andrew's vector plugin's volume 13 manual for illustrator

Plug-ins notes

file:///C|/...ndrew/Products/Documentation%20NOT%20FOR%20RELEASE/Illustrator%20plugins/Volume%2013/GX13_Documentation.htm[30/10/2008 19:31:19]

Spiral Plug-in (Andrew's Vector Plugins Volume 13)

Introduction

The plugin creates curved spirals.

The spirals are paths and can be used for text, used as symbols, combined with other illustration elements and more.

Andrew

Installation of spiral plug-in / spiral symbols

Unzip the file. On the PC, unzip the zip file. On the mac, please unzip the HQX (please unzip using something like StuffitExpander from Allume Systems )

PC plug-in:

Please place the GX13_Spiral.aip file in (if the 'graphicxtras' folder does not exist, simply create it in the plug-ins folder or useanother folder name if you wish. You can also just place the file in the top level plug-ins folder if you wish but putting it in asub folder makes it easier to find at a later date)

CS4: C:\program files\adobe\adobe illustrator CS4\plug-ins\graphicxtras



CS: C:\program files\adobe\illustrator CS\plug-ins\graphicxtras

10: C:\program files\adobe\illustrator 10\plug-ins\graphicxtras

OS X Plug-in:

for OS X, please place the GX13_Spiral file in (if the 'graphicxtras' folder does not exist, simply create it in the plug-ins folderor use another folder name if you wish. You can also just place the file in the top level plug-ins folder if you wish but putting itin a sub folder makes it easier to find at a later date)

CS4: HD:applications:adobe illustrator CS4:plug-ins:graphicxtras



CS: HD:applications:adobe illustrator CS:plug-ins:graphicxtras

10: HD:applications:adobe illustrator 10:plug-ins:graphicxtras

Plug-ins notes


** please note with CS2 on the mac, please place all the files found in the folder 'Plugin for Illustrator CS2'. Please don'tchange any names or leave any of the files out otherwise the plugin will be just ignored by Illustrator.

Alternate plug-in installation location

Because of recent improvements in security, you may wish to install the plug-in sets in an alternate location such as an useraccount and not the default plug-in folder. If you are using a basic level account and one without admin features, you mightnot be able to save the AIP plug-in files to the usual folder. Set up an alternate or secondary plug-in folder in your useraccount and then copy the files there.

To specify an alternate plug-in for Illustrator ®

1) Go to the edit > preferences > plug-ins

2) Check the additional plug-ins folder option

3) Specify / browse for your required file in your user account (such as 'third party plug-ins' etc)

Installing symbols

The symbols files (*.ai files) should be placed in the c:\program files\Adobe\Illustrator...\presets\symbols folder (or macequivalent).

Access the symbols files via the windows\symbols menu (please consult the Illustrator documentation)

Installing styles

Please place in the graphic styles folder of Illustrator ®

Scripts

These are included for experimental purposes. They work purely either on symbols or paths etc (please read thedocumentation included with the scripts). The scripts should be, if required, placed in the presets scripts folder. They haveonly been tested on CS2 (they might require some adapting to be used in 10 etc)

Plug-ins notes


The duplicate path script requires an unlocked layer, document, and a single path to work on (though if there are multiplepaths, it will randomly select one to use for the background)

Initial use of spiral plug-in

Please access via the filters menu of Illustrator ® via the <AVP Create> menu (CS3 CS2 CS 10)

Please access the plug-in via the object > filters menu (CS4)

A good starting point for the plug-in (if you are just experimenting with the features) is the tumble button, clicking the tumblebutton randomizes most of the settings. You can also use the tweak button to make subtle changes to the 'tumbled' settings

Plug-ins notes


The plugin is split into 'five' dialog screens, accessed via the buttons along the top of dialog.

The basic settings of the plugin can be found in the first page/screen 'spiral' dialog

I would suggest initially, create spirals using the basic dialog, then access the other screens to modify the spiral.

Another start point, use the presets at the bottom of the screen. You can always reset the plugin by selecting the first preset'reset'

Spiral note (1)

The spiral creates a path with the current fill and stroke. This might be set to white and black (the defaults), you might preferto set the fill to no fill before creating the spiral.

Spiral note (2)

If you want to use the spirals and combine with other paths, perhaps cutout some of the spiral arms, use the expandcommand to expand fill/stroke and then use the pathfinder palette

Applications support

MAC OS X 10 .2 .3 . 4 .5 98 ME NT XP Vista Illustrator ®10 CS1 CS2 CS3 CS4

Questions

Plug-ins notes


Please contact me on support at graphicxtras.com mail account. Other plugins are available on the sitehttp://www.graphicxtras.com

Upgrades are generally available, either as free updates or inexpensive updates/upgrades.

