Illustrator :: Live Paint Doesn't Work On Complicated Objects?
Nov 20, 2013
I have never really figured out how to properly build an illustrator file in a way that it will fill properly so my only other option (that I know of) is to use Live Paint. Unfortinately Live paint also wrecks all my line weights. It also makes the object noneditable later down the road. I found this out the hard way for a logo project at college and spent over 30 hours on it just trying to fiddle with the illustrator program, looking up tutorials that never seemed to work for me and nonstop frustration.
This time Live paint doesn't work at all. (I'm trying to paint in a more complicated object than a simple logo). First off my object has gaps in it, and even when I click "Gap options" it doesn't appear to do anything and there are still gaps. So I try to fill them in myself but this wrecks my line weights. And finally Live paint appears to work but only on certain objects such as the eyes, the nose, annd the ears, yet it refuses to fill in the entire body of the animal I'm trying to colour in. I drew this animal in illustrator with the pen tool and applied line weights with the line weight tool. Yes there are numerous gaps in the image.
This is what it looks like as of now:
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Only imagine it not in a pdf but an illustrator file because yes I have the original and yes it's vector.
So I've been messing with Live paint, and I've noticed that where paths overlap or abut, or even if a path was expanded to a fill, a transparent line is there. They are not always noticeable in Illustrator, but when I bring the documents into Photoshop, they're blatantly obvious!
This is a section of my linework before making a Live Paint:
Now this is what comes up when I make the live paint:
When I bring it into PS, it becomes a lot more obvious:
Is there anything that I can do about this? After more than an hour of chatting with a Tech support person, we determined that turning off anti-aliasing when I open the docuement in PS will fix this, but then all the lines are jagged, so that's not a viable fix. I know I can fill these gaps in in Photoshop, but I don't think that I should have to do that, and also, with complex artwork, this isn't exactly a viable option... Am I working too small?
I need to apply a single gradient acros a number of live paint objects but am finding it annoyingly hard to find a way. I know that normally, to apply a gradient across multiple objects, you would need to make them all into one compound path but does this apply to live paint groups in any way?? Can what i need to achieve actually be done?
Illustrator CC keeps crashing whenever I try to move a path or an object in a live paint group. I've tried it on other computers, but they seem to work fine. It seemed to only affect my laptop, so I'm not sure what happened. Restarting and updating it doesn't seem to solve the problem.
Here are the technical specifications for my Macbook Pro:
Mid-2009 Macbook Pro 15" 2.8 GHz model w/ SD card slot Intel Core 2 Duo Has Mavericks 4 GB of RAM
I want to create an illustration with black outlines. Within these outlines I want to have some spots without outlines that stay clean within the lines. I have tried 3 options so far and have found a solution but it's far from ideal.
1. Create clipping masks for each element that has a spot on it and assign a stroke to the clipping path again after. However by creating the clipping path, the path styles dissapear. In this case I want to keep the pointed ends to the open path outlines (see top image).
2. Draw in the lines where the spots are and create a live paint object of the entire illustration. Then paint in the spots and other areas. However when I create this live paint object the lines again lose their applied styles and even 'end' at each intersection, creating nasty edges where the lines should go 'underneath' smoothly (see bottom image).
3. The option Im using now. Duplicate the path outlines and create clipping masks for the spots without strokes. Then put the stroked outline with the desired styles on top. The problem with this is that I have almost twice as much elements in my illustration now than I actually 'need'. And the styled outlines are not connected with the color underneath, so its very easy to accidentally move something around...
Any easier way to create this effect without all the hassle?
I created a closed object that had a Bezier curve as part of it's definition. I wanted to scale it by 110% and then use this second enlarged object to create a sort of a background underneath the first object to create a sort of a shadow effect. But rather than the second object being uniformly larger than the first it intersects the original object in ways that don't make sense to me.
Is there an easier/differnt way to create an effect like this? I can do it but have to manually adjust a lot of points in the new object so that they create a uniformly larger version of the original object but it's a lot of effort for something that works fine for normal polygons with straight lines (e.g. a star with 5 points).
i've attached an image of what I get with this technique of creating two examples of two objects one a 110% scale version of the other. The first star shows the effect I'm trying to get and the second shows the problem (the red border does not surround the black object uniformly around the perimeter)
Im fairly new with illustrator, when i try and use live paint by selecting the brush strokes then going object > live paint > make, it makes my strokes really thin and it is really annoying
I'm working on I've drawn a dragon using the pen tool. Now I want to use the live paint tool, however, after I select my dragon it won't let me "make" the live paint. I also can't expand, not sure if that's related.
