Adobe IllustratorWhat is Illustrator?| 00:00 |
Adobe Illustrator is used by artists and
graphic designers to create scalable
| | 00:04 |
vector art for using projects for both
print and web.
| | 00:09 |
Artists use Illustrator for creating clean
visual compositions that can be scaled
| | 00:13 |
infinitely without losing quality.
Creating freehand drawings in
| | 00:17 |
illustrations, tracing and recoloring
scanned in art work, and also creating
| | 00:22 |
wire frames, from which to create digital paintings.
| | 00:25 |
Designers use Illustrator for creating
logos, icons, an other complex shapes.
| | 00:30 |
Setting type for use in flyers, magazines,
and business cards.
| | 00:33 |
And creating website mock-ups and graphics
for use across multiple screens.
| | 00:39 |
Illustrator isn't just limited to artists
and designers though.
| | 00:42 |
Many people use Illustrator for their
projects, and it allows them to create
| | 00:45 |
visually compelling and flexible artwork
like this.
| | 00:49 |
Illustrator also integrates with other
Adobe applications like InDesign for print
| | 00:53 |
production and digital magazines.
Photoshop for use with smart filters.
| | 00:57 |
Flash for web animations and games.
Or Adobe After Effects and Premier for
| | 01:02 |
using title sequences and video animation.
Whether you're a graphic designer, or an
| | 01:07 |
artist, Adobe Illustrator offers you a
flexible way to deploy your creative
| | 01:11 |
vision to virtually any screen or
substrate.
| | 01:14 |
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IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
(music playing)
| | 00:04 |
Hello, and welcome to Illustrator CC
essential training.
| | 00:07 |
My name is Justin Seeley, and I'm a staff
author at Lynda.com.
| | 00:11 |
In this course, I'm going to start you off
slow by going through some of the basics
| | 00:14 |
of Illustrator, like creating documents
for print and web progects.
| | 00:17 |
And we'll also dive into creating shapes,
like rectangles and circles.
| | 00:22 |
Once we've got those basics taken care of,
we'll jump right into the fun stuff like
| | 00:25 |
creating complex shapes using
Illustrator's Shape Building tool.
| | 00:29 |
I'll also be walking you through working
with bit map images in Illustrator as
| | 00:32 |
well.
And I'll go through my personal workflow
| | 00:35 |
for tracing both photos and line art using
the Image Trace panel.
| | 00:39 |
Finally, we'll go through outputting your
artwork for both print and web.
| | 00:42 |
And I'll also show you how to use your
Illustrator artwork in other Creative
| | 00:46 |
Cloud applications like Photoshop and InDesign.
| | 00:49 |
In short, this course is a soup to nuts
overview of all things Illustrator.
| | 00:53 |
And by the end, you should have all the
tools and knowledge you need to create
| | 00:56 |
rich and engaging artwork using this application.
| | 00:59 |
So if you're ready, let's jump right in
and get started.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 |
If you have access to the exercise files
for this course, you might want to Copy
| | 00:03 |
them to your Desktop as I've done here.
So that they're easily accessible to you
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at all times.
You'll find that inside of this folder is
| | 00:09 |
another folder that corresponds to each
one of the chapters in the course.
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To access an exercise file, just open up
the Chapter folder and then double click
| | 00:17 |
on the exercise file to launch it in the application.
| | 00:20 |
If you don't have access to the exercise
files, that's okay.
| | 00:22 |
You can still follow along using your own
files or simply sit back and watch as I
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walk you through each individual exercise.
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1. Getting StartedUnderstanding vector graphics| 00:00 | The main advantage of Adobe
Illustrator, and one of the things that
| | 00:03 | differentiates it from its pixel
pushing counterparts, is that it is a
| | 00:06 | vector-based image editing program.
| | 00:09 | If you're new to Adobe Illustrator, you
might not know exactly what that means.
| | 00:13 | So in this movie, I will be walking you
through exactly what a vector graphic is
| | 00:16 | and how it can help you
develop a more versatile graphic.
| | 00:20 | So think of it like this.
| | 00:22 | In traditional image editing
applications like Photoshop, you're limited in
| | 00:26 | terms of the output size or quality,
based on the number of pixels or resolution
| | 00:31 | that reside inside of an image.
| | 00:32 | This means he must constantly be
aware of the DPI or PPI settings of your
| | 00:36 | document, because the files are
inherently resolution dependent.
| | 00:40 | Now in some cases you can't get
around this, like photographs for instance.
| | 00:44 | Photographs cannot be taken in a vector format.
| | 00:46 | They're made of pixels and
they had to stay made of pixels.
| | 00:49 | Therefore, that's when you would use
a pixel-based image when you're working with
| | 00:53 | photos or things that weren't
necessarily created on a computer.
| | 00:57 | In Adobe Illustrator however, we
are working with a vector artwork.
| | 01:00 | Anything we create inside Illustrator
is a vector object, and this type of
| | 01:04 | graphic is resolution independent,
meaning that it will be just as sharp and
| | 01:08 | clean at 3 inches or 300 feet.
| | 01:12 | With Illustrator, you don't have to
worry about the resolution of the file at
| | 01:15 | all, because the artwork can be scaled
infinitely without penalty. How cool is that?
| | 01:20 | You can create artwork inside Illustrator
that is vector based and then output
| | 01:25 | it to applications like Adobe InDesign
and use that for output on things like
| | 01:28 | business cards, letterhead, et cetera,
and the vector artwork maintains its
| | 01:33 | vector nature all the way through the process.
| | 01:35 | In the other instances though, you
will have to take the artwork out of
| | 01:38 | Illustrator and put it into a pixel-
based format for going to areas like the web,
| | 01:43 | or tablet devices and things like that.
| | 01:45 | However, if you have a piece of artwork
inside of Illustrator that you use for,
| | 01:49 | let's say, a web button and let's say
it's 200 pixels by 200 pixels wide, you
| | 01:54 | can then come back in at a later date
and use that same image for a different
| | 01:58 | project, like let's say a web banner,
where you have the blow it up 300% and the
| | 02:02 | artwork will scale perfectly to that
size without losing any of its quality.
| | 02:07 | Let's take a look at exactly what I am
talking about with these graphics that
| | 02:09 | I have on my screen.
| | 02:11 | As you can see I have two images on my
screen that look pretty much the same,
| | 02:15 | but on the left I have a raster
representation of this logo and on the right I
| | 02:19 | have the vector equivalent.
| | 02:21 | Let's first start off by taking
a look at the raster-based image.
| | 02:25 | If I grab my Zoom tool and I zoom in
right here on the top part of this text,
| | 02:31 | you'll notice when I zoom in that the
text is very choppy and the edge of the
| | 02:34 | circle around the flower is also
really jagged and nasty looking.
| | 02:38 | This is because this is a raster-based
image that is based upon pixels, and those
| | 02:43 | little squares you're
seeing, those are the pixels.
| | 02:46 | And so since it's not comprised of
vectors, I get this pixelation.
| | 02:51 | Let's zoom back out a little bit
and go over here to the vector object.
| | 02:55 | I will zoom in on the same area over here.
| | 02:59 | Notice how crisp and clean the text is and
how nice the edge along the circle is as well.
| | 03:04 | This is an example of vector artwork.
| | 03:06 | Vector artwork is not made up of pixels at all.
| | 03:10 | Vector artwork is actually made up of
mathematical formulas that allow for the
| | 03:13 | artwork to be scaled, up, down,
whatever, and it doesn't lose quality.
| | 03:18 | That's the beauty of vector graphics.
| | 03:20 | Let's take a look at that.
| | 03:21 | I'll zoom back out and I'll grab my
Selection tool and I'll select this
| | 03:26 | raster object here.
| | 03:28 | If I want to resize this object, I can do so.
| | 03:31 | But when I do that you'll notice that
the quality gets significantly worse, and
| | 03:39 | if I zoom in on it, same area where we
were before, you can see, it's so bad,
| | 03:46 | pixelated and almost unreadable.
| | 03:49 | Let's zoom back out and I will undo
those changes, and I am just doing this with
| | 03:52 | Ctrl+Z on my keyboard, Command+Z on a Mac.
| | 03:55 | I'll go ahead and come over to
the vector object and select it.
| | 04:00 | Watch what happens when I scale this.
| | 04:03 | Scale it up and I'll zoom into the same area.
| | 04:10 | The text is still completely clean and crisp;
| | 04:12 | the edge of the circle is as well.
| | 04:14 | Let me click away from it to
get the guidelines away from it.
| | 04:16 | See how clean the edge of
that circle is? Unbelievable!
| | 04:20 | So I could use this on a business card,
on a flyer, on a billboard, on the side
| | 04:24 | of a blimp, it doesn't matter.
| | 04:26 | This artwork is always going to
crisp and clean, whereas over here on the
| | 04:31 | raster-based image, I could only use
this for an appropriate size based upon the
| | 04:36 | resolution of the image.
| | 04:37 | So if it's a 900 pixel graphic,
chances are I'm only going to use it in
| | 04:41 | something that's 900 pixels or smaller.
| | 04:44 | In any case, there are uses for both
raster and vector graphics, but hopefully,
| | 04:49 | by now you have a better understanding
of the differences between the two and
| | 04:52 | how you can utilize vector graphics
inside of Illustrator to create more
| | 04:56 | flexible artwork and use
them across multiple projects.
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| Setting preferences| 00:00 |
One of the first things I do when I open
up a new version of an application, or if
| | 00:04 |
I simply am learning the application for
the first time.
| | 00:06 |
Is I dive right in, and I look at the
preferences, for that app.
| | 00:09 |
Now I know this isn't the most attractive
thing in the world.
| | 00:12 |
But it is very necessary, because
understanding the preferences lets you
| | 00:15 |
know exactly what you can and cannot
control about an application's behavior.
| | 00:19 |
And making an application behave and work
the way you want it to, is an essential
| | 00:23 |
part of making your work flow as speedy as possible.
| | 00:27 |
So, in this movie we're going to be
exploring Illustrator's Preferences panel.
| | 00:30 |
On a Mac, you're going to go to the
Illustrator menu, on a PC you're going to
| | 00:33 |
go to the Edit menu and you're going to go
down to the Preferences section.
| | 00:36 |
And inside of Preferences you're going to
select General.
| | 00:39 |
You could also bring this up by using the
keyboard shortcut Cmd or Ctrl+K.
| | 00:44 |
In the General preferences, they are
exactly that.
| | 00:46 |
They are just general preferences that
refer to basic behaviors that Illustrator
| | 00:49 |
has that you can either change or turn off.
| | 00:52 |
So at the very top here, you have basic
Keyboard Increments, constrain angles, and
| | 00:56 |
corner radius.
These are things that it's going to take
| | 00:59 |
time, for you to develop a preference for these.
| | 01:01 |
Like for instance, Keyboard Increment
refers to, how far does an object move
| | 01:05 |
when you tap the arrow keys on your keyboard?
| | 01:08 |
You're not going to know that until you
actually start moving objects around.
| | 01:11 |
An we haven't gotten there yet, so don't
worry about that.
| | 01:14 |
Constrain Angle, same thing.