Please store the reference serial number or details of order (this is not the purchase order number). The serial number isfound within the zipped file

Copyright

The plugin is copyright of 2004-2008, Abneil Software Ltd (Andrew Buckle).

The symbols are royalty-free, feel free to use as required. Symbols are (c) 2004-2007 Andrew Buckle / Abneil Software ltd.

This product was released by Abneil Software ltd (UK based company)

Trademarks

Illustrator and Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. We have no connectionwhatsoever with Adobe

Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Plugin dialog - basic screen 'Spiral'

This is the basic screen. To create basic spirals, you never need to leave this screen. Also sets the core elements for anyadditional tweaking via the other screens

'Number of spiral arms': The number of spiral arms to create from outer to inner (so the inner part can be crunched ifthere are too many arms).

'Gap between spiral arms': Basic distance between arms (though modified by decay etc). If you select a spiral structuremarked with 'gap' then the gap only is used in the creation of the spiral and not the decay element

http://www.graphicxtras.com/

Plug-ins notes


'Curvature of spiral': Curvature of the spiral arms, set to 0, a diamond; set to maximum, a curved square.

'Decay of spiral': Factor applied to gap to decay or (increase) the distance between points, arm to arm.

Plug-ins notes


'Create' screen / dialog

This screen creates multi-spirals, defines start positions of the spirals, as well as scaling and rotation angle of spirals

'Spiral center' options: use the user defined center position or set the center to the center of the document or the edge ofthe document or randomly. Useful if creating multiple spirals.

'Spiral center position': User defined position. Ignored in the center options are set to edge or document center etc. Youcan use the drag buttons to drag the position of the spiral across the document. This is particular useful for the patternfeature

'Spiral angle': Rotate the created spiral by this angle

'Spiral scaling': Scale the spiral in vertical or horizontal (can also be negative, flipping the spiral) - useful for creatingnarrow or flattened spirals

Plug-ins notes


'Number of spirals': Create more than 1 spiral. Suggestion: use the 'set the center to random' option instead of using thedefault user center (otherwise the spirals will be just repeated on top of the original spiral). Another option using some of therandom settings in the 'settings' dialog.

'Sketch Color options': Only accessible if sketch repeats is greater than 0. Use this dropdown to colorize or apply opacity tothe additional 'sketched' spirals. Options include random opacity, random color, random swatch color. You can only see theadditional spirals if the sketch shift is greater than 0.

Plug-ins notes


'Sketch weight': Adds additional weight to the sketched spirals (only visible if shift greater than 0 and the sketch repeatsgreater than zero). Use to create chunkier or thinner lines. Useful combined with the random sketch weight otherwise thelines will be the same weight.

With random weight on

With random weight option off

Plug-ins notes


'Sketch shift': The sketchiness of the additional spirals. if set to 0, the spirals are still there but there is no sketchiness. Onlyaccessible if the sketch repeats is greater than 0. If the random sketch feature is off, the spirals are still added but they arejust displaced from the original spiral without any bends or curve to give a sketchy look to the spiral. The greater the value,the less sketchy the spiral looks and more like a total random mess of line (which maybe useful if required)

With random sketch on and low sketch

With random sketch on and medium sketch

Plug-ins notes


'Sketch repeats': Number of additional spirals to generate based on the original underlying spiral.

Tweak' screen / dialog

This screen is used to modify or tweak points, curve, star additions, as well as limit number of points in spiral

'Curve factor per arm': (curvature) Modify the curvature arm to arm, creating a more rounded or squared center (distinctfrom shell)

Plug-ins notes


'Decay accumulate': Accumulate decay, fairly rapid and can be slow to generate paths if a large setting is used.

Should be kept approximate around 100 or so (default), say 99.5 or 101.5 instead of large modifications. Arms might overlap

Plug-ins notes


'Point side shift': Shifts top half points to the right (positive) or left (negative)

'Max Points': Limit the number of points in the entire spiral. Set to a high value to avoid hitting the value unintentionally.Set to 2 will create an arc, 3 for a semi circular design. . Use to fine tune the spiral end position

'Star addition to arms': Adds (or subtracts) the points position relative to 'spiral'.

Create a star spiral setting both settings to positive.

Plug-ins notes


Create lips by setting one of the settings positive (leaving the other at 0).

Create an 8 spiral setting one to negative and one to positive.

Plug-ins notes


Setting both to negative, creates a flower design spiral.

'Spiral structure options': Some variant spiral designs. Spiral structure 006 ignores the decay information and requiresmodification to the gap (radius) setting. The others. The structure modifies the decay etc of the spiral to create differentspiral designs.

