Discover step-by-step instructions on how to group and color elements of an image in a graphic design program. The article offers practical insights, including how to select and group objects of the same color, rename them, and adjust their color for a coordinated look.
Key Insights
- The article provides detailed steps on how to select and group objects of the same color, such as a character's clothing or skin elements, for easy manipulation and organization within the design.
- It discusses how to rename these grouped elements for quick identification, such as labeling all black elements as "black," or all elements of a character's shirt as "shirt."
- Once grouped and named, the article shows how to adjust the color of these elements to fit the overall design, including changing the color of a clipboard and pen to red, or darkening the color of shadows to match a jacket.
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In this video, we'll be grouping our individual recruiter and grouping the objects of the same color. We can start by first hitting (V) on the keyboard for our Selection Tool, and we'll delete our sample image by hitting the Delete key.
Next, we'll select our first object, this yellow object. In order to group all the yellow objects together, we'll then select the other yellow pieces of her jacket. So, holding Shift, we'll select, select, and select her shoulder, and then we'll right-click and select Group.
From here, we'll double-click the group, typing "jacket" and hitting Enter. Next, let's select all the black elements. We'll select her pants, and while we could go on to select the shoes as well as the hair, we can also go to Select > Same > Fill Color. If we do this, we'll see that it automatically selects all of the black elements.
Next, we'll group this by right-clicking and selecting Group. We'll then name our black elements by going over to Group and typing "black" and hitting Enter. We can do the same thing with the shirt.
Selecting the shirt, going to Select > Same > Fill Color, and it'll select all of the shirt, which we'll right-click, group, and if we go into our group, we'll double-click and type "shirt" and hit ENTER. Next, we'll select all of her skin, so we'll click, go to Select > Same > Fill Color, and right-click and group. Double-clicking the group and typing "skin."
Let's then do the clipboard and pen, which we'll just select by holding Shift, right-click and group, and finally we'll do this with our shadows. In this case, we'll just click both and group them, double-clicking and typing "shadows" and hitting Enter. From here, we'll see that we still have a few paths that are unassigned, so let's see where they are.
To select them, we'll click on the right side and we'll see we have something here in the middle. If we delete it using the Delete key, we'll see it's now taken care of. We'll do the same thing, selecting this path and zooming out to see that it's right here in the middle, and we'll click Delete.
We'll select the next path and delete it. The next path, and in this case, this is part of the shirt, so we'll click and drag it into "shirt, " and last we have a compound path which we'll delete. Looking at this path right here, we can see we accidentally still have part of our skin beneath the shirt.
We'll scroll up, and if we double-click in isolation mode, we can select it and simply delete it. We'll click outside and zoom out, and the rest of this looks good. We're now ready to begin adding colors to our individual.
Next, let's select all of the elements within "recruiter." Looking to the right of our recruiter layer, we now have them all selected, and let's hit CTRL + C to copy. From here, we'll create a new layer and type "back recruiter" and hit ENTER.
We'll then use the Hand Tool to go into our artboard and hit CTRL + V. We now have an additional recruiter so that we can keep the original off to the side while we make changes to this recruiter. The first thing we'll do is hit (V) on the keyboard to select it and drag it over to the right. We'll then right-click and click Group.
Now, if we click outside and click back on our recruiter, she's easy to move throughout. Next, let's reflect our recruiter. To do this, we'll right-click, go to Transform, and then go to Reflect.
We'll have options for how we can reflect our image, and in this case, we'll select Vertical, clicking Preview to preview the change. This way, she's facing the left, and we'll click OK. Next, let's drag her a little bit to the left and down, and I like the look of her right here.
If we zoom out, we can now assign colors to her. To do this, we'll double-click on her so that we're inside the group, and remember that each of the colors is still assigned. Let's first start by assigning the color of our clipboard and pen.
I'll use the Eyedropper Tool shortcut (I) on the keyboard, and we can choose from any of the colors available. In this case, I'll choose red. Next, we can also change the color of her jacket.
To do this, I'll hit (V) and select her jacket, and then hitting (I), I can shift the color of her jacket. In this case, I like the color of the blue, so I'll hit CTRL + Shift + A to deselect, and right away, we'll see that I need to also change the color of the shadows. To do this, I'll zoom in, and using the Hand Tool, I'll move over. Then I'll hit (V) and select the shadows.
From here, I'll hit (I) and choose the same color as the jacket so that we can go into the fill by double-clicking, and I'll simply drag down, making it darker. I'll leave it right about here and click OK, and if I deselect hitting CTRL + Shift + A, we'll see that we have these shadows as a darker color from the jacket. I like the look of this now.
If you'd prefer to also change her skin color or change her hair, feel free to do so, and for my recruiter, I'm going to leave her as is here. I'll hit (V) and double-click outside the artboard to exit isolation mode and scroll over to view the back of my postcard. Well done! Let's hit CTRL + S on the keyboard to save our work, and in the next video, we'll be finalizing the back of our postcard.
See you there.