Quick Tip: How To Create a Cup Of Coffee in Top View

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In this quick tutorial you will learn how to create a cup of coffee in top view. Using the shape tools, some gradients and your imagination, creating different kinds of coffee is fun and easy.

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Step 1. Creating and Coloring the Saucer

First open a new web document. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw a 220 x 220 px circle. Open the Gradient Panel (Window > Gradient Panel) and set the gradient Type to radial. Give the left slider a fill of 230, 230, 230 ,location 0% ; the second – 255,255,255, location – 90% and finally the fill of the third slider: 204, 204, 204 and location 100%. We get a saucer.

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Step 2. Creating and Coloring the Cup

Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw a 140 x 140 px circle. Fill it with the Radial gradient, use the image below as a reference.

Lets start to make a handle for the cup. Draw a 70 x 30 px ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L). Fill it with the shown gradient.

Put the smaller ellipse in the front of bigger ellipse. Select two ellipses and align it to horizontal center. Than drag the smaller ellipse down on some pixels, use the image below as a reference (a). Select two ellipses and rotate them on -30°.

Select two ellipses and put it as shown in the image. Select a cup (smaller circle) and bring it to the front (Shift + Command + J). You can leave it or you can cut a handle. For cutting, select a cup (smaller circle), copy (Command + C) it and paste it in front (Command + F). Select a copy of cup and the handle (two ellipses) and select in Pathfinder panel Divide. Clear all unnecessary details. Check your gradients on a handle, improve it if you wish.

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Step 3. Adding Shadows

Select a cup (smaller circle), copy it (Command + C), paste in front (Command + F) fill it with color:245, 245, 245. Drag it down and to the left, use the image below as a reference.

Send the circle to the back of the handle, use a layers panel.

Select the circle, that we just made and copy of (Command + C), paste in front (Command + F) fill it with color:230, 230, 230. Drag it up.

In the same way add a shadow on the handle. Select the bigger ellipse, copy it (Command + C), paste in front (Command + F) fill it with color:230, 230, 230. Drag it down. Play with your shadows, try to change the size, colors, maybe add some circles or ellipse, change a rotation angle, add a shadow to the saucer. No rules, just play with it as you wish. When you’re finish make a copy of final coffee cup.

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Step 4. Would You Like a Cup of Coffee? ;)

Copy (Command + C) a cup (smaller circle) and paste it in front (Command + F). Resize it: 120 px x 120 px. Fill it with the Radial gradient from black (0,0,0) to brown (66,33,11) color.

Copy (Command + C) a coffee circle and paste it in front (Command + F). Select a new circle and the shape, after that, in the Pathfinder panel select Intersect.

Draw a circle 6 px x 6 px, fill it with 242, 201, 160 color. Draw another circle 5 px x 5 px fill it with 201, 151, 157 color. And the last circle – 3 px x 3 px fill it with 117, 76, 36 color. Put them together and group them (Command +G), use the image below as a reference.

Drag the circles to the Brushes palette and save the new brush as a Scatter Brush. Set the brush parameters as shown below.

Now take the Paintbrush Tool (B) and create a brush stroke over the coffee. Here you can change your Scatter Brush parameters as you like. Have a fun :)

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Step 5. Cappuccino Lovers

Take a second coffee cup. Make a copy (Command + C) from cup (smaller circle) and paste it in front (Command + F). Resize it: 125 px x 125 px. Fill it with the Radial gradient, use the image below as a reference.

You can add some cinnamon on your cappuccino top. Draw a circle 3 px x 3 px, fill it with 76, 13, 9 color. Drag the circle to the Brushes palette and save the new brush as a Scatter Brush. Set the brush parameters as shown below.

Copy the cappuccino top, set the fill to none and choose the newly created scatter brush as a stroke. Play with the Scatter brush settings for creating your cappuccino cup. Also you can play with a shapes for getting a better result.

Experiments with different shapes to give you interesting results. Try to create something new!

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Conclusion

We are done! We have different types of coffees. Try to create your own coffee cups! Good luck :)

How to Illustrate a 3D Wireless Home Router

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS6
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 3 hours

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to create your own wireless home router with the Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool and gradients and we’ll also use the Pathfinder Panel.

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Step 1

Open a new document. Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle with the size W:240px H:444px.

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Step 2

Take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an ellipse in the lower part of the rectangle then draw another one in the upper part with a size as shown below and place them in positions as shown.

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Step 3

Now select the bottom ellipse and the rectangle from Step 1, open the Pathfinder Panel and click on the Add to Shape Area button.