Corner Radius, how far do you want the
| | 01:17 |
corners of a rounded rectangle to be
rounded while you're drawing it out?
| | 01:21 |
Again, that's going to be on a case by
case basis.
| | 01:23 |
So setting a default here is going to be
very difficult to do.
| | 01:26 |
Underneath, there are some general options.
| | 01:27 |
And there are a few of these I actually do
like to change.
| | 01:30 |
First and foremost, Show Tool Tips.
During this course, I recommend you have
| | 01:34 |
this turned on but as you get more
comfortable with Illustrator, you may want
| | 01:37 |
to turn this off.
Tool Tips refer to the small popup window
| | 01:41 |
that appears whenever you hover over
something that you don't understand.
| | 01:45 |
In Illustrator, there are a lot of things
like tools for instance that you can hover
| | 01:48 |
over.
And the Tool Tip will popup, indicating
| | 01:50 |
what that function or tool actually is.
They're very useful when you're first
| | 01:55 |
getting started, but they get annoying
after a while.
| | 01:57 |
Especially after you've already learned
the material.
| | 02:00 |
Over here on the right hand side,
something I always turn on first and
| | 02:03 |
foremost is scale strokes and effects.
Basically what this means is when you're
| | 02:06 |
creating artwork inside of Illustrator,
you're going to be applying these things
| | 02:09 |
like strokes.
Which is essentially a border, and
| | 02:12 |
effects, like drop shadows, gaussean
blurs, things like that.
| | 02:15 |
What happens if you don't have this turned
on and you start to scale the artwork up
| | 02:18 |
or down, the stroke and the effect will
remain at the original size.
| | 02:23 |
So you might scale an object up and it
goes from having a nice thick stroke to a
| | 02:26 |
tiny stroke.
Or you might scale an object up in the
| | 02:29 |
drop shadow, changes position on you.
So having the scales strokes and effects
| | 02:33 |
insures that you are always going to keep
the look of the artwork no matter which
| | 02:37 |
way you scale it.
Let us move on here, and let us talk about
| | 02:41 |
Selection and Anchor display.
In this section you have two basic areas
| | 02:45 |
you can control.
The top part here is you selection
| | 02:47 |
preferences.
I am going to cover these in depth in
| | 02:50 |
their own movie a little later on, so we
don't have to worry about those right now.
| | 02:54 |
Let's talk about the anchor point and
handle display.
| | 02:56 |
Again this is going to be a personal
choice but really what you're looking for
| | 02:59 |
in here is what they actually look like
when you're drawing them out.
| | 03:02 |
So anchor points do they look this, this
or like this.
| | 03:06 |
And its just a matter of size and shape
preferences there.
| | 03:08 |
Same with corner handles do you want them
to be large.
| | 03:11 |
Do you want them to be sort of hollow
which way do you want them to look.
| | 03:15 |
The main thing I reccomend having turned
on in here is highlight anchors on mouse
| | 03:18 |
over.
Basically when you're working with paths,
| | 03:21 |
the key thing to find is the anchor points.
| | 03:23 |
So you have more control over the
individual curves and corners of the path.
| | 03:27 |
In order to do that, you need to highlight
the anchors on mouse over.
| | 03:30 |
It makes it very easy to find things and
control them.
| | 03:32 |
Next on the list, is the T Type Settings.
This is where you can go in and adjust a
| | 03:37 |
lot of different things about your type.
We are going to cover this in depth in its
| | 03:41 |
own movie later on, but I wanted to show
it to you so you know where it is.
| | 03:44 |
This is where you can control the default
letting and tracking sizes, you can also
| | 03:48 |
adjust the number of recent fonts, the
font preview.
| | 03:51 |
Many different things can be changed in
here and like I said, we'll cover this in
| | 03:54 |
depth in the Type Chapter a little bit
later on.
| | 03:57 |
The Units of measurement.
This corresponds to what units of
| | 04:00 |
measurement you want to use by default
when you start working inside of
| | 04:04 |
Illustrator with your rulers.
So, the general, is that going to be in
| | 04:07 |
Points, Picas, Inches, Millimeters,
Centimeters, Pixels?
| | 04:11 |
Depending on what type of work you do,
this unit may be different.
| | 04:13 |
For instance, if you work in print a lot,
you may want to use Points or Picas.
| | 04:18 |
If you work on the web a lot, you may want
to use something like Pixels.
| | 04:21 |
So again, it corresponds to your personal workflow.
| | 04:24 |
I'm going to leave these all set to the
default, but if you want to change these
| | 04:27 |
to correspond to your personal workflow,
go right ahead.
| | 04:31 |
Guides and Grids.
This is something that you're going to
| | 04:33 |
need to change on a project by project bases.
| | 04:35 |
Base on the color of the artwork that
you're working with and how many layers
| | 04:39 |
you're actually creating in the artwork as well.
| | 04:41 |
The guide layers that we use to sort of
line things up inside of Illustrator, come
| | 04:45 |
with a default Cyan color.
Well what if all of the artwork that
| | 04:49 |
you're working with is Cyan or Light Blue?
Might be hard to see those guidelines.
| | 04:52 |
So you might want to change this to
something like Red, or Green, or something
| | 04:55 |
that really contrasts with the images that
you're creating.
| | 04:59 |
You can also choose whether or not the
guides show up as lines or as dots.
| | 05:02 |
Again, personal choice.
The Grid section down here.
| | 05:05 |
You can choose Custom Grids.
You can set up the Style type.
| | 05:09 |
Change it to a different gridline every x
amount of points or pixels.
| | 05:13 |
And you can add subdivisions as well.
We'll talk a lot about Smart Guides a
| | 05:18 |
little bit later on in the course.
But just know that Smart Guides are a
| | 05:21 |
great way to help you line objects up with
one another as you place them out on your
| | 05:25 |
art board.
And so you might want to change the
| | 05:27 |
appearance of your Smart Guides based on,
again, the type of artwork you are
| | 05:31 |
creating.
So the Smart Guides, by default, are
| | 05:33 |
Green.
If you have a lot of green artwork, you
| | 05:35 |
may want to jump in here and change this
to something else.
| | 05:37 |
As you can see you get a full list of
colors and you can also develop a custom
| | 05:41 |
color if you wish.
The last piece of the preferences puzzle
| | 05:46 |
that I like to take a look at is the User Interface.
| | 05:49 |
The User Interface section refers to what
does Illustrator actually look like?
| | 05:53 |
Illustrator used to be a really a light
application, in fact most of the Adobe
| | 05:57 |
applications used to be a light grey color.
| | 05:59 |
If you are really partial to that, you can
change it back to that light grey color by
| | 06:03 |
switching this preset here to Medium Dark.
To something like Medium Light or even
| | 06:08 |
Light.
And it will change to back to its quote
| | 06:10 |
unquote, original appearance.
You can also take this slider and adjust
| | 06:14 |
the level of grey based on a percentage
that you enter in.
| | 06:18 |
Or just by clicking and dragging the
slider, as you see me doing here.
| | 06:21 |
Any time you want to go back to the
default just switch it back to Medium Dark
| | 06:24 |
and everything goes back the same.
What if you want to change the Canvas
| | 06:28 |
Color?
Well, what exactly does that mean?
| | 06:31 |
Let's take a look.
I'm going to hit OK here for a minute,
| | 06:35 |
just to commit to all my changes and then
go into Illustrator.
| | 06:37 |
I'll create a brand new document just by
hitting the keyboard shortcut Cmd+N on a
| | 06:42 |
Mac, Ctrl+N on a PC and I'll just hit OK
to the defaults.
| | 06:46 |
And you may see this Adobe Illustrator
sync dialog box pop up.
| | 06:50 |
For now, I'm just going to disable sync settings.
| | 06:52 |
We don't have to worry about that.
Basically what this is asking you is if
| | 06:55 |
you want to sync all of your settings that
you're setting up inside of Illustrator
| | 06:58 |
with the Creative Cloud.
That way if you happen to install
| | 07:01 |
illustrator on another machine, you can
automatically pull down all of your
| | 07:04 |
preferences and sync it.
Using the Creative Cloud Service.
| | 07:07 |
Now once we have our new document created,
I am then going to go back into the
| | 07:12 |
Preferences.
So I'm going to go to the Edit menu, go to
| | 07:14 |
Preferences, and select User Interface.
And then let's change the Canvas Color to
| | 07:19 |
White.
See how that changes the background?
| | 07:22 |
I find this to be a little distracting,
and I also find it hard to sort of
| | 07:25 |
differentiate between my art board and the background.
| | 07:28 |
So I like to change this to Match User Interface.
| | 07:31 |
That way, I have a clear definition of
where my art board starts and stops.
| | 07:34 |
And I also have this dark pasteboard area
which sort of draws my eyes inward, onto
| | 07:39 |
the artwork that I'm creating.
Once we have all of our preferences set up
| | 07:44 |
the way we want them inside of Illustrator
we hit OK.
| | 07:46 |
All changes that you make inside that
dialog box are automatically applied and
| | 07:51 |
active unless Illustrator tells you otherwise.
| | 07:53 |
So occasionally you might change a setting
where Illustrator has to restart.
| | 07:57 |
In that case it will warn you ahead of
time and then you just restart the program
| | 08:00 |
and everything's good to go.
But for the most part, once you apply them
| | 08:03 |
they're in play and they're ready to go.
So as you work through Illustrator,
| | 08:06 |
determine what your preferences are and
then go in that dialogue box and change
| | 08:10 |
them to suit your needs.
| | 08:11 |
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| Touring the interface| 00:00 |
Another key component to learning any new
piece of software is to get familiar with
| | 00:04 |
the interface.
In this movie, I'm going to be giving you
| | 00:07 |
a brief overview of the Illustrator
interface and teaching you exactly where
| | 00:10 |
an what everything is.
So as I call things out throughout the
| | 00:13 |
course, you understand where I am an what
you're supposed to be looking for.
| | 00:16 |
Let's start at the top an work our way down.
| | 00:19 |
At the very top, this is something called
the Menu bar.
| | 00:21 |
And anytime throughout the course you hear
me say, let's go to the something Menu,
| | 00:25 |
like let's go to the Object menu, for
instance, this is what I'm talking about
| | 00:28 |
going and clicking on.
When you click on these, it opens up a
| | 00:31 |
menu.
Anytime you see a small black triangle out
| | 00:34 |
to the right hand side, that means there
is a sub menu located within that
| | 00:37 |
particular menu item.
And you can go and access tools and
| | 00:40 |
commands from inside of that.
Any time you see something grayed out,
| | 00:44 |
that means it's not currently able to be
performed on the art board.
| | 00:47 |
Mostly because you don't have something
selected or you have something selected
| | 00:51 |
that doesn't correspond to the options available.
| | 00:53 |
So, we have things like the Object menu,
the Type menu, Select, Effects, View,
| | 00:58 |
Window, and of course, Help.
On the right hand side of the Menu bar,
| | 01:02 |
you're also going to see a link that will
take you to the Adobe Bridge.
| | 01:05 |
And another link that will allow you to
arrange multiple documents in certain
| | 01:09 |
ways.
We'll get to that a little bit later on in
| | 01:11 |
the course.
Over towards the right hand side, you have
| | 01:14 |
a Workspace Jump menu, we'll discuss
workspace jump menu spaces here in just a
| | 01:16 |
bit.
