Pixel Bunneh

The new gradient mesh tool in CS4 is a very nice addition, if you are having trouble with it, or haven’t had time to check it out yet, I’ve written a quick tutorial for you.  The picture below is what I’m going to make with it, a water droplet.  You can download the final .ai at the end of the tutorial in both CS4 and legacy format.

There are several ways to use the gradient mesh tool, making it very flexible.  To get you started here’s a few screen captures of exactly how it works.  I’ve added some mesh nodes to simple shapes and shown you how the actual gradients work.  I’ve colored which node I used in red.

To add nodes, use your mesh tool and touch it to the edges of your shape to get the straight lines I have in the square above.  If you touch in the middle of the square, you’ll get two lines, one horizontal, one vertical.  You can see in the first square using the direct select tool I selected a complete square rather than a node, so it adds a gradient in the whole patch.  The next square shows how the gradient will disperse around a node if that’s what I selected.  In the third box I have a gradient in both a patch, and a node, then I moved the existing nodes to move the gradients around a bit.

There are several ways to add gradients to your mesh.  You can directly select a node then click on a swatch, use the eyedropper to grab a swatch then drop it on a node or patch, or select a node then use the eyedropper to grab a color from an existing area of your gradient mesh.

With that, let’s move on to the water droplet.  I’ve got a stem and created a drip looking sphere:

With your droplet selected hit ctl+v then ctl+b to create a copy behind your original, then fill the copy with a darker green than your stem.  Select your top drop, fill it with the same color as your stem, and start adding your mesh points.  Then it’s a simple process to add a gradient bit here and there to get your final look.  I added some darker areas and the lighter ones to simulate a shine of light.  I scaled the darker drop a bit, to make it act as a slight shadow below the water drop.  And, that’s it!

gradient mesh flower and water droplet