Spaceship

Introduction
For this project, I created a spaceship using and manipulating different shapes.

Description

To create my spaceship, I first used the ellipse tool, then copied, pasted, and shrunk the duplicate to use as the window. However, I had to get rid of the extra anchor point on the left side of the window, so I used the pen tool to delete it. Then I used rectangles to create the exhaust pipe. With the pen tool, I added an anchor point to the sides of the rectangle and transformed it to a handle. Then I copied and overlapped the spaceship several times and used the shape builder tool to delete the overlapping area to create the flame. I copied and shrunk the flame to make a smaller flame. Afterwards, I made the fins by overlapping the areas of a duplicate spaceship body and a square, then by using the shape builder tool, I delete the overlapping area. I also made shadows by coloring the shape of the shadow to black and changing the opacity to 20%. In addition I added a gradient to the spaceship by using a gradient tool. Then I made the outline thicker by copying the whole ship, putting the duplicate behind the original, and changing all it's strokes to 7. Lastly, I rotated my ship, added a background color and stars, and admired my project, which is above and to the right!

Reflection
Throughout the process of creating this spaceship, I came across some bumps as well as some surprises. The most difficult task was finding the tool, such as the shape builder tool. The tutorial said to use tools I could not find. Instead, I interpreted what the directions wanted me to do, and then created the end product by using the tools I could find. The most rewarding part of my project was when I finally figured out how to use the shape builder tool. From then on, I excelled in that area. I was also successful at manipulating the shapes by using the pen tool. Into the future, I will remember how to use the shape builder tool since I learned how to manipulate it. The most interesting part of my project was operating the pen tool. It was intriguing how I could delete anchor points and transform them to handles using the pen tool. I always thought of the pen tool as just a drawing device, but never as a manipulative tool. Overall, this project was about a 7/10 for challenging, but I believe my performance deserves a 10/10!

Next Step

For more work using shape builder tool and pen tool, I would look at this video! It uses the idea of combining shapes instead of deleting the overlapping area, so you can use this idea to let your imagination soar and create even more shapes!