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Firstly, I would like to apologize for the large Screen shots. I find it best to explain how to use something by example, and by the nature of this medium, screenshots are the least labor-intensive way to give you a good idea of how exactly I'm doing things.

Let's Begin.

Let's start with a basic circle. I generally find objects easier to manipulate when I have them filled in, so I'm starting with a black border, and a grey fill. For most of my illustrator needs, I keep the windows open as you see them. Color, Swatches/Brushes, Navigator/Info, Transform/Align/Pathfinder. To create a circle (instead of an oval), hold down the shift key while you drag the shape out. You don't want a large circle.

A circle is basically 4 points, with a "square" set of tangents. The top point has a horizontal tangent, the bottom point has a horizontal tangent, and the sides have veritcal tangents. This won't be very helpful to us. We want control points with diagonal tangents, so we'll rotate the circle. You can probably use a free-form rotate tool, but I wanted exactly 45 degrees, so I went to the "Object" menu, selected the "Transform" submenu, and picked "Rotate..." Enter 45, and click OK.

Once you have your circle oriented properly, copy it and paste it several times. Some people have trouble differentiating the black pointer and the white pointer. Make sure that you're using the black pointer whenever you want to handle objects (like right now) and the white pointer when you want to handle points. I have created many circles, here, although you probably only need a handful. This will vary based on the complexity of your Celtic Weave. Once you've created them, select them all (Ctrl-A or drag a box around them, or shift-click them individually). In your "Align" palette, click the horizontal alignment icon, and the horizontal spacing icons -- both circled in red.

Continue on Page 2

 
 
 
 
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Last modified: 11/21/2002
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