Adobe Illustrator CS3 – Understanding Live Paint Groups
Let’s take a moment to understand how Live Paint works. When you select several overlapping paths or shapes and click them with the Live Paint Bucket tool, you are creating a Live Paint group. This is a special kind of group in which object stacking order is thrown out the window. All objects in a Live Paint group are seemingly combined onto a single flat world, and any enclosed area acts as a closed shape, which can be filled with color.
Although clicking several selected paths is the easiest way to create a Live Paint group, you can also select several paths and choose Object > Live Paint > Make to create a Live Paint group. Once you’ve created a Live Paint group, however, you may find that you want to add paths or shapes to the group. To do so, draw the new paths, and use the Selection tool to select the existing Live Paint group and the new paths. Then choose Object > Live Paint > Add Paths. The new paths will become part of the group, and any intersecting areas will act as individual areas that you can fill with color.
Live Paint groups can also utilize the Group Isolation Mode feature that enables you to draw objects directly into existing groups. Using the Selection tool, double-click an existing Live Paint group to enter Group Isolation Mode. Now switch to any shape or path tool to add paths directly to the Live Paint group. This ability to add paths directly to a Live Paint group is extremely powerful because it allows you to define regions for color in just a few quick steps. Using Pathfinder filters to create multiple overlapping shapes is no longer required for such tasks.
In the Toolbox, double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool to change its behavior. By default, the Live Paint Bucket tool affects only the fill of a path, but you can also set the tool to apply color to strokes as well. Additionally, you can specify the color that the Live Paint tool uses to highlight closed regions.
Let’s take a moment to understand how Live Paint works. When you select several overlapping paths or shapes and click them with the Live Paint Bucket tool, you are creating a Live Paint group. This is a special kind of group in which object stacking order is thrown out the window. All objects in a Live Paint group are seemingly combined onto a single flat world, and any enclosed area acts as a closed shape, which can be filled with color.
Although clicking several selected paths is the easiest way to create a Live Paint group, you can also select several paths and choose Object > Live Paint > Make to create a Live Paint group. Once you’ve created a Live Paint group, however, you may find that you want to add paths or shapes to the group. To do so, draw the new paths, and use the Selection tool to select the existing Live Paint group and the new paths. Then choose Object > Live Paint > Add Paths. The new paths will become part of the group, and any intersecting areas will act as individual areas that you can fill with color.
Live Paint groups can also utilize the Group Isolation Mode feature that enables you to draw objects directly into existing groups. Using the Selection tool, double-click an existing Live Paint group to enter Group Isolation Mode. Now switch to any shape or path tool to add paths directly to the Live Paint group (Figure 4.54). This ability to add paths directly to a Live Paint group is extremely powerful because it allows you to define regions for color in just a few quick steps. Using Pathfinder filters to create multiple overlapping shapes is no longer required for such tasks.
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Figure 4.54 In Group Isolation Mode, you can draw new paths in an existing Live Paint group to instantly create additional regions that can be filled with color.
In the Toolbox, double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool to change its behavior. By default, the Live Paint Bucket tool affects only the fill of a path, but you can also set the tool to apply color to strokes as well (Figure 4.55). Additionally, you can specify the color that the Live Paint tool uses to highlight closed regions.
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Figure 4.55 You can set the Live Paint Bucket tool to apply color to strokes in a Live Paint group as well.