Uniting objects using the Pathfinder panel

When working in Illustrator, we may often start with a simple shape and alter it or combine it with other shapes to create more complex images. Illustrator allows us to unite objects on our artboard so that they become one object. This can be helpful if we've assembled a number of shapes that need to be one single shape. For our landscape drawing today, we’ll be combining all the ovals that make up the pond into one unified shape.

Selecting multiple shapes with the Select Same command

To start the process of combining multiple shapes into one, we first need to select all the shapes that we want to combine. This could be a tricky task with the pond, since it's composed of a number of ovals positioned on top of one large rectangle. If we try to press and drag to select all the ovals, we’re likely to select the rectangle in the process, which we don’t want as part of our selection. Instead, we’ll use one of Illustrator's helpful selection features to select all the pond shapes: the Select Same command. Select Same allows us to select similar objects in Illustrator — we'll start by selecting a single shape, then tell Illustrator to select objects that share something in common with the selected shape. In this case, we want to select all the blue shapes on the artboard. 

All of the ovals that make up the pond are selected, and our selection should look similar to the following image:

With the shapes selected, we can now use the Pathfinder panel to combine them.

Combining shapes with the Pathfinder panel

The Pathfinder panel enables us to combine multiple shapes in different ways to create more complex shapes. There are several different methods to create these complex shapes, and some are more appropriate than others depending on the effect desired.

Let's open the Pathfinder panel and explore its contents.

The Pathfinder panel appears:

The options on the Pathfinder panel look very similar at first glance. However, they all behave differently and provide multiple ways to combine or alter overlapping shapes. The Shape Modes provide different ways of making paths or compound paths, while the Pathfinders enable you to create new shapes out of overlapping paths.

We'll be using the first option in the Shape Modes section, Unite, to combine all the selected ovals into a single shape.

NOTE: Hovering over the icon for each option in the Pathfinder panel will give a brief description of what the command does. To learn more about the different options for combining objects in Illustrator, view the Adobe Help document How to combine objects in Illustrator.

Let’s go ahead and combine the ovals into one pond shape.

All of the paths from the individual ovals and circles disappear, as this is all one object now and no longer a collection of ovals and circles, as shown in the following image:

It's important to note that there's a difference between uniting objects (which we just did) and grouping them. Uniting objects combines multiple shapes into one shape, removing any unneeded paths and anchor points in the process. Grouping objects, on the other hand, allows us to create a collection of shapes that move as one item, but can be ungrouped to allow for manipulation of the individual shapes later on. We'll learn how to group objects later on in the course.

Now that the pond is one unified shape, let's move it into position in the center of the green rectangle. After that, we’ll deselect everything on the artboard and save our work.

At this point, your landscape illustration should look similar to the following:

We’ll be using the Pathfinder panel later on in the course — let’s add it and the other panels grouped with it to the panel dock it so we can easily access it later on. We’ll add it to the collection of icons in the collapsed section on the right side of the panel dock.

The Pathfinder panel will collapse to an icon, as highlighted in the following image:

Let’s switch gears and focus on working with a new tool — the Pen tool.