Discover how to add a bottom panel and create an Adobe Illustrator symbol from an icon. Learn the process of symbol creation and utilization in Adobe Illustrator, including the use of the symbol sprayer tool, the sizer tool, the spinner tool, and the scruncher tool.
Key Insights
- The article provides a step-by-step guide on creating a new layer in Adobe Illustrator, titling it, and creating a panel within the guided area using the rectangle tool.
- It details the process of converting an icon into a symbol in Adobe Illustrator by creating a duplicate, changing its color, and creating a new symbol in the symbols panel.
- The article also explains how to use various symbol tools in Adobe Illustrator, such as the symbol sprayer tool, the sizer tool, the spinner tool, and the scruncher tool, to customize the symbol background.
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In this video, we're going to be adding a bottom panel as well as creating a symbol from our icon. Let's begin by creating a new layer and titling this "Panels, " then hitting ENTER. From here, let's zoom out—we're going to create our first panel within our guided area.
To do this, let's use the Rectangle Tool and simply drag through the intersections. I'll release, and I like the green color we have from the icon above. Next, let's round out these corners so they're a little softer. We'll click and drag on the Live Corners, changing each corner, and I'll leave it at 0.4 inches.
I'll then hit CTRL+SHIFT+A to deselect, and I think this looks good. Next, let's convert our icon above into an Adobe Illustrator symbol. Let's now lock our Guides and Panels, noting that our icon is currently placed in the Guides layer by mistake. This is an easy fix—sometimes it's hard to keep track of layers and which objects belong where, but it's important to stay organized. To fix this, we can simply select our icon and drag it into the "Icons" layer in the Layers Panel.
Let's now lock our Guides as well as our Panels. Now we have our icon in the correct layer. In order to convert this into a symbol, let's first create a duplicate. We'll hold ALT as we click and drag it into the gray space on the left-hand side.
Next, let's change the color of our icon from green to white. To do this, we can go to the Color Panel and, with the icon still selected, choose white as the fill. We now have our plain icon.
To create a symbol out of this, let's select it and go up to Window, where we'll open the Symbols Panel. As we can see, we have a couple of preloaded symbols. However, to create our own custom symbol, we'll click the icon in the bottom-right corner titled "New Symbol." With our icon selected, we'll click to create a symbol and title this one "Wrenches, " then hit OK.
As we can see here, we now have our "Wrenches" symbol. We can select the Wrenches symbol and, by going to the bottom of the panel, click the arrow that says "Place Symbol Instance." When we click this, we'll see that an additional symbol instance is added based on the icon we've created.
This can be helpful when we're using one symbol or icon in many different places, or when using the Symbol Sprayer Tool. Let's now delete this symbol instance by selecting it and hitting DELETE. Keep in mind, if you'd like to edit the symbol once it's already created, you can do so simply by double-clicking it. While it doesn't appear right away because it's white, if we press CTRL+A to select all, we’ll see it below. Let's make one modification—we're going to size it down while holding SHIFT, so it's about a quarter or half the size of the original.
We'll then double-click outside, and we've now modified our symbol. To see an example, we'll click the symbol and choose "Place Symbol Instance." We can now see that it's much smaller than the original symbol it was created from.
Let's now delete the new instance, and for the original symbol, let's right-click and select "Break Link to Symbol." This way, as we create new symbols in the future, this version will be seen as a graphic rather than as a symbol. Let's drag it up to the left-hand side and keep it off the artboard in case we need it later.
Next, let's go over a couple of things we can do with symbols. The first is using the Symbol Sprayer Tool. If we select the Symbol Sprayer Tool, we'll see that it uses a wide spray radius to place multiple symbol instances.
If we click and hold, we'll see that it sprays symbols as we move the cursor. Let's press DELETE on the keyboard to remove this group, and make some modifications to the sprayer settings. To do this, we'll double-click the Symbol Sprayer Tool icon in the toolbar. From here, we can make adjustments.
In this case, we're going to lower the intensity and symbol set density. Let's change the intensity down from 3, and the symbol set density down to 1. We'll then click OK. Now, when we click and hold, the symbols are sprayed much less frequently.
Next, let's change the size of the symbols we’ve just sprayed. Press V on the keyboard, and simply drag the bounding box to make it smaller. We’ll want it to cover our panel below, so we’ll drag it to about here. This adds a little bit of texture and uniqueness to our panel.
Make sure it's aligned with the panel and drag it over slightly. Now we have a bit of added texture. In addition to the Symbol Sprayer Tool, we also have other options. If we click and hold on the Symbol Tool gallery with the left mouse button, we can choose from tools like the Sizer Tool, which changes the size and dimensions of different symbols.
We can also use the Spinner Tool, which rotates them, and the Scruncher Tool, which brings them closer to where we click, along with various others. Feel free to use these Symbol Tools to customize your symbol background.
Finally, let's save our work now by pressing CTRL+S on the keyboard. In the next video, we'll be creating a mask and adding text for our panel. See you there!