Creating an action with Illustrator CS2

(beginner to intermediate level)

An action is a series of tasks that are recorded while using the Illustrator application—menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. When you play an action, Illustrator performs all of the recorded tasks for you. Illustrator comes with a number of prerecorded actions to assist you in performing common tasks. These actions are installed as a default set in the Actions palette.

In this tutorial we are going to walk you through how to create an action that will apply a starburst effect to a selected path. For more information on starbursts see our starburst tutorial .

Step 1: Create a new action set

Open the actions palette by choosing Windows > Actions. The actions palette will display. click on the new action set button at the bottom of the actions palette.

This will create a new folder to contain the actions you create so that you can find them easily. Give your action set a descriptive name and click ok. I called mine "my_actions".

Step 2: Getting ready

As we are going to be creating a action that is going to work on a selected path, create a path now by drawing out an ellipse and then selecting it.

Step 3: Create new action

Click on the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the Actions palette.

Name your action Starburst and make sure that you choose the actions set you just created from the Set drop down list.

Tip: If you want you can assign a function key to run this recorded action and specify a colour so that the action is easier to spot in the actions palette.

When you have named your action and chosen the set click Record to start recording.

Step 4: Record the action

With our ellipse still selected we need to add more anchor points to our shape. Choose Object > Path > Add Anchor points. Do this twice.

The ellipse should now look like the one below right.

Then we need to apply an effect in this case Pucker and Bloat. Effects are not directly recordable so we need to do a bit of a work around. Click on the palette options button and choose Insert Menu Item. This will allow to record a Filter or Effect. The Insert Menu item dialog will launch.

With this dialog still open choose Effect > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat.

Once you have made your select in the effects menu you will see that selection appear in the Insert Menu Item dialog window.

Click Ok

Then at the bottom of the actions palette click the stop recording button.

Step 5: Play the action

Draw a new shape you would like to apply the starburst action to and select it. Then in the actions palette choose the starburst action. Then click on the play button.

The action will run, add the extra anchor points and then launch the pucker and bloat dialog box allowing you to then adjust how much pucker and bloat you want on this specific starburst.