I've been beating my head against this for a while. The reason the rings are not aligned is because I initially started the project in Photoshop.
How can I the change the distance between rings to be a uniform measurement?
This is a close-up of the rings. Right now you can see that some are closer than others.
This is a photo of the full image:
I'd say things like this are better done with automation. Imagine width of one of the items in the middle of your collection changes and you'll have to rebuild half of the circles. Or you need to make all the circles 50% more wide. Oh man!
I don't know Illustrator scripting, but in Photoshop it's quite straightforward. Basically I have a data array with properties like name, value, color and I have a function that creates a shape layer in specific coordinates with a specific radius. Plus I have several additional parameters like a gap between the circles, a maximum width of a circle and a starting radius.
Using this data, in a loop I create a circle for each data entry. Center is always a document center, width is calculated linearly based on a maximum width and a maximum data value found, radius is calculated based on a width, previous radius and a gap.
Here're different results based on different settings for a gap, starting radius and max width:
And the code I used:
function main()
{
//data definitions
var center = {
x: activeDocument.width.as("px") / 2,
y: activeDocument.height.as("px") / 2
};
var gap = 3; // gap between circles
var startRad = 200; // starting radius
var maxWidth = 15; // maximum width
var maxValue = -1; // stores maximum value found
var width, i;
var data = [
{
color: [223,41,53],
value: 22,
name: "Jerelyn Pinkbeard"
},
{
color: [65,39,34],
value: 13,
name: "Spiteful Christine Black"
},
{
color: [223,160,110],
value: 44,
name: "Generous Christi"
},
{
color: [12,243,187],
value: 4,
name: "Scrawny Tiphanie"
},
{
color: [134,186,144],
value: 12,
name: "Cutthroat Deena The Spiteful"
},
{
color: [5,47,95],
value: 22,
name: "Jerilyn Blackhate"
},
{
color: [0,83,119],
value: 60,
name: "Tiphanie Generousparrot"
},
{
color: [6,167,125],
value: 33,
name: "First Mate Christa The Scrawny"
},
{
color: [213,198,122],
value: 12,
name: "Dread Pirate Geraldine"
}];
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// START
// first calculating maximum value of all data properties to use it later for linear transforms
for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
{
if (data[i].value > maxValue) maxValue = data[i].value;
}
// creating circles
for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
{
//calculating width lineary based on maximum value found and maximum width possible
width = linear(data[i].value, 0, maxValue, 0, maxWidth);
createCircle(
{
x: center.x, // X center of the document
y: center.y, // Y center of the document
color: data[i].color, // color from my data
width: width, // calculated width
radius: startRad, // starting radius
name: data[i].name // and a name
});
startRad += width + gap; // updating starting radius with width and gap
}
function createCircle(data)
{
var desc2 = new ActionDescriptor();
var ref1 = new ActionReference();
ref1.putClass(sTID('contentLayer'));
desc2.putReference(cTID('null'), ref1);
var desc3 = new ActionDescriptor();
var desc4 = new ActionDescriptor();
var desc5 = new ActionDescriptor();
desc5.putDouble(cTID('Rd '), 45.000001);
desc5.putDouble(cTID('Grn '), 77.000003);
desc5.putDouble(cTID('Bl '), 113.000001);
desc4.putObject(cTID('Clr '), cTID('RGBC'), desc5);
desc3.putObject(cTID('Type'), sTID('solidColorLayer'), desc4);
var desc6 = new ActionDescriptor();
desc6.putInteger(sTID('unitValueQuadVersion'), 1);
desc6.putUnitDouble(cTID('Top '), cTID('#Pxl'), data.y - data.radius);
desc6.putUnitDouble(cTID('Left'), cTID('#Pxl'), data.x - data.radius);
desc6.putUnitDouble(cTID('Btom'), cTID('#Pxl'), data.y + data.radius);
