Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Shape Builder and holes
To merge shapes and create holes in them, hold Option/Alt and click on an area or stroke to
delete it. The Shape Builder tool, like the Blob Brush, can generate compound paths.
Retain your strokes
To retain interior strokes in your drawing, click to fill the shapes separately, rather than
dragging across them to join, even when you want to use the same fill on these shapes.
Using the Shape Builder tool to transform a duplicate of the left figure into the right
figure by filling and deleting areas created by overlap-
ping objects, and deleting strokes; once you've used
Shape Builder to reconfigure objects you can simply se-
lect sections using the Direct Selection tool and continue
to change the fill and stroke, adjust transparency, and
more; a dashed brush beneath is shown to demonstrate
transparency
Shape Builder as Paint Bucket
The Shape Builder tool can also be used like an ordinary Paint Bucket tool; click (instead of
click-drag) to fill shapes without uniting them.
WORKING WITH LIVE PAINT
Hidden under the Shape Builder tool are the Live Paint Bucket and Live Paint
Selection tools. Whereas the Shape Builder tool helps you to reconstruct and
combine objects, Live Paint provides you with a way to recolor objects
without modifying the vector paths, ignoring the normal rules about how you
define a vector object. Paint lines and spaces as if you were coloring a
drawing by hand. In order to use these tools, you have to first convert your
objects into a Live Paint Group; all the enclosed spaces, filled or empty,
become areas you can potentially fill or clear of color. You can create a “hole”
in your Live Paint object by filling with None, or you can fill an “empty” area
