Vector Tutorials by creativepro.com

Making complex shapes by combining paths in Adobe Illustrator has always been easy to do. Now version 10 lets you make sophisticated compound objects that remain fully editable. Here's how to do it.

LiveTrace, which converts bitmaps to vector images, debuted in Illustrator CS2. Hands down, LiveTrace is my favorite new feature ever, in any software application.

While you can draw expressive brushstrokes in pixel-based programs like Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, drawing variable-weight strokes in Illustrator gives you the option to reshape the strokes at any time.

A chop is a personal stamp used by artists to sign their work. While mostly associated with Chinese soapstone carving, you can make your own chop using Adobe Illustrator. Sign your art-work digitally or turn the your chop into a rubber stamp for a more traditional experience.

This how-to is not an April Fools joke, even though it does contain such an unlikely trio. Deke McClelland combines practical advice and his oddball sense of humor to make masking items in Illustrator CS mere child's play.

Use Adobe Illustrator's custom calligraphic brushes to apply paint with soft edges then build up areas of transparent color with nested sublayers. Sharon Steuer shows how.

When does 1 + 1 + 1 -1 = 1 great image? When you use the Subtract from shape area command in Illustrator CS's Pathfinder Palette. It all adds up in this how-to drawn from a real-life logo design.

Illustrator can be a maddening program to learn, and even those who have mastered the application may struggle with it at times. What's required is entering what author Sharon Steuer calls the "Zen of Illustrator" in which working with Beziers and control points becomes second nature.

Adobe Illustrator's Pathfinder effects give you control over the interaction of compound shapes. See how Illustrator expert Doug Panton uses Pathfinder techniques to create a complex woodcut-style logo that can be adapted to multiple uses.

Spring is getting closer. While your garden may not be flush with flowers yet, you can use Illustrator's Blend tool to create a bouquet of blossoms now.