Now, select both graphics and then click on the Blend tool.

If your graphics contain multiple objects, be sure to group each set that will be involved in the blend. The simpler your graphics are, the better the blend will work. Now with your newfound knowledge of the limitations of IllustratorвЂ™s Blend tool, create some relatively simple graphics with different colors, such as ours in the top portion of Figure C. You can blend colors smoothly across complex graphics. Yes, weвЂ™re being a bit picky here, but after all, isnвЂ™t that what being an artist is all about? Although the two graphics are the same otherwise, you can see that the Blend tool couldnвЂ™t create an accurate intermediate step. In Figure A, we constructed a blend between a logo and an ever-so-slightly-rotated copy of itself. You can also blend between grouped objects, but you really should be careful hereвЂ“the Blend tool in Illustrator isnвЂ™t that sophisticated.

IllustratorвЂ™s Blend tool allows you to create shape and color blends between two or more objects. And after all, if you canвЂ™t get quality intermediate steps in your illustrations, is life as a Web designer really worth living? Fortunately, you can do it in Illustrator, with a few limitations. Granted, ImageReady does have a tween setting, but itвЂ™s really more like a fade between two specified bitmapsвЂ“you canвЂ™t tween between two shapes and expect to get quality intermediate steps. And, since Illustrator is such a good starting point for most projects due to its drawing tools and flexible vector environment, weвЂ™ll start with it first.ДЇor this article, weвЂ™ll focus specifically on using IllustratorвЂ™s Blend tool to generate the necessary steps for an animated GIF. Since both Photoshop and ImageReady are bitmap applications, you donвЂ™t have a lot of the groovy graphic features that are available in programs like Illustrator, Flash or even Fireworks. For our example, weвЂ™ll use IllustratorвЂ™s Blend tool to create the foundation graphics and then export the graphics as a Photoshop file and bring them into ImageReady for animation. So in this article weвЂ™ll highlight how we think you can get the most out of the program by integrating its use with another applicationвЂ“in this case, Illustrator. WeвЂ™re also imagining some poor product manager out there on the streets somewhere (but thatвЂ™s a totally different story altogether). In fact, thatвЂ™s probably why Adobe discontinued selling it as a stand-alone product and instead chose to bundle it with the ever-popular Photoshop 5.5. Granted, you can do a few things in it, but itвЂ™s really more of a Web support program for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. While itвЂ™s true that ImageReady has a number of the great features that allow you to modify graphics, it just really wasnвЂ™t designed to be the end-all be-all for creating graphics.

Make gif in photoshop imageready