go round, select the dark brown right here. I'm just going to go around and make it a bit darker right here. So you can see that this is another variation of cactus that you can create with the outline teams as well. And it is much more closer to the shape right here. So I'm just going to go around and do the same over here as well. So let me just go around, select the red color right here. And for this red color, let me just go around and then make it dark. And this is what you have as you can see. Just select all of these and hold Alt and click and drag them out right here. Then this is what you have. And another thing that you can do is have no outlines at all as well. So you can just go around and then have let say no outlines. So I'm just going to go around, go for no outline. Look right here. Let me select all of these and select out no outline. And this is the look that you have, the flat look. But over here I still want the details. I'm just going to go around and select the color. So this is what you have. And I'm going to go around over here and then make it a bit darker press, Okay, and you can see the variation right here. Let me just add in the detail over here and then select out this right here. So this is how you can add in details over here as well. So to add, let's say e.g. a bit of details to this. I can go around and make the seat but a bit darker, this like this. And you can see that I can add details with the color right here as well. I can go around and then make this color a bit darker over here. And you can see that this is how you can work around with the detail for the character as well. Let me just go around and select out the original one, hold Alt and click and drag this out right here. And then for this one, let's just round onto the uniform stroke itself so you can see the original right here that I have. And then you can see the variations that we created as you can see right here. So just by changing the outline as you can see right here, we can change the look of the character, the look of the entire diagram that we have as well. So for this one you can see that this is totally white. So I do want to let say e.g. I. Have an outline for this. I'm just going to go around and add in a bit of a stroke right here. There you go, that's it. So I just have a slight outline right here because you don't want to confuse out like how something looks and sometimes like when the waitlist mix it with white, That's kind of an illusion of depth as well. So you can see that there's this variation of design just by changing the outline. And of course, yes, we changed out the color for this, but that is how we can add in variations over there as well. You can see that there's a bit of a gap right here. So I'm just going to go around over here and add in a stroke, let's say e.g. this is the color that we have and we want the exact same color. So let me just press the plus button and it will add in this exact same color over here. So let me just go around and work around with the stroke right here. Increase the size of the stroke right here, this like this. Let me just scroll around over here as well. And then I'm going to press the plus button right here. And then this is what we have. We can go around and work around with the stroke right here and add in five. And this is what you have, as you can see, this like this, and the ego, you can see the character changes out and there is no imperfections right there. So you can see that this is how you can work around the detail. And as we progress along, we will see how we can work around and add in more details to the character as we want. 8. Adding Shadows and Gradients for Different Character Looks: Now that we have worked around with lines, Let's just go around and add in more details to our character. And to do that, let's us go around and adding shadows to our cactus as well. So you can do this with any one of these characters, right? Yeah, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this character itself and work around with this. So for that, I'm just going to go around and create a new artboard for the shadows right here. I'm just going to go around and make this. And I'm just going to this character right here. You can do this with any one of the characters that you see, but I'm just going to go around and use this one. I'm going to hold Alt and click and drag it outright. Hear this like this, and this is what you have. So I'm going to go around over here and then I'm going to take the art board tool right here and resize this out as well. So this is what you have is you can see now before we move around with the shadows, we are going to understand some concepts. So when we have a certain shape right here, we can add a color to it right here. So if I were to go around and create a duplicate, you can see that both of them are the same shape. But now what I'm going to do is I'm going to go around over here, onto windows, onto bob funder right here. And what we can do is we can select, output, both of these shapes right here and miss them so that it is a single seat. Let me just press Control Z. And what you can also do is you can see that this is the shape that you have right here, which is on the top. And if you were to select both of them and use the second tool right here, then the top sick will cut off the bottom shape. So that is the Unite and the subtraction tool right here. Similarly, you've got the the intersect tool over here, or you can see that you have the exclude tool over here as well. This brings in a whole in between, as you can see right here. Let me just press control that right here. So once this is done, let's us go around and understand this as well. So that's this opacity. And you can see that as I degrees out the opacity right here, you can see it becomes transparent over here as well. So let's say e.g. if I were to do something like black, then you can see the opacity right here as well. So now let's utilize this concept and then continue adding the shadows onto the character that we