Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 9/23/2009

Question
I'm looking for the directional feather in illustrator cs4, and I can't seem to locate it. I have seen on forums that it does exist, but it is nowhere to be found. Thank you so much for all your help.

Answer
Hi Nisse,

There is no directional feather tool or effect in CS4. What you have now is directional gradients with opacity controls and the feather effect that you can apply to masks to create a "directional gradient" Using these two effects in conjunction with each other will give you a directional feather.

For instance, you create an object and want to feather a corner of it. Create a clipping mask using a shape and then apply the feather effect to that shape. You can then use the direct select tool (white arrow) to move the shape creating your directional feather.

Otherwise, the opacity controls for gradients are now in the gradient control panel.


Thanks

Kevin