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About this lesson

After converting and expanding the design we will merge everything together to simplify our logo.

Quick reference

Using the Pathfinder to Merge

After converting and expanding the design we will merge everything together to simplify our logo.

When to use

Once our logo is put together we can begin expanding all of our text and shapes to convert everything into points.

Instructions

  • Begin by opening the Using the Pathfinder to Merge - Exercise.ai file
  • Use your regular Selection Tool (V) to click and drag around your entire Expanded Logo
  • Open the Pathfinder Tool and then choose the Merge option
  • After merging the logo, everything has been flattened out and simplified
  • At this point everything is looking good except for the shadows in the eyes which were previously set to 50% black
  • We need to use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to click on both of the shadow shapes while holding the Shift Key and then double click on the fill color and change the fill to a light gray such as #C1C1C1
  • Select your logo again and zoom in to take a closer look so you can delete or tweak any of the points that look out of place
  • Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) again to center the highlight on the top of the nose as it may appear slightly off
  • Notice that now when you move the shape, the area behind it is knocked out, revealing the background
  • Grab the Pen Tool (P) and create a shape behind the nose highlight that covers up the empty space, and then use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to sample the base color of the nose and fill in the shape
  • If you need to, send this shape backwards by pressing Command/Ctrl+[ until you can see the highlight on top
  • Next, select everything and once again use the Pathfinder Tool to Merge the contents of the logo together and save your work

Hints & tips

  • Sometimes when merging shapes together you may be left with a few stray points, so it's always a good idea to zoom in and take a closer look to make sure that all of your shapes and points are clean.
  • There may be times where using the merge option doesn't produce the results you are looking for. If that happens, try using the Unite option instead.

 

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  • 00:05 Now that everything has been expanded and kind of simplified,
  • 00:08 we're going to go ahead and merge this bad boy altogether as one,.
  • 00:12 So I'm gonna zoom out a little bit here.
  • 00:15 And first thing I wanna do is select my entire logo, and then,
  • 00:19 let's go ahead and bring out our pathfinder and just choose merge.
  • 00:23 Now, you can see here that's basically simplified everything.
  • 00:27 So there's no longer all these points and
  • 00:29 overlapping shapes like you've seen in the previous sections.
  • 00:32 So it's a really good way to kinda simplify and flatten things even more.
  • 00:37 Now, the one problem area that you'll notice here is the shadow in the eyes.
  • 00:41 And that's because Illustrator doesn't really handle transparency that well,
  • 00:45 especially when it comes to things like merging and expanding.
  • 00:47 So I think what we're going to do here instead is just go ahead and
  • 00:51 make this a solid color.
  • 00:53 Now we can click on the fill color here and maybe just make it kind of a light
  • 00:57 gray, I'm thinking something along the lines of C1C1C1 for the hex value.
  • 01:02 And then go ahead and hit OK.
  • 01:05 Now I think this will work better in the long run,
  • 01:07 because it's a lot easier dealing with flat colors than it is transparency.
  • 01:11 But now that we've merged this all together, it's a lot easier to, kind of,
  • 01:15 see what's happening here.
  • 01:17 And you can also see if there's any stray points
  • 01:20 that we can just delete in here manually.
  • 01:22 And if there's any shapes that are not really necessary.
  • 01:27 Okay, so it's just kind of giving it that once over,
  • 01:30 one more time to examine everything pretty closely.
  • 01:33 And you can even zoom out and select it all again to take another look.
  • 01:38 And just see if you notice any other points, which I don't see anything else,
  • 01:43 I see maybe one shape right in here That I wanna get rid of.
  • 01:51 There you go.
  • 01:53 Okay, and while we're at it we can just come in here and
  • 01:56 maybe delete some of these points.
  • 02:00 Or just draw in a shape here, select it,
  • 02:06 select everything else and then merge it one more time.
  • 02:11 We started out with a lot of different layers and all these different shapes but
  • 02:15 at this point, it's easy for us to come in here and add everything together.
  • 02:20 Now, I wanted to show you guys this.
  • 02:22 If you come in here, you'll see that I'm actually seeing through this shape now,
  • 02:26 because since everything is merged, there's no longer anything behind it.
  • 02:29 So if I need to move this shape or
  • 02:31 tweak it, I'm actually going to have to fill in the color behind it.
  • 02:34 So I'm gonna grab my pen tool,
  • 02:35 because I wanna move this shape over just a little bit.
  • 02:38 So it's not so close to the edge of the nose.
  • 02:40 And I'm just going to fill this shape in here.
  • 02:43 Sample this yellow color and
  • 02:45 then I will send this backwards by pressing command and the left bracket.
  • 02:50 Now I can zoom out, select everything once again,
  • 02:53 and then use the path finder to merge it.
  • 02:58 Okay, so that's the way that you would do it if you needed to modify any shapes
  • 03:01 after you've merged it.
  • 03:03 It's not too late but you wanna make sure that everything is solid and looking good.
  • 03:08 So that's how you would go about merging the expanded logo design.

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