see right here. I'm just going to select out all of these right here. And I'm going to hold Alt and click and drag this out right here. So you can see that this is what I have. So now I'm going to go around onto layer right here and then create a new layer and name it as saddles because I don't want to work around with the same letter for the shadows. So for the shadows, let's just work around but the head. So I'm going to take this shape and this shape right here and press Control C, and go to this C right here and press Control F, which pastes out the, the content on top right here, but it pasted it out on the same layer. Let me just delete this and select out the sales by holding Shift Control C, go to shadows, press Control F, right yet, but still pasting on there too, as you can see right here. That is not what I want. So I'm just going to go around and select all of these press Control C. And I'm going to hide this layer, select out the saddles so that it picks it out in the saddles itself. Let's press Control F right here, and not control V. And you can see that now this is what I want. So I'm going to go around and select out these shapes right here, and then merge them out by using the Pathfinder so that it is the same shape. And now I'm going to go around and ten, Let's say e.g. this black as well, this like this, and select this shape right here. And then I'm going to go round and then the opacity down to 30% over here so that it is transparent. So we're going to make shadow out of this. And this is how it looks so far as you can see right here. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to go around plus, let's say e.g. hold, Alt, click and drag to create a shadow right here. So I'm going to create a copyright here, this like this. And then I'm holding Alt and I'm letting go of my mouse. So we're going to imagine that the light is coming from this direction. So I want the shadow to be around over here. So I'm just going to see that the shadow is coming. Shadow is going to be all over here on the left side of this right here. So I'm going to select out the C right here, and then I'm going to go around and minus the front. So you can see that this is what I have. I can further take my eraser and erase out the other six, but the result is too big, so I'm just going to double-click the eraser and gender on the size of the eraser right here, to 58 pixels so that it is smaller and you can erase this out over here, dislike this. Once I enabled the bottom there, you can see the saddle right here just like this. Now, what it can do is you can go around, bring in the shadows. So let me just go around. Bring in this shadow onto Layer two as well. So you can go round from left to right here, this is the shadow. You can bring this down over here just like this as well. So let me just go around, bring it down right here, just like this. So let me just go around, bring this saddle layer down, down, down right here. Let me just go around and bring this down, all the way down. You can see that there's a lot of layers right here. And that is not this for this particular character right here, you can see that this is what you have. Let me just go around and apply a trick because this is like hot. So let's just go around, give the saddle on layer on the shadow layer itself, and then hide this out. Now what I'm going to do is take this character only this capac actor, press Control X. And then I'm going to hide this or create a new layer press Control F right here to paste it in front and this is what you have. So once I do that, I'm going to go round and enable this. And this is the shadow that you have right here. Now over here on this particular layer right here, let me just go round, bring in the shadow right here, just like this. And then you can see that you can place it wherever you want. I'm just going to go around, place it on the top of the cabinet itself, on the top right here, and there you go. This is the shadow that you have, as you can see, this like this. So the arm is not getting in the week. Another way to create shadow is to press Control C, Control F, them is steam this into black again. And I'm going to go around over here and teams around the opacity to let say e.g. again, 30 right here. Another way to go around and add in shadow is to simply erase this out right here. So I can just go around and erase this out. Let's say the light is coming from this section. You can go around right here and simply erase it up. But everything else is erase. That is because I didn't select out the layer first, so you'd need to select the layer. Do you want to erase best, use the eraser and then simply go around and then erase this outright here, this like this. So this is what you have as you can see right here. Let's go round erase. And this is what we got, this shadow over here. So it is a bit rough but still looks great as you can see right here. And I'm just going to go around and hold Alt and click and drag this out right here. And let's say I just want to utilize the clean look right here. So I'm just going to go around and then erase that out right here, just like this. Let's go round Control C, Control F. And I'm going to go around over here, click and hold and drag this out. So hold and drag this out right here, just like this. Select this out. And then I'm going to go round and say e.g. minus the front right here. So let me just select this. Select this right here, minus the front. This is what you have. And I'm going to go round and teens the opacity level to 30 again. So you can see that this is the shadow that we have. Let me just scroll around, press Control C, Control F right here. And then I'm going to go around, select the color again. So you repeat this step, as you can see right here, you go around, make it 30, can drag this out right here, add in some shadows, and that is what you have right here. So this is why you have this like this. I'm going to go round and then erase that out. Select this outright here, press Control C, Control F, and then thin that