In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial, we’ll talk about how to create this dots and lines effect in Illustrator. I couldn’t come up with a good name for this effect, but rest assured, it’s really, really cool. We’ll talk about using a bunch of different tools as well as a script to create this crazy shape, color, and line effect in Illustrator! You’re going to love this one, if for nothing else, just because it’s so different!
DOWNLOAD THE DUB AT SELECTED ANCHORS SCRIPT HERE
Create a Pattern Brush
Create a 20 x 20px ellipse with a 1pt white stroke. Go Effect>Distort & Transform>Transform and move the shape 25px horizontally and choose to make 24 copies. Go Object>Expand Appearance. Open the Brushes panel (Window>Brush) and choose to create a new brush and choose “Pattern Brush” from the choices. Then choose to Flip Along and Flip Across and also tick on Approximate to Path.
Ellipse Set For Taking a Blend
Create a new ellipse sized 625px by 625px. Make sure there is no fill. Grab the Direct Selection tool and click on the middle area on the right side of the ellipse to select the single anchor point over there and hit the delete key to transform our circle into a semicircle. Select the semicircle and click on the new brush we just created over in the Brush panel. This will apply the series of circles to this path. Next, go Object>Transform>Reflect and choose to reflect the semicircle on the vertical axis and hit the “Copy” button. Drag the copy of this path straight over to the right and use your arrow keys to tweak the exact positioning of the new semicircle.
Creating the Blend
Go Object>Blend>Blend Options and choose “Specified Steps” from the drop-down menu and set the number of steps to 30. Hit “OK” and choose both semicircles that are stroked with the new pattern brush and go Object>Blend>Make. Feel free to resize your circle here to get the best shape and sizing for all of the little circles in this blend! To see exactly how I create the full effect with crazy shape transformations, colors, gradients and strokes, and more check out the video at the top of this post to learn a bunch about this cool effect in Illustrator!
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