Illustrator Vector watch Tutorial

Illustrator Vector watch Tutorial by Xptiger

January 25, 2009, 3:58 pm
Filed under: Tutorials | Tags: art, cool, CS3, cutting, cutting edge tech banner, edge, Graphics, Illustrator, Illustrator CS3, pathfinder, Software, tech, technology, tutorial, vector, vector watch, watch

VECTOR TUTORIAL January 25 2009

This tutorial should show you how to create a vector watch like the one in the banner on the top of this site. You should end up with something like the one below. This tutorial is written for illustrator CS3 and on a mac so some shortcuts may be incorrect for pc.

Start off by opening a new document in illustrator

Select the eclipse tool and create a circle while holding alt and shift.

Copy the circle you just created by pressing control/  c and the paste it onto of the previous circle by pressing control/ command f.

Then shrink that circle to form the rim of the watch by pressing alt and shift and dragging one of the corners in.

Then send the smaller circle to the back by right clicking and going to arrange and send to back.

Then go to window, pathfinder and select the two circles

Click on the minus back button in the bottom left hand corner.

Now select the rectangle tool and create a rectangle, which will hold the watchstrap.

create a duplicate of this and move it out the way for later

Create a smaller rectangle and place it over the top of the larger rectangle.

Send the smaller rectangle to the back and using the pathfinder window again press the minus back button.

Now place this new shape over the top of the watch face and select the add anchor point tool.

Select the rectangle shape and add a new anchor point in the middle of the longest face.

Now using the direct selection tool position the new point as shown.

copy and past the rectangle object and go to object, transform, reflect.

select horizontal and press ok.

position this on the opposite side of the watch face

select all the shapes and open the pathfinder window select the top left-hand button “add shape area”

press the expand button.

Now grab the rectangle you duplicated earlier

now create a smaller rectangle that can fit easily between the two prongs on the watch face

Now duplicate the smaller rectangle and position the same depth into the larger rectangle as the other one is poking out the larger rectangle

now make the rectangle slightly wider by holding alt and dragging one of the sides out

Send the new rectangle to the back then select the larger rectangle as well and open the pathfinder window and and press the minus back button

Next select the new shape and the smaller rectangle and using the pathfinder window press the add shape to area button and then the expand button

and then position as shown.

now select the watch strap shape and copy it and paste it using control/command C then control/ command F

now the difficult bit, drag the new shape in one action onto the end of the watch-strap shape. this must be in one action to make the rest easier.

Now press control/ Command F again to past another one and then press control/Command D and the shape will move on top of your last shape now press control/ Command D again and the object will move up again.

repeat this until you have about 9 sections on the watch strap

then select all of these section and copy and paste them. then got into object, transform, reflect and set it to horizontal and press ok.

now drag the selection to the bottom of the watch face and position opposite the other watch strap section

now all we need to do is make the clock hands

First we need to create a small rectangle to be a hand

Next position the end in the centre of the clock face

Then copy and past it with control/ Command F

now using the transform tool rotate it 90 degrees and position the end in the centre of the clock face

if you want you can adjust the hand sizes or even create your own design

the final thing I did to mine was to add a small circle over the centre of the clock face to make the hand look less square. and finally used the pathfinder tool to combine the three shapes.

If you like this tutorial and wish to purchase a growing selections of vectors link this please visit the link below:

Vector Stock.com

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