into, let's say this one. And this is what you have, as you can see, press Control C, Control F, drag it out, and this is why you have. So I'm just going to go around and delete this and do both of the legs at the same time. Let's say e.g. I'm just going to go around and get black as well. Select output of the legs, hold Alt and drag right here, this like this. Let me just go around and select out all of these layers. These layers right here, and then it, let's say into 30%, right? Yes, so that is what you have and you can go around and turn this into 30% overhead as well. So once this is done, you can go round and then erase this out. You can go round over here and erase that out as well, but you can see that worked out quite well over here. So let me just resize it out. And then I'm going to go around over here. You'll raise this up right here. And I'm going to go round, erase this out over here just like this as well. So you can see that there's a level of detail added onto this character right away. This has got round do the same thing with the Sous as well, control C, control F. And then I'm going to go around and select this and select this around. And then ten it, Let's say e.g. onto 30 per cent. So this is what you have. Control C, control F, drag it out, control C, control F. And then drag it out right here, this like this. And I'm just going to go around and erase this. And I'm going to go around and erase this over here as well. But you can see this is not lining up well, so I'm just going to go round and then drag this. Let's see, e.g. right round on to the bottom or I'm just going to go around, keep the layer, rearrange the layer right here. I'm just going to go around over here to rearrange the layer. If I don't want to mess around over here, this layer works quite fine. So let me just go around and select this layer and this layer back right here. Or I'm going to go around and select this layer, Control X and Control F. And what happens is that the layer gets three rings, as you can see right here. And you've got all of the details like that. So that is what you have, but it messed up there. So let me just press Control Z and then this is what you have. And I'm just going to go around over here, rearrange this out. So sometimes as you work along, the other parts might be messed up and that is normal in design. So I'm just going to go round, select the SIP Control X control F. And there you go. This is what you have as you can see now with the mouth as well. So let's see. I'm going to press Control C, Control F. And over here I want to add in a level of detail right here, and it's going to go around and do that as well. So. I'm just going to go round press Control C, Control F right here. So right around over here from the top section, I want to go round and delete that. So I want to go around and add in, let's see, sort of layer right here. And it's going to go around over here just like this. And then I'm going to press control just like this as well. So this is what you have as you can see, and then you can erase this and there you go. You can add in the detail like that as well. But let me just go round and utilize the eraser because I want the red bar, that is the tongue to be at the bottom. I'm going to take the eraser and just go around and slowly wipe it up right here, this likeness, and it's going to go around, wipe it out right here. There are some points made right here. And to make it much more smoother, I'm going to delete off the, let say e.g. the part right here. You can just go round, delete that out, and then you can go around and make it smoother later on as well. So let me just go round, delete anchor point right here. And now I'm going to go around over here onto the anchor point tool and move this out right here, this like this. Do go round and scenes this out over here as well. So that is something that I can do as well to teens that out. But this is what you have. I'm just going to go around over here. I got it all wrong. So this is what I want. I want the black on the top, so I'm just going to go around, then it black right there. So this is what you have as you can see, dislike this. So it's not all red right here. So that is what you have. So this is how you can go around adding detail to your cat, as you can see right here, you can go around, make copies of this. And another thing that you can actually apply as you can go round select, let's say all of the shadows that we applied by k. So would've been a lot more easier if I had applied the shadows and the different they're right about now. But we do need to maintain our data layers as well, so not doing that. So I'm just going to go around, select out all of the saddles right here. I'm going to select this as well, select this as well. Select this as well. Then what we can do is we can go round onto effect and we can blend this out over here as well. Apply a Gaussian blur and you can see a preview and you can give it like a soft look over here, dislike this as well. So this is what you have as well. Select out the shadow and you can go round and see e.g. this is what you have. Let me just press Control Z right here. And let's say I want to increase the opacity a bit right here to, let's say 50 per cent right here. Just like this, I'm just going to go around and select the opacity to 50 per cent. I'm going to go around over here, select the opacity right here, this like this, this one as well. So let me just click upside. This is what you have. And then you can go around and then select out all of these saddles with different levels and then apply Gaussian blur to it as well. So I'm just going to go around on the effect onto, let's say e.g. blur and Gaussian blur right here. We can work around with the level of blur over here as well. And you can see, you can add in a different level of detail to your character by using those types of settlers as well. Let me just press Control C and F right here. And you can increase the intensity of the shadow by doing that as well. This by creating multiple