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I am trying to make a geometric logo. I want to make a shape and then fill it with triangles and fill them.

I’ve made my outter shape and then filled it with some geometric shapes like below. It’s not perfect but it’s a work in progress.

How can I make the triangles fillable? This shape connects many points I need each triangle to be individual so I can fill them.

a shape filled with triangles

I used the live shape builder as per the answer below (which worked awesome). And now I have a further problem that one of the shapes seems joined. See below.

The whole bottom seems to be one shape

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    For the ones that won't separate. Open outline view (Ctrl+Y) and zoom in all the way, you'll notice that the anchor points didn't line up, just use the Direct Selection tool (A) to select each point and the using the arrow keys on your keyboard, nudge them down.
    – Welz
    Aug 14, 2018 at 13:57
  • Thanks I'll give it a try. This tool is awesome! Also found this video which was pretty neat if anyone prefers a video, but the instructions here were more than good enough. youtube.com/watch?v=ec0D2X2WbYo
    – Eoin
    Aug 14, 2018 at 13:59
  • @WELZ so I have my outline view and you're right that's a tonne easier to see, thanks a million! I had to turn off snap to grid to get it working.
    – Eoin
    Aug 14, 2018 at 14:03

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Select all and using the Shape Builder Tool Shape Builder Tool

Click in each triangle to make a separated shape.

Draw

If some shapes are created together, undo and arrange the paths: they must be in contact.

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  • Wow awesome, thank you. But one part of it seems to be joined and I want to unjoin it.
    – Eoin
    Aug 14, 2018 at 13:52
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    Answer updated-
    – user120647
    Aug 14, 2018 at 13:54
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The Shape Builder is the most obvious way, already covered in another answer, but it's also possible to use Illustrator's Live Paint functionality and the Live Paint Bucket tool for this, especially if you want to get straight into colouring a piece of work.

enter image description here

Another tip for getting all anchor points to line up, is to enable the grid, and snap to grid. It's a great way of making sure everything joins up when creating low-poly style art.

It's also possible to use the Live Paint Bucket with the Eyedropper to sample from an underlying photograph, for example. Press Alt to sample with the Eyedropper, release it, then click to fill with the sampled colour.

enter image description here

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  • Yes, I was trying that originally, but then I had issues when I wanted to join a triangle to a curved path. The issue is the outline is curved and looks much smoother with less points. But using outline view has worked well for me. The next question I have is how to use the eyedropper tool with this technique? This video manages it youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmI_stsZk
    – Eoin
    Aug 14, 2018 at 15:18
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    @Eoin see edit to my answer. As for using curves, best not to for low-poly style graphics. Every shape should really be a triangle with straight edges.
    – Billy Kerr
    Aug 14, 2018 at 15:28
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Select all

Open Pathfinder

Window → Pathfinder (Ctrl/Command+Shift+F9)

Select Divide

enter image description here

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  • I tried this but divide removed some of my lines, which isn't what I wanted.
    – Eoin
    Aug 14, 2018 at 13:55
  • On second look I believe the paths were grouped separately due to live paint. So that was possibly why divide didn't work just in case others look.
    – Eoin
    Aug 15, 2018 at 19:24

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