HOW TO MAKE TEXT FROM CLOUDS IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Hello everyone! We have a new tutorial in Adobe Illustrator where we will look at the technique of creating a cloudy text
effect. With the help of special brushes you can turn any letters, lines and even objects into clouds. The lesson is
designed primarily for experienced Adobe Illustrator users, so if you are a completely newbie and have difficulties in
completing the lesson, it is better to start with the Adobe Illustrator beginner's course step by step.

Create a new document the Ctrl + of N . The color model must be RGB for the blending modes to work
correctly. My dimensions are 3000x2000 px , so you can also set it to about the same, so that when setting up the
effects, the result is the same as in the tutorial. And the first thing to do is create a background - draw a rectangle
exactly to the dimensions of the artboard using the Rectangle Tool (M) . Turn off the stroke of the rectangle, make the
fill blue. Yes, it will be heaven.
The background layer can be locked for convenience, and a new layer for the text can be created on top. The layers
panel is invoked with the F7 hotkey . Then use the Type Tool (T) to write our text. It is advisable to choose a font so that
the letters are thinner. In my case, it is Fira Sans . Please note that I have made a lot of space between the letters. Call
panel with the settings of the text - the Ctrl + T . And increase the tracking to expand the letters (underlined in red in
the image below). As the cloudy text will become quite puffy, you need to take care in advance that the letters do not
merge into one incomprehensible elongated cloud.

The text is ready, now you can start creating your magic cloud brush. Draw a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L) . The fill is
white, the stroke must be turned off. The dimensions in my case are 130x130 px . You can also stick to these sizes so
that the effect in the next steps will give the same result. When the circle is ready, open the Brushes panel (F5) and drag
it there to create a new brush.

In the options select the Scatter Brush and press OK .

Next, a large window with settings will appear. You need to choose a random variation Random for all parameters
except for Rotation . See the screenshot below, where all the items are highlighted in red.
When all the settings are set, click OK to create a new brush. It will appear in the Brushes panel (F5) . Now you can
return to the text. It needs to be converted to curves using the Create Outlines command (Shift + Ctrl + O) .
The text will turn into vector shapes, you will need to turn off the fill for the letters, and then select our brush in the
Brushes panel (F5). Then this brush will be applied to the letters, distributing white circles along the strokes in a chaotic
manner, just as it was set in the settings.

The circles should be quite tight. This will make the text look like a cloud. If your visual effect is different, then you can
double-click on the brush in the Brushes panel (F5) , and change the settings a little. Check the Preview checkbox for
preview in the lower left corner, change the settings, and see the result immediately on your text. You can also correct
the letters themselves, it is convenient to do this using the white arrow Direct Selection Tool (A) . I lengthened
the p and g tails a bit . And he stretched the letter r from above.
When you're done adjusting the text, you need to parse it. Go to Object> Expand Appearance and the text will be a
bunch of circles. It will be necessary to ungroup them so that you can select each separately. For this, it is convenient to
use the Ungroup command (Shift + Ctrl + G) . As practice has shown, there are two groups, so you need to press Shift +
Ctrl + G twice to ungroup everything to separate circles.

Already, the text looks like white clouds, but they are more like flat cartoon graphics. To add realism, use a
gradient. Call the Gradient panel (Ctrl + F9) . Use a standard black and white radial gradient. Be sure to check the black
color: it must be in RGB mode , and all three channels are zeros (R = 0, G = 0, B = 0) . If the black color is in Grayscale
grayscale or differs from R = 0, G = 0, B = 0 , then in the next step the overlay effect will work incorrectly.
So, you've set up the gradient - go to the Transparency panel (Shift + Ctrl + F10) . Set the blending mode there
to Screen (lightening) . And the gradient circles will look like fluffy clouds as the outer black edge becomes transparent.
In my example, it turned out that the letters became quite thin.
Kutsie clouds came out 😄
If you have the same problem, then this case is fixable. Select all the circles, call Transform Each (Alt + Shift + Ctrl +
D) , increase the Scale size there to 150% . You can even unscrew all 200% , if suddenly it turns out to be not enough.

All circles will be enlarged, and the cloudy text now looks fluffier.
Now you can use the Cloud Brush to add the same effect to any objects and lines. For example, at the bottom of the
picture, draw several lines with a pencil, apply a brush to these lines, then disassemble and apply a gradient as in the
previous steps. Some circles can be enlarged a lot to add more haze. You can also add flare using the Flare Tool .

You can see more details about drawing such clouds in another lesson: How to draw clouds using the Scatter Brush.