And we also have a Search menu, as well,
| | 01:20 |
which will allow you to search within Illustrator.
| | 01:23 |
Down here at the bottom, you have
something called the Control panel.
| | 01:26 |
Now, I'm going to cover this in its own
movie specifically, but the Control panel
| | 01:29 |
is the central hub for a lot of things
that you're going to do inside of
| | 01:33 |
Illustrator.
So, just know that this is a very
| | 01:35 |
important piece of the interface puzzle.
Here on the left hand side, we have the
| | 01:39 |
Tools panel.
And the Tools panel is actually broken
| | 01:41 |
down into several different groups.
At the top, you'll see here these are the
| | 01:44 |
Selection tools.
Directly underneath that, we have the
| | 01:47 |
drawing and creation tools as I like to
call them.
| | 01:50 |
So, we have drawing tools like the Pen
tool, the Brush, the Pencil.
| | 01:53 |
We have Creation tools like the shapes
which allows you to create shapes.
| | 01:56 |
We have Type tool which allows you to
create type.
| | 01:59 |
Then, we have Transformation tools down
here, the Rotate tool, Scale tool, Width
| | 02:04 |
tool, etcetera.
We have what I call Information and
| | 02:07 |
Painting tools here, so we have the Eye
Dropper which gives you information about
| | 02:10 |
things.
We have a Blend tool which allows you to
| | 02:12 |
blend one object into another.
We have a Gradient tool, and we also have
| | 02:16 |
a Mesh tool.
Underneath that, we have our Symbols and
| | 02:19 |
Graphs.
Then we have access to Art Boards, Slice
| | 02:24 |
tool, Hand tool, Zoom tool.
Underneath there, we have our Fill and
| | 02:28 |
Stroke controls.
Whatever is active at the current time,
| | 02:31 |
either the Fill or the Stroke, will
actually be displayed in front of the
| | 02:34 |
other color.
You know its the fill because it's a solid
| | 02:36 |
square.
You'll know its a stroke because its an
| | 02:38 |
outline.
Just like so.
| | 02:40 |
If you want to flip these at any time, you
can press the letter X on your keyboard.
| | 02:43 |
Or, you can simply hit this little toggle
switch right here and it will do it just
| | 02:47 |
the same.
Underneath there, you have access to
| | 02:50 |
filling it with a color, filling it with a
gradient, or filling it with none.
| | 02:53 |
You can do that for the fill or the stroke.
| | 02:55 |
Directly underneath there, you have access
to drawing modes which will discuss in
| | 02:59 |
depth a little bit later on.
And then, finally, you have access to
| | 03:01 |
Screen Modes.
You'll notice as I start to mouse over
| | 03:04 |
these tools that I get a small letter in
parentheses at the end.
| | 03:07 |
For instance, Screen modes has an f.
These correspond to keys on your keyboard
| | 03:12 |
that you can hit in order to access tools
very quickly, and you'll hear me call
| | 03:15 |
these out throughout the course.
For instance, if I want to switch to the
| | 03:18 |
Type tool, I would press the letter t.
Or, if I want to switch to the Brush tool
| | 03:22 |
I would press the letter b and it would
switch to the brush.
| | 03:24 |
Committing some of these that you use more
often to your memory is going to serve you
| | 03:28 |
well as you continue to learn illustrator.
Because then, you'll be able to switch
| | 03:31 |
tools without having to take your cursor
out of the art board area.
| | 03:35 |
This makes you faster and makes you more
efficient when working with documents.
| | 03:39 |
Speaking of documents, this is the
Document Window.
| | 03:42 |
This large thing in the middle.
And the document window starts with a tab
| | 03:46 |
up here which tells you what file you have
open, what percentage, an what color mode,
| | 03:51 |
it is currently being seen at.
You also have at the bottom of the
| | 03:54 |
Document Window some jump menus.
Jump menus for zoom percentage for
| | 03:58 |
instance.
To change art boards, if you have multiple
| | 04:00 |
art boards.
You also can see the current tool that you
| | 04:02 |
have selected.
There are also many different things you
| | 04:05 |
can show in this area.
For instance, you can show, the art board
| | 04:09 |
name, the current tool, the date an time,
the number of undos that you have
| | 04:13 |
available to you, or the document color profile.
| | 04:15 |
All of this is valuable information that
you may want to see at any given time, and
| | 04:19 |
you can easily jump to that an show it any
time you want.
| | 04:23 |
Here in the main window, this is something
called the art board, the white area that
| | 04:27 |
you see.
This is where your artwork actually lives.
| | 04:29 |
And so, as you're creating artwork, this
is where you are going to put it.
| | 04:32 |
The size of the art board is dependent on
what size document you create.
| | 04:37 |
Finally, on the right hand side we have
probably the most important part of the
| | 04:42 |
interface and that's the panels.
The panel system over here and I expanded
| | 04:46 |
those by clicking this little arrow right
up here at the top.
| | 04:48 |
The panel system by default is collapsed
into icon form.
| | 04:51 |
And you can use them in icon form or you
can have them expanded like I have here.
| | 04:56 |
But just know that these panels are
really, really powerful.
| | 04:59 |
They provide access to things like Color,
Color Guide, the Cooler Panel, Swatches,
| | 05:03 |
Brushes an Symbols, Strokes, Gradients,
and Transparency.
| | 05:08 |
You also have access to the very powerful
Appearance Panel, Graphic Styles.
| | 05:11 |
At the bottom you have things like the
Layers and Art Board panel.
| | 05:15 |
The great thing about these panels is they
can be rearranged, opened and closed,
| | 05:19 |
docked and re-docked in different positions.
| | 05:21 |
All different types of customizations can
be performed on these panels to make this
| | 05:26 |
work space your own.
And that's something we'll talk about in
| | 05:28 |
the work space movie a little bit later on.
| | 05:31 |
But as I say, anything about a panel
throughout the course, this is the area
| | 05:34 |
you're going to come look for that.
So, if I say let's go to the Layers panel,
| | 05:37 |
I'm talking about this right here.
Or if I say let's go to the Appearance
| | 05:39 |
panel, I want you to click this tab and go there.
| | 05:42 |
So, anytime you here me say that, this is
the area that I'm talking about.
| | 05:46 |
All of these panels also have a menu at
the top right corner which you can click
| | 05:50 |
on to expand.
And so, when you click on that to expand
| | 05:53 |
it you are actually going to be shown more
options that are available to you in the
| | 05:57 |
panel.
So, anytime you hear me say let's go to
| | 05:59 |
the Transparency panel, for instance, And
click on the Panel menu.
| | 06:03 |
I'm saying go down to the Transparency
panel, click on the Panel menu, and then
| | 06:07 |
the options I talk about will be inside of
that panel like so.
| | 06:10 |
In order to close any of these dialogue
boxes, just click away from them, and
| | 06:14 |
they'll close, just like that.
That pretty much wraps up our tour of the
| | 06:19 |
Illustrator interface.
Hopefully by now you have a better
| | 06:21 |
understanding of what everything is, where
it is, and a basic understand of what it
| | 06:27 |
does.
We'll dive into a lot of these topics more
| | 06:29 |
in depth later on in the course, but I
just wanted to give you a brief tour if
| | 06:33 |
you will of everything so that as I call
things out, you don't get lost.
| | 06:36 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the panels| 00:00 |
Now that we have a basic understanding of
the Illustrator interface, let's take a
| | 00:04 |
look a little bit deeper and explore the
panel system over here on the right-hand
| | 00:08 |
side.
Now as I said before by default they're
| | 00:10 |
collapsed into icon form like so.
Anytime you need to access one of these
| | 00:13 |
panels just simply come over here and
click on it and it will expand temporarily
| | 00:16 |
to give you full access to the panel.
You can click on any of these as you go
| | 00:20 |
down and they will temporarily expand like so.
| | 00:24 |
If you're working on a smaller screen,
this is absolutely the way to go because
| | 00:27 |
this gives you full access to the panels
while still maximizing the amount of
| | 00:31 |
screen real estate you have in the
Document window.
| | 00:34 |
If at any time you want to expand these
out just go ahead and click right here and
| | 00:37 |
it will expand them out.
Now if you wanted to switch panels all you
| | 00:41 |
have to do is click on the tabs.
But you can also bring panels out into the
| | 00:45 |
Document window if you want to.
So let's say for instance I needed to work
| | 00:48 |
specifically with the Layers panel.
I would find that panel and then click and
| | 00:52 |
drag it out.
Just like so, so you grab the tab with
| | 00:56 |
your mouse, just click and drag it out and
it will automatically separate itself and
| | 00:59 |
allow you to place it anywhere on the art board.
| | 01:02 |
You can dock other panels with it as well
so if I wanted the Art Boards panel out
| | 01:06 |
there, I can click and drag that, just
like so.
| | 01:07 |
And it will then be just like that.
I can redock these at any time just by
| | 01:13 |
clicking and dragging them down.
And you notice these little blue
| | 01:16 |
highlights that appear as I mouse over
different areas?
| | 01:18 |
That's the symbol for docking it somewhere.
| | 01:20 |
If you see a square appear around an
entire panel that means you're going to
| | 01:24 |
dock it within that panel.
If you see a blue line at the bottom of a
| | 01:28 |
panel that means you're going to dock it
at the bottom.
| | 01:30 |
And if you see a blue line at the top that
means you're docking it to the top.
| | 01:32 |
So if I drag this down to the bottom, wait
for the blue line and release, it docks
| | 01:36 |
them right back in the original position.
You can also use the Reset command for
| | 01:41 |
workspaces as well.
So let's drag out some panels here and
| | 01:45 |
I'll just clutter up my workspace.
This is oftentimes what my workspace
| | 01:48 |
starts to look like throughout the day.
If I've got a workspace like this, chances
| | 01:52 |
are I want to be able to eventually work
on the document so I want to reset this.
| | 01:56 |
The easy way to do that is to go up to the
Essentials drop-down here.
| | 01:59 |
This is the Workspace jump menu and choose
Reset Essentials.
| | 02:02 |
Now, depending on what work space you're
in that might say something different like
| | 02:05 |
Reset Typography or Reset Brushes or
whatever it might be.
| | 02:08 |
And so you just choose the reset option
and it resets it back to its default
| | 02:12 |
appearance like you see here.
The panels are collapsible as well from a
| | 02:18 |
vertical perspective.
So in case you wanted to just collapse the
| | 02:21 |
Appearance panel for a moment, just
double-click on it.
| | 02:23 |
And it will collapse it temporarily.
Double-clicking again expands it out.
| | 02:27 |
This is a great way to keep these panels
open while you're needing access to
| | 02:30 |
another panel without having to close them up.
| | 02:33 |
If you need access to a panel that is not
over here on the right-hand side, you can
| | 02:37 |
access those by going to the Window menu,
and finding it.
| | 02:40 |
So things like Actions, Align.
Anything you need access to that's not
| | 02:44 |
over on the right-hand side by default.
When you access those, like the Actions
| | 02:48 |
panel for instance, they will pop up
somewhere on your screen.
| | 02:50 |
You can then take those and you can dock
them over here to the side or actually in
| | 02:55 |
one of the original panel groups just by
waiting for the blue lines to appear like
| | 02:59 |
we did before.
To close a panels actually pretty simple.
| | 03:03 |
Just go ahead and click the little x in
the top right-hand corner and the panel
| | 03:05 |
will close.
