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 January
9 , 2000
Creating a Radial Sweep
Fill
This is a great tip on how to create an
interesting fill that can only be described as a Radial Sweep.
It's basically a radial fill that starts dark and ends light, and sweeps
around the center point instead of radiating from it. Confused? Don't
be, Judy Arndt has come up with the steps to create it below.
Version: 7-9
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Tip idea and art provided by: Judy
Arndt
Content written by Ian Kelleigh
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1)
Draw an isosceles triangle, very tall and narrow with the
sharpest angle down. Fill with with your first color, then remove
any stroke.
Clone that triangle and move
it to the right. Fill this clone with your second color.
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2)
Select both triangles and Blend them together. You'll be
adjusting the number of steps later.
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3)
Next draw a Circle whose width and height equal
the triangles' height.
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4)
Select both the Blend and the Circle then under
the Modify menu choose Combine -> Join to Blend to
Path.
If you see large gaps or
the banding appears coarse to you, now is the time to adjust
the number of steps in the Blend. Give it more or less depending
on your needs.
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Special
Note
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When you zoom
in the center of the radial sweep, you'll notice small
gaps as well as the points being off center from each
other. This may show up when printing so the next
steps will help clean that up.
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5)
Select and Ungroup the radial sweep twice. This
will break up the blend into separate objects. Then delete
the circle.
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6)
In Keyline view,
zoom in on the center. Find a place in the mess that doesn't have
any lines. Then click+drag the pointer tool to select all
the center points like shown above.
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7)
Using the Align palette,
align all points to center like shown above.
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8)
Deselect the center points.
Select all of the triangles then Group them back together.
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Now
that you have the Radial Sweep, you can paste it inside of any
other shapes like shown above.
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Other Variations
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Here's another interesting shape
you can create from this tip. Right after step 4, go to
the Object Inspector and turn off the option Rotate
on Path. Now you'll get a cylinder radial sweep shape.
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To get an alternating radial sweep
fill, create a whole series of clones of the original triangles.
To ensure that the blend meets perfectly, make sure that the two
end triangles are cut in half like shown above.
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Use different color combinations
too. Above I used the standard Cyan, Magenta and
Yellow mixtures.
Also, since I want the blend to
start and end with Cyan, I have to make sure that the two end
triangles are the same color. Again, make sure that the two end
triangles are cut in half.
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After repeating the above steps,
I've created this wonderful color wheel.
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Bonus
Tip
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You can do the command
Xtras -> Colors -> Name All Colors, and
get an instant color palette. Remember, if you gave
the shape a large number of blend steps, this could
take a while to finish so be frugal when trying this
technique.
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Extra Credit: See if you
can figure out how to accomplish this color combination.
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This is yet another great learning exercise
for getting the most out of Blends Attached to Paths. There are many
more throughout the Tips Archive, and if you have any more you'd
like to share, please send them in. 
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