Illustrator question

[corebee]

Not quite sure if I understand the question, but...

Are the paths connected? or are they just separate lines? if thats the case, youre trying to apply a fill to an object that cant be filled, individual lines can be stroked, but unless the points are connected to form an enclosed shape, the object cannot be filled.

[tb582]

No, the lines are connected, but there seperate pathes. IE there is an enclosed area. How do I tell illustrator to "join" the four paths so I can then fill it?


Image 1 - my four paths. (no fill, just stroke)

Image 2 - I move my four paths together, now I want to fill the center.

Image 3 - My paths with a fill... but it doesn't fill the way it should, ( or at least the way it would if I were to do it in PS.

I'm guessing I'm missing a step in between 2 and 3 where I tell Illustrator to treat the four paths as 1 ....???

[corebee]

The reason you cant fill the middle of the shape is because the bezier paths aren't TRULY connected. Just because they are overlapping each other and appear to be connected visually, doesn't mean they are, and grouping them doesn't join the paths either... Illustrator doesn't know how to fill that hole unless you connect all the paths at the anchor points. Try drawing your shape all the way through as one continuous line using the pen tool, or any of the freehand drawing tools. Make sure the beginning and end points join together to complete the shape. You should then be able to go to your color or swatch palette and pick a color to fill your shape.

Hope that helped

[pgraham]

Flash will merge paths in the way you are expecting.

It is possible to generate a solid shape in Illustrator for disconnected paths, but it's a little tricky.

1. copy your paths to a new layer
2. draw a new shape (anything) that covers all the paths (this is to fill in the missing area)
3. select the copied paths and the new shape all together
4. set their fill to none
5. use pathfinder "divide" (the bottom left button in pathfinder palette)
6. ungroup the result
7. with the selection tool (solid arrow) select the outside shape and delete it

you should be left with the inside shape.

[xsenos]

Just select the two anchor points you want to join, right click and say Join. Do that for all the corners of the shape and you'll end up with an enclosed path.

[levi]

If you are using CS2, Live Paint does exactly what you described in your example.

[tb582]

If you are using CS2, Live Paint does exactly what you described in your example.

:thumbsup:

EXACTLY THE ANSWER I WAS LOOKING FOR....



Thanks

[tb582]

If you are using CS2, Live Paint does exactly what you described in your example.

Actually it mostly works the way I would expect it to. Only I cant get one "side" of my object to fill in...

Image 1- the paint bucket gives me the red X

Image 2- as soon as I move the paint bucket over to the other side that will fill in fine.... so whats going on with the other side that wont outline?

[levi]

Looks as though you don't have all the paths included in the Live Paint group. Reselect, select Live Paint tool, and on the option bar, select Add Paths.

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