In today’s tutorial I will show you how to design an abstract wave background in Adobe Illustrator in three different ways:
- Warp Tool
- Envelope distort/Mesh
- Blend
Each of them has pros and cons, but my favorite is Warp Tool, cause it has the most flexibility in terms of where you want to put your next wave and a decent amount of setting to set size, shape, and level of distortion. It also works well with my Wacom graphic tablet that makes me feel like I am a new Op art star, hehe. Let me know your favorite in the comments below.
The Warp Tool is born to make waves
Let’s get started by launching your favorite vector app. I don’t know why Adobe engineers have created the Warp Tool for, but I am using it to paint the waves.
In order to start designing something similar, you need to create a line with the Rectangle Tool (M). I am using
Duplicate this line by drugging while holding Alt/Option key. Then reflect the last transformation with Ctrl/Cmd+D keyboard shortcut.
Head over to the Warp Tool. There are three ways how to access the Warp Tool in Adobe Illustrator. The most reliable is a shortcut Shift+R. The other two are seen in the picture below and depend on the version of Illustrator you are using.
Select your lines with the keyboard combination Ctrl/Cmd+A and grab the warp tool. Hold the Left Mouse Button key and drug over the lines to create a distortion. The size and amount of distortion depend on the Warp Tool settings that you can reach by double-clicking on the Warp icon on the toolbar.
You can check the “Use Pressure Pen” option to control the intensity of the effect with your tablet. Only this feature makes the Warp Tool my favorite method of creating wavy backgrounds.
Learn another two methods on my design channel on Youtube.
Originally published at https://vitorials.net.
