Modati Studios

This tutorial will show you how to make a simple flying saucer in Abode Illustrator in a few easy steps. I use Illustrator verison CS3, but any verision should do. Here’s a preview of the finished result:

Step 1: Use ellipse tool to draw your basic structure.

You can find the ellipse tool in the tool bar on the right as shown below:

You can also simply press “L” on your keyboard for the ellipse hotkey, selecting it without going into the tool bar.

With the ellipse tool you can draw all the shapes needed for this nifty saucer; you’ll need 6 ellipses in these sizes:

1. 12″ x 2″
2. another 12″ x 2″
3. 12″ x 5″
4. 6″ x 8″
5. 3″ x 0.5″
6. 1.5″ x 0.125″

The simplest way to draw them is by clicking anywhere on your art board. That will bring up a dialog box where you can input the size specifications. After you draw all the ellipses. Center all of them to each other using the align window. You can find in by going up to Window> Align. Below is an example of how it should look like, I’ve also circled the horizontal and vertical align buttons, the two we’ll be using:

After you draw all the ellipses. Use the black arrow, the Selection Tool (hotkey: “V”), found in the tool bar to click and drag until you select all six of your ellipses. Align all of them to each other using the vertical and horizontal align tools. Highlighted above. Finally click on one of the 12″ x 2″ ellipses (they should be directly on top of each other) and nudge it about 6 spaces up using the up arrow on the keyboard. Your final result should look like this:

Step 2: Use Pathfinder Tool to cut them up!

The first cut you’ll make will actually use the scissors tool (“C”), found low on the tool bar . Click to where your two 12″ x 2″ ellipses intersect to divide them up. Then use the white arrow, the Direct Selection Tool (“A”) and click on the lower portion of the higher ellipse then hit delete twice to get rid of the bottom half.

Now use the selection tool to select the complete 12″ x 2″ ellipse and the 12″ x 5″ by click on one then holding down shift and click on the other one. Go over to the pathfinder window, Window > Pathfinder and click the Divide Button. I’ve highlighted the button below:

This will divide up the ellipses. Now Click the bottom half of the 12″ x 5″ ellipse and delete it. Now you’ll need to use the scissors tools again to cut the 6″ x 8″ ellipse where it intersects the top of the remaining 12″ x 5″ ellipse. Make sure to lock the remainder of the 12″ x 5″ ellipse by going to the layers window, Window > Layers and clicking on the little box next to the eye on the layer with the 12″ x 5″ remainder. (If you don’t know what ‘layers’ are, go here). After locking it, cut at the intersection and delete the bottom half of the 6″ x 8″ ellipse. Unlock the 12″ x 5″ layer. The end result should look like the one below:

Step 3: Add a stylish dotted line

Click on the thin remainder of the 12″ x 2″ ellipse that you cut. Open the stroke window, Window > Stroke, and check the dashed line box, leave the dashed line at 12pts, and turn the weight up to 3. Now outline the stroke by going to Object > Path > Outline Stroke. Finally round the corners; go to Effect > Stylize (the first one, in illustrator effects, NOT photoshop effects) > Round corners, set the radius to “0.10″ and click ok. You should have this half cooked sexy saucers peeping back at you:

Step 4: Put Some Colours On!
Now we have this beautiful frame, let’s play Picasso (or any other rad artist, may I suggest Nathan Ota?). Head over to Colour Lovers and pick one of your favorite pallets. You’ll have to sign up for an account to download the pallet, but it’s completely FREE and totally worth the 3 minuetes. Colour Lovers is a great colour site for any graphic designer. Once you’ve downloaded it, open it up in Illustrator and save the swatches by clicking the Swatches Library Menu, the first little square on the bottom of the Swatch window on the as seen below:

Now load the swatch into your window with your design by going back to the Swatches Library Menu, scrolling all the way down to the User Defined tab and selecting the name of your pallet. Use these colours to give your aliens some character. Use the Selection tool to get rid of the stroke and add a fill. Make sure to ungroup the 2 12″ x 2″ ellipses by control-clicking on them on hitting “ungroup”. To remove a stroke, you’ll notice two boxes on the top left when clicking on something with the Selection Tool. Click on the Stroke box and select the first one, a white box with a red diagnol line through it, afterwords select the Fill box and select one of your colours for each part. You may have to play around with the layer order to make sure everything looks ok. Simply click and drag them up and down. Here’s what I got after my colouring:

Step 5: Add some shadows for a finishing touch
Select the top of the saucer and add a gradient to the shape, Window > Gradient, drag and drop your fill colour into each slider but make one is slightly darker but selecting it after you add it the gradient bar and going to your Color Window and knocking up the “k” (black) value. Play around with it until you find one that fits. Do the same with body and the underside of the saucer. Make sure to change the angle in the Gradient menu to 90 so the gradient goes up and down. Play around with this until you get something you like at the end you should have something like this:

Yay! You’re all done, be proud of your self.
This is a pretty basic tutorial but after you learn your way around the windows and menu it get a lot easier so don’t get discouraged too soon.
Email me at sarms.j [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions. Be sure to have flying saucer tutorial in the subject line.
-Salam/Peace