Hi Friends,
I don't have anything like a formal tutorial that I've written....mostly because I don't have a website to post one on. But I've stumbled upon a couple of neat tricks, by experimenting with various things in the Effects menu, just for fun, that I want to share.

This one is a Simulated Topographic Map. And I stress simulated because it would be really hard to create, or recreate a real one like this....although, I guess it could be done.... And I don't know if maybe someone else has already discovered this, in which case, I certainly don't wish to take credit for it. It looks so much like a real topo map, I wonder if that's what this tool was created just for. Except if that were true, I would have expected it to be called "Simulated Topo Map", rather than "Inset/Outset Halo".

Anyway, here's a sample:


And here are the instructions:
1. Draw a path, which will look like a light duty road on your topo map, or like a hiking trail, if you change the stroke to a dashed line.
2. Effects menu > Generate from Path > Inset/Outset Halo
3. The above sample uses Width = 25.0, Number of Steps = 25.

Depending on the sharpness of the curves in your trail, you may find effects you like better, with different values for those variables. However, I was not able to create this effect with just any values. Based on my experience, the Width must be equal to or greater than the Number of Steps, to achieve a simulation of a topographic map.

I hope others may find this a useful trick
Brynn

That is a neat trick. Also could be useful for making fingerprints. Thanks for the tip.

Oh, fingerprints! Yes!