Adobe Illistrator: Pen Tool. Creating Thick to thin Lines.

[Coldkilla]

A few years ago I made this:

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9200/92398329.jpg

It must have been an accident but its exactly what I want to replicate. Only this time its in illustrator. Some of the things I don't understand:

1. The line comes to a point at both ends, rather than being a basic line.
2. The line's width increases at a specific point and then immediately becomes smaller.

Even though I don't remember how I created this image all those years ago, I do remember not having more than one pen-line to create this shape. (Then again this was in Photoshop, and not Illistrator).

Any help appreciated.

 

[rivan]

That's a brush on a path.

Create art for whaatever you're going for in a straight line - thick to thin would be a triangle. Steps:

1. Draw a triangle.
2. Create a new 'art brush' with your triangle selected.
3. Select new brush
4. Draw a bezier path (your screenshot would be as simple as 2 points)

Here's a screenshot of source art, the art brush it makes, and the effect is has on a path. This is one of the default brushes in CS4.

 

[Coldkilla]

You rock dude thanks ton!

 

[Coldkilla]

--Actually could you talk a little more about the triangle aspect? I was able to create the Brush, the path and basically got the whole thing down except the "thick to thin" part so I can make the shape thicker in some areas and thinner in others. (If that was what you were trying to explain when you were discussing triangles that is).

Thanks

 

[rivan]

Make a symmetrical, very tall triangle.
Rotate it 90 degrees, so it's pointing left or right.
Make a brush out of it and apply it to a path.

Like so.

Creating an art brush will allow you to fit (almost) any art to the contour of a path. Here I drew a rectangle, 3d extruded it, had to delete the clipping paths to simplify the art, made a brush and applied it to a path.

Wireframe

The art can be complex, but some features won't be supported. I don't know the list of things it doesn't like for brushes but probably things like clipping paths, raster masks, images -- anything you'd assume might be mathematically difficult for it to transform when fitting to a path.

 

[rivan]

To create what you've got in your image, imagine what it would look like if the path it followed were straightened out. Draw that, then make a brush out of it.

In Photoshop, the process is /totally/ different.