Modify the appearance of a Rectangle

Article
10/10/2017

You can modify the appearance of the objects that you draw on the artboard by changing their color, their size, and other properties. This topic shows you how to work with brushes to apply color to a rectangle.

To modify the appearance of objects on the artboard

In the Objects and Timeline panel, select your rectangle object.

An alternative method of selecting objects is to click Selection in the Tools panel and then click the object on the artboard.
In the Properties panel, under Brushes, select the Fill property.

The Fill property refers to the appearance of the inside of the rectangle object. Notice the other properties under Brushes. The Stroke property refers to the border around the rectangle, and the OpacityMask property can be used to make part of the rectangle object transparent. The properties under Brushes change depending on the type of object selected.
Select Gradient brush to change the type of brush.

Under Editor, you can select the color of each of the gradient stops on the color bar. Select the left gradient stop, and then click inside the color picker to change the color to red. Change the right gradient stop to purple.

You can add other gradient stops by clicking the gradient bar. You can also change from a linear gradient to a radial gradient by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the Brushes category. To remove gradient stops, drag them off the gradient bar.
With the Fill property of the rectangle object still selected, select Brush Transform in the Tools panel. A blue arrow appears on the artboard showing the direction of the gradient brush and its endpoints.

If you do not see a blue arrow, you might not have the rectangle object selected, or you might not have a brush property selected. The Brush Transform tool will only appear if a brush is selected.
Use your mouse to move the endpoints of the blue arrow so that it is half its original length.

You can also rotate the arrow or move the center point.
In the Properties panel, under Brushes, click the gradient bar to add more gradient stops and change their colors. Alternatively, you can click on the blue arrow on the artboard to add gradient stops.
Click Selection again, select your rectangle object, and then, on the artboard, move your pointer over the blue handles around the rectangle. The pointer changes to indicate what modification can be done. When you see a slash with two triangles, drag your pointer to skew the rectangle object.

You can rotate, scale, move, skew, and flip any object by dragging the handles on the artboard, or by changing the properties under Transform in the Properties panel.