layers, as you can see, this like this. So that is what you have right here. Let me just go round and work around with this. So the options are limitless right here. So let me just go round, create a copy of this right here. And now let's work around with the eyes. Let's say e.g. you can go round at ingredient to the ad as well, eyes as well. So I'm just going to go around and add, and let's see a radial gradient and then work around with it as you can see right here, this is what you have. You can work around with something like a radial gradient as well, and then add in some more effects. We can go round choose, let's say a different color over here, this like this as well. Let me just go round and workout with a softer color like this one and you can see, you can add in detail to it as well. I'm going to take the same detail over here as well. So I'm just going to go around copy that out. And this is what we have. Let me just go around adding a more softer look right here. So this is what you have, as you can see, to add in a bit of interests over here as well. So that is what you have right there. So over here, I can also take the gradient tool and then move around, let's say e.g. this is what I have. As you can see, you can move around the level of detail right here, this like this as well. Let me select this and then take this as a sample right here Around onto the gradient. And this is what you have is you can see as well. So you can go around and then move this out over here, this like this as well. Move this out onto the right-hand side so that it can work around with the gradient. And you can see that there's a different interest to the character that is applied overhead as well. Apart from this, let me just go around and then click and drag this out. You can add ingredients onto different body parts as well. So you can go round over here, then this into a gradient as well. So let me just go around and select out a different color for this. So I'm going to go around and select outlets, see a darker color over here. Then it can go around onto. The gradient tool again. So let me just go round onto the gradient tool right here. And then you can go round the ascites outright here, keep it somewhere and add in some shadow details just like this as well. So you can see that it adds a different level of interests over here as well. So you can go round, select this out and take the same ingredient level right here to add in some details over here as well. So I'm just going to go around right here. Let me just press Control Z and select out this particular layer right here. And this is what you have. And there's another layer right here that's like this. So you can go around and adding details to that as well. Let me just move this to the side and select this layer and then take the sample, right? He has this like this. And then you can go around onto the gradient tool again and then move this out right here. So this is what you have, as you can see, I'm just go around, move this right around over here onto the bottom. Dislike this n, I'm going to go round over here as well, onto this seep, go round over here, onto the gradient tool. And then I'm just going to go round press control Z, and then move this around over here just like this as well. So this is what you have is like this and you can move this around over here. And that adds a different level of interests and level of detail. As you can see, I kept more depth to it. So you can see that it can go around and add in different looks to the character. You can work around with the shadows, add ingredients, and you can have, let's see, different types of characters right here. It seems like I duplicate it this outright here. So this is what I have and you can see that there's this character. Let me just go around and delete it because I don't need it anymore. And you can see that this is what you have, the same character right here, but with different looks as you can see this like this. You can go round, select out a particular character and then teens around the stroke over here this likeness as well, and make it a different character altogether as well. So you can see if you can create variations right around over here. Let me just go around and create another art board right here. And let's just go around and select out all of these again. And I'm going to hold Alt click and drag this out right here. And let's see, I'm just going to go round and remove out the stroke on all of them. So I'm just going to go around and remove out the stroke. And this is what you have. And you can see with the same effect. You got different cactus right here. So I'm just going to go around over here. And then I'm going to add a stroke right here. And it's gonna go around and add in some details and then add this in as well. And you can see that this is the different level of detail that you have. So you can go around and then select these outright here, just this line. And then I'm going to go around and then decrease the opacity to 30%. And that is how it looks as you can see right here. So syntax right here, as you can see with different looks, let me just save this out. And that is how you can add in shadows and add in details and give you a different look according to how you want. As you can see, the slight deaths. 9. Exporting Graphics in Different Formats: So over here you can see that I have my cactus ready now. And let's say I want to export it in different formats. So to do that, first of all, I'm going to go around onto the artboard mode right here and the name of the artboards properly. So right now you can see it as 01 art board one right here. So instead of that, I'm going to go around onto the art board section. Or it can go around onto Windows and then go to art board from over here as well. For the art board one, let me just go round and then double-click right here. And then I'm going to rename it as, let's say e.g. character styles right here, just like this. So this is going to be the name of the artboard. Then I'm going to go to the other art board. And this is art board before as you can see right here. And for this one, I'm just going to go around and see, Let's see shadows and details right here, just like this. So this is going to be the name of this art board. And then over here you can see that this is what you have and I'm just going to go around and see shadows and details without, with, without outline right here. So without right here. And I'm going to just go around and say outline. So this is what you have as you can see. