Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

ent shape mode. Shape modes are identical to pathfi nder operations,

save for the fact that they can be applied dynamically.

Meet the Pathfi nder Panel

In this fi rst exercise, I’ll demonstrate the basics of the Pathfi nder

panel using a whimsical exercise inspired by the movie Yellow Sub-

marine (an animated fi lm that was a vehicle for an obscure band,

since forgotten). You’ll learn the fundamentals of pathfi nder opera-

tions, and how different path combinations behave.

1.

Open the submarine artwork. Navigate to the Lesson

06 subfolder inside the Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 folder.

Locate the fi le Violet submarine.ai and open it. Inside

the artwork, you’ll fi nd a violet submarine, a red fi n shape, and

a yellow silhouette of a man. (We’ll call him Ringo.)

2.

Bring up the Pathfi nder panel. Open the Pathfi nder panel,

shown in Figure 6-2, by choosing Window→ Pathfi nder or

pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 (-Shift-F9 on the Mac). (Alternately,

you can click the

icon in the panel bar.)

3. Select Ringo and the submarine. Make sure the black arrow

tool is selected. Click the silhouette of Ringo, and Shift-click

the submarine to add it to the selection. (Note that

to select the paths, you need to click the edge of the

paths, not inside the shapes.)

4. Combine the shapes. Click the Unite icon ( ) to

combine the two shapes. Illustrator creates a new

path based on the outline of the two shapes, and

disc ...