Is there a separate video breaking down the process for creating the color palette that's briefly covered in this video?

Hi guys,

I think I've figured this one out. It gets a little detailed, but should answer your question. For a quick run through, just follow the numbered items and read the descriptions beneath each item for more detail.

Once you've got all of your objects showing tints and shade values of your original colour (as described in the video), all you need to do is:

1. With all of the colour palette objects selected, use the OBJECT --> FLATTEN TRANSPARENCY command; this will create a group of our original objects. If we didn't do this, the Eyedropper Tool would actually pick up the black/white values of the objects used to get our tints/shades, instead of the resulting colour.

While this won't "flatten" all of the objects into a single layer (like Photoshop), it will take the visual appearance of each object and make it permanent by "flattening" each sub-layer into the colour it looks like (i.e. the colour is now the fill, and not the result of the fill + the blend mode + the original colour object underneath it).

All that Illustrator has actually done is remove the transparency effects from each object (used to get to our final tint/shade values), and given us the resulting colour directly. Each object can still be selected with the Direct Selection Tool, but you'll notice that the opacity, blend mode, and fill settings we originally had are gone (leaving us with a fill of the colour we wanted with no effects).

1. Now that the colour shapes are "flattened", open the Color Panel (making sure it's maximized by clicking on the top-left of the panel) and use the Eyedropper Tool to click on each colour in your colour scheme. The HEX value of each colour should appear in the bottom-right of the Color Panel.

2. For each HEX value, simply double-click on it in the Color Panel to highlight, copy it and paste it into a text field that then goes inside your sampled object. Repeat for each colour object, and you're done.

Hope this helps. :)

David

Jesse- I figured it out! It has to do with how you're viewing your colors. I've typically got mine set to CMYK & there's no hex values. But I was working on something the other day with my colors set to RGB instead- and there were the hex values! So that's all you need to do- switch to RGB.

It's funny how the oddest little details can drive you up the wall sometimes, isn't it? I thought Photoshop had gone insane recently- crazy windows popping up, none of the tools doing what they were supposed to, etc. Then I discovered that the dog had her nose just barely resting on the Ctrl key as she was curled up on my lap.

Hi Jesse,

Did you see this video in the Design->Illustrator series?

Colors, Patterns and Selecting Objects http://teamtreehouse.com/library/illustrator-foundations-3/adding-color-and-type/colors-patterns-and-selecting-objects-2

He goes over color more deeply here..

I was wondering how he got the hex values, too. He doesn't cover that part specifically in the Illustrator Foundations course. (I just finished it.)

One last note, guys......

When using the Color Panel and the Eyedropper Tool to get your HEX values, make sure that your flattened group is not selected. If the group is selected, the Eyedropper Tool will still pick up the HEX value, but will automatically make it the fill colour for the entire group (which isn't fatal, but is just a pain to keep undoing).

Also, sorry for the mixed up numbering in my last answer; automatically formatted that way after I posted.

Sharon -

Did you ever find out how to rapidly get all the hex values? It's not in the videos Kim has referenced, right? I watched that foundations course a few months back and do not recall this being covered.

Not yet. It wasn't in the video. I need some time to go poking about in some of my Illustrator books & see if I can find it there. When I do, I'll be sure to post.

Thank you David for your answer. It really helps me.

Making color palettes that way is very convenient. You just have to pick the base color, and all the shades are created automatically.