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mewtwo-EX — Illustrator Stroke Width Tool Tutorial
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Published: 2013-04-14 06:04:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 22514; Favourites: 355; Downloads: 211
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Description
You need Illustrator CS5 or later to use the techniques discussed here. While this guide discusses vectoring ponies, the techniques can be applied to any stroke width modification.While not mentioned above, you can save stroke width profiles for later use. To do this, select the path, then in the (fully expanded) Stroke pane, click the down arrow next to Profiles, then click the Add to Profiles button. The next time you need that profile, simply select the path, then click the proper profile.
~Yanoda 's fav.me/d5hbvrp has stroke width profiles that can be easily applied to common things such as legs and eyelashes. Use my technique above for more complex items, such as the muzzle.
Lop-sided strokes can be useful, especially for leg tapers. This alternative taper style as described by =Austiniousi fav.me/d6g4c48 , but using the stroke width tool, has now been added.Everything but the icon was made by me in Illustrator CS6.
Time taken: about a day of on-and-off work.
I'm happy to announce that there are no raster components in the source!
Thanks to ~SirCxyrtyx for helping me develop some of these techniques!
If you find these techniques useful...
If you know of something I'm missing...
If you need additional help...
...leave a comment!
Feel free to repost this places, but don't edit it.
Edit 20130914: Added an alternative taper style as described by =Austiniousi
Related content
Comments: 62
"Programm"? The application this is written for is Adobe Illustrator, CS6 and newer.
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This so helpful! I'm experience with Illustrator, but it used to always make my tapers turn out funky when I used the width tool; now I know how to avoid that! Thanks!
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i didn't read it but i will but to make vector we have to redraw the image?
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This tutorial is for more advanced features of Illustrator. Please check out here for general info on vectoring ponies: mlp-vectorclub.deviantart.com/…
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is it at all possible to do this in photoshop cs5 or is this an illustrator only technique?
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I believe these techniques can only be used in AI CS5.5 and newer. Photoshop is not suggested for vector work. The basic idea can also be applied to Inkscape.
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ugh bummer thanx anyway :I
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I never thought to trace the inside of the stroke.
Imma try this for my next vector. Thanks!
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Excellent! Let me know what you think.
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Thank you so so much for the last part!
I could never figure out how to do that
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Haha x3 you do indeed! c:
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Currsses: still not edited to show the power and technique on how to do this sort of thing with the Adobe Illustrator CS2.
I think...
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Give this a read mlp-vectorclub.deviantart.com/…
It applies pretty well up through CS4.
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but i cant draw nice drawing i watch several video in youtube of drawing and i cant draw i have illustrator cs6 and paint tool sai and gimp and artrage and inkscape and i cant draw
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thanks for this man, this will be so helpful when i start using illustrator instead of photoshop
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Sure thing! Glad you found it useful!
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If you've selected more than one node, by default AI hides them. You can disable this behavior in Edit>Prefs>General I believe. Also, if the node is sharp, it may not have handles. Use the SHIFT+C tool or the convert button (dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35… .
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It's not a easy job to learn Illustrator...
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Heee....well, I find Inkscape thoroughly confusing. AI makes sense (for the most part).
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WOW!!!! I learned Inkscape for 1 week, and for 1 day I learned Illustrator!
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So...are you saying Inkscape was harder to learn?
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Oh no. I mean that I learned the basics.
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OMG I didn't know illustrator could do this. I work A LOT in illustrator, I would always at a separate tapered line to the tips of blunt strokes cause I'm clearly retarded. This was godsend. Thank you!
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We always learn new things. Prior to CS5, what you did was the best way. Now it is not. Glad I could be of service to your improvement!
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I never knew you could do this! This might change the way i do vectors now...
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I'm glad you found this informative!
I hope you haven't been doing Stroke to Path.... 
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Teaching is rather difficult. I can give you pointers, but you need to have something for me to look at first. There are some excellent tutorials in #MLP-VectorClub , that can walk you through the basics. Perhaps this one for Inkscape? [link]
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Not yet unfortunately. I hope to, but no time still. Also this isn't really the place to request them
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Okay. Where should I request? And it's okay, just contact me whenever you have time
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I can't contact people who request...that would essentially mean I would always be open. As the requester, it is in your court to send a request when I open. I hope you understand 
You can see request status on my main page and details are here [link]
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Sorry! But thanks anyway, I'll check back often. Thanks anyway
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Excellent! Thank you so much for making this tutorial. I've learned how to make traditional-style artwork in Illustrator CS6 with the Pencil tool, but I've been stuck for a while trying to refine my artwork. This will help greatly!
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Great! Glad it is useful to you!
A note about the pencil tool: While it is good for adding a hand-drawn look, unless you're actually shooting for this, the pen tool is much preferred in the Pony community. Just something to think about
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I just use the Pencil tool for planning and sketching on a separate layer. When I'm refining my artwork, I use the Brush, Blob Brush, or Pen tool. I'm getting much more comfortable with the Pen tool, and this tutorial has really helped speed up my workflow with the Pen tool. I don't mind using it for vector drawings at all now; I can create quick, clean strokes and edit them at any time. I'm using the brush tools more for vector paintings. Thanks again!
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