How to use Blending Modes to Mix Colors for Anaglyph Effect

This lesson is exclusive to members

Course contents
SECTION: 4
Keyboard Shortcuts 14:06

Questions

Course info

104 lessons / 10 hours 33 quiz questions 31 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview

Hey there, I'm Dan Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor with over 16 years of design experience under my belt, I'm part of the Adobe Expert program, and my online and in-person classes have been attended by more than a million people, just like you! Join me as we dive into the exciting world of Adobe Illustrator Advanced! In this course, you're not just leveling up in Illustrator, you're transforming into an Illustrator SuperHero!

In this course you will work on a bespoke brief designed to ignite your imagination, coupled with immersive course videos, you'll be crafting jaw-dropping graphics in no time. Throughout our journey together, you'll flex your creative muscles and construct projects that will elevate your portfolio to new heights. So, let's dive in and unleash your creativity!

You’ll learn:

  • - How to use artificial intelligence to boost your creativity in ideation. 
  • - The quick way to take hand-drawn sketches and vectorize and color them. 
  • - The building blocks needed to set you loose on a huge variety of beautiful effects and techniques.
  • - To make beautiful charts and graphs for your documents. 
  • - Color mastery to make quick color adjustments, Pantones, and blend it all together beautifully.
  • - How to master images inside of your illustrator workflow. 
  • - To harness all the secret gems that'll help you level up your typography skills. 
  • - All the tricks of the trade for drawing complex shapes easily. 
  • - To double your creativity with the Transform and Distort section. 
  • - To speed up your personal workflow to get the most out of your creative day.

Explore the full course outline for a comprehensive list of topics that will expand your Illustrator prowess beyond imagination.

If you're already comfortable navigating the basics but want to  unlock the true potential of Illustrator, then this Illustrator Advanced course is your ticket to becoming a master of Illustrator! So join me and the ranks of design superheroes and let's embark on this thrilling journey together.

Requirements:

- All you need is a copy of Adobe Illustrator, you can get a free trial from Adobe here to get started.
- A basic knowledge of Illustrator is required. I recommend watching my Illustrator Essentials course prior to embarking on this epic adventure.

Who this course is for:

- Creative adventurers who already have a basic understanding of Illustrator.
- Self-taught Illustrator enthusiasts yearning for structured guidance.
- Graduates of my Illustrator Essentials Course, hungry for more knowledge and skills.
- Visionaries who have developed their own unique Illustrator approach but crave exploration of the vast universe of tools, updates, and time-saving techniques.

What you'll learn:

- How to use Text to Vector Ai
- How to use Text to Pattern Ai
- How to use Generative Recolor
- When to use the Scissor Tool, Eraser Tool & Knife Tool
- Advanced Shape Builder Uses
- The differences between the Pathfinder Vs Shape Builder
- How to use the Join tool & Joining Path Ends
- Advanced Pen Tool Tricks
- Width Tool Advanced Techniques
- The Curvature Tool
- How to master corners with corner widget effects
- How to work with Compound Paths
- The difference between Expand & Expand Appearance
- How to create Graphic Styles
- How to make Symbols
- How to use the Smooth Tool
- Advanced use of Simplify Path
- What Live Shape Effects are for
- How to make Repeating Grids & Concentric Circles
- How to make Random Objects
- Advanced Keyboard Shortcuts in Illustrator
- How to add a Gradient on a Stroke
- How to add a Gradient in Text
- How to use the Freeform Gradient tool
- How to use Advanced Color Swatches
- How to use Global Color Swatches
- What is the difference between RGB vs CMYK color modes?
- How to proof colors
- How to use Pantone Spot Colors
- Recolor Artwork & Changing all colors at once
- How to use Blending Modes
- How to work with Images & Blending Modes
- How to make Black & White Images
- Learn Advanced Workflow Tricks
- All the Super Selection Mastery
- How to use the History Panel
- Advanced Fonts Tricks & Tips
- Use Retype to know what Font is being used
- How to put Text Inside a Letter or Shape
- How to use the Touch Type Tool
- How to add a Connected Stroke Around Multiple Shapes
- How to Offset a Stroke with Text
- How to make a Bar Chart in Illustrator
- How to make a Pie Chart in Illustrator
- Layer Power Moves
- Advanced Artboard & Pages Tricks
- How to Unlink vs Embedded Images
- How to Crop Images Rather than Mask
- How to Mask Inside Text & Multiple Shapes
- How to you use the Puppet Warp Tool
- How to use the Distort Envelope Shape & Type
- How to use the Envelope Mesh
- How to blend lines together
- How to make a Linocut Effect
- How to make 3D Gradient Lettering Blends
- How to spin text into a ring
- How to turn text into a 3D donut shape
- How to make a Duotone image effect
- How to make a Roughen Stamp Vector Effect
- How to make a Neon Sign Glow Effect
- How to use a Halftone Effect using Plugins
- Advanced Exporting Assets Tricks in Illustrator
- How to use the Dimension Tool

So what're you waiting for? Let's start the course now!
Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Everyone. Let's look at something called a blending mode. What is a blending mode? It is when colors interact,  when they overlap, watch this. Ready city. Cool, huh?

