Working with Variables in Illustrator with Andrew Hochradel

Generate endless variations and speed up your process for big projects with Andrew Hochradel. Learn how to export images, create data input spreadsheets, and flow variables in Adobe Illustrator. Then, export your images to create unique variations.

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00:00 Start
02:15 Variables in Illustrator - project setup
06:00 Exporting artboards
08:20 Creating the spreadsheet w/ variable data
14:52 Batch export nametags
18:21 Variables with background images
23:17 Adding texture effects
25:13 Variables with conditions
36:09 Exporting artboards
42:35 Linking placeholders to data
48:21 Relinking copied/duplicated assets
50:52 Exporting both artboards - use cases
53:58 Workflow results and wrap up

[JoshuaMerrill]

Thank you for this deomonstration. I have wanted to know more about automating workflows like this.

[korey]

Thanks You! Cant believe I never knew this was a thing!

[leomacenauer]

wow! exactly what I was looking for <3

[deadneck]

30:00 there are many better ways to create this column than doing nested if statements. I would suggest creating a few fields on another tab, where you can put your folder path, filenames and category names and then have Sheets create a list for you, so you could update paths and filenames at any time and not change the formulas. If we really wanted to get next level, you can create a formula of dynamic length that hides itself in the column header, but that's going buck wild.

[plaidypus]

Such well provided concise information!

[clevermissfox]

I’m very glad to see this video, it may be one of the most valuable pieces I’ve seen on this channel !

There’s a few questions I have like why the backgrounds didn’t match on both the social media size and the name tag size if the conditional was linked to both? I’m gonna need to watch this again but overall this is very very interesting. I actually have a project coming up for volunteer badges that I’ll be itching to use it with!

[Stiglr]

This kind of thing makes my math-addled head explode. But it also makes me sense that there's a function in here to automate a task I need to perform:

I have a template for a hexagonal game map, and in each hex, there is a four digit number (corresponding with hexcolumn/hexrow number, that identifies the space. These text objects are all corralled in a layer by themselves, and each number is a separate text object. For some reason the original creator of the template started the series with 1101 instead of 0101. So, to get the grid numbering I want, it would seem a "simple thing" to edit all those numbers with -1000 to produce the numbering I want.

Is there a way to select all the grid numbering items and apply that "simple" adjustment all at once?

I don't see any kind of "calculation" feature readily in the Edit or Type menus. But, it seems this should be a simple task if one only knows how. Can you help me out?

[irinazelepukhina]

Great! But what if you would like to add coma after text??? How to do that?!!

[abdelfattahkrita]

The reason your files are saved as jpg and pdf at the same time 35:51 is that your you didn't delete the old action that save the file as jpg and you add a new step in the same action saving the file as a pdf

[abrahamceviz]

Can we use svg format instead of png? Or what should we do to use SVG?

[aniawachowska]

Is it possible to merge data into one ai file (by creating new artboards for each data set?) Something like its possible in indesign - creating a new merged indd file with all data from the excel spreadsheet?

[pusattrainingkaryawan]

how we can update the data? without importing all again?

[davidguerra]

Is it possible format the text? I have seen is it not possible add a new line inside the text in a variable…. 😢

[StephanieChavez-vbfl]

What if some cells in a row need to be blank? When I do a data merge in Illustrator it auto fills the blank variable witht he previous variable. is there a way to avoid this?