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to go around and then export this out. So I'm going to go around and export this out in different formats. So now you can see that this is what you have and then you can see that there are three art boards. I'm going to go around onto file to export it. And I'm going to go around and click on Export. And k can see that you can export it for screens or for web or anything else. I'm just going to go round and twos this because I'm going to export it in high-quality screens right here. So it can export. Artboards are assets as you can see right here. I'm going to choose artboards right here. And you can select a particular artboard that you want to export as well. You can go around and just export out full document as well, but based on the art board, you can create multiple files as well. So in export to section, I'm going to go around over here onto my desktop itself and select this. And this is what you have. As you can see, the format right now is selected to p and z. So you can also select outlets, easy-peasy and so forth. But since this is a graphics width, Let's save mostly fat colors. I'm going to select P and Z right here, which is much more easier to share as well. They can also export this as SVG, which is a scalable vector graphics, that is a vector graphics format itself. Or you can export this as a PDF as well. So let me select this as B and Z. And you can see it says create sub-folders. I don't want that and I don't want to open up the location after the exporting. So I'm going to click on Export Artboard. Once I do that on my desktop, you can see that I export this as a PNG file so that you can see that transparency right here. And this is in the image format, as you can see right here. These are the different characters and now you can go around and share them out as well. I'm just going to go around over here on the Export and Export for Screens. And similarly, you can go around and choose other formats such as SVG as well, and export out the Artboards. And then it gets exported as SVC as well. So SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics. So what happens is that it gets exported out in a scalable vector graphics format. So even if I were to zoom in very much, You don't see it getting pixelated right here. But with the PNG or JPEG right here, it does get pixelated as you can see this like this. So I'm just going to go around and export it out over here again on Export As and you can select out different formats from over here as well. So let's just go around and then export this out as, let's see e.g. as a target file right here. So let's just go around and export it. And you can see that based on that, you can export it in Florida format over here as well. So this is what you have. You can go around exported right here. So let's just go to export for screens where you see the PV itself. Now let me just go around and select that. Select PDF right here and click on Export Artboard right here as well. So if I were to go around over here, you can see that it says exported right here. It is exporting this outright here in different formats and PDF. And you can see that even this is a space scalable vector graphics format. So you don't see it getting pixelated as I zoom in. That's how you can go round and export out your graphics in different formats. And that is how you can trace out a character from beginning to the end. And you are supposed to do the same for your project. And that is what we are exactly going to discuss in an upcoming video. 10. Project Description: We have now come to the end of the course, and now it is up to you to do the same and then start tracing out a drawing and then create a character with different styles. So you have to do the exact same thing that I did right here. So first of all, bring in a reference image. So this may be a character that you drew yourself, or it can be an image that you find on the web. It doesn't matter, but just go around and bring it in as a reference and set it up as a layer. Then what do you need to do is you need to go round and trace it just like we did over here throughout the course. And then apply outlines and then try out different character styles that you can apply to give it a different outlook. Then you should work around with the shadows, adding shadows, and create its variation just like this. So let's say you have to do exactly that I did right here, but with your own character. So what you have to do is create three artboards, this like this, and then a workaround with the lines and one and adding shadows in the other and work around with the variation without lines over here in the other. You have to create three art boards just like this. And then you need to go around and export them in different formats, namely PNG, JPEG, and then SVG format. And that is what you're supposed to submit as your project. So all the best. And I hope that you will enjoy your process. Interesting outcome data. And I hope that you'll apply your creativity and give me with wonderful results. So I can't wait to see what you come up with. So go ahead and get started and submit your project. 11. Goodbye: We have now come to the end of the course. And I'm sure that you have learned well on how to trace out character in Adobe Illustrator with me, and I'm sure that you have enjoyed this course as well. So now it's up to you to do the project that is assigned. And I wish you all the best for your future journeys in tracing out cactus using Adobe Illustrator.