Macro balloon code

[JEFFE]

Ok. Here's a little step by step for as far as I made it.

1- Create a text block and justify it to center.

2- Create outlines for text.

3- Do effect/convert to shape/elipse with reletive 0/0.

4- Drag that object into your "graphic styles pallette"

That step will allow you to fool the actions into using effects. Now onto the actual recording step.


1- Create and select your text with the direct selection tool.

2- Hit record for a new action.

3- Ctrl/C to copy the text and ctrl/f to paste it overtop.

4- Create outlines.

5- Apply the new graphic style you created.

6- Apply "flatten transparancy" with vectors set to 100% and "convert all text to outlines" selected.

7- Reverse the fill/stroke.

8- In the colour pallette select the fill and hit white.

9- Select "send to back to move it to the back.

10- Use "select/object/direction handles.

11- Apply "object/transform/scale at 103-106, depending on what you need.

12- Hit stop on the record button.

13- Save your file as a template file and use it for the creation of all of your pages from now on. Save your graphic styles as whatever you'd like and it should open from this template.

Then use that action to create your balloon and then you can send it to whatever layer you want. ctrl/x - ctrl/f when you've selected the appropriate layer. This is the action I couldn't figure out. I could create a sublayer with actions but that just didn't cut it for me.

I'm not using the rounded corners/selection handles/scale thing within my main command because if I want to do multiple balloons at once I can do it. Then my pillow command doesn't wonk out. I then have a different action for that process so I can pillow the balloons individually.

So, that's where I got to. You might have to mess around with some of the stuff to get it to work right for you but once you get the actions to play graphic styles you're cooking with gas.

s.

[Piekos]

But does this mean you need to convert your text to outlines before going through the balloon process?

I like to keep my original AI files w/ fonts intact so if need be, I can make correx. I convert dialogue to outlines only for the final files for the publisher.

A good example happened recently on a Dark Horse book: the editor asked if I could tweak out a certain font for a character's accent... and I didn't have to retype or copy/paste all the dialogue again.

~N

[JEFFE]

Good question. Step three actually takes care of not outlining all the text, only the copy. It creates a duplicate before the process starts. That allows all of the text to remain to be edited.

I too would only outline if I need to mess with certain characters or when outputting the PDF files. I'm not interested in having outlined text in any AI file. ;)

s.

[Phineas Fogg]

Sweet Christ, that's brilliant (haven't tried it yet, but it looks good). Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute something to the Greater Broterhood of Letterers someday.

Actually, I've started working on a little thing about lettering theory. Will see where it goes.

[Ray Dillon]

Oh, man. Just tried it and it worked SPLINDIFEROUSLY!! (I don't care if that's a word or not!) :banana:

I also added a little something to it.

If you're like me and don't like perfect ellipse balloons, or taking the time to adjust each one, then this be for ye.

Create another graphic style. Take one of your balloons, go up to EFFECT>WARP>BLUGE (Bulge was the most effective one for my tastes, but you can play with the others, too -- Twirl was kinda cool for rough baloons). Mess with the options until you have your balloon just right. You might not want to adjust it too much one way or the other on the vertical or horizontal access, as you might end up with nothing but pear-shaped or D-shaped balloons all over the place.

Then, add that to your Style palette.

So, after your done creating your balloons, click that style and they're all adjusted a bit more freely.

Then, you'll want to create an ACTION that EXPANDS your balloon (might not NEED to, but I don't like working with non-expanded balloons).

/RECORD/
Go to your PATHFINDER
Click the drop down arrow
Go to MAKE COMPOUND PATH
Then, click the EXPAND button
/STOP/

Watch out, though, you have to select each balloon individually before hitting your expander action, so you don't accidentally combine all your balloons together.

And, I've set these up to be F12 for the balloon creator, and F11 for the expanding.

Man, this frickin' rules!!

Thanks to everyone that figured this out. It's already sped me up. I should be Noble Causes #9 later this week. I'll let you know how it goes on a full book. Might take some getting used to, but still gonna be fast! :banana:

[Kep!]

I think you may have worked out one of my bugs... I'l post my solution shortly as well and we can compare.

[Kep!]

Bah. Everything is on target except a slick way to do the layers. That's important... but perhaps not so bad I can't live without it. Time to letter a book like this and see how it flies.

[cyxodus]

Ray...I seem to be having trouble with setting up this action. Could you email it to me?

[cyxodus]

BTW, I'm not a fan of perfect ellipse balloons either.

[Kep!]

FIRST: I won't bother posting mine... it's VERY close to Jeffe's. The only differences I can see are I added OVERPRINT STROKE and a lineweight of .75 to the macro itself. Otherwise, it's dead on.

