0

I am attempting to create a logo with stars along the outside of a circle in Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Everything I have tried has distorted the stars. I have created an art brush and used that along the path. I have used the Blend tool and replaced the spine. I have spent all night and have only grown more frustrated. There has to be a better way to do this.

Also, if you'll look at the images, some of the logos have rotating stars and some do not. I would prefer that my logo did not, but I haven't figured that out, either.

Here is a link as an example of what I am trying to do: Stars and Mountain Logos

Any help would greatly be appreciated!

Improve this question
3
  • Distorted the stars, did not distribute accurately, even after using the Align tool,... and much more!
    – Vanda
    Mar 10, 2017 at 4:50
  • you could do this manually. Just create one star and then copy and paste and resize accordingly, its not that many stars
    – Aasim Azam
    Mar 10, 2017 at 7:10
  • So you want the space between the stars to be the same, not the distance between their centers, right?
    – Luciano
    Mar 10, 2017 at 11:27

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

Set smart quides and snap to point ON, snap to grid must be off!

Draw a quide star. That fits perfectly inside a circle when centered. In my example I have drawn a an yellow 11 branch star that has the wanted outer radius.

Draw a star to be placed. Draw two diagonals inside it. This way you get a solid centerpoint to be dragged precisely. Remove their strokes and group them with your star. I have left the stroke visible for easy watching. NOTE From Attributes panel it's possible to turn on star's own centerpoint, but it's not the same as the crossing of the diagonals. Surely that point has its reasons, but they are not visually simple like the crossing of the diagonals

Make a series of copies by blending to get different sizes. Expand and ungroup.

Alt drag (=drag copies) of the stars to the vertices of the quide star. Kill the quide star when you are sure that you do not need it.

Approach the quide star from outside to avoid selecting it. You can't lock it.

enter image description here

Until this there is no more than the blending offers, only one possible solution that's asked. But the major idea, the help diagonals for exact placing gives different development possiblities than the blending. A couple of elementary examples:

enter image description here

The colour things, shape evolution and rotations can be done when creating the series of the stars

Improve this answer
3
  • how's that different from using the blend tool?
    – Luciano
    Mar 10, 2017 at 11:28
  • the thing is: you're adding the stars manually, which can be a lot of work. The blend tool does that more easily
    – Luciano
    Mar 10, 2017 at 15:41
  • I'm not judging creativity here, just the technique itself, that gives the same end result as a blending tool would with less effort and time.
    – Luciano
    Mar 13, 2017 at 9:07
1

This is typically what "Blend object" feature is made for!

Create your semi-circle (or whatever you want) path. It must be a simple path: no color, no stroke, nothing!
Create and place object A and object B. They can be different, but in your specific case, just duplicate.
Select all, meaning object A, Object B and Path. Press CTRL+ALT+B (or go Objects > Blend Object > Create).
Then open options (Objects > Blend Object > Options) or double click on the icon in the tools panel. Adjust as desired.

That's it. You gain great control over your design (i.e. adding a star is just now sooo easy)

Blend objects

Improve this answer
11
  • the problem in the question is to get the stars to have the same space in between them, as opposed to being spaced from their centers. That the blend tool doesn't do
    – Luciano
    Mar 10, 2017 at 11:22
  • Totally unrelated question. What do you use to record the gif?
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Mar 10, 2017 at 11:45
  • 2
    @SZCZERZOKŁY I use screentogif.com (Windows only I believe).
    – Vinny
    Mar 10, 2017 at 12:15
  • @Luciano I read the question carefully and didn't see anything about equal distances
    – Vinny
    Mar 10, 2017 at 12:19
  • 1
    I am extremely grateful for everyone's very helpful support! All of these suggestions enlightened me and I was able to accomplish my goal. Thank you!
    – Vanda
    Mar 15, 2017 at 7:14
0

Judging be the reference you could either use a blend tool OR

"Step and Repeat" goto Object -> Transform -> Transform each and in the panel put the scale and distance you want and then copy the object. In the alignment part just select the point of the star you want to measure the distance to next one and voila.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.