Now that we have a better understanding of
| | 03:09 |
the panel system and how it operates, now
let's take a look at how we can take that
| | 03:14 |
one step further and create and save our
own workspaces inside of Illustrator.
| | 03:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Control panel| 00:00 |
As is the case with most Adobe
applications, Illustrator ships with
| | 00:04 |
something that I like to call the visual
command center.
| | 00:06 |
And in this case, it's something called
the Control Panel.
| | 00:09 |
This little strip of information that goes
all the way across the document window
| | 00:13 |
here is the Control Panel.
The great thing about the Control Panel is
| | 00:16 |
that it is a contextual object.
It changes based on certain things that
| | 00:21 |
you're doing, or certain objects that you
have selected on your screen.
| | 00:24 |
For instance, right now, there's not a
whole lot going on up there but if I were
| | 00:27 |
to select something like this flower, for
instance, you would notice that I get
| | 00:30 |
controls of the fill, the stroke, controls
for the opacity, graphic styles,
| | 00:35 |
recoloring, alignment options, transform options.
| | 00:38 |
There's many different options that pop up
in the Control Panel.
| | 00:42 |
Throughout this course you're going to
hear me say let's go to the Control Panel
| | 00:45 |
and change x or y.
And that's the area that I'm referring to.
| | 00:49 |
And also what makes this panel completely
awesome, is the fact that you can click on
| | 00:54 |
these little orange links, and gain access
to full panels from the section without
| | 00:59 |
having to go and find them.
This is particularly helpful when you're
| | 01:02 |
working with text.
Because by default, the text panels are
| | 01:05 |
not over here on the right hand side.
I would have to go into the Window menu,
| | 01:09 |
scroll all the way down and find Type, and
then select Character or Character Styles,
| | 01:13 |
or something like that to get these panels open.
| | 01:15 |
But instead, all I have to do while I'm
here is switch on to the text tool, or the
| | 01:19 |
type tool with the letter t.
Once I do that I have access to the
| | 01:23 |
character panel and the paragraph panel
just by clicking these little links right
| | 01:28 |
there.
On the right hand side of the Control
| | 01:31 |
Panel, there's a drop down which controls
everything that is displayed in the
| | 01:34 |
Control Panel.
So right now, technically, all of this
| | 01:37 |
information is being displayed in the
control panel.
| | 01:40 |
And you look at and you think, wait.
No way all of that stuff is being shown to
| | 01:43 |
me in the control panel.
And you are right.
| | 01:46 |
It depends on the size of your monitor, unfortunately.
| | 01:49 |
So I'm working on a fairly decent sized
monitor, but not big enough to show all
| | 01:52 |
the options.
You will also notice that as you re-size,
| | 01:57 |
the Illustrator window, you can see here
that the Control Panel area actually
| | 02:02 |
changes to show different amounts of information.
| | 02:05 |
As I expand it back out, watch the options
slowly start to repopulate.
| | 02:11 |
So if you want to take the time to go
through and determine which one of these
| | 02:14 |
are more important to you, and make sure
they have a check mark beside them, then
| | 02:18 |
they will have priority over the ones that
don't have check marks when you are
| | 02:22 |
actually resizing windows or working on
smaller screens.
| | 02:25 |
I am going to go ahead and maximize this,
and go back into my document here.
| | 02:30 |
So again depending on what you have
selected at any given time or the tool you
| | 02:34 |
have selected you might see different options.
| | 02:36 |
So for instance if I switch to the art
board tool you see all the options in the
| | 02:39 |
control panel completely change.
If I switch to the slice tool I go back to
| | 02:43 |
pretty much normal.
If I switch to the zoom tool they're
| | 02:46 |
pretty much normal.
It depends on what tool you have selected,
| | 02:49 |
and many tools don't have specific options
that appear in that panel.
| | 02:54 |
But some of them do.
Like text for instance.
| | 02:56 |
Art boards for instance.
So just keep your eye on the Control Panel
| | 03:00 |
as it continues to change throughout your workflow.
| | 03:02 |
Because you never know what's going to pop
up there that's going to make your life, a
| | 03:05 |
whole lot easier.
Now, if you don't like the Control Panel
| | 03:08 |
being at the top, that's okay.
You can undock it by clicking right here
| | 03:12 |
and dragging it out into the window and it
will become a free floating panel.
| | 03:15 |
You can also drag it down to the bottom,
and dock it to the bottom.
| | 03:19 |
Or you can break it back out, and have it
free float.
| | 03:22 |
Move it to another monitor, for instance.
You can also change this option once it's
| | 03:26 |
right here, any time you want.
And you can move it around, just like so.
| | 03:31 |
Let's go ahead and re-dock this back
towards the top.
| | 03:34 |
We'll dock it back in, wait for that blue
line to appear, and it will pop right back
| | 03:38 |
into place.
So keep an eye on that, look out for the
| | 03:41 |
changes, and remember where it is, because
we're going to be using it a lot
| | 03:45 |
throughout the course.
| | 03:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and saving workspaces| 00:00 | Your working environment is one of the most
important aspects of your daily existence.
| | 00:04 | If you are not comfortable in your
surroundings, you do things to remedy that.
| | 00:08 | This might mean moving your desk to
the other side of the room or adjusting
| | 00:12 | the height of your chair, or any number
of things, that might need to be tweaked
| | 00:15 | for maximum comfort.
| | 00:17 | Well a piece of software should
be no different than your office.
| | 00:21 | In this movie, I'll show you how to
tweak the environment inside of Illustrator
| | 00:25 | so that it's more comfortable for you,
and I'll also walk you through saving
| | 00:28 | that environment so that you can
back to it anytime you need to.
| | 00:32 | By default, Illustrator ships with
several different workspaces based on
| | 00:35 | different tasks that you might be
performing while using the application.
| | 00:38 | If you go up to the top and look at
these in the dropdown menu, you'll see
| | 00:42 | things like Automation, which is
supposed to be for making you faster, like
| | 00:45 | recording actions or things like that.
| | 00:47 | Essentials; these are the
essential tools that Illustrator feels are
| | 00:51 | necessary for you to work.
| | 00:53 | Layout; if you are doing layout design.
| | 00:55 | Painting; if you are doing things with brushes.
| | 00:58 | Printing and Proofing;
it's pretty self-explanatory.
| | 01:01 | Tracing; if you are taking a raster-based
graphic and tracing it into a vector format.
| | 01:07 | Typography; if you are working a lot with
text, this might be the workspace for you;
| | 01:11 | and then finally, web which is
theoretically everything you need for the web.
| | 01:16 | Now unfortunately, Illustrator can't
accommodate everybody's needs in these workspaces.
| | 01:21 | So you have the ability to actually
rework these workspaces yourself because
| | 01:26 | each workspace that's here contains
panel configurations and tools that Adobe
| | 01:30 | has deemed the most popular
for that particular workflow.
| | 01:33 | In my experience though, they've never really
gotten these workspaces exactly the way
| | 01:37 | that I would set them up.
| | 01:38 | I am sure you'll find that to be true
as you go through the program as well.
| | 01:42 | So let's take a look at how we can create
and save our own workspace to suit our needs.
| | 01:47 | So first of all, let me switch to the
Selection tool to get everything off of my
| | 01:50 | screen, and let's take a look at
the workspace in general here.
| | 01:54 | Now one of the things that I know
because I am a web guy, I am generally not
| | 01:58 | going to use a lot of these
panels that are available to me here.
| | 02:01 | So I want to go ahead and start
retooling the interface to suit my needs.
| | 02:05 | So the first panel that I am
going to ignore is the Color panel.
| | 02:09 | Now the Color panel is quite useful for
this hexcode value right here, but I can
| | 02:13 | also do that in other places.
| | 02:15 | So I am just going to go ahead and I am
going to bring that out and I'll close it.
| | 02:19 | The Color Guide panel is another panel
that I don't use all that often because a
| | 02:24 | lot of times I am working on specs from
clients or companies that already have
| | 02:28 | their set number of swatches and colors.
| | 02:31 | So let's go ahead and close this up as well.
| | 02:34 | Once I do that, I've got my
Swatches, Brushes and Symbols.
| | 02:37 | Well I actually prefer to create my
own symbols, let's say, so I'll go ahead
| | 02:41 | and I'll close that as well.
| | 02:44 | I actually like for my strokes to be up
here inside of my Brushes and Swatches panel.
| | 02:49 | So I'll move that up there and dock it and
then I'll put it right there in the middle.
| | 02:53 | Gradients, I am going to move those up
there as well because they are a part of
| | 02:57 | my Swatches in my opinion,
so I'll get that up there.
| | 03:00 | Transparency is actually a part of the
appearance in my opinion, so I'll move
| | 03:04 | that down and dock it with
Graphic Styles and Appearance.
| | 03:07 | As you can see, while I am working
through here, I am building up my own
| | 03:11 | workspace and making it suit
exactly what I need it to do.
| | 03:16 | You'll also notice when I go in between
panels, I have the ability to resize them.
| | 03:19 | I am going to resize this one just like so.
| | 03:25 | Resize this one as well.
| | 03:27 | My Layers panel, I want to be one of the most
prominent panels because I work a lot in layers.
| | 03:31 | So I am going to leave it just like that.
| | 03:33 | My Artboards panel, I am going
to leave that right where it is.
| | 03:37 | Now I also like to work with the
Tool panel in single-column mode.
| | 03:41 | Now on a smaller screen, this is
kind of unfortunate because it goes off
| | 03:45 | the edge of the screen.
| | 03:47 | So I might not actually do this in
this particular case but just know that
| | 03:51 | once you expand out into single-
column mode, if you were to save this
| | 03:54 | workspace, Illustrator would remember
that your Tool panel needed to be in
| | 03:58 | single-column versus two columns.
| | 04:01 | So for this particular demonstration,
I'll go back to two columns just so it's
| | 04:05 | easier for us to see everything.
| | 04:06 | All right, so I've reworked my entire
workspace, I've rearranged panels and
| | 04:10 | docked different things.
| | 04:11 | Now I am ready to save it.
| | 04:13 | There are two ways you can do that.
| | 04:14 | You can do it from the Window menu and
inside of the Window menu, you are going
| | 04:18 | to look for the Workspace menu item, and
then go down and choose New Workspace or
| | 04:24 | you can go to this Workspace dropdown
menu right here and choose New Workspace,
| | 04:28 | that's probably the easier way to go.
| | 04:31 | So in this case, I am just going
to call this Justin and hit OK.
| | 04:36 | Once I hit OK, you'll notice that the
Jump menu automatically re-labels itself
| | 04:39 | Justin and now this workspace is saved
as Justin so any time I need to get back
| | 04:44 | to it, I can do so very quickly and very easily.
| | 04:47 | Now that I've got my workspace all
set up, let's say, someone comes in and
| | 04:50 | starts using my computer and they
actually reset it back to something like the
| | 04:54 | Typography workspace.
| | 04:56 | I need to be able to get back into my
Justin workspace when I come back and take
| | 05:00 | control of my machine.
| | 05:02 | The easiest way to do that is to come
up to the workspace jump menu, drop it
| | 05:05 | down and find Justin right here at the top.
| | 05:08 | Once I do that, I click it and everything
resets automatically to exactly the way I had it;
| | 05:14 | Swatches, Strokes, Brushes, and
Gradients, Appearance, Graphic Styles,
| | 05:17 | Transparency, Layers, and Artboards.
| | 05:20 | And you can see that this is very
different from the Essentials workspace.
| | 05:23 | If I go back and choose Essentials
and then reset Essentials back to its
| | 05:27 | normal state, you'll notice that all
of the different panels go back to their
| | 05:31 | original configurations.
| | 05:33 | Switching back to the Justin
workspace gets me right back to that custom
| | 05:37 | Essentials workspace that
I was working in before.
| | 05:40 | Creating workspaces inside of
Illustrator is a great way to ensure that your
| | 05:44 | environment reflects your needs
and it always feels comfortable.
| | 05:48 | If you are not comfortable with your
surroundings, you have to change it and
| | 05:51 | that's where workspaces come in so handy.
| | 05:54 | You could have multiple workspaces
for multiple different workflows.
| | 05:57 | It's all up to you and Illustrator
will remember it each and every time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Working with DocumentsCreating files for print| 00:00 |
Even though I feel as if there are some
seriously blurred lines between the print
| | 00:05 |
and web world now, especially with digital
publishing coming into play.
| | 00:09 |
There are some distinct workflow
differences between setting up a document
| | 00:12 |
for print and setting up a document for web.
| | 00:14 |
And so in this movie, that's what we're
gong to be talking about.
| | 00:17 |
So in order to create a file for print,
I'm going to go to the File menu and I'm
| | 00:19 |
going to choose New.