One of the nice things about this action is it doesn't have to stop there. If you want to add a random-stroke width generator to the macro, you can very easilly. OR anything else for that matter (automatic burst balloons anyone?).

Also, if you have Illustrator CS, turn on the optical kerning feature and you will be VERY happy with the results here.

[IsgardTheTerrible]

For some reason when I try this the balloons created with the action disappear as soon as I change the fill to white. Any suggestions? Also, being as I'm an idiot, could you explain the purpose/execution of the Flatten Transparencies step?

[JEFFE]

This code isn't all mine. I was able to use the questions and answers that Kep got from the Adobe forum. Thanks Kepmiester. ;)

Isgard. Perhaps something is happening with your stroke. If you do the swap fill/stroke step it should work. Try a couple of little differences and see what happens.

What is the purpose of the "flatten transparency"?. Well, when you make the elipse you are creating a virtual shape out of the outlined text. That makes the original outlines editable and so the effect changes to reflect that. When you flatten that relationship it choses the effect to outline. You want to make sure that you don't select "fill" in that step or you'll wind up with some unwanted stuff. Expand appearance would do the same job without any problems except that for some reason actions won't record it. What flatten transparency is really doing is giving you options to create transparencies that will work in older programs. Some older software has no idea what you're referring to when you say "transparent vectors" and so it lets you either trick the program, or convert the shape completely into a raster/bitmap to "dumb it down".

I'm totally gonna buy the next couple of books that you guys do with this. A part of history. :)

I'm thinking a tiny "roughen" filter with a "add points" action might give it some nice/tiny inconsistancies that would make this indistinguishable from hand pulling those corners. ;)

s.

[Kep!]

A randomization on the stroke will do wonders for it too.

[Jason Arthur]

man, you guys are my heroes.

Jeffe, thanks for posting this.

Kep, thanks for adding in the nice little touches and suggests

Rayd, thanks for adding in the nice little suggestions and touches.

You guys just sped up my lettering process, BIG TIME.

-- J

[Piekos]

Okay, here's a dilemma.

I can make the balloons just fine. But when I do step 11 my balloon gets a spike every time. Check it out:

http://www.blambot.com/stuff/spikeyballoon.gif

Any ideas?

~N

[Kep!]

Are you manually selecting the points or using the menu command?

[cyxodus]

I'm having trouble doing this in AI9. Here is a Flash movie of my troubles.

http://www.geocities.com/cyxodus/Macro_Problem.htm

Best viewed in full screen mode.

[JEFFE]

Nate.

I realized that my actual recorded code is a bit different. I put in "pathfinder/outline" to get rid of that dual object problem within the transparency step. Once I did that I was able to set my colours and stroke. For some reason when I typed the above code it worked fine too. Not working for me now. phh... So, this step should take the place of step seven.

EDIT. For some reason when I open my main template file with the main action codes it works like a dream, even without the pathfinder/outline code. Illustrator is a wonky program!


Kep, did you get the above code to work right without the pathfinder/outline? I was finding that I had double objects using the direct selection tool.

Cy. I don't know why this is happening for you. You might have to create a new graphic styles library. I noticed that when you apply the elipse that it's not actually showing the elipse. Try to convert a non text item to an elipse and see if that works. It's been a while since I used 9 but that looks a bit wonky.


s.

[Piekos]

Kep, using the Menu Command.

Jeffe, not sure how that would affect that weird spike I'm getting...

~N

[charlesp]

Nate,

I seem to be having the same problem... my dreams have been dashed :yawn:

[Kep!]

Yeah, it worked fine without that step... though that's not a bad idea. I'll take a look and see if I did anything else but forgot about it.

NATE: Wild. Maybe a simplify?

[Jason Arthur]

any updates on this? Just checking to see if anyone worked out the bugs.

thanks,

-- J

[JEFFE]

I got mine to do everything but place the balloon on a lower layer. I've taken to just leaving them on the text layer now. :)

I don't know much about that bug though. Any luck folks?

s.

[Jason Arthur]

hmm, I'll have to sit down tommorrow and try your technique again. Last time I tried it my balloons went all wonky on me.

-- J

[Kep!]

Nope, I've been way to busy with the new books... but I REALLY want to get this worked out... it's too usefull.

[Jason Arthur]

Ok, piecing together everything that everyone has posted so far I've managed to get this thing down to a science.

What I'm wondering is...If I upload my template for everyone to use it won't remember the action keys will it?

Is there a way for me to save and share action key settings without me having to transcribe every step in this process?

All I did was to add in Rayd's steps before ending my action (the one Jeffe posted), added a Bulge Style. Set an expand feature to F11 (for finishing touches) and a couple of other little things (like a tail merge feature to save me just a couple more little steps).

