Adding Pizzazz with the Flare Tool

You may ask yourself, what is the Flare tool doing in a chapter about distortion and blends and graphs? It seems as if it's out of place. In reality, the Flare tool is unlike any of the other tools in Illustrator, and so it seems out of place in general.

The Flare tool is really something spectacular, although it's a one trick pony. The tool is present in Illustrator to create fantastic lens flares of the likes you would normally create in programs like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. However, the Flare tool creates these effects using only vector objects, not rasters, and Illustrator keeps them in an editable state, which makes them easy to adjust.

Creating a Vector Lens Flare

Drawing a flare with the Flare tool is basically a two-step process. First, you define where the highlight will go, and then you define the angle of the light. In reality though, there are many more little steps that need to happen in between. To apply a lens flare with the Flare tool, follow these instructions:

1.	Select the Flare tool, which you'll find grouped with the closed path shape tools (don't ask why it's there, just accept it; Figure 9.44). Figure 9.44. The Flare tool is grouped with the closed path shape tools.
2.	Click and drag from the point where you want the center of the highlight to be (Figure 9.45). Do not release the mouse button yet. Figure 9.45. Clicking and dragging with the Flare tool is the first step in creating a vector flare.
3.	Press the up and down arrows to add and remove the number of rays in the lens flare.
4.	Release the mouse.
5.	Click and drag to define the lighting direction of the Flare. Do not release the mouse button yet (Figure 9.46). Figure 9.46. The second click and drag with the Flare tool defines additional options.
6.	Press the up and down arrows to add and remove the number of rings in the lens flare.
7.	Release the mouse to complete the lens flare (Figure 9.47). Figure 9.47. The Flare creates cool effects, although you should refer to Chapter 11, Prepress and Printing, for important information on printing documents with transparency effects.

Even though it isn't a Live Effect, once a flare has been applied, it can still be editedalthough not via the Appearance palette. To edit a flare, select it with the Selection tool and double-click the Flare tool in the Toolbox. This opens the Flare Tool Options dialog, where you specify any changes to the appearance of the flare. When you check the Preview button you will be able to see the changes happening to the flare as you adjust the settings.

Because of the transparency blend modes that are used by the objects created with the Flare tool, you'll see the best results when you're creating flares over colored backgrounds.