If you select a structure marked with a 'gap' then the decay value is ignored and only the gap is used to create the spiralstructure (along with the other settings such as sketch etc) If the gap is set to the default 200 then the spiral will rapidlyvanish off the page, so you might prefer to set the gap value to a more realistic value of 2 or 10 etc. There are a number ofdifferent structure options such as alternate the gap value from spiral to spiral as well as randomize the gap distance.

Plug-ins notes


'Interpolation options': This dropdown applies different interpolation methods / start points to the generated points,distorting the spiral in a variety of ways. Ignored if value is set to 0.

'Interpolation': Modifies the distance between points and the 'interpolation option' position. Set to 0, totally ignored.

Plug-ins notes


'Shift / arm dropdown': A variety of different applications of the point shifting

'Shift/arm': Shifts the points based on the current arm (all the points for the arm are shifted by the same distance by defaultbut this depends on the dropdown setting). The resultant spiral (which large settings of shift / arm) can be less than a'perfect' spiral but for smaller settings, distortion is less pronounced. The shift can be applied in the horizontal as well as thevertical direction (bottom edit field). Beside the fields, two interactive drag buttons. To modify the field settings, click andhold the shift down and drag across the document (for the first) and up and down for the second box

'Offsets' screen / dialog

Modifies the offset (secondary spiral). If set to 0 0 then the other fields are not enabled and the offset is ignored. Use formotion blur / calligraphic and other designs as well as extreme abstract designs

'Offset options': By default just uses the offset as supplied to generate the second or third or multiple reversed spirals(based on the original spiral). The offset options also offer variant settings such as alternate selection of offset or randomizedselection or different offset patterns

Plug-ins notes


'Spiral Offset': Offset of secondary (all additional spirals offset are multiples of these values). The first box is in thehorizontal direction, left or right; the second box for the vertical, up and down. The actual offset used is modified by the pointfactor below as well as the offset options applied via the dropdown

'Point factor': Modifies the offset on a point by point basis. For fine tuning it is set to a 1000 as default, any changes beingin / 10% of the offset value. Creates thicker or thinner offsets at the ends of the spirals

Plug-ins notes


'Offsets': By default set to a single offset spiral but you can also create multiple offsets. If the fill has been set then the thirdoffset / firth offset etc will be filled with the current fill color. Great for create unusual abstract designs as well as intensecalligraphic offset designs.

'Close spiral': Closes the spiral path

'Settings' screen / dialog

All the various checkboxes such as 'random fill' and 'symbolize'.

By default, all the settings are generally off (not all but most)

All the settings marked as R are randomization and this information is re-calculated on each pass / modification of settingchange.

None of the random settings can be frozen (in this version). So if you hit on a really excellent spiral (and randomization isinvolved), stop.. don't change anything, click OK and then save it as a symbol or use it .. modify a setting, it might slip awayinto the night.

'Fill (R)': Apply a random fill to the spiral.

The plugin will not work if there is no fill.

Also the fill color needs to be the same type as the document, so RGB color is needed in a RGB document. In CMYK, the blackcolor is set to 0.

Plug-ins notes


The fill is applied to the space between the lines (not the spiral lines itself.. that needs the stroke setting)

'Fill Swatch (R)': Applies a fill based on the swatches palette.

Will not work if the swatches palette is empty or no fill has been set.

Best used with initial setup of swatches (perhaps to create a palette of reds or blues or gradients and patterns), then apply.

Overrides the fill

'Stroke (R)': Apply a random stroke color to the line stroke. Same issues with the fill, needs a stroke, etc

The stroke color is applied to the entire spiral length, the path is a complete line and is not broken into multiple paths.

'Width (R)': Apply a random stroke width (based on the current width / line weight, so if set to 10 then the stroke widthmight end up as 2 or 5).

Width - line weight - weight.

Plug-ins notes


If the width is low, there will be little visible variation.

'Style (R)': Apply a style to the current spiral. Overrides nearly all settings.

Can be slow if the random style is a hefty effects based style.

Best used with initial setup of styles, so create a set of 3D styles or different sketched styles or bluish styles.

Opacity (R)': Fades the spiral. Works best with multiple spirals.

Abstract (R)': Use to create abstract / sketchy art. Instead of using the four points of an arm, the plugin randomizes thecreation of the arms / points.

Can be used on a single spiral or multiple spirals to create a page of roughly sketched paths.

'Curve (R)': Randomizes the curvature settings

Plug-ins notes


'Three points': Removes the 'last' point in the spiral arm to create a flattened (though by modifying the angle and othersettings, 3D spirals) spirals

'Arms (R)': Creates a spiral with 0 to 'number of spiral arms' randomly.

More useful when used with multiple spirals

'Create arms (R)': Create a spiral arm or not, creating patterns of spiral arms or usual spiral arm configurations

Plug-ins notes


'Drop shadow': Ignore all the shadow settings if this is off. If on, a shadow will be added with the same design as spiral(based at 20 points from the original)

'Shadow Direction [R]': Randomize the spiral shadow distance and direction

'Shadow Opacity [R]': Randomize the opacity of the shadow

'Half shadow': Create a shadow using the current fill (stroke) but half of the current settings

Plug-ins notes


'Shadow scaling': Randomize the scaling of the shadow to 'flatten' the shadow

'New layer': Create all the spirals on a new layer. Useful for perhaps SWF export / animations

'Symbolize': Places all the spirals into the symbol palette (with a weird naming convention).

Does not reflect the envelope or warp settings though or sketch or shadow (just the standard look of the symbol).

If you wish to turn the whole sketch / drop shadow / enveloped path into a complete symbol, you will have to drag the path(s) to the symbols

'Warp (R)': Random warp / envelope and warp settings to create 100s of different spiral distortions.

You will have to expand warp envelope on exit, if required.

Plug-ins notes


At some point, the warped symbol will lose its fill and go gray (not sure why). You will have to reset the fill color as requiredif this happens.

'Scaling (R)': Randomizes the scaling of the spiral. More useful with multiple spirals. Requires a scaling to be set (this isnormally the case as 0 is not a good scaling amount).

'Angle (R)': Randomizes the angle / rotation of spiral. More useful with multiple spirals.

The randomization is between 0 and 360 degrees

'Jitter scaling (R)': Jitters the scaling applied to the spiral to create subtle variant sized spirals. Useful if there are multiplespirals, either created on the same spot or throughout the document

'Jitter center (R)': Jitters the center of the spiral. More useful when used with multiple spirals (to avoid overlap issues), alsocreates unusual sketchy effects

Plug-ins notes


'Jitter fill (R)': Jitters the current fill (though needs a fill / etc as with the random fill setting)

'Jitter stroke (R)': Jitters the current stroke, to create subtle modifications to the spiral arm color (so if the initial color isblue, the spiral arm will still be bluish.. but just not the same blue)

'Jitter width (R)': Jitters the line width

'Sketch shift [R]': Sketchiness randomized. Only accessible if the sketch repeats is set greater than zero.

If set to off, the distortion of the curves is removed and it is a basic displacement

'Sketch width [R]': Line weight / width randomized. Only accessible if the sketch repeats is set to greater than 0.

if sketch is set to off, then the weight is applied as is without any randomness

Plug-ins notes


'Stroke swatch(R)': Randomized stroke color based on swatches

Swatches can also contain patterns which can be used in the stroke (sadly, gradients are ignored)

'Interpolate(R)': Interpolation randomized between 0 and current value for each generated point, creating warped spiral.Ignored in interpolate is set to 0.

'Basic pattern': This creates a tile pattern of the current spiral, taking into account the sketch and shadow etc. Great forcreating stunning pattern designs. The center of the pattern is the document center, so you may wish to modify the center /star point of the spiral to create variant pattern designs. Modifying the angle, scaling etc will create 100s of different tiledesigns

On exiting the plugin, you can use the define pattern command in Illustrator to save the pattern and use the pattern at alater date

Buttons

The plugin comes with a small selection of buttons marked 'shuffle' etc.

Shuffle button

Randomizes the settings, but is only useful if there is a random element set (i.e. one of the (R) marked options).

Plug-ins notes


Tumble button

Randomizes a number of the settings between minimum and maximum (though not all).

Tweak button

Tweak button modifies some of the settings and tweaks the approximate end result

Jitter button

Jitters some of the settings, altering the settings plus or minus.

Boost button

Increases the settings. Note, the extreme etc refer only to settings on the main / basic page and none of the other screens.

'Presets' button

Select a preset to create a square-spiral etc or just reset the settings back to the factory default

There is no feature to add to the preset list (as yet)

'Drag' buttons

Plug-ins notes


Beside some of the fields you will see a small box. Click this box and hold down the shift key and drag across (or up in somecases such as the offset vertical) the document to interactively change the box setting. Release the shift key to stopprocessing

View / zoom

You can change the zoom / view setting via the dialog by changing the zoom setting at the bottom right of the dialog. It is bydefault set to 100% and until modified is ignored and doesn't reflect the actual zoom level

andrew's vector plugin's volume 13 manual for illustrator

Documents