If demand is high enough and time permits I'd love to try and make a animated gif of the whole process for you guys, but I dunno if I can stand programming that whole series in again :p

thanks,

-- J

[Jason Arthur]

Ok, here's how I did it step by step:

NOTE: This code does not work well with long narrow sections of text. It works wonderfully with text that would fit nicely in a standard balloon though.

First thing you should do is set up TWO Graphic Styles (as detailed here):

Style #1 (name it BallonMakerStep1 or something to that effect) – Courtesy of Jeffe & Kep

1- Create a text block and justify it to center.

2- Create outlines for text.

3- Do effect/convert to shape/ellipse with relative 0/0.

4- Drag that object into your "graphic styles palette" and name it by double clicking on it.

Style #2 (name it Bulge) – Courtesy of Rayd

1- Select a Balloon
2- In the menu choose EFFECT>WARP>BULGE. You can mess with the options until you have your balloon just right (check the “Preview” box to see what your settings are doing). I found that setting it to Vertical and adjust to +25 to +40 works well for me. When you have it the way you want hit OK
3- Using the selection tool grab and drop the balloon you just made into the graphic styles palette and name it by double-clicking it.

Those steps will allow you to fool the actions into using effects.

1- Create and select your text with the direct selection tool.

2- Hit “new action” in the Action palette. When prompted you can name it whatever you choose. I call mine BalloonMaker and I set it to F12

3- Ctrl/C to copy the text and ctrl/f to paste it over top.

4- Create outlines.

5- Apply Style #1 (BalloonMakerStep1).

6- OBJECT>flatten transparency. Set your vectors to 100% and "convert all text to outlines" selected.

7- Reverse the fill/stroke.

8- In the color palette select the fill and hit white.

9- In the color palette select the stroke and choose solid black (just to make sure your balloons don’t end up with a grey-ish stroke)

10- Select "send to back to move it to the back.

11- Use "select/object/direction handles.

12- Apply "object/transform/scale at 103-106, depending on what you need. (105 seems to work the best for me).

13- On your pathfinder palette click the > arrow and choose “Make compound shape. Now click the button in the pathfinder palette that says “EXPAND”

14- Stop Recording.

Now for the finishing touches – Courtesy of Rayd and Jason Arthur

Select just your balloon and apply Style #2 “Bulge” you might notice that the balloon has no stroke or fill…here’s the remedy:

1- select your balloon(s)

2- Create another new action. Name it Stroker (or something like that) and set it for any key (I use F5)

4- In the Fill Color make it white FFFFFF

5- In the Stroke Color make it Black 000000

6- Set your Stroke size to whatever you normally use. I use 1 pt and I think Kep said he uses .75)

7- Stop recording.

By adding the Stroker action you can easily make all your balloons the same stroke when you finish a page.

If anyone sees any mistakes or has something to add just lemme know and I'll revise my post.

thanks,

-- J

[JEFFE]

Looks pretty good Jason.

I wonder what the problems we were having before were though. Why is it that when some people try this the code wonks out. Why is the shape becoming disjointed in the "flatten transparency"? It works for half of us but the other half are getting major problems.

I think you'd be able to upload an actionset but you'd have to also have the graphic styles as well... do a test with creating an AI template and see if someone else can run from that.

s.

[Kep!]

Personally, My biggest issue with this was that it couldn't be sent to a different layer. For me that's a nit-picky-bit. BUT, I think there's still a lot to be said for this and it's damn close to being usable.

I may have to make time to screw with it soon... I really like this as a concept.

[JacoNB]

I tried this out last night... works like a charm.

Beautiful.

In order to put the balloons on a lower layer than the text (which is what I assume everyone is trying), can't we just 'cut and paste' the copied outlined text *before* doing the "conversion"? I'll try that later and see if it works. I'm getting errors when I try to move layers with the macro.

Nate: are you using the direct select tool to highlight the text before hitting your 'go' button for the macro? I was getting weird shapes too, before I realized I wasn't using direct select (A) to highlight my text.

[Jason Arthur]

Looks pretty good Jason.

I wonder what the problems we were having before were though. Why is it that when some people try this the code wonks out. Why is the shape becoming disjointed in the "flatten transparency"? It works for half of us but the other half are getting major problems.

I think you'd be able to upload an actionset but you'd have to also have the graphic styles as well... do a test with creating an AI template and see if someone else can run from that.

s.

Well here's the template I use: http://www.jasonarthur.com/temp/grafika_lettering_template.ai (right click and "save as" )

If anyone has some spare time open it up and see if you can get the graphic styles to work (and try the actions too, but I believe those would need to be uploaded as well right?)

thanks,

-- J

[JEFFE]

doesn't take the actions with. You'd have to save the aia file and use that.

s.

[Jason Arthur]

kinda figured. Did it have the Graphic Styles?

I'll see if I can't upload and list a step by step Actions thingy tonight.