desc6.putUnitDouble(cTID('Rght'), cTID('#Pxl'), data.x + data.radius);
desc3.putObject(cTID('Shp '), cTID('Elps'), desc6);
var desc7 = new ActionDescriptor();
desc7.putInteger(sTID('strokeStyleVersion'), 2);
desc7.putBoolean(sTID('strokeEnabled'), true);
desc7.putBoolean(sTID('fillEnabled'), false);
desc7.putUnitDouble(sTID('strokeStyleLineWidth'), cTID('#Pxl'), data.width);
desc7.putUnitDouble(sTID('strokeStyleLineDashOffset'), cTID('#Pnt'), 0.000000);
desc7.putDouble(sTID('strokeStyleMiterLimit'), 100.000000);
desc7.putEnumerated(sTID('strokeStyleLineCapType'), sTID('strokeStyleLineCapType'), sTID('strokeStyleButtCap'));
desc7.putEnumerated(sTID('strokeStyleLineJoinType'), sTID('strokeStyleLineJoinType'), sTID('strokeStyleMiterJoin'));
desc7.putEnumerated(sTID('strokeStyleLineAlignment'), sTID('strokeStyleLineAlignment'), sTID('strokeStyleAlignOutside'));
desc7.putBoolean(sTID('strokeStyleScaleLock'), false);
desc7.putBoolean(sTID('strokeStyleStrokeAdjust'), false);
var list1 = new ActionList();
desc7.putList(sTID('strokeStyleLineDashSet'), list1);
desc7.putEnumerated(sTID('strokeStyleBlendMode'), cTID('BlnM'), cTID('Nrml'));
desc7.putUnitDouble(sTID('strokeStyleOpacity'), cTID('#Prc'), 100.000000);
var desc8 = new ActionDescriptor();
var desc9 = new ActionDescriptor();
desc9.putDouble(cTID('Rd '), data.color[0]);
desc9.putDouble(cTID('Grn '), data.color[1]);
desc9.putDouble(cTID('Bl '), data.color[2]);
desc8.putObject(cTID('Clr '), cTID('RGBC'), desc9);
desc7.putObject(sTID('strokeStyleContent'), sTID('solidColorLayer'), desc8);
desc7.putDouble(sTID('strokeStyleResolution'), 72.000000);
desc3.putObject(sTID('strokeStyle'), sTID('strokeStyle'), desc7);
desc2.putObject(cTID('Usng'), sTID('contentLayer'), desc3);
desc2.putInteger(cTID('LyrI'), 2);
executeAction(cTID('Mk '), desc2, DialogModes.NO);
if (data.name != undefined)
{
var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
var ref = new ActionReference();
ref.putEnumerated(cTID("Lyr "), cTID("Ordn"), cTID("Trgt"));
desc.putReference(cTID('null'), ref);
var descName = new ActionDescriptor();
descName.putString(cTID('Nm '), data.name);
desc.putObject(cTID('T '), cTID('Lyr '), descName);
executeAction(cTID('setd'), desc, DialogModes.NO);
}
} // end of createCircle()
function linear(X, A, B, C, D)
{
var Y = (X - A) / (B - A) * (D - C) + C
return Y;
};
function cTID(s)
{
return app.charIDToTypeID(s);
}
function sTID(s)
{
return app.stringIDToTypeID(s);
}
}
app.activeDocument.suspendHistory("create circles", "main()");
It's unfortunate that you hadn't begun your project in Illustrator. Photoshop just isn't the right kind of software for work like this since the output would be raster, not vector. I suppose you could start over again. As Scott has said, short of finding (or writing) a script, neither Illustrator nor Photoshop has any automated way of scaling concentric circles of various widths so that the gap between them is the same, after the fact.
In Illustrator it would have been easy enough to create a polar grid, and fill the cells with the Live Paint bucket.
For example:
Select all
Align on center vertically
Align on center horizontally
Of course this won't alter the diameter of the circles.
If you want equidistant between each circle, then you need to use diameters that are the proper sizes.
In that case.... it may honestly be easier to start over. See here.
Restart in Illustrator. Make an art brush which contains a rectangular piece of each ring. Apply the brush to a circle stroke:
I drew 5 rectangles. Their widths = the wanted ring widths. They were selected all and dragged to the brushes collection. In the definition dialog I selected "Art Brush". See the definition dialog:
I drew a circle with diameter = the average diameter of the rings and applied the new brush to it. It's in the left in the first attached image.
