Every Adobe Illustrator Effect Explained

First you are going to learn the 3D effects that are sitting in the 3D section of the Effect menu.

The 3D effects allow you to create three-dimensional objects from two-dimensional artwork. In simple words, you can turn flat looking objects into their “real-life” versions.

Let’s start with the Extrude and Bevel effect which happens to be the first one on the 3D effects list.

Let's practice the 3D Extrude and Bevel effect by creating a 3D text.

The second 3D effect you are going to learn is the 3D Revolve effect. Use it whenever you want to use a flat object and revolve it so it looks 3D.

The whole process reminds me of creating a pot: you take a piece of clay and revolve it till it looks like a normal, 3D object.

The most important thing to bear in mind when revolving objects is that the starting path, open or closed, has to be a front-facing, flat half of the object.

The 3D Rotate effect is the most straightforward out of all the 3D effects available in Illustrator. As the name suggests, it allows you to rotate objects in three dimensions and it can turn out be really useful in logo or poster design. And one of the most famous logo designs, or at least one of the most ubiquitous ones, is the Windows 10 logo. We will recreate it to understand how to use the 3D Rotate effect

The Map Art effect is a great way of adding artwork to objects put in 3D space. It can be that instant “wow!” factor added to your designs so it’s a good idea to learn it. I think that it would be easiest for you to learn the Map Art effect if you created a 3D logo along with me. You can use the file attached to this section or start a new document from scratch. 

Illustrator offers effects that allow you to reshape objects without making permanent changes to them. Effects are live, which means that you can modify or remove them at any time.  There are several effects that allow you to do that, but in this lecture you will learn how to use the Convert to shape effect

You probably are familiar with the concept of using artboards to specify which parts of your artwork you would like to print or save for web. In addition to that, Illustrator lets you create multiple sets of crop marks within your artwork. Let’s take a look at how to create and use crop marks

The Distort & Transform effects group lets you modify objects or groups of objects in a number of non-destructive ways. Fist let’s take a look at the Free Distort effect, which happens to be the first effect in the group

Pucker and bloat effects can be achieved with the dedicated Pucker and Bloat tools you might be already familiar with if you’ve watched my Every Illustrator Tool Explained course. But in this lecture you will learn how to use the Pucker and Bloat effect, which is the second one in the Distort and transform group 

If you ever wanted to add a more natural, organic look to your artwork, you might want to give the Roughen effect a try. It’s not perfect and can be great in some scenarios while being useless in others, but it’s definitely worth exploring. Let’s take a look at the Roughen effect now.

The Transform effect is definitely one of the most powerful effects in Illustrator and yet it’s pretty easy to use. Essentially one dialog box allows you to scale, clone, rotate and move objects or whole groups without touching the dedicated tools. Let’s take a look at this effect in greater detail

The next effect in the Distort and Transform family is the Tweak effect. What it does is it randomly curves and distorts path segments inward and outward ... The result is a more hand-drawn look that you might need when creating certain types of artwork, especially illustrations

With the Offset Path effect you can clone even a very complicated object set off from the original by a specified distance. This technique is particularly useful for adding special effects to more complex shapes or text

Now let’s take a look at the Outline Object effect that is particularly useful when aligning text to objects or other pieces of texts. In this simple scenario we will try to align the text to the symbol – we want to create a perfect logo:

The Outline Stroke effect is mainly used to convert the stroke into a compound path with its own fill and stroke attributes. But if you think that, effect-wise, it’s just a matter of adding a stroke and adding the Outline stroke effect to it to see it getting converted… well, you will be disappointed. There is a substantial difference between Outline stroke added as a live effect and Outline stroke added as an option from the Object menu. Let me show you what I mean

If you’ve been working with Illustrator in the past, there are big chances that you used the Pathfinder panel to combine shapes. But did you know that you can use Pathfinder as live effects?

Pathfinder panel offers 10 different operations, but if you go to the Effect menu … Pathfinder … you will notice that there are three more effects available, but you can access them only from the Pathfinder effect menu

As you know, there are two major types of computer graphics: vector and raster. Vector graphics consist of mathematical calculations which create the artwork. Thanks to that no matter how much you scale the objects up, they will always remain super crisp.

Raster graphics consist of pixels and are, naturally, most common in designs made with the sole intention of being displayed on screens. In Illustrator you can simulate what a vector artwork would look like, if it was converted into a pixel artwork. You can do it using the Rasterize effect, which we will take a look at now.

The Stylize effects group is a handy combination of raster and vector effects. The drop Shadow, Feather and Glow effects are raster and Round Corners and Scribble are vector effects.

Let's start with the Drop Shadow Effect

The Feather effect comes in handy when you want to soften the edges of the object to make it blend in with the background. You can use it on objects or their shadows.

Illustrator lets you apply two kinds of glows to your objects: Inner and Outer. Let’s start with the Inner Glow.

From the two vector effects you can find in the Stylize menu, Round corners is the simpler one. And it does what its name suggests: it rounds corners of objects

SVG filters allow you to apply resolution independent effects to your artwork. And that’s really important for web graphics. Let’s take a look at SVG filters in Illustrator and, as you will see, there are a couple of unique things about them.

The latest iterations of Illustrator come with a new, much simplified, way of exporting SVG files for your web and screen design projects.

When you want to save your artwork as an SVG file:

• Go to the File menu and choose Export > Export as.
• From the list choose SVG as the file format.

You will see a new dialog box popping up immediately. Let’s review these exporting options step-by-step: