symboltoolbox plugin - andrews vector plugins 10

SymbolToolbox Plugin - Andrews Vector Plugins 10

file:///C|/...7G141P17T23027951D7ADC88/Andrew.Plugins.Volume.10.v10.1.for.Adobe.Illustrator/Documentation/GX10 Documentation.htm[6/5/2011 5:33:38 PM]

SymbolToolbox (Andrew's Vector Plugins Vol 10)

A single plugin with multiple tools (16 different tools) - uses symbols from the symbols palette

Installation of Plugin / symbols

Please place the GX10_SymbolToolbox.aip file in the c:\program files\adobe\illustrator CS\plug-ins folder [pc Illustrator ® CS]or c:\program files\adobe\illustrator 10\plug-ins [pc illustrator 10]

for the mac, please place the GX10_SymbolToolbox file in HD:Applications:Adobe Illustrator CS:plug-ins [mac Illustrator®CS] or HD:Applications:Adobe Illustrator 10:plug-ins [mac Illustrator 10]

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)

The mac side is now split over multiple versions, CS1 and 10 as well as a version for CS2

Initial Use of plugin

Please access the toolbox via the standard Illustrator toolbox. The plugin is made up of 16 sub-plugins, these can be accessedby expanding the toolset (as with the native tools.. click and hold to expand the other tools. The first 11 tools have optionsassociated with them, and the toolbox options can be reached by double clicking the icon or pressing <enter> while selectingthe icon. Some of the plugins tools have no options and are applied as is.

The plugins themselves use symbols. If there are no symbols in the current document symbols palette, the plugins will notwork at all. In the initial state, to use a plugin you must select a symbol from the symbol palette (any.. say the 'purplesardine' symbol or 'highway' or 'green apple' symbol. You can, of course, load in additional symbols from the wide selection ofsymbols supplied with Illustrator, or use your own symbols (create a path etc and drag into the symbol palette) or use someof the supplied symbols. Once selected, apply the plugin by holding down the mouse or pen and dragging and releasing themouse / pen to 'create' the symbol instances (note: in the demo the symbol instances are deleted)

Duplication creates a row/column grid of symbols; drag creates a row of symbols.. each plugin has its own functionality anduse and unique set of options.

You can also apply the symbol tools using the [x] select symbols randomly OR [x] select symbols in palette order. These arenot on or set by default. If selected, the single symbol approach is ignored and you can apply symbols at random from thesymbols palette or in the current order of the symbols palette.

As with the single symbol approach, the key is to set the palette as required. Say you wish to apply a spray or row of theletter 'A' then just place the 'A' in the symbol palette and select and apply as required. If you wish to spray a selection ofrandom letters (say 'A' 'B' 'C') then add only those to the palette (delete all others) and then apply with the random [X] set.If you wish to apply the letters in order, say you have a name or a number sequence, so adding '1' '2' '3' '4' and then ordered[x] option, the symbols will be applied 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and so on.

Symbols can be nearly anything in Illustrator (some things cannot be symbols.. such as graphs as well as symbols or symbolsof symbols ...things get a little messy) Symbols can be text (and this can be a good workaround of problems withgraphicxtras.com plugins and text) or images (say of a favourite actor) or gradients or patterns.

Symbols can be altered at any stage, replaced with a different symbol via the replace command

Symbols can also be further modified by the native symbols tools such as the 'symbol scruncher' and 'resizer'

Applications support

macOSX .2 .3 98 ME NT XP Ilustrator ®10 CS1 CS2

Questions

Please contact me on [email protected] (and perhaps a cc to [email protected]) Other plugins are available onthe site http://www.graphicxtras.com

Copyright

The plugins are copyright of 1997-2005, Abneil Software Ltd (Andrew Buckle). The symbols are royalty-free, feel free to useas required. Symbols are (c) 2004-2005 Andrew Buckle / Abneil Software ltd. This product was released by Abneil SoftwareLtd (UK based company).

Trademarks

http://www.graphicxtras.com/



Illustrator and Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe. We have no connection whatsoever with Adobe.Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Plugin Use - Tool Screen

This is the entry screen. The plugin is split into number entry and a screen of on/off options. Most of the entry fields arebased around transformations such as rotation or re-size (though each plugin has a slight variation of use for each) as well asnumber of copies to generate. Most of the references below appear on all dialogs, some are unique to a plugin

'Copies': In most plugins this refers to the number of copies to create, either left or right or during a drag or zoom or in aspiral. The painter plugin uses the copies as a limit on number of symbols to generate during a brush stroke. The limit is setto a 1000, which is perhaps too generous or not.. depending on the use. Please note, creating a duplication using 1000 x1000 symbols perhaps is not a good idea (printing them would be even more fun).

'Angle (o)': The angle of the symbol relative to the original symbol. The symbol is applied as is, without any tweaking of sizeor angle so you might prefer to pre-prepare the symbols to the 'right' size and angle before using any of the symbol tools.The angle does not refer to any angle of application, which in the case of drag or spiral etc depends on the movement of themouse.



'Jitter (p)': Apply a jitter or randomness to the position (linear or radially depending on the plugin in use)

'Scale (%)': This depends on the plugin and its functionality. Many of the plugins just use the scale as a way to re-size thesymbol and apply. Some of the plugins such as the scaledown and bounce use the scale to re-size the symbol for eachsymbol create, shrinking or increasing the size of the symbol. I would suggest increasing the size of the symbol with care, asthe symbol sizes can grow dramatically and a symbol can fill the entire screen (easily)

'Initial gap': This is for the circular function and creates only symbols when the radius (from the start point of the drag) isgreater than the initial gap. More useful when used with 'trail cursor' option. As with all settings such as jitter, the value is inpoints.



'Symbol decay (%)' : resizes the symbol on each pass, this is more useful for zoom effects combined with the 'trail cursor'functionality. Can be fairly rapid decay.

'Min / Max scale': Used for the noise/random/brush tool. Scales the symbols randomly between the set values. Scales thehorizontal and vertical. To keep the symbols with the original proportions, click keep proportional checkbox.



'Twists': Used in the scaledown tool to rotate the symbol through a number of twists or rotations

'Bounce': Number of 'bounces' or repeat scalings applied to a symbol during a mouse drag



'Spiral arms': Number of arms to create for spiral

'Decay': The decay in the spiral arms (the smaller the figure, the more rapid the spiral, the closer to 100%, the less rapiddecay)



'Edge options': Place the symbols in different ways around the edge (framed plugin)

Plugin Use - Settings Screen

This screen contains all the [x] on and off options. In most cases, off is the default. Some of the settings will disable otherfields, such as the layers/beneath cannot co-exist. Most of the references below appear on all dialogs, some are unique to aplugin

'Select symbols randomly': Instead of selecting a single symbol, apply any symbol found in the current document symbolspalette. This requires some initial setup of the symbols, such as removing symbols you do not want, as well as adding a rangeof symbols such as random pics of celebrities or letters to the symbol palette. Doesn't use symbols in unusued symbols files.This takes precedence over the ordered option.



'Select symbols in palette order': Instead of using a single symbol or random symbols, the plugin will use the symbols incurrent symbol order (you can drag the symbols to different positions in the symbol palette and this will be reflected in theordered option). If you have symbols ABCDEF then the order of symbol creation will be A and then B and then C ... and thenF and then A again. The ordered option generally requires some initial setup.

'Create or not (R)': The plugin creates a symbol or not, leaving gaps in the display of symbols.



'Trail cursor / paint': When off (default), the plugin creates a set of symbols then deletes and then creates until the mouse isreleased, placing symbols only in one location. If the trail cursor is set to on, the plugin will not delete the symbols on eachpass and you will have a trail of cursor movement. This creates wonderful paint effects as well as unusual patterns anddisplays and 3D like effects, though it also creates a lot of symbols and takes a little getting used to. Some of the pluginshave controls to limit the number of symbols or the location.

'Place beneath symbols': Instead of placing symbols on top of existing symbols (or paths), place the symbols behind /beneath the symbols/paths. Will not work with the layers option (as this adds layers above an existing layer)



'Angle matches cursor': Modifies the angle of the path based on the cursor position.

'Flip alternate symbols': Alternate symbols are flipped / turned by 180 degrees.



'Angle (R)': Rotate the paths by a random amount

'Lock cursor to horizontal': Instead of allowing free movement, the lock locks the vertical information of the cursor movementto the horizontal, useful for straight lines etc.



'Expand symbol and delete': expands the symbol (instead of leaving it as a symbol) and delete the original symbol, leavingthe path (the path can then be colored, opacity applied etc.) You might prefer just to leave it as a symbol and use the effectsmenu.

'Place on new layer': instead of placing the symbols on a current layer, the symbols are placed on a new layer. If the trailcursor option is on, all the symbols created until mouse release will be created on that layer. Repeating the actions willgenerate a new layer and so on. useful for animation. The plugin 'beneath' option will be disabled and set to off if the layeroption is set.



'Align symbols': additional angle alignment, similar to cursor match. Not all the tools have the align option. The aligngenerally aligns to the middle or to the direction of movement of the brush.

'Keep proportional': Some of the plugins apply scaling to the vertical and the horizontal and if the scaling is applied randomly,the symbols will be narrower or wider than the original symbol. The keep proportional option keeps the original proportion.



'Scale to match bounding box': Re-sizes the symbol bounding box to 'touch' surrounding bounding boxes. The symbol itselfmight not touch the surrounding symbols though, depends on the symbol and bounding box.

'Reverse spiral direction': for use in spiral plugin, reverses the direction of the spiral.



Plugin Tools

'Duplication': Creates a grid of symbols

'Drag': Creates a line of symbols



'Sawtooth': Creates a sawtooth of symbols

'Framed': Creates a frame of symbols



'Random': Creates random noise sets of symbols

'Circular': Creates a circular set of symbols



'Scaledown/zoom': Creates a zoom or shrinking symbol set

'Bounce': Creates a 'bounce' or alternating shrinking and increasing symbol set

'Spiral': Creates a spiral of symbols

'Checkerboard': Creates a checkerboard of symbols



'Painter': A basic paint tool using symbols

'Starburst': Single shot plugin with no options creating a starburst effect

'Singleshot': Single shot and single placement of symbol

'Cross': Single shot and creates a cross of symbols

'Diagonal': Single shot and creates a diagonal set of symbols

'Ring': Single shot and creates a ring of symbols

Symbols

Installation of Symbols: Please place the symbols in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Illustrator 10\Presets\Symbols or mac equivalentsuch as HD:applications:adobe illustrator CS:presets:symbols. The symbols can be accessed from any folder but this isprobably the best location as the file/s can be accessed via the symbols dropdown. Use in conjunction with the documentsymbols palette.



De-install the symbols: Please remove the AI files from the preset libraries folders

Symbols format: The symbols were created in 10 format symbols.

Saving AI symbols: You can always save the files as CS format if so required, just use the save command on the documentsymbols palette (in CS) and save all the current symbols or you can always open the original symbols file and copy some newsymbols or delete symbols from the symbols palette there and then save the symbols file.

Copyright: All the symbols are copyright Andrew Buckle 2004-2005, but they are royalty-free...

Symbols Use: The symbols can be used as is, just use them as a image resource and drag the symbol from the palette anduse as a path (though you will have to expand the symbol to do this), sometimes it is best to just keep it as a symbol as allthe effect menu options can be applied to the symbol such as free distort and transform and styles can be applied asrequired. None of the filter menu filters can be used on symbols, though many of the 3rd party plugins such as thegraphicxtras.com Andrew's (vector) plugins can be applied to symbols as well as paths.

Flash export: Symbols are useful in flash export (for low file size). The symbols can be exported to SWF format and alsomanipulated across layers to create animation effects. Or exported to SVG format.

Sprayer tool: Symbols can be used with the native symbol sprayer tool, the symbols can be applied and then using thescruncher etc additional tools, the symbols can be re-sized and rotated and stained as required (graphicxtras.com also havesome excellent tools that have a vast additional set of options and features to handle symbols from the toolbox).

Replace symbols: Symbols can be replaced at a later point of the creative process, so create an image with a box, multipleboxes and then select the symbols and then the replacement symbol in the symbol palette and then use 'replace symbol'from the menu to change all the boxes into the more complex art. All the live effects remain as before.

Brush symbols: Symbols can be converted to a brush, simply drag the symbol (and any associated effects) to the brushespalette and you will be asked to store the brush as a scatter / artistic or pattern brush.

Copy: Symbols can be copied and repeated as required with minimal filesize overhead. Also of great use with transformations,the transform effect. This tool has a 'copies' feature which can be used to create unusual zoom effects and rotations and canbe used in combo with the appearance palette to create multiple transformations for a single symbol.

Photoshop: Symbols can also be copied via the pasteboard to other applications such as Photoshop (so a wonderfulbackground symbol can be used as a wonderful background texture in Photoshop.. along with transparency information foruse with layer effects such as bevels)

Envelopes/3D: Symbols can be warped by the envelope filter

3D symbols: Symbols can be turned into 3D shapes by using the 3D features of AI CS (extrude and bevel...) By using theappearance palette, multiple warps can be applied to a single symbol. So create an arc warp effect, duplicate it and modifythe direction (say vertical instead of horizontal). This can create truly weird shapes from even the most basic symbol.

http://www.graphicxtras.com/

symboltoolbox plugin - andrews vector plugins 10

Documents

symbols files

row of symbols

supplied symbols

symbol palette

additional symbols

symbol tools

plugins tools

rowcolumn grid of symbols