-- J

[JEFFE]

J.

If you save an aia file from the actions pallette you'll be able to post that file. Then you'd just need to let people know the folder to drop it in. I think the graphic styles might be similar. I could be wrong but it seems as though they seem to act independently. It worked for me to use a Template file but not if I saved a separate AI file and opened it independently.

Thoughts?

s.

[Jason Arthur]

Ok, if anyone is feeling brave...

http://www.jasonarthur.com/temp/Comic Actions.aia

Right click and download the file. Save it into your Program Files>Adobe>Illustrator>Presets>Actions folder.

You'll know it worked if F2 F4 and F12 perform some action or another (F12 being the macro balloon code).

Couldn't figure out how to upload styles so you guys would have to program those in on your own (easy enough with the instructions listed previously).

-- J

[cyxodus]

After upgrading to Illustrator 11, I decided to give this a try again. Everything is going okay except when I get to the scale step. For some reason that I can't figure out yet, it just won't scale. Does anyone else have this problem?

Also, does anyone know how to move the newly created balloon to the balloon layer as part of the action?

[Kep!]

Moving it to it's own layer is THE problem right now. If we can figure that out, this'll work in 85% of all balloons.

[JEFFE]

This actionset only included a couple of actions like "select master balloon" and a couple others. It didn't include the balloon creation code.

s.

[Jason Arthur]

This actionset only included a couple of actions like "select master balloon" and a couple others. It didn't include the balloon creation code.

s.

the one I uploaded?

Crap!

back to the drawing board...

-- J

[JEFFE]

Installing the actionset is really just a shortcut. Doing the actionset yourself will really make it sink in what it is that the action is doing. The main problem now is finding some way of getting the balloons to move to a lower layer.

I've found that I can use the regular selection tool on my laptop but not my desktop. Because of this I can create all the balloons for the page in one action. In doing this I can just cut/paste in place into a lower layer. I'll do some testing but until somone figures out a way to automate layer selection it'll stay as one more step in the chain.

Oh, I've been thinking of throwing a "roughen" effect into the chain. It seems like a cool way of making them seem a lot more natural without a lot of legwork.


s.

[cyxodus]

This thread sould be a sticky.

[JEFFE]

Perhaps not the thread but a post of some of the best actionsets would be cool. I use this macro with everything I do now. It's a great little timesaver.

s.

[cyxodus]

Perhaps not the thread but a post of some of the best actionsets would be cool. I use this macro with everything I do now. It's a great little timesaver.

s.
I agree.

[Kep!]

This thread should probably be split as well into a new thread. I agree we need a discussion on what macros we all use and how.

[JacoNB]

Sending balloons to it's own layer, eh?

A problem?

NOT ANYMORE!

;)

I think I've figured it out. At least partially.

Letter your page as per normal, right? Now, BEFORE you outline your text or SFX, set up a new macro and record the following steps:

1. Go to Select> Object> Text Objects.

2. Go to Select> Inverse. (This should select your balloons.)

3. Create a new layer in the Layers pallette. (with the "New Layer" button.)

4. Go to Object> Arrange> Send to Current Layer. This moves all the balloons selected in the previous step into their own layer.

5. Hit "Stop recording" in the actions pallette.

6. This is the only "manual" step: In the Layers Pallette, select the balloon layer, and drag the layer down behind the text layer.

Voila.

When you run the macro, you'll be prompted to name the layer you're creating, I suggest naming it "balloons" or something, and then click "okay." The macro will continue on.

It ain't pretty, but it *does* save some time once you get the macro set up. You don't have to physically select every balloon, cut and paste it into a layer, etc. etc. Just hit the macro key, and it moves the balloons into a separate layer, drag the layer down under the text. Done. Bang.

Let me know what you guys think.

- j

*If I figure out a better way, I'll post the results.

[cyxodus]

I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to try it. =)

[Ielle77]

i'm having a hell of a time making balloons in illustrator 9. I can do the basic balloon but i need ones with sweeping tails that arc. How the heck do i do this?? anyone know? Feel free to pm me instead of taking over this lovely person's thread. thanks!

ielle

[Kep!]

i'm having a hell of a time making balloons in illustrator 9. I can do the basic balloon but i need ones with sweeping tails that arc. How the heck do i do this?? anyone know? Feel free to pm me instead of taking over this lovely person's thread. thanks!

ielle
Sounds like you're having basic pen tool problems...we all do in the beginning. The basic method is here: http://www.balloontales.com/tips/tails_joins/index.html

[Ielle77]

thanks, that's a great tutorial. I'll have to try it out tomorrow! thanks again! :laugh:

[Kep!]

thanks, that's a great tutorial. I'll have to try it out tomorrow! thanks again! :laugh:
It's what we're here for. Any other questions, just pop in a new thread!