Okay. Where they kind of connect. We've got this blending mode. In this case I think it's overlay  and it just means when they overlap something  interacts the blend together called blending mode. We'll take it a little bit further  and we'll make this kinda like Anaglyph effect  where it's kind of 3D ish go the 1980s. Alright, let's jump in and learn what blending mode is  and how to make it work.

Alright, if you wanna follow along exactly with me,  you can open up blending modes oh one,  but you can just type in text. I've put in like a little light tan background  'cause I think this effect looks cool against  it, but you don't have to. And the other thing that might happen when you open the  document is it might say, Hey,  you don't have this font called abro fit face. You can sync it with Adobe fonts, okay? Or you can just use these ones here. I've outlined them down here just to make things simple  for you if you don't wanna download them.

So we're gonna start with these two. I'm gonna make a copy of them. Hold down option,  drag it down, alternate pc. And basically what we do is um, it won't work with black  or white color modes. Need colors to blend. Okay?

So we're gonna go to this first one, okay? And we're gonna pick any old color, okay? So we're gonna go to our fill color. I'm going to go to my uh, color mixer. I'm gonna go to HSB 'cause that's the one I like  and just mash away at this until I get something I like. Ooh, I like that.

And this one here, same thing again. I'm gonna mash away until I get something I like. Yeah. Cool. So I got two different colors. The way they mix is they need to overlap.

Okay? Like, sorry, at the beginning  mines are kind of a super graphic, right? It's not meant to be totally legible, it's meant  to have hints of the color in there, something like that. So I'm gonna go you my friend. Now you can use the appearance panel  or the, the mini appearance panel over here. I'm gonna click on opacity.

So opacity has a special secret sauce. Normally you just use it to lower the, you know  how SeeThrough it is fully opaque, transparent, okay? I want it to be completely opaque. So a hundred percent, but click on the word opacity  and you've got this dropdown. We're on normal 'cause it's normal. But if you click on darken, ooh, cool.

A I love a little bit of blending modes. Um, sometimes it's called color modes. I kind of interchange between the two. But look at that. Now it depends on who's on top. If I grab this G and I right click it  and I go to, I should use my shortcut.

Arrange bring to front. Okay, this is on top. He's normal so he's not doing anything. When this was on top, he was doing fancy stuff. So I'm gonna say you my friend, actually we're gonna go  to opacity and we'll get the same thing if I go  to darken, okay? And just work your way through.

Like they all do something differently. There's no like real like, oh you have to learn. It depends on the top color and the bottom color. Um, will depend on which one of these work well and,  but black and white doesn't work. So don't think, oh I understand what color burn. 'cause it lightens.

This color doesn't always,  it really depends on  what you have selected, what things overlap. So just work your way through  and just click on a few of them. I find in this case it's either darken, multiply,  or overlay are really good  Ones, okay? Depending  on the colors. So I'm gonna go to quite like darken. There you go.

Look at us doing cool stuff. Now let's do that Anaglyph effect  that you saw at the beginning. Okay, I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna grab you two Now,  anaglyph, I don't know, it's a weird word. It's that kind of 3D goggles from eighties, nineties. Michael J. Fox Time, okay, where you went to the movies  and it kind of looked 3D ish.

It's just a cool retro look. So what I'm gonna do is I've got  this, I want two versions of it. So I'm gonna hold down my option on a Mac alt on a pc. I'm gonna stop saying that like we know  Dan how to copy and paste. All right, so this top one here, okay,  I want the specific colors, you can guess them,  but there is like, I'm gonna go out to color adobe.com  and I search the word anaglyph  and then you're just looking for the one  that fuels the right kind of anaglyph. There's no like a hundred percent rule on it, okay?

That's kind of more of a  a visual style, quite like this one. Okay? So I'm gonna say, um, add to my library. I've got my, uh, where have I got my library picked  for my illustrated advanced course? I'm gonna say I want you add  to library hopefully over an illustrator. We should go to libraries.

I should pick my  illustrator advanced. And there it's there. So I'm gonna say you are going  to be which colors that one and that one. Okay. And I'm gonna overlap them. And the one that's on top,  I'm gonna say you properties panel,  you opacity you normal and go to multiply.

That's cool. I think I maybe need the blue color. Nah, that's awesome. Um, I'm happy with myself. Um, there you go. That is how to do blending modes  and get colors to interact to do kind  of funky stuff in Illustrator.

Imagine trying to do that with,  I know the shape builder tool  and kind of like outline it all and recolor bits. Blending modes are awesome. One thing you might find as well as  before we go is let's say I add a third color. Okay? I'm not sure why I need two D's. Let's make it a P.

Okay? The GDP, I'm sure that's an acronym somebody knows. I don't know it, but I'm gonna go. You are going to be what color? A dark color. I'm gonna go dark.

So  what you can do is you can say, all right, I like this. It's got the opacity of dark  and I'm gonna pick, maybe multiply,  but you can lower the opacity of it as well  to kind of get other effects. So you don't have to just do blending modes,  you can do different colors opacity along  with blending modes to get some sort of cool stuff going on. D-G-P-P-D-G is one of those. Anyway, that's cool graphic, that's actually readable  and looks quite retro and that is planning modes. Uh, that is it.

I will see you in the next video.
  • Powered by Marvin
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • © Bring your Own Laptop Ltd 2025