Once I get into the new document, I'm just
| | 00:22 |
going to call this print directly
underneath that I have a profile selector.
| | 00:27 |
The profile selector allows me to choose
between print web devices video and film
| | 00:32 |
and basic RGB.
If you're going to create a print document
| | 00:35 |
the print profile is the way to start. Why?
| | 00:38 |
Because that gives you access to a lot of
different options and sets up a lot of
| | 00:42 |
different options that coorespond to a
print production workflow.
| | 00:46 |
Directly underneath that you're going to,
determine the number of art boards.
| | 00:49 |
Essentially, you can think of this as the
number of pages, in your document, because
| | 00:52 |
in print we think about pages, versus
screens or art boards.
| | 00:57 |
And so, just think of art boards as pages
when it comes to a print composition.
| | 01:01 |
For the size, you're going to pick between
some of the presets they have.
| | 01:03 |
Either letter, legal, tabloid, or the A an
B sizes.
| | 01:07 |
Or you can specify your own size in poiints.
| | 01:10 |
Now I understand that some people don't
use points for print, they use inches.
| | 01:14 |
If you want to switch the units to that,
you can.
| | 01:17 |
Just change the units right there to inches.
| | 01:19 |
You can also control the page orientation
right here.
| | 01:22 |
And then, directly underneath that you
have access to something called bleed.
| | 01:25 |
And if you're a print production person,
you know all about bleed.
| | 01:28 |
Bleed is the extra area we around the
outside of a print document so that we can
| | 01:32 |
print edge to edge without any fear that
when it is trimmed.
| | 01:35 |
That we have any gaps directly underneath
that we have an advanced section.
| | 01:40 |
And the advanced section controls things
like the color mode, rasters effects and
| | 01:43 |
Preview mode.
The color mode for print document needs to
| | 01:46 |
be CMYK.
CMYK stands for cyan magenta yellow and
| | 01:50 |
black, which corresponds to each one of
the different printing plates that is used
| | 01:54 |
in the production print process to
recreate the full spectrum of color.
| | 01:59 |
If you were to switch this to RGB, good
chances are that your printer is going to
| | 02:01 |
come back, I really need this in CMYK.
So, it's always best to start in CMYK
| | 02:06 |
first.
Raster effect settings.
| | 02:08 |
Basically, what this refers to is because
of the fact that you're doing so much in
| | 02:12 |
Illustrator that has to do with
transparency and gradients for instance.
| | 02:17 |
There are certain things that can not be
reproduced in an over print situation.
| | 02:21 |
And so, in that case, the printer actually
has to rasterize that artwork flatten it
| | 02:25 |
together.
And the higher the resolution the better
| | 02:28 |
off you're going to be with that when it
comes to print.
| | 02:30 |
So, I recommend leaving this at 300 pixels
per inch.
| | 02:33 |
The preview mode, you can set this to
pixel or over print preview or you can
| | 02:37 |
just leave it on the default.
By default, this is just going to give you
| | 02:40 |
the General Preview mode of Illustrator.
If you switch this to something like Pixel
| | 02:44 |
Preview mode, then you're going to be
seeing a representation of what your
| | 02:47 |
artwork looks like at a pixel level.
So if it was rasterized and put on the
| | 02:51 |
web, for instance.
If you switch to Overprint Preview, this
| | 02:54 |
gives you a good idea of how inks are
going to interact with one another.
| | 02:57 |
Especially when it comes to spot colors
and transparency.
| | 03:01 |
The final option you have access to here
is the Align New Objects to Pixel Grid.
| | 03:05 |
This is especially important in web
documents, but not so much when it comes
| | 03:08 |
to print.
So, I'm going to close this up.
| | 03:11 |
Just remember, you need to pick from the
print profile, set your size, make sure
| | 03:15 |
your advanced options are set correctly,
and then click OK.
| | 03:18 |
Once I do that, I have a new document
ready for my print production workflow.
| | 03:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating files for the web| 00:00 |
The process of creating documents for the
web is pretty much the same as creating
| | 00:04 |
one for print.
But there are some specific things that
| | 00:06 |
you need to be aware of as you create files.
| | 00:08 |
So, let's go to the file menu and choose New.
| | 00:10 |
And this time, I'm going to call this Web.
And from the Profile section, you have two
| | 00:16 |
choices here, one called Web and one
called Devices.
| | 00:20 |
This is very interesting because with the
web preset, you do get a lot of the
| | 00:24 |
options that correspond to web.
But one of the things you don't get is
| | 00:28 |
specified sizes for different screens that
you may have to design for.
| | 00:32 |
In the web world today, we don't just have
to think about desktop computers anymore.
| | 00:35 |
We have to think about mobile devices
tablets phones all those different types
| | 00:40 |
of things.
So, it may be a good idea to actually
| | 00:42 |
start your web workflow with a devices preset.
| | 00:46 |
Once you have selected the Device preset,
you actually get to determine the size
| | 00:49 |
based on certain devices.
Things like the iPad, the iPad mini, the
| | 00:53 |
iPhone 4, the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD,
Nook HD, and Galaxy S3.
| | 00:59 |
This is going to be great if you are
creating mobile responsive layouts.
| | 01:05 |
And especially if you're a designer now,
you have to take this into account.
| | 01:08 |
Because a website does not look the same
across all spaces, but your artwork does
| | 01:12 |
have to look just as good across all spaces.
| | 01:15 |
So, having a responsive template or a
responsive design inside of Illustrator is
| | 01:20 |
going to be essential for you.
If you want more information on creating
| | 01:23 |
responsive layouts with Adobe Illustrator,
I recommend you check out my Illustrator
| | 01:27 |
for Web Design series here on Lynda.com.
because I cover responsive layout
| | 01:32 |
templates in depth there.
So, let's say that we're creating
| | 01:35 |
something for the iPad.
I then have to decide whether that iPad is
| | 01:39 |
going to be in Portrait or Landscape orientation.
| | 01:42 |
That's totally up to you.
It depends on the mock up that you're
| | 01:44 |
creating.
You also want to make sure that you leave
| | 01:47 |
your units in pixels when it comes to the web.
| | 01:49 |
Because no matter what screen or device
that you're using, the unit of measure
| | 01:53 |
that's in place on those devices is pixels.
| | 01:56 |
You don't have worry about bleed
whatsoever when it comes to devices or
| | 01:58 |
web.
Because they just go screen edge to screen
| | 02:01 |
edge, or from one edge of the browser
window to the other.
| | 02:04 |
There is no outside area that you have to
worry about.
| | 02:07 |
Finally, in the Advanced options, you
always want to make sure the color mode
| | 02:10 |
for a web document is set to RGB, red,
green, and blue.
| | 02:13 |
Because those are the three colors that
make up the full spectrum when it comes to
| | 02:17 |
screen based graphics.
The raster effects you can probably leave
| | 02:21 |
at 72 pixels per inch.
But if you're going to be going for high
| | 02:24 |
resolution screen output, you may want to
think about taking that up a notch or two.
| | 02:29 |
Your Preview mode here you can set it to
default or you can set it to Pixel
| | 02:33 |
Preview.
Pixel Preview is a great way of getting a
| | 02:36 |
good understanding of what you're document
is going to look like on a standard
| | 02:40 |
computer monitor or a 72 pixel per inch device.
| | 02:43 |
So, if you want to, you can turn that on.
Just know that your artwork's not going to
| | 02:47 |
look as good as you zoom in and out on it
because of the fact that its going to have
| | 02:51 |
this Pixel Preview applied to it.
We'll talk a lot more about Pixel Preview
| | 02:55 |
a little bit later on.
Just wanted to make you aware that you can
| | 02:57 |
do it from within this document right here.
| | 03:00 |
Finally, the last option that I always
turn on for web documents is Align New
| | 03:04 |
Objects to the Pixel Grade.
This not only helps you align objects with
| | 03:07 |
each other in a more efficient manor, it
also makes sure that you don't end up with
| | 03:11 |
some chunky anti-aliasing.
Edges around the outside of shapes like
| | 03:16 |
circles and squares and things like that.
Having objects aligned to the pixel grid
| | 03:20 |
is a good way to ensure the alignment and
also nice, crisp, clean artwork.
| | 03:25 |
So, once you have all of these options set
up for your web document, all you have to
| | 03:28 |
do is hit okay and you can continue
working.
| | 03:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Navigating within a document| 00:00 |
After you open up a document for the first
time in Illustrator, you might be a little
| | 00:03 |
confused as to how to navigate around it.
An by this I mean how to look at the file
| | 00:07 |
in different ways or even know how to zoom
in an zoom out to get a little bit more
| | 00:11 |
clarity on the composition.
In this movie I'll walk you through
| | 00:14 |
various navigational techniques that I use
inside of Illustrator including some
| | 00:18 |
keyboard shortcuts that will help you pan
an zoom around your document like a pro.
| | 00:22 |
The basic navigation controls inside of
Illustrator can be found inside of the
| | 00:25 |
tools panel over here on the left.
You'll notice that you have two tools, a
| | 00:29 |
hand tool and a zoom tool.
The zoom tool is pretty simple.
| | 00:33 |
Bring it out, click once to zoom, hold
down the option key on Mac, the Alt key on
| | 00:38 |
PC and click to zoom out.
You'll notice when I hold down the Option
| | 00:42 |
key or the Alt key on a PC that the plus
sign inside the magnifying glass turns
| | 00:46 |
into a little minus sign.
Indicating that I'm about to zoom out.
| | 00:50 |
When you see the plus sign that means
you're about to zoom in.
| | 00:53 |
You also have this hand tool which allows
you to grab your document and move it
| | 00:57 |
around.
Think of this in terms of your hand on the
| | 00:59 |
screen actually moving this document like
you would move a piece of paper on your
| | 01:03 |
desk.
So you're grabbing it, moving it to one
| | 01:06 |
side.