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Step 4

Copy the top ellipse with Command + C then paste with Command + F. We’ll need the copy in the next steps. After that select the original ellipse and the rectangle you made in Step 1. Open the Pathfinder Panel and click on the Minus Front button.

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Step 5

Select the shape that appeared in the previous step and fill it with a Linear gradient as shown below.

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Step 6

Take the Rectangle Tool (M), draw a rectangle in the center of the previous shape with Black color as shown below then make a copy of the shape you filled with a Linear gradient in the previous step with Command + C then paste with Command + F. Select the copy and the rectangle you made earlier, open the Pathfinder Panel and click on the Intersect button.

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Step 7

Now select the copy of the ellipse from Step 4 and fill it with a Linear gradient as shown below.

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Step 8

As the shape from the previous step that you filled with a Linear gradient is selected go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -2px, click Ok and change the color of the shape that appeared after applying Offset to R:35 G:31 B:32.

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Step 9

Take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an ellipse with size W:229px H:33px and go to Window > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Set the values as shown below, click Ok and right after that go to Object > Expand Appearance. After that open the Pathfinder Panel, click on the Add to Shape Area button, fill the shape with a Linear gradient and place it in position as shown below:

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Step 10

Draw an ellipse with size W:229px H:32 then draw another ellipse over the previous one with size W:224px H:27px. Place the second ellipse you made in position as shown below, open the Pathfinder Panel and click on the Minus Front button.

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Step 11

Place the shape from the previous step in position as shown below and fill it with a Linear gradient. Look at the picture below:

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Step 12

Copy the shape from the previous step with Command+C then paste with Command+F, delete the upper points of the copy then turn off the Fill color and apply Stroke: 1px with an R:146 G:164 B:170 color. Look at the picture below.

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Step 13

Take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an ellipse with size W:224px H:27px, fill it with an R:131 G:146 B:148 color and place it in position as shown in the picture below:

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Step 14

Draw another ellipse over the previous one as shown below then make a copy of the ellipse from the previous step with Command+C then paste with Command+F. Now select the copy and the ellipse you just created, open the Pathfinder Panel, click on the Intersect button and fill the shape with a Linear gradient colors R:208 G:211 B:206 to R:143 G:163 B:167.

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Step 15

With the Pen Tool (P) add the shape as shown in the picture below and fill it with a Linear gradient colors R:70 G:87 B:89 to R:29 G:51 B:56.

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Step 16

Repeat the same action from Step 14 until you add the remaining shapes as shown below.

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Step 17

We continue with the lower part of the router. Take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an ellipse with size W:247px H:60px, fill it with a Linear gradient as shown below, place the ellipse in the lower part of the router and send it behind all others (Object > Arrange > Send to Back).

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Step 18

Select the shape that appeared in Step 5, copy it with Command + C then paste with Command + F. Now with the Direct Selection Tool (A) select the upper key points of the copy and delete them then turn off the Fill color and apply Stroke: 3px, Profile: Width Profile 3 with a Black color. Also apply Gaussian Blur Radius: 3px.

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Step 19

Copy the shape from the previous step with Command + C then paste with Command + F, delete the Gaussian Blur from the Appearance panel then reduce the Stroke to 1px and fill with a Linear gradient as shown in the picture below:

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Step 20

Take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw a circle with size W:43px H:43px and an R:35 G:31 B:32 color and place it in position as shown below.

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Step 21

As the circle from the previous step is selected go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the offset to -1px, click Ok and fill the new shape with a Radial gradient as shown below:

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Step 22

With the shape from the previous step selected go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -3px, click Ok and with the Gradient Tool (G) move the light color in the upper part of the circle as shown below.

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Step 23

With the shape from the previous step selected go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -3px, click Ok then slide the new shape 1px down and fill it with an R:20 G:24 B:21 color.

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Step 24

Select all shapes of the button and group them (Object > Group).

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Step 25

Now select the button’s group and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform, do the settings as shown in the picture below and click Ok.

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Step 26

Add the necessary symbol on each button by going to Window > Symbol Libraries > Web Icons. Select the symbols you decide, decrease their size and go to Object > Expand Appearance then change their color to R:198 G:217 B:157.

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Step 27

Now we have the router’s shadow left to make. In order to do it take the Ellipse Tool (L), draw an ellipse with size W:268px H:62px, fill it with a Radial gradient as shown below. Also apply Gaussian Blur Radius: 10px, change the Blending Mode from Normal to Multiply, send the shape behind all others (Object > Arrange > Send to Back) and place it in position as shown below.

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Conclusion

And here is the final result. As you can see, a highly realistic result can be achieved with the proper use of gradietns and perspective. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut. Have a play around with different objects that are made from the same shapes to learn more about creating objects in 3D.