How to Transform Effects While Drawing in Illustrator
Learn how to set up effects ahead of time, so that transformations occur automatically as you draw in Illustrator

In this Illustrator video, Mark Heaps shows how to set up effects ahead of time, so that transformations occur as you draw! Using the Layers and Appearance panels, he shares a clever way to see the effects as they’re created. This is a gem of a Three Minutes Max tip!
Three Minutes Max comes from a fun—yet very competitive—session at our annual CreativePro Week conference. Speakers have three minutes to wow the audience with the tip and win a prize for a lucky conference attendee.
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This article was last modified on January 10, 2024
This article was first published on June 28, 2021
When I draw, my strokes are rotating around the origin point of my cursor rather than from the center of the ellipse. What did I do wrong?
(I checked the origin point on my transform effects and they are set to center, like yours)