I tested another simple drawing and was able to both expand and use live paint, so it must be something weird that I've done to my dragon.
I have a trial version of CS6. Also attaching a screen cap.
In Illustrator CC every time I click Merge Paint I need to go back to Live Paint > Gap Options > and reset Gap Detections to "Paint stop at Small Gaps". Despite I set "Paint stop at Small Gaps" as my default many times now, it seems that Illustrator CC does reset it automatically to "Custom Gaps" and therefore Merge Paint doesn't work correctly. A nightmare, I am forced to use Illustrator CS6!
In CS5 there was an option to use the Live Paint Bucket on a newly traced image and there were also gap options to close gaps when doing this. I do not see these options in CS6. Where are they?
I am having some issues trying to live paint whilst in the pattern area of CS6. I have created a pattern which I would now like to colour. I am able to colour some areas like the spots on the plants head, but no ther gaps inbetween. Normally when not in the pattern area I can merge live paint and work with all the spaces but I cant do this for some reason. I need to work with the pattern whislt in this mode to ensure that the design is correct.
"The selection contains objects that cannot be converted. Live Paint groups can only contain paths and compound paths. Clipping paths are not allowed."
Whilst I ma here I am also having a bit of trouble with the oattern swatch. The pattern has been designed for a printed interior wallpaper. In the below image the blue box (follow the green arrow) is the full pattern repeat set at a 1/4 drop. I need that full square rather than a swtach. So effectively I need a 'Tile' that I can then ready for print. The reason for this is that it will be printed on wallpaper (52cm x 10m) and each roll needs to match up either side (with a 1/4 drop)
is it possible to 'grab' the pattern in the blue square?
I have the following image above where I'm trying to add color to different aspects of the drawing. For instance, I'd like to be able to add color to the hair (ie the eyebrows and hair on top of his head) and I'm using live paint to do this. The problem is, some of the live paint areas spill into each other, ie the hair spills into the outline of the head, etc. So I'm wondering, what is the best way to go about dividing these areas so live paint recognizes them as two different entities? What I've been doing currently is drawing a line segment, and then using divide below, however this gives me unpredictable results sometimes and I have a hunch there is a better way.
I've built two different colored strokes around some text (inner layer is green, outer layer is red). When I convert this to the Live Paint Mode by clicking the letters with my Live Paint bucket, a warning comes up telling me certain things might be lost. I press okay, and the red outer layer of the text dissapears. I want that layer to stay though! I've attached pictures of this process.
how do I copy and paste a portion of a Live Paint object and have the pasted object remain a Live Paint object? I can select portions of LP object and paste as regular objects, but I want them to remain live paint.
I think this is a live paint issue, but I'm not totally sure... I create an image and filled it in using live paint. It looks just fine when I view it in Illustrator and fine again when I save it as a jpg or gif or png. But once I save as a pdf, I get these tiny white lines where the edges of some of the artwork are.
I'm trying to use adobe illustrator to color the background of a photograph green while keeping the person in the picture the same color.
I used live trace to get a vector image and then attemped to use live pain to finish the job, but I end up with thousands of blue lines and gaps that are too small to color in. Is there anyway i can reduce the number of gaps so that i can actually paint the background?
I've already tried the gap options and adjusting the settings to small medium or large did nothing.If this isn't possible, is there any other feature in adobe illustrator that would allow me to achieve my goal?
I have a photograph with a person in the middle; i want the person to remain the same and the background to be changed to green.
I am using Adobe Illustrator CS6. The first image above is the result of drawing paths then expanding appearance and then live paint->make and filling shape with live paint bucket fill. The second image is the exact same artwork after selecting the object and clicking live paint->expand. I did this because I want to then group my expanded live paint object to be able to select the fill I just created.
This artwork is meant for screen render only in a flash game I am making, I don't want to print it. The first image above is the desirable look that I am going for. I have figured out that I can expand my live paint object (and it looks bad like the second image) and then alter the fills the way I want and select everything again and go live paint->make and then the black strokes look great again. My question is, is this normal? Do I always have to make an object live paint once I am ready to export my image to png format?
