Perspective Grid Part 2

This is Part 2 of the Perspective Grid tutorial. Part 2 consists of making our grid into a realistic library.

Materials: +Illustrator CS5 +Perspective Tool +Stock Photos +Blend Tool

Steps:

22. To leave off where we were before. We can draw some rectangles that represent the back of the shelves. Draw and group each rectangle in each row/column to fill all the “backs” of the shelves.

23. Let’s draw a black square that will be used for a clipping mask later.

24. Download some free stock textures and make sure they are wood patterns. I got these free stock textures from freestocktextures.com, go figure. I recommend download these items: http://freestocktextures.com/texture/id/698 and http://freestocktextures.com/texture/id/454.

25. In this step, we will make a clipping mask out of our front grid. To do this, send the grid to the back or front.

26. Bring the stock texture under/over our grid. Make sure that these two are both selected then right click and choose Create Clipping Mask.

27. Draw a similar black square anywhere on the screen. Stretch our second stock texture so it overlaps all of the black square. Select both of the square and texture and make a clipping mask.

28. Let’s drag our background text over our grid. Then, send this object to the back.

29. Now let’s have some fun and apply Inner Glow effects to each column/row of rectangles. Inner Glow is located in Effect>Stylize>Inner Glow. Set a shortcut for this effect or else keep clicking through the menu as we go through each rectangle. A good shortcut to set it to is PC: Shift+Ctrl+Alt+G or MAC: Shift+Ctrl+Opt+G. In the inner glow option box, choose a dark brown color, set the mode to multiply, set the opacity to 80, and blur to 15. These are recommended settings but feel free to change it.

30. Get through each rectangle and make sure they all have the inner glow effect.

31. Since we want the background texture to appear, let’s make all the squares that faces us, have an opacity of 50 or whatever you want.

32. Take some time to make sure everything is lined up and looking elegant.

33. Draw a square from one corner to another and apply a radial gradient.Make sure the color that is in the middle has an opacity of 0. See picture for reference.

34. Send this square to the back BUT in front of the texture.

And you’re down. Congratulations! This tutorial use some confusing methods but now you learned a lot more than you could’ve had.

The tutorial file will be uploaded via Box.net so you can play around with that.

Perspective Tutorial Preview

Feel free to download this wallpaper. I will fix the colors and such later. I will also upload on DeviantArt. If your resolution is smaller than 1440 by 900, then crop this image if you must.

This project was started when I couldn’t find any wallpaper of shelves small enough to fit icons so instead  I made my own wallpaper. It is a work in progress since I need to recolor some parts. We will try to recreate these shelves using the perspective. I did this original project the old-fashioned way, moving anchor points. Can’t post this tutorial today. I am also getting ready for school tomorrow.

P.S. This project was based on my own desktop, a 1440 by 900 resolution with classic icons checked for view. Medium icons can work too but you will have to adjust the spacing between icons.

9/8/10: I will post the tutorial to make this wallpaper later this week. I will fix iParent today if I can.