Grabbing it, moving it to another.
| | 01:08 |
It's a great way to pan around your
document when you're zoomed in at higher
| | 01:11 |
magnification levels so you can see what's
going on in other areas.
| | 01:15 |
You can also utilize these as shortcuts as well.
| | 01:18 |
So for instance if you double-click the
Hand tool, it automatically displays your
| | 01:23 |
document in the full window.
Meaning you can see the whole document
| | 01:27 |
here inside the window regardless of the
magnification level.
| | 01:30 |
So here for instance it zoomed out to 76%
because that's how far it had to zoom out
| | 01:35 |
in order to fit the entire document in the window.
| | 01:37 |
You can double-click the Zoom tool to zoom
in automatically to 100%.
| | 01:41 |
That's going to zoom up your document to 100%.
| | 01:44 |
You may still have to grab the Hand tool
to pan around it because if the document's
| | 01:48 |
larger, it may not actually fit inside the window.
| | 01:50 |
That's the difference between fit to
window and zoom to 100%.
| | 01:55 |
Now if you're really crafty, you can use
your keyboard shortcuts.
| | 01:57 |
And this is the easiest way to zoom in and
zoom out on a document.
| | 02:01 |
Holding down the Cmd key on Mac, the Ctrl
key on PC, you can press either the plus
| | 02:06 |
or minus sign on your keyboard and zoom in
and out.
| | 02:09 |
So Ctrl plus zooms in, Ctrl minus zooms out.
| | 02:14 |
And again that's the Cmd key for the Mac
so it would be Cmd plus or Cmd minus
| | 02:18 |
there.
But that's a great way to zoom in and out
| | 02:20 |
of a document without having to go find a tool.
| | 02:23 |
You can also utilize some keyboard
shortcuts like Cmd or Ctrl+0 to return you
| | 02:29 |
to the fit to window.
Or Cmd or Ctrl+1 to zoom automatically to
| | 02:34 |
100%.
Now if you're not a keyboard cowboy and
| | 02:37 |
you don't like using the tools over on the
left hand side, you can always use the old
| | 02:41 |
trusty Navigation panel.
Let's go take a look at that now.
| | 02:44 |
You can go to the Window menu and go down
and find Navigator and it brings up a
| | 02:50 |
window like this.
If you've ever used Photoshop before
| | 02:53 |
chances are you've seen this Navigator panel.
| | 02:55 |
It's the same one that's inside of Photoshop.
| | 02:57 |
And it's very intuitive and very easy to use.
| | 03:00 |
Right here in the window this big red
square indicates what area of your
| | 03:04 |
document you're currently viewing.
An you actually get a Hand tool when you
| | 03:07 |
move over it like this.
If I click and move, I can move the square
| | 03:11 |
all around the document just like I was
panning with the Hand tool.
| | 03:16 |
I also have the ability to change the
viewing percentage right here.
| | 03:18 |
Set to a 100%, I can easily type in 200
and press Enter and it zooms me up to
| | 03:24 |
200%.
The most basic control is right here in
| | 03:27 |
the middle.
And I call this the big mountain, little
| | 03:29 |
mountain area.
Because you've got two mountains.
| | 03:32 |
A little mountain and a big mountain.
Clicking the little mountain zooms out.
| | 03:36 |
Clicking the big mountain zooms in.
You can also take this slider in the
| | 03:40 |
middle and drag it towards the little
mountain to zoom out or towards the big
| | 03:45 |
mountain to zoom in.
This one's a little tough to nail down
| | 03:49 |
though because you don't get a real time
preview of the zooming.
| | 03:52 |
So I actually prefer to either hit the
little mountain or the big mountain
| | 03:55 |
because it jumps me to specified
increments inside of this Document window.
| | 03:59 |
Let's go ahead an close this panel up and
let's talk about the Document Window
| | 04:04 |
itself.
You can actually use the document window
| | 04:06 |
as a great way to navigate your document
as well.
| | 04:09 |
For instance at the bottom here, you have
this Drop down menu that shows you all of
| | 04:13 |
the different levels of magnification that
you can zoom to.
| | 04:16 |
And you can pick anything from 3.13% all
the way up to 6400%.
| | 04:20 |
You can also choose Fit On Screen, which
is the same thing as clicking the Hand
| | 04:24 |
tool or using Cmd or Ctrl+0.
Once you do that, it automatically fits
| | 04:29 |
the artwork into the window like so.
If you have multiple art boards on a
| | 04:33 |
document, you can actually switch to the
different art boards by utilizing this
| | 04:37 |
jump menu here.
Let's jump over into a document with two
| | 04:40 |
art boards for a second and take a look at this.
| | 04:42 |
Let's say for instance that I'm zoomed in.
An I want to be on art board number one.
| | 04:48 |
If I go down here an pick art board number
two, it jumps me over to the same zoom an
| | 04:54 |
magnification level as art board one.
Clicking art board one again, zooms me
| | 05:00 |
right back over to art board one.
Once you find the most comfortable way for
| | 05:04 |
you to navigate your document, stick with
it and practice it.
| | 05:07 |
Pretty soon you'll be able to do it
without thinking about it.
| | 05:09 |
And that's the idea really.
Navigation should be second nature and not
| | 05:13 |
something you have to think about.
Once you've mastered it, you're well on
| | 05:16 |
your way to becoming faster and more
efficient inside of Illustrator.
| | 05:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using rulers, guides, and grids| 00:00 | Setup and preparation are very
important with any type of project.
| | 00:04 | After all you wouldn't expect an
architect to start building a house without
| | 00:07 | blueprints now would you?
| | 00:09 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
creating your own set of blueprints
| | 00:12 | utilizing rulers, guides and
grids inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:15 | But first of all let's take a look
at what these features actually are by
| | 00:19 | looking at this document here.
| | 00:21 | I've got the Grids and Guides
document open and as you can see there are
| | 00:24 | already some guides out on screen.
| | 00:26 | These guides indicate exactly where the
artwork is supposed to be in my document.
| | 00:31 | Think of these in terms of boundaries that
you want to constrain your art work within.
| | 00:36 | Creating these guides is actually very easy.
| | 00:38 | You simply find the rulers, which you
can turn on by going to View and selecting
| | 00:43 | Rulers and then saying Hide or Show
Rulers or you can simply use Ctrl+R or
| | 00:49 | Command+R on your keyboard, and once you
have the Rulers open, you simply click
| | 00:55 | and drag out a new guide like you see here.
| | 00:58 | If you want to get rid of a guide,
drag it up and drop it back on the ruler.
| | 01:04 | Same holds true for these rulers.
| | 01:06 | Click, drag out, drag back to release.
| | 01:12 | In addition to these basic guides, you
can also turn on a grid so that you can
| | 01:16 | easily align your objects
here inside of Illustrator.
| | 01:19 | If you go to View and then go down to
Show Grid, you will automatically see a
| | 01:24 | grid appear on your document.
| | 01:26 | Now it maybe sort of hard to see in
different areas, but you can always change the
| | 01:30 | appearance of the grid inside of your
Preferences panel, and I actually encourage
| | 01:35 | you to do that because changing your
preferences goes a long way to making sure
| | 01:38 | this works the way you want it to.
| | 01:40 | So for instance, if you're working on
something where the background is always
| | 01:43 | blue, you wouldn't want blue
guides necessarily now would you?
| | 01:47 | So you would have to find a way to get in
there in the Preferences and change that.
| | 01:50 | And again that's in the Edit menu on PC,
the Illustrator menu on Mac, and go down
| | 01:55 | to Preferences and then you can
find the Guides & Grid feature.
| | 02:00 | Inside of Guides & Grid, you can change
the color of the guides and you can also
| | 02:03 | change the color of the grid as well.
| | 02:06 | So if I want to come in here and change
this to something like a dark gray I can
| | 02:13 | do that and now my grid is more
easily identified here on screen.
| | 02:17 | Now you will also notice that you have
something called a Smart Guide available
| | 02:22 | to you inside of Illustrator as well.
| | 02:24 | Smart Guides enable you to align
objects with other objects really easily.
| | 02:30 | So for instance, let me jump over
here into another piece of artwork really
| | 02:34 | quick and I will grab my Selection tool.
| | 02:39 | With my selection tool selected, I will
start moving this piece of artwork around.
| | 02:42 | Let me zoom in down here in the bottom
so you can actually see what I am doing.
| | 02:46 | As I move this around, you will
notice that little green line that extends
| | 02:50 | indicating different areas that I'm
snapping to, so those are intersection
| | 02:54 | points with that other piece of artwork
down here at the bottom and you can see
| | 02:58 | the different points that it snaps
to each and every time I move it.
| | 03:02 | This is a great way to align objects to the
edges of other objects inside of Illustrator.
| | 03:07 | Now it can also be kind of a pain
because it automatically snaps to these areas,
| | 03:12 | making it hard to kind of nudge the
artwork into a different position.
| | 03:16 | So you may want to turn these off.
| | 03:18 | If you want to turn Smart Guides off,
you go into the View menu, go down
| | 03:22 | to Smart Guides and uncheck the box, or
simply hit Commmand+U or Ctrl+U on your keyboard.
| | 03:29 | Once I turn them off, you will notice I
can move this artwork independently and
| | 03:33 | it does not snap to anything.
| | 03:36 | Now let's walk through how I can
actually use these Guides & Grids and all these
| | 03:40 | different features to set up a brand new
document here inside of Illustrator and
| | 03:44 | blueprint out where I need to go.
| | 03:46 | So I will just go up and create a new file
and I'm going to actually use the Web preset.
| | 03:53 | Let's pretend that I am creating a web banner.
| | 03:55 | In my web banner I want it to be about
a 1000 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall.
| | 04:02 | We will go and hit OK to
create that banner and there we go.
| | 04:07 | Now I'm going to turn on the Grid
feature for alignment purposes because when
| | 04:11 | you're dealing with graphics that are
going out to the web, they need to be what
| | 04:15 | we call "pixel perfect" and pixel
perfect means they are really sharp and really
| | 04:20 | clean even on raster-based output.
| | 04:23 | By turning on the grid and then also
turning on the align or snap to pixel grid
| | 04:27 | feature, you allow yourself to line
objects up and eliminate anti-aliasing
| | 04:32 | which just means jagged edges
around things like curves and circles.
| | 04:35 | So I am going to go up to the View
menu and I am going to turn on the Grid,
| | 04:41 | just like so, so there is my grid, making it
very easy for me to line objects up on screen.
| | 04:45 | I'm also going to turn on my Rulers by
going to View and selecting Rulers and
| | 04:51 | selecting Show Rulers.
| | 04:52 | I am also going to draw out some guides.
| | 04:56 | I want to draw some guides here so
that I have a 30 pixel margin around all
| | 05:01 | sides of my document.
| | 05:02 | So let's go ahead and do that now.
| | 05:04 | One of the tricks that I use, because
I'm not that good at math and I really
| | 05:08 | don't like to use math all that often,
| | 05:10 | is I bring up the Window menu and
find the Info panel. This little guy
| | 05:15 | is amazing because it allows me to tell
where I am in any given time in my document.
| | 05:19 | See how I move my mouse around and
it's automatically telling me the X and Y
| | 05:23 | coordinates right there? It does the
same thing when you are positioning guides
| | 05:27 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 05:29 | So if I come over here and drag out a
guide, you will notice when I drop the
| | 05:32 | guide on the canvas, it
automatically tells me exactly where it is.
