How To Use The Adobe Illustrator Mesh Tool - Part Two

While munching on a juicy self-made cheeseburger (with onions, fried till glassy) I asked my self a quite important question: What came first, The egg or the crispy fried chicken, the burger or the bun? As I quickly chomped away at the last morsels of my mouth-watering model whose sole purpose in life was that of getting me in the mood for making my Hamburger Hub (the illustrated one, not the recipe), I realized that sequence would play an important role in my strategy.

I'd work big to small, unrefined to refined and rough to detailed. I'd also use this strategy working on all Cheeseburger elements, top (the top bun, that is), middle (first the cheese, then the meat), to bottom (the lower half of the bun).

The first step in doing any job is to analyze your model which is a photo of a Cheeseburger in this case), in general you should look for patterns and hints in the model (the shape or form of shades and light) because they describe shape, texture and moistness, or dryness of your models surface. The second is to break the job down into smaller, less difficult parts.

Since I keep eating my live models I decided to use one that's digital.

I started by creating a work layer just under my jpeg (model) layer.

I locked the jpeg layer to stop possible accidental movement) and created a basic rectangle just above the top bun of the jpeg layer.

I changed the rectangles color to white and then converted it to a mesh (as described in part I of this series).

In part 1 of this tutorial I said that the jpeg layer should be beneath the work (mesh) layer. While that's okay for normal trace-ups it really isn't necessary. We'll be working in fake Outline-Mode (looks like outline mode but is actually normal work modus) and we'll be using the eyedropper tool to draw our colors from our jpg which will be visible because it's on a layer above our mesh). With our mesh below the jpg, only the active mesh lines are visible until we turn off the visibility of the jpg layer above it in order to make occasional checks for accuracy.

Vacation time is over and the last part of this Hub is finished and being edited for posting. who can hide ? Who can run? The Hunger for that perfect hamburger mesh always finds us! - Dave

Place your cheeseburger image (jpeg) into your illustrator file.

Create a rectangle that is large enough to cover the top bun.

Click on the arrow in your layers palette and click on and pull the rectangle sub-layer below the jpeg sub-layer.

Lock the hamburger sub-layer (click on the empty box to the right of the eye in the layers palette).

Click on your rectangle and convert it to a Mesh-Object (see part 1).

You can manually move the points (explained in part 1) or use the scale tool (which is good for moving multiple points).

To use the scale tool, simply click on the points you want to move and then click the shortcut "s". Click the alt key before scaling so that you can click on the exact point towards which you'd like your points to move. When scaling be sure to start moving your mouse in the scale direction at a point pretty far away from your scale points - doing this makes the adjustment easier to control.

Be sure to move points to mimic the shape of the bun to reflect what's going on in there where details are concerned.

Generally you should use the direct selection tool to physically move one or more points (shortcut="a").

To make rounded corners at mesh points use the point conversion tool (shortcut = "shift+c").

To activate points for coloring use the lasso tool (shortcut = "q").

To activate multiple points for movement (where hard to reach or curved areas are concerned) use the lasso ("q") then the arrow keys.

Use "Shift+C" to activate the point conversion tool so that you can position handles independently of another for making sharper mesh-line turns or half curves and the like.

Use the "q" Shortcut to activate the lasso where soft, non-slip, activation of one or more points is needed. I did this for the upper edge of the bun and later for other adjustments.

Once you've got your shape where you want it you can start coloring. To add color to large curved areas you'll need "q", (the lasso) again.

To add color, simply activate the eyedropper and click on an area of the bun you want to color, drawing color from that particular area (example: if you want add to color the top edge of mesh choose color from the top edge of "jpeg burger").

The jpeg is only a point of departure. switch your top layer off (click on its eye) to check the colors you've given your mesh. Be artistic and enhance the lighting to make your bun look even more inviting.

In Part 3 we'll do the sesame seeds, the cheese and start with the meat. Till then. -Dave

When you convert an object to a Mesh you should always start with as few rows and columns as possible. And you should always convert a rectangle or circle to a mesh, no matter what you intend to paint. You should start with as few mesh rows and columns as possible to avoid the nightmarish unwieldiness of a Mesh with tons of rows and columns that have to be formed to match the shape of your target object which is a rather simple task where fewer rows and columns are concerned. 

In part 1 I said that converting a complex path (almost every object you draw or trace can be classified as complex) is a no-no. Non complex paths come in the form of two primitive objects; the rectangle and the circle (I realize that there are more but for the mesh only these two are useable).  The reason why complex paths should never be converted into a mesh is what I call "flailing". Flailing, as we all know, is a wild striking out, the way angry people do when they tightly close their eyes, turn their faces sideways while simultaneously  throwing wild blows at the person they're fighting, hoping that a few will land. This is what happens when illustrator is told to automatically make a mesh of a complex path that you draw. It's forced to make some sense of bunch of points that make up a complex shape and convert it into a useable mesh. Illustrator always needs four corners for a mesh (even one that's been made from a circle primitive). When it attempts to place those four corner points and all of the rows and columns that connect them, bad things often happen like wild mesh lines that "flail" right outside of the body of your mesh and ugly bends and wrinkles that cannot be worked with. After all, how is Illustrator supposed to know -regarding a complex path- which of those points are the best for using as it's four mesh corners? While we see faces and legs and other things the program itself sees only points and closed or unclosed objects, so it's kind of "flailing away with closed eyes" when it must convert a complex path into a mesh.

The following images illustrate this "flailing" of mesh lines. Compare the shaded set of legs which were made from a converted rectangle which I then formed to match the shape of the complex "leg paths" , against the mesh of a converted complex path of the "leg paths" left unshaded.