[Les Nemeth]

Not long ago I put in an application to NASA. I always wanted to build a spacecraft. Of course I don’t have any education or background in math, physics and such, but still, building a spacecraft thrills me.

NASA turned down my application. Till this day I could not figure out why.

[Les Nemeth]

2438_2435jcstudiobwtag1.ai.zip

[Les Nemeth]

120″ x 60″

Just use 72 or 150dpi effects as opposed to 300.

[Les Nemeth]

Can you upload sample of what you are getting – both the ai file and the resulting pdf? You can strip out any content that is secret.

I’ve never ran into drop shadow problems when exporting it to pdf. That is why I wanted to ask for sample in both ai AND pdf, so that when I output your ai locally, I want to see if the pdf I’m getting matches to yours (problem wise).

Since you mentioned multiple artboards, I assume you are using either 4 or 5. Would also be helpful to know if it’s on the Mac or PC? Maybe the problem is platform related?

[Les Nemeth]

I assume you mean like a repeating pattern, as opposed to a single huge watermark.

Here’s two ways to get you started.
1. use blends
2. or use patterns

[Les Nemeth]

[Shaun Trevathan] “I am new to Illustrator… I realize that this is a lot to ask in a forum post I am sure.”

What exactly are you asking? Are you asking someone to do the project for you, or are you asking something specific? It sounds like you want to build a house but you never built one before so you are asking for help. That’s a tough one. If YOU want to build a house, you need to learn the basics, how to read blueprints, building codes, do a heck of a lot of research and so forth. Otherwise you just simply asking someone to build a house FOR YOU as opposed to helping you with specific ideas, eg. how to fit a window into an opening. See what I’m saying?

[Shaun Trevathan] “I have also seen where they would animate either icons that represent troop formations or…”
Are you asking help with animation as well?

You can create a vector outline of europe and/or countries you plan to use. You can import this AI file into AE and use it as a mask for the textures you plan to use for the countries.

How to animate in AE…well, that’s a very broad subject. There are excellent books out there teaching basic animation techniques in AE. Or if you prefer video tutorials, you can check out places like lynda.com or digitaltutors.com.

[Les Nemeth]

I don’t know what’s in AI9 (that’s quite old now), but if you open the Action itself and double click the Move command, you should get something similar. Then just modify the value itself.

[Les Nemeth]

Use the pen tool. You can’t do it using 3D effect.

[Les Nemeth]

In many programs, the 0,0 coordinate (aka origin) is at the top-left corner of the screen/canvas. In AI it’s at the bottom-left. Chances are that’s what screwing it up.

You can open up the action and modify the vertical placement to be positive (if it’s negative), or make it negative (if it’s positive).

[Les Nemeth]

What is your budget for this project?