[newbie]Adobe Illustrator: Cogs

sami1337 · 10-07-2008

So you wanted to make some neat looking cogs? Look no further, this is the easiest methode there is without downloading symbols.

The result i should get. I made this one ealier and i will be trying to get the same look as this one:

This tutorial is meant for newbies. You may not know where to find everything yet, but i will be guiding you through the steps. First things first.

Step1: Setting up illustrator.
You probably have illustrator open right now. Close any new documents and create a new one. Choose from the "web" present from the list. Leave everything as it is.

You got a clean new document infront of you now. It's set to 72 dpi and not very large.

Note the difference between my document and yours? If yes, don't worry about it.
To toggle the grind on hold ctrl and press " so ctrl+" toggles the grid. Or you can turn it on at the view dropdown menu at the top of the screen. You're still missing the rulers! Press ctrl+r to turn those on, or at the view dropdown menu at the top of the screen.

Ok so now you're set! Right?! No.
You could skip this, but let's do this properly.

We are going to set the origin to a new spot somewhere in the center of your document. See the space between the rulers? Click and drag from there.

You will notice the 0 on both rulers moved. Now we can find that particular spot over and over again while we are working on this!

Step2: Creating the shapes.
Now, this part is really easy. Select the shapes tool (click and hold the icon below the T text tool) and select the ellipse tool.
Click once while holding alt on your keyboard on the origin ( 0,0 ) and a window should pop up.

If you want you can set the fill colour to nothing so it's easier to work with.
Now create another circle the same way you made the first, but make it slightly bigger.
Now go back to the shapes tool, hold left mouse button and select the star shape.
Click anywhere and a window should pop up. Three boxes. Two asking for a radius and one for points.

Ok so now you're thinking what the hell you should put in those boxes. I'd suggest playing around with the settings a bit to see what it does. For radius one of the two has has to be larger or smaller than the other. Points just means how many points your star will have. Five usually. If you want something to work with, here's what i used: 80px, 150px 15 points.

So you got all of that.You could delete the shape you made and make a new one in the center of the circles, or you can move it around manually. After that it should look like the image above. This brings us to step 3.

Step3: Pathfinder.
Look for the pathfinder window. Last icon on the left menu if you're using cs3. Else, look for pathfinder in the window dropdown menu at the top of the screen.

Now select the star shape and the inner circle shape and press the "add to shape area" button on the pathfinder window.
After you've done that, select the star shape again and the outer circle and press the "intersect shape areas" button on the pathfinder window.

You should end up with a cog shape! Select it and press the "expand" button if you're done with it.

[end]

Please give some feedback on this. I am sure this can be improved, but i am just not that genius when it comes to writing stuff in a way everyone will understand.

Could anyone give some pointers on what to change to make it easier to understand? Smaller screenshots perhaps? Or leaving out info like changing the origin. You tell me! Or better, you change it. Just quote and edit the quote.

**Man1c M0g** · 10-08-2008

This is actually a great tutorial! I'll convert it to the Biorust format and have it on the main pages soon.

sami1337 · 10-09-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Man1c M0g

This is actually a great tutorial! I'll convert it to the Biorust format and have it on the main pages soon.

I just noticed something. I changed it.

This is what i made the edits in:

Code:

Ok so now you're thinking what the hell you should put in those boxes. I'd suggest playing around with the settings a bit to see what it does. For radius one of the two has has to be larger or smaller than the other. Points just means how many points your star will have. Five usually. If you want something to work with, here's what i used: 80px, 150px 15 points.

So you got all of that.You could delete the shape you made and make a new one in the center of the circles, or you can move it around manually. After that it should look like the image above. This brings us to step 3.