The Polar Coordinates trick in Illustrator

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to use the polar coordinates trick from Photoshop in Illustrator. I recently came across a tutorial, which used patterns in Illustrator, and I came across something which I never considered. If you have ever used Photoshop, then you may have come across the polar coordinates trick. This trick requires you to create the square pattern up and down, which then warps into a circular pattern like in the images below.

While this is not my own unique tutorial. I am going to expand on the concept so that it uses the same rules as in Photoshop. Check out the original technique here (http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/complex-circular-design-techniques/)

One of the first things you have to do, especially when you're creating a radial circular pattern in Illustrator is to create a crosshairs. The reason for this is that you need a solid point of reference which makes it easier to work from.

In Illustrator, create a new canvas and, on your first layer, drag two guides in until you get a crosshairs.

If you want, turn on the grid settings if you're going for accurate measurements. The next thing you need to do, is to drag out a new guide, where the edge of your circular design will be.

In this step, it is easier if you have the grid on. Create a new guide at the exact halfway point between the crosshair guide and your circular edge guide.

If you don't have your grid settings on, there is another way of finding a middle point between your two guides.
The first thing you do is to make sure that your smart guides are on. Create a box shape snapped to the two horizontal guides.

Now, in your Transform palette, click the upper middle dot on the reference point box.

Then highlight the height text box and type in 50%. This should shrink your box to half its size.

Now drag a new horizontal guide down to the bottom edge of the box. You can now delete your box.

Assuming that this is your first layer, lock the layer and create a new layer. This allows you to lock the guides on one specific layer, but allowing you to move them, if you need to, on other layers.

Now that you have your guides, create your simple design as you usually would with a pattern. Make sure that when you create the pattern that the ends are cut straight so that your pattern blends at the edges. It is important to note here that you use the crosshair guide and your edge guide as your boundaries. It is this point which gives this technique its accuracy.

At this point, you can either choose to make this into a pattern brush or make a number of copies in a row and turn it into an art brush.

Once you have your unique brush, create a new layer and hide the old one. Now, turn on Smart guides. I usually have Smart guides set to a high snap level like 8 points. But make sure you turn off snap to grid.

Select the ellipse tool from the toolbar and, with snapping, create a circle from the centre to your mid guide. Make sure that your object has an empty fill colour and a simple one point line (I usually choose black).

Now all you need to do is to apply your art brush or pattern brush to the circle.

And there you have your polar coordinates technique.

As you can see, the guides were just there to ensure that the technique worked like in Photoshop. If you wish, you can change the line thickness of the circle but you may get strange anomalies if you go thicker.

Just a note or two before finishing, though.

- Firstly, Make sure that you expand any lines that you have in your pattern before you apply it as an artbrush or a pattern brush.

- Secondly, make sure that you close off any open ended shapes before making the brushes

I mention these points because you may find white line gaps in your artbrush or pattern brush if not properly managed. Be sure to check that everything is squared off and aligned on both the left and the right of the design so that it blends seamlessly.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful.

Regards,

Mix Mash

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