Make A Vector Comment Bubble In 5 Simple Steps
June 26, 2009 | Thoughts & Words By Sneh Roy | 11 Comments
Yay I wrote my first tutorial. It is a nifty little 5-step process to create your very own vector Comment Bubble. This tutorial is strictly for those who are too intimidated by Ilustrator and who wake up in the middle of the night because they saw the Pen tool in a ghastly nightmare [ a state I was in a few months ago]. For the other 90% smartypants who already wield the Pen Tool as a glowing, buzzing lightsaber, please don’t make me cry for writing a simple tutorial. Know in your hearts that this is where I start with just 5 steps and quickly move up to showing you how to model Wall*E in less than 50 steps very soon.
1. In Illustrator Go To File>New> and choose size 640×480 for your document.
2. Making sure the Fill color is set to null and the Stroke color is set to black, select the Ellipse Tool [Shortcut : L] from the toolbar. Press down the "Shift" key and drag the mouse on the work area to create an even circle.
3. Making sure the Fill color is set to null and the Stroke color is set to black, select the Pen Tool [Shortcut : P] from the toolbar. Click inside the circle to create the first anchor point, click a little further away inside the circle to get the next anchor point, the third anchor point falls outside the circle, close the shape by clicking on the first anchor point to create a triangle.
4. Select both the circle and triangle shape by pressing down the Shift key and clicking on the shapes. Go to Window>Pathfinder. Under Shape Modes, click the first option "Unite". Voila! your comment bubble is ready.
5. Comment bubbles are usually very tiny when used on websites. To ensure that their visibility is good in very small sizes, select the bubble by clicking the shape. Set Stroke to 8 or 10. Change the Stroke or Fill color as desired.
Tutorial Disclaimer
- I hereby claim that the idea for this tutorial came to me when I was goofing around in Illustrator, accidentally hit the "Unite" button and had an "A-Ha" moment.
- I hereby claim that no paper was used to generate this learning resource, thereby keeping my carbon imprint in check.
- I used Jillian’s Arrow Brush Set to smartly and efficiently point out bits and bobs in the images.
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I think this is a great tutorial Sneh. There aren’t enough simple beginner tutorials out there and most of the more advanced tutorials expect you to know this stuff already. I think this was a great way to show newbies how to unite shapes.
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Newb Tutorial, but VERY GOOD! Keep up the Love.
Thank You Angie & Bruno! Yeah, there is a real lack of very basic tutorials out there.
Good job.
Keep up these small, but useful tuts!
I think this is a great tutorial Sn eh. There aren’t enough simple beginner tutorials out there and most of the more advanced tutorials expect you to know this stuff already. I think this was a great way to show newbies how to unite shapes.
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