By the way, replicate what I have done by following my instructions, although the artifacts around the black strokes can only really be seen when your fill color is pretty dark (like my dark green fill). With lighter colors you probably wouldn't even notice the artifacts around the black strokes. The set-up for my document is: Color Mode: RGB PPI: 72 for screen rendering. I have initializing turned on (which I want and need).
i'm making a map showing arid areas, dry areas, plain, mountains. i'm using the live paint bucket function with great difficulty. i'm using this for first tim, i have almost zero experience in illustrator . i'm stuck now. the greean area on the left can't be isolated out, or lets say cut paste as a new individual shape. I'm using illustrator cs5
I routinely add paths to existing Live Paint Groups, by dragging a path that is outside the group, into the LP group. But AI won't let me drag the "selection icon" from a nested layer, into an existing LP Group. Why?
It seems I'm requesting the same action, but AI won't allow the icon to be dragged into the group. I have to either open the layer and drag the objects directly, or drag the objects into the main layer, then into the Live Paint Group. I think this is an interface flaw.
FYI… I realize I could jump into the Live Paint Group using Isolation mode, but that takes extra steps and makes the template less useful.
I made a drawing of a stone floor excavation and I used 'draw inside' to delimit the excavation borders as below:
and this is what it looks like with edit contents selected:
I also wanted to carry on drawing in 'Live paint' mode to 'colour in' sections (the above is just a small section of a much larger drawing), but because 'draw inside' creates a clipping mask, this object is now incompatible with the 'Live paint' paradigm! So I thought I would 'expand appearance' to continue and this is what I get:
My question is, is there a way for me to successfully translate a 'draw inside' object to a 'Live paint group'? The above objects are just simple shapes with a single fill & stroke.
I'd like to scale, rotate, and/or reposition a pattern-filled Live Paint cell, without cuting the cell from the Live Paint object. Can I do that? I routinely do this in normal objects, using the "~" key trick, but this only seems to work globally, on a Live Paint object (scales all pattern fills, not just one cell).
I'm still using CS5, but am interested to know if it can be done in CS6 as well.
I create all of my lineart for illustrations, in Adobe Illustrator. I use the pen tool in combination with the line width tool to create line weight. Once I have completed all of the line work, I select everything and Expand. This results in not having fills for teh areas of the illustration which need to be colored.
From there, what I do is select everything > livepaint > make. I then fill in each area with a base color, using the live paint bucket tool. Once completed, I again select everything > expand. This leaves me fills that I can select indivually to apply gradients and work with directly.
This process works great until I expand the live paint group. After expanding, there is a very thin white border everywhere that two seperate colors meet. This only happens after expanding, it does not happen when it is still a live paint group. I have tried every option in the expand window, and get the same result.
I have exported the completed work in several formats ( .jpg, eps, .png ) and the lines are still there.
under Windows 7 pro and psp13.2.0.14 it don't work anymore. I even try to make it work in an old version of psp: V9.10. It still didn't work. Does any of you know something about kpt 5.1? I think it fail because of upgrades by Windows7 pro.
I recently created an illustration where I need muliple colors on 1 document. I did a command + a to select all, then I went to object->live paint->make. After I added my colors I tried to change the opacity on a few of them, but the opacity for the entire document changes. Is there a way to get around this.....or do it right?
I've noticed that the Gradient Tool won't show up when inside a Live Paint group, which makes it difficult to edit gradients. Is it supposed to be like this?
It is still possible to edit the gradient using the Gradient Panel, but I prefer to use the Gradient Tool instead because of it's direct approach.
Also, when selecting multiple areas within a Live Paint group to fill with a gradient, I don't seem to be able to Alt+Drag with the Gradient Tool in order to fill each selection with it's own gradient. It always ends up with one gradient being applied across all of the selections.
I am trying to use Color Balance and the window doesn't work. The only part that shows is the "Enhance Color Balance" box, the words "purple" and "green" just above, and the preview arrow (which does nothing) and "preview on image". Preview on image is checked and it does show changes but I am unable to uncheck it. Nothing else shows. Nothing I have tried has worked, including restarting the computer.