| | 05:36 | Right now it's at the x-coordinate of 46 pixels.
| | 05:39 | Remember I wanted it to be 30 pixels.
| | 05:41 | So I'm just going to drag that until it
gets right around 30, just like so, 30 pixels.
| | 05:47 | Now I am going to drag out
a guide to the other side.
| | 05:51 | Since this is 1000 pixels wide, I
need to go until I reach 970 pixels,
| | 05:56 | theoretically on the ruler right.
| | 05:58 | So let's drag that out, drop it
close to where I think it could be.
| | 06:03 | Right now it's at 953.
| | 06:04 | So I will just take that and use the Info
panel to drag it the rest of the way, 970.
| | 06:10 | Same thing here, I will drag down, drop that in.
| | 06:13 | You can see my Y coordinate is 18 pixels,
I will drag that down until I hit 30,
| | 06:18 | just like that, and now I
made this 400 pixels tall.
| | 06:23 | So I need to go down until I hit 370.
| | 06:25 | So I will drag that down and I will
reposition it all the way to 370, just like so.
| | 06:30 | And so now I've got my guides out
there which have created a nice 30 pixel
| | 06:34 | margin all the way around my document.
| | 06:36 | Now if I want that to be easier to see,
I can temporary turn off my Grid by
| | 06:40 | going to View > Hide Grid, and there you
can see my nice 30 pixel margins all the
| | 06:45 | way around the outside.
| | 06:46 | So now that we have got our blueprints,
we are ready to start building our project.
| | 06:51 | You should take comfort in the fact to
know that you've got a solid foundation
| | 06:55 | on which to build your
masterpiece here inside of Illustrator.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Changing units of measurement| 00:00 | There may come a time when the focus
of your project shifts a little bit.
| | 00:04 | For instance, a web banner might turn
into a printed flyer, or vice versa.
| | 00:08 | In any case, when your project shifts focus,
| | 00:10 | you'll probably need to change the unit of
measurement that you're working with as well.
| | 00:14 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
the various ways on how to do that in the
| | 00:17 | most efficient manner.
| | 00:19 | So I'm working on a document here and
this document is theoretically going for
| | 00:23 | print, it's a business card.
| | 00:25 | But let's say that we also wanted to
repurpose this artwork for use on the web,
| | 00:29 | as a graphic, or icon, or maybe even a banner.
| | 00:32 | Well in this case, I'm working on
print document, which means chances are it's
| | 00:35 | not based in pixels.
| | 00:37 | It's based in points, or
inches, or maybe even picas.
| | 00:40 | So I need to know how to change this over to
pixels, so I can then resize it for the web.
| | 00:44 | That is very easy to do.
| | 00:46 | First of all, I am going to go to the
File menu and choose Document Setup.
| | 00:51 | Inside of the Document Setup you're
going to notice here at the top that I have
| | 00:54 | the ability to change the Units.
| | 00:56 | Right now, it's set to points,
like I said, it's a print document.
| | 00:59 | If I click this and change it to Pixels and
then hit OK, the document is now in pixel form.
| | 01:06 | There is also a shortcut to do this
though, by going up to the rulers and
| | 01:10 | right-clicking the ruler.
| | 01:12 | You can instantly change this from Pixels
to Inches, back to Picas and even Points.
| | 01:19 | So no matter what the focus of your
project, you can instantly change it by
| | 01:23 | doing that through the ruler.
| | 01:24 | Now if you are not really into using
shortcuts you can always go to the File menu
| | 01:28 | choose Document Setup,
that's no problem there.
| | 01:31 | But I find that it's very easy
just use the right-click method.
| | 01:35 | The hard part will be keeping your
client from changing their mind, again,
| | 01:39 | and again, and again.
| | 01:40 | But even if they do, now you know how
to switch gears for any project quickly
| | 01:45 | and easily utilizing the Document
Setup or the right-click trick.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using preview modes| 00:00 | One of the unfortunate things about
computer-based design is that we as
| | 00:04 | designers have become accustomed
to what I call the WYSIWYG complex.
| | 00:08 | By this I mean that we're used to
whatever we see on our screens reflecting
| | 00:11 | exactly what comes out of our printer
or shows up on other people's screens.
| | 00:15 | Unfortunately, this isn't always the case,
and we need a way to preview our work
| | 00:19 | in an accurate manner.
| | 00:21 | In Illustrator, we use something called
Preview modes to accomplish this, let's
| | 00:25 | take a look at some of those modes now.
| | 00:27 | So I have this file open here, and one of
the things that I might want to look at
| | 00:31 | is the overall structure of the document,
| | 00:34 | because I might have some effects applied
to things or I might have some warps or
| | 00:37 | meshes going on inside of my
document and I really just need to see the
| | 00:41 | underlying structure of the document itself.
| | 00:44 | In order to do that I can jump into
something called Outline Mode, which is
| | 00:47 | basically just going to show me all of
the different shapes that are available
| | 00:50 | to me inside of my design.
| | 00:52 | There are two ways to get to Outline
Mode; I can go up to the View menu and
| | 00:56 | choose Outline, or I can simply hit the
keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Y or Command+Y and
| | 01:02 | that cycles me in and out.
| | 01:04 | Once I'm inside of Outline Mode, you
can see all of the different little pieces
| | 01:07 | and parts that make up my artwork.
| | 01:09 | This look significantly different than
the artwork itself, as you can see the
| | 01:13 | flower actually has some effects
applied to it, these little squares down here,
| | 01:17 | all different colors and things like that,
but at its core, the skeleton of this
| | 01:21 | is just this composition of
squares and circles and things like that.
| | 01:26 | So Outline Mode is a great way to
actually get down to the heart of your
| | 01:29 | graphics and look exactly what's going on.
| | 01:31 | Now once you've done that, you
may also want to utilize something
| | 01:34 | called Overprint Preview.
| | 01:37 | Overprint Preview is a great way to
look at your artwork as if it were actually
| | 01:41 | going to be printed.
| | 01:42 | This is especially helpful when
you're working with spot colors.
| | 01:45 | When you're working with spot colors
inside of Illustrator, using the Overprint
| | 01:48 | Preview is the easiest way to get an
accurate representation of exactly how
| | 01:53 | those spot colors will
look, once they're printed.
| | 01:55 | You also have the ability to
utilize something called Pixel Preview.
| | 01:59 | Pixel Preview is a great way to see
exactly what your artwork is going to look
| | 02:03 | like when it's reproduced on a
screen, like a web site, or even a TV or a
| | 02:07 | projector for instance.
| | 02:09 | If you turn on Pixel Preview, you'll
notice immediately your artwork doesn't
| | 02:13 | look quite as crisp as it did before.
| | 02:15 | Especially, if you're zoomed into a
high zoom percentage, like I am here 300%.
| | 02:19 | If I go back out to 100%, you'll
notice it looks pretty good, that's
| | 02:24 | because that's the default size,
but as I zoom in you'll see the more
| | 02:27 | pixelated it becomes.
| | 02:30 | If you want to turn Pixel Preview off,
just go back to View and uncheck the box.
| | 02:35 | Now if I zoom in, it looks
just as crisp and clear as ever.
| | 02:38 | So depending on the size of your
document the Pixel Preview may look different
| | 02:42 | at different magnification levels.
| | 02:44 | No matter what though, preview modes
are extremely handy for making sure that
| | 02:48 | your work displays properly in
a variety of different formats.
| | 02:51 | The next time you're working on a
project, whether it be for print, or web, or
| | 02:55 | wherever, use the preview modes to
get a better understanding of how your
| | 02:59 | finished product will appear, whether
that's going to be on a piece of paper or
| | 03:03 | on a TV screen or on a web site.
| | 03:05 | Preview modes are a great way to
get accurate representations of your
| | 03:08 | finished product.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and using custom views| 00:00 | One of the hidden gems of Adobe
Illustrator has to be the custom views feature.
| | 00:05 | When we're working with documents,
especially complicated ones with multiple art
| | 00:08 | boards and elements, you may find that
you need to constantly zoom in and out on
| | 00:12 | certain elements in the document.
| | 00:14 | Unfortunately, even for the most
seasons of veterans this is a tedious task.
| | 00:19 | However, with custom views inside
of Illustrator you can create instant
| | 00:23 | shortcuts to various points in your
document making it super easy for you to get
| | 00:27 | where you need to go. Let's take a look.
| | 00:29 | First of all, I need to show you
exactly where the Custom Views menu is.
| | 00:33 | If I come up here to the View menu and
go all the way down to the bottom, you'll
| | 00:39 | see that I have two options
here for New View and Edit Views.
| | 00:43 | This is where I go to create my New
View and also where I would go to edit any
| | 00:46 | existing views that I have.
| | 00:48 | Let's go ahead and find a specific area
that I need to create a custom view and
| | 00:52 | then we will worry about these options.
| | 00:53 | I will click away to close that.
| | 00:56 | Now I will grab my Zoom tool.
| | 00:57 | First of all, I want to create a view
were I am zoomed in right here on the logo
| | 01:02 | and then I will go to View > New View,
and I'll call this Logo Zoomed, hit OK.
| | 01:11 | Now I can go back out, and let's move
over here and let's say that wanted to take
| | 01:17 | a look at this piece of artwork here.
| | 01:18 | I will go to View > New View and I'll
call this new view Splatter Paint, hit OK.
| | 01:30 | Now I will zoom back out,
let's move back over here.
| | 01:34 | Let's create one more, go right here to
the email address, View > New View and
| | 01:43 | I'll call this Email and hit OK.
| | 01:47 | Now once I got my views set I can
actually go up to the View menu and scroll
| | 01:51 | all the way to the bottom, and
you'll see my different views here.
| | 01:54 | I can see Logo Zoomed, I can also go down to
Splatter Paint and go back and find Email.
| | 02:04 | What's great about this, is it also
will remember the type of preview that
| | 02:08 | you're looking at, at the
time the view is defined.
| | 02:10 | So for instance, I can go back over
here to the logo, choose View and at the
| | 02:19 | top select Outline Mode, and then go
to View and go down at the bottom and
| | 02:24 | select New View and call this Logo
Outline, hit OK, and now watch what happens
| | 02:31 | when I switch views.
| | 02:32 | I will go back to View menu and
I'll choose Splatter Paint.
| | 02:35 | Splatter Paint looks normal, I go back
to Logo Zoomed, Logo Zoomed looks normal,
| | 02:41 | but if I go back and I find Logo
Outline, it automatically zooms me back
| | 02:45 | to that and sets me into Outline Preview mode.
| | 02:47 | So you can utilize these different
custom views inside of Illustrator to view
| | 02:52 | your artwork in a variety of
different ways and configurations.
| | 02:56 | So now that you know how to utilize
custom views in Illustrator, you'll be able to
| | 02:59 | access various parts of your next
project with relative ease compared to using
| | 03:03 | the keyboard or constantly switching tools.
| | 03:05 | Remember, I'm a big believer in
increasing productivity and this is a surefire
| | 03:09 | way to do just that.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Locking and hiding artwork| 00:00 | We've spent a lot of time in this
chapter going through various ways to view and
| | 00:04 | navigate your artwork.
| | 00:05 | In this movie, I'll cover the other side
of the equation a little bit by showing
| | 00:09 | you how to hide your artwork so that you
can access various overlapping elements
| | 00:13 | or simply see something that
might be lurking behind it.
