How to make a CD icon using Illustrator in 5 minutes

February 7, 2009 Resources, Tutorials , ,
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step5In this tutorial, we will create a vector icon of CD using Adobe Illustrator CS3. This can be done in only 5 minutes. Here we use Illustrator rather than Photoshop as we want to make a vector icon. This CD icon can be incorporated into club flyers or postcards promoting a band or show.

In Photoshop there is a function called Angle Gradient which is able to give an easy way to draw a nice stripe of colour spectrum on the CD surface. However, there is no Angle Gradient function in Illustrator which makes drawing a little bit difficult.

I did read some article or tutorial related to how to draw a CD icon using illustrator. But I think they are not simple enough and not good enough. Here we will see some simple steps of drawing an icon of CD.

Step 1

Draw 6 circles from outside to inside. make 2 copies of the 5th circle and use the Pathfinder>>Subtract to create 3 thick rings. Make sure they are in the right order. Then we can now fill these rings.

step1

Step 2

Fill the 3 rings from back to front. The bottom one is filled using grayscale (K=5) and the stroke is 1pt weight and grayscale (K=40). The second one should be filled using the following gradient (grayscale K=25 at both ends and white in the center), the stroke should be the same as the previous ring. The third smaller one in the center has to be filled in grayscale (K=10) and stroke is 1pt, grayscale (K=50). Also for this one, we have to set the opacity into around 50% to obtain a transparent effect.

step2

Step 3

Draw a simple shape like the left one in the following (the angle in the middle is around 15 degree), then copy the second ring in the previous step and set to no fill. Put the ring in the back of the shape we drew just now. Then use Pathfinder>>Intersect shape to get two sectors.

step3-1

Then make 4 copies of the sectors and fill them with different colours. and rotate them to have the following layout.

step3-2

Step 4

Select the 5 sector we just made and make them into a group. Use the Radial Blur (Amount:18, Method: Spin, Quality: Good) in the menu (Effect>>Blur>>Radial Blur…) and set the blending option into Overlay.

step4

Step 5

Now the CD is almost ready and the last step we can add some effects to the CD. For 2D style, we can add some simple drop shadow (Effects>>Stylize>>Drop Shadow) or cast shadow (Draw a very thin circle in black and set the opacity to around 30%, then use Effect>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur and set radius to 4.0). Also we can use Effects>>3D>>rotate function in Illustrator to produce a unique vision. The shadow can be drawn in the same way we discussed just now.

step5

Furthermore, you can draw another ring in the same shape of second one in Step 1, fill it in Golden. Blend it on the CD using Multiply method and set opacity to 75%. Put a DVD logo on it. Your DVD icon will be ready.

step5_dvd

Download the .AI source file (for Adobe Illustrator CS3)

Have you tried the tutorial? Feel free to leave links to examples created using this as well as any feedback that you may have. Thanks…

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