How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator

In this Illustrator tutorial you will learn how to use the advantages of Open Type Fonts and create your own splashed text. You will work with the Discretionary ligature, Contextual alternates, Glyph, and with the Character palette.


Final Image

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator


Tutorial Details:

  • Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3 – CS6
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour

Resources


Step 1

Download and unzip downloaded archive, select both fonts,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 1…and copy them into your system fonts folder (C:\WINDOWS\Fonts on my computer).


Step 2

Then open Illustrator, take the Type Tool (T), and type the text that you desire.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 2Open the Character panel after that, set the font family and the style. Use the font that you have downloaded. Align your text to center. See the helpful image below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 3


Step 3

Go to Window > Type > Open Type. Here you will see the advantages of Open Type fonts which have the “otf” extensions in comparison with the True Type fonts which have the “ttf” extensions. Open Type fonts usually have additional options which increase their usage. Those options can be applied with the help of the corresponding buttons on the Open Type panel. See the image below where the available options for the Odstemplik font are shown in red.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 4Click the buttons shown below and watch the changes of your text indicated by red arrows.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 5


Step 4

Go to Window > Type > Glyphs (or go to Type > Glyphs), grab the Type Tool (T) again, click at the end of your text, and insert a symbol which you want from the Glyphs panel by double-clicking on it.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 6


Step 5

Select both: the glyph and the end letter of your text, open the Character panel, and set the tracking for the selected characters in order to unite them. In other words, you should place them so as to avoid the blank space between them. Follow the diagrams below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 7How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 8How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 9


Step 6

Go to Type > Create Outlines (Command + Shift + O).

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 10Pay attention here that after expanding this text made by using an Open Type font, the combination “th” is only one path in the Layers palette. It is the consequence of applying the Discretionary Ligatures.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 11


Step 7

Select all the characters of a word,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 12…and go to the Pathfinder palette, and click the Unite button.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 13Repeat these manipulations with all other words.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 14


Step 8

Select the text, and swap the fills and the strokes (Shift + X).

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 15Group the text by going to Object > Group (Command + G). Copy it and Paste in Front (Command + C then Command + F).

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 16


Step 9

Go to Effect > Path > Offset Path, and choose the options that you can see in the image below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 17Then go to Object > Expand Appearance. Object > Ungroup twice, and then go to Object > Group in order to decrease the number of groups in the Layers palette.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 18After that you should achieve the next result. Do you like it? And this is not the final effect?

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 19


Step 10

Take the Ellipse Tool (L), and draw a circle filled with cherry which is about 8 or 10 pixels in diameter. The Stroke should be set to None.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 20Go to Object > Transform > Scale and decrease the Uniform Scale option as you can see in the diagram below. Then click the Copy button.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 21You should get the following image.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 22


Step 11

Move the smallest circle as shown below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 23Then change its Opacity to 0.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 24


Step 12

Now go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and set the Spacing to Specified Steps, and the number of steps to 5 as shown in the diagram below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 25Select both circles,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 26…and go to Object > Blend > Make (Command + Alt + B).

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 27


Step 13

Drag and drop this blend into the Brushes palette, and choose the Scatter brush option in the dialog box.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 28Set the items for the brush as you can see on the diagram below. Name the brush “Our stroked brush.” This brush should be used for the outer strokes of the text further in the tutorial. Change the Method of the Colorization to Hue Shift in order to have the possibility to manage the color of the brush more effectively.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 29


Step 14

Create “Our inner brush” the same way. This one brush should be used for the inner strokes of the text further in the tutorial.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 30And create “Our outer brush” the same way. And this brush will be used for the background. Pay attention here to the Scatter values of the brush.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 31


Step 15

Select the first group of the text, the outer strokes of it. See the diagrams below for reference.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 32How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 33Change the Stroke color to cherry, and apply “Our stroked brush” to the paths.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 34


Step 16

Do the same with the second group of the text, the inner strokes of it. Apply “Our inner brush” to all of them. Follow the image below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 35And after these manipulations you will have something as the following.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 36Group all the paths of the text (Command + G).


Step 17

Now select all the paths of the text,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 37Copy them and Paste in Back (Command + C then Command + B). And change the Stroke color to black.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 38If you blow up the resulting image, you will not see any important changes. It is because the splashes are located over one another. Let’s fix this problem…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 39


Step 18

Select the black paths, and change the Brush Definition from Mixed to Basic. Follow the diagrams below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 40How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 41


Step 19

Then select the outer paths of the text,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 42…and apply “Our stroked brush” to them.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 43Then select the inner paths of the text,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 44…and apply “Our inner brush” to them.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 45You should have something similar to the next image.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 46And after that, if you want, you may expand the paths by going to Object > Expand Appearance in order to fix the splashes in their places.


Step 20

Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and change the number of steps to 8 as shown below.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 47


Step 21

Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw a vertical line as shown.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 48Copy it and Paste in Front (Command + C then Command + F). Move the copy to the right.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 49


Step 22

Apply “Our outer brush” to the left vertical line and change the Stroke color to yellow.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 50Apply “Our outer brush” to the right vertical line and change the Stroke color to blue.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 51


Step 23

Select both paths,…

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 52…and go to Object > Blend > Make (Command + Alt + B).

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 53And you may, if you desire, expand the blend by going to Object > Blend > Expand, then going to Object > Expand Appearance.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator 54


And We’re Done

The final image is below. Use the techniques you’ve learned here in your own artworks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial.

How to Create a Splashed Text Effect in Illustrator

Alexander Egupov
Alexander Egupov

Alexander lives in the Ukraine and has a passion for vector illustrations.

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