Art Brush Key Color Malfunction

[Richard_de_Koeyer@adobeforums.com]

Trying to use the eyedropper from the options dialog has never worked. With any variation of Hues/Tints neither the eyedropper cursor, action, or default black yield any change. And finally this tool would be indispensible for the current project- sorry its AI 8, but I hope someone can remember back to what this problem was/is (It sounds like AI CS will be the first 'must-have' upgrade).

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Your question, if there is one, is a bit convoluted and not easily understood. I'm unaware of an airbrush tool in Illustrator. Are you asking for one?

And yes, being a tried and true AI8 user and hating Ai9 and 10, I can easily say that AICS is a must have upgrade.

[Teri Pettit]

Scott,

Richard referred to an art brush, not an airbrush. Illustrator has had art brushes since AI 8, and they haven't changed significantly. (What minor changes there have been were to enable them to be integrated with the Appearance and Styles feature. The colorization rules have not changed.)

Richard,

I suspect you are just not understanding how the little eyedropper control inside the Brush Options dialog is supposed to work.

It is only meaningful for the "Hue Shift" colorization, which in turn is only meaningful if there is some color in your brush design that is not a shade of black, white or gray. Clicking with the eyedropper cursor loads a color from the brush preview area into the Key Color well in the dialog. Strokes made with that brush are then recolorized by comparing the Key Color with the current Stroke Color, and shifting all the colors so that anything in the design that is the key color becomes the stroke color, and all other colors maintain the same relationship around the color wheel.

Think of it as having two overlaid color wheels that are pinned to a common center, and rotating them so that the Key Color on the "Original" wheel is aligned with the Stroke Color on the "Colorized" wheel. Any part of the original design gets recolored to whatever color is on the "Colorized" wheel overlapping where that design piece's color is on the "Original" wheel.

Since black, white and gray have no hues, the brush does not get recolored if you set either the key color or the stroke color to be any shade of black. Since you make no mention of what colors are in your original brush art, or what your stroke color is, I can't be sure that's what's going on, but I suspect it is.

Also, changing the Key Color is not supposed to recolor any part of the brush art as displayed in the Brush Options dialog or the Brushes palette. It is only supposed to recolor paths that were stroked with that brush.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

ooooo Sorry. That'll teach me to read quickly between forums. My appologies.

[Richard_de_Koeyer@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Teri- despite having read the manual and help on the use of the key color over and over, I certainly was still vague on how its supposed to work. Your explanation helped me figure it out. The main thing that threw me was reference to the 'preview' whereas the documentation refers to these items as either 'buttons' or 'tiles' when discussing where to click the eyedropper tool.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

Scott: I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that. :)

[Dee Holmes]

Me too!