| | 00:16 | And I'll also show you how to lock your
artwork to prevent any unnecessary edits
| | 00:21 | or accidental deletions.
| | 00:23 | So first things first, let's take a look
at how to hide various parts of our artwork.
| | 00:27 | The first thing I need to do is find a
piece of artwork that I need to hide.
| | 00:31 | So for instance, I might want to hide this
area here, this black background area here.
| | 00:36 | If I want to hide that to see what's
underneath it, I can simply go to the Object
| | 00:39 | menu, choose Hide and choose Selection.
| | 00:43 | When I do that, it automatically hides
that particular object on my artboard.
| | 00:48 | You'll also notice in the Layers panel
that there's not a little eyeball next to
| | 00:52 | that part of the layer.
| | 00:53 | That's because essentially what I've
done through a menu command is come down
| | 00:57 | here to the Layers panel and
tap the little eyeball icon.
| | 00:59 | You could come down here and do this in
the Layers panel yourself if you wanted to
| | 01:02 | as well, no big deal.
| | 01:04 | This allows me to see what's
behind this, so I can actually see this
| | 01:07 | painted background here.
| | 01:09 | If I want to bring it back, I can go to
Object, I can go down to Show All, and
| | 01:15 | it comes right back.
| | 01:16 | Unfortunately, you don't get
granular control when it comes to showing
| | 01:19 | artwork that you've hidden.
| | 01:21 | It's an all or nothing kind of thing.
| | 01:23 | But in this case, I only hide one item
so showing it all again, no big deal.
| | 01:26 | Now let's say, for instance, that I
didn't want to be able to edit the stuff in
| | 01:30 | the background; either the painted
background or this black background here.
| | 01:34 | I can simply lock that
artwork and make it un-editable.
| | 01:37 | There are two ways to do that, the
first of which is really easy and it comes
| | 01:41 | from the Layers panel.
| | 01:42 | Let me bring out the
Layers panel so you can see it.
| | 01:44 | Inside of the Layers panel, you'll
notice I have the Background layer here.
| | 01:48 | If I want to lock the artwork on the
Background layer, I can simply come right
| | 01:51 | next to it and put a lock next to it.
| | 01:53 | Once I do that, two locks appear
underneath it, indicating the sublayers have
| | 01:57 | been locked as well.
| | 01:58 | Now when I come out here, notice I
cannot click to select it, I can't move it,
| | 02:03 | I can't do anything to it, but everything
on top of it remains completely editable.
| | 02:08 | If I want to unlock it, I can click
this lock icon here and it unlocks the
| | 02:12 | artwork, making it easily
selectable again, where I can move it and
| | 02:16 | manipulate it again.
| | 02:17 | However, if I wanted to do this via a
command from the menu, or let's say I
| | 02:21 | didn't want lock the whole layer, I
can just select the object, in this case,
| | 02:24 | the black background, choose Object >
Lock, and then I could choose Selection.
| | 02:30 | You could also hit the keyboard shortcut,
Ctrl+2 or Command+2, that's going to
| | 02:34 | instantly lock whatever you have selected.
| | 02:37 | Once I do that, I can't click on the
background, but I can select the object
| | 02:41 | behind it, this painted background
here so you'll notice when I click, I can
| | 02:44 | drag it to move it out of the way.
| | 02:47 | So undo that, let's say I
wanted to lock this piece as well.
| | 02:50 | I'll hit Ctrl+2 on my
keyboard or Command+2 on the Mac.
| | 02:55 | Now when I try to click it, not possible.
| | 02:57 | Now what if I wanted to unlock the artwork?
| | 02:59 | I can go to Object > Unlock All, or on my
keyboard, press Alt+Ctrl+2, or on a Mac,
| | 03:08 | it'll be Option+Command+2.
| | 03:10 | If I click that, the artwork is now
fully editable again and I can click on
| | 03:15 | each individual piece.
| | 03:17 | Locking and hiding artwork is a great
way to get access to hidden pieces in
| | 03:21 | your project and also to prevent it from
being modified or destroyed by pesky coworkers.
| | 03:26 | Remember though, when you're sharing
artwork with somebody, especially a
| | 03:29 | commercial printer or a web developer
who isn't familiar with the artwork you're
| | 03:32 | sending them, be sure to either unlock
the artwork or inform them that you have
| | 03:36 | locked pieces in your composition.
| | 03:38 | If you don't, this could cause some
serious headaches for both you and them
| | 03:42 | down the road.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and using artboards| 00:00 | One of the biggest complaints that
I had about early versions of Adobe
| | 00:03 | Illustrator was its lack of
support for multi-page layouts.
| | 00:07 | But luckily, in CS4, Adobe added
support for something called artboards, and
| | 00:12 | artists and designers around
the world rejoiced, especially me.
| | 00:17 | Artboards are Illustrator's answer to
multi-page layouts, but they're so much
| | 00:20 | more versatile than that.
| | 00:22 | In this movie we'll explore artboards
and how to add them to your project, so
| | 00:26 | you can take full advantage
of them in your daily workflow.
| | 00:29 | So I've got a document already open here,
and I'm going to add some artboards to
| | 00:32 | eventually, but I want to start off by
showing you how to create a new document
| | 00:36 | with multiple artboards.
| | 00:37 | So let's go up to the File menu and choose New.
| | 00:40 | When I get into the New Document dialog
box, I want to name this artboards, and
| | 00:47 | I'll change the profile to Web, I'll
make it 800x600, and now here I can change
| | 00:52 | the Number of Artboards.
| | 00:53 | So I'm going to change it to 4, and
you'll notice I get to change the way the
| | 00:58 | grid of artboards is set up.
| | 00:59 | So I can do Grid by Row, Grid by Column,
Arrange by Row, or Arrange by Column,
| | 01:05 | and I can also change the Right-to-Left Layout.
| | 01:07 | In this case, I'm going
to stick with Grid by Row.
| | 01:11 | I'll also change the Spacing, so that
there are 30 pixels in between each one,
| | 01:16 | and I'm going to leave it at
2 Columns. Then I'll hit OK.
| | 01:19 | Once I hit OK, you can see here I've got four
identical documents inside of this one document.
| | 01:24 | It's just like having multiple pages,
except it's all contained in this
| | 01:28 | one single document.
| | 01:29 | You'll also remember from our
navigation section that I can easily jump to each
| | 01:34 | one of these artboards by utilizing
this Jump menu down here at the bottom.
| | 01:37 | But until I actually get content on these,
you may not know exactly which one is which.
| | 01:40 | So let me add some text out
here so you can actually see it.
| | 01:44 | So I'm just going to add some
numbers, I'll add the number 1 here.
| | 01:50 | This will be artboard number 2 here.
| | 01:56 | This one down here will be artboard number 3.
| | 02:01 | And finally, this one down
here will be artboard number 4.
| | 02:06 | Remember, our flow goes Grid
by Row, so it's 1, 2, 3, 4.
| | 02:11 | So now if I use this Jump menu down
here to go to artboard 1, it jumps to 1.
| | 02:16 | artboard 2, artboard 3, and artboard 4.
| | 02:22 | So it's pretty cool.
| | 02:22 | I can use that little Jump menu almost
like a Pages menu to go to the different
| | 02:26 | pages or artboards in my document.
| | 02:29 | But as I said in the beginning of this
movie, artboards aren't just a static page.
| | 02:33 | So now that we have a few here in our
document, we're ready to start modifying
| | 02:37 | them using the Artboard tool.
| | 02:40 | So let's zoom back out here so that we
can see all of the artboards, and let's
| | 02:46 | assume for a second that I wanted to
change a couple of these artboards.
| | 02:50 | Maybe these are different projects.
Maybe this one is a page, this one is a web
| | 02:54 | banner, this one is a button,
and this one is a logo let's say.
| | 02:57 | I need different sized
artboards for each project, right?
| | 03:00 | Well in order to change them, I'm
going to use this guy right here, the
| | 03:03 | Artboard tool, and you can access that
by clicking on it for hitting Shift and
| | 03:07 | the letter O on your keyboard.
| | 03:09 | When I do that you're going to notice that the
current artboard I'm working on is highlighted.
| | 03:13 | I can also click to highlight
any of the other artboards like so.
| | 03:16 | If I want to modify an artboard, I can
resize it just like I can anything else
| | 03:20 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 03:22 | As I start to resize it, you'll notice
that I get a Width and Height box that
| | 03:25 | pops up to tell me how big it is.
| | 03:27 | So let's say that I needed this
artboard to be 900 pixels wide by 300 pixels
| | 03:32 | tall, and I'll just reduce this down to
300 pixels and then I'll stretch it out
| | 03:37 | to be 900 pixels, just like that.
| | 03:42 | This artboard here, that's going to be
a logo, so I'm going to shrink it down
| | 03:45 | significantly, so just going to
shrink that down to about 300 pixels wide,
| | 03:51 | something right around there.
| | 03:53 | If you want to be precise, you can
actually come up here, constrain the
| | 03:56 | proportions of your artboard, and
you can change it to 300 pixels and it
| | 04:02 | automatically changes.
| | 04:03 | Same way with this artboard here.
| | 04:05 | Let's say this one needs to be a
little bit taller, so I need to make it
| | 04:09 | about 900 pixels tall.
| | 04:11 | 900, hit Enter, and it grows.
| | 04:14 | I can then move it around like that.
| | 04:17 | And then finally number 3, this one is
going to be a small web banner, so I'll
| | 04:21 | just shrink that up to 125 pixels roundabout.
| | 04:25 | If I want to get precise, I can
come up here, 125. There we go.
| | 04:30 | Now I constrain my proportions, so I'm going
to undo that, break the link, and then do 125.
| | 04:38 | There we go!
| | 04:40 | Now I can come back and move it just like that.
| | 04:44 | If I want to line them up,
I can do that as well.
| | 04:47 | Notice the Smart Guides help me align these up.
| | 04:50 | So now same basic principle applies,
here's 1, 2, 3, and then 4 remains right there.
| | 04:57 | So if I want to jump to these,
I go 1, 2, 3, 4. All right!
| | 05:06 | Now that we finished setting up a new
document and I've showed you how to modify
| | 05:09 | these artboards, let's put it
into some practical application.
| | 05:13 | I'll close this up and I don't have to
save it and I'll go into this document here.
| | 05:17 | So let's say for instance that I'm
creating several different screens for this
| | 05:21 | application that I'm designing here.
| | 05:23 | So I've got the login screen ready to
go, but I want to create some of the
| | 05:26 | screens to go along with it.
| | 05:27 | Well I need to create some
more artboards to go along with it.
| | 05:30 | Now I can actually go in here to the
File menu and go down to Document Setup,
| | 05:34 | and inside the Document Setup,
I can go to Edit Artboards.
| | 05:37 | Once I'm inside the Edit Artboards
section, it automatically invokes the
| | 05:41 | Artboard tool and also makes it active and
allows me to start creating more artboards.
| | 05:46 | I can also utilize something
called the Artboards panel.
| | 05:49 | The Artboards panel allows me to
create new artboards on the fly.
| | 05:53 | If I click this, it automatically
duplicates my current artboard just like so.
| | 05:58 | If I hit another one, it's going to create
another one, just like that, and another one.
| | 06:05 | So now I can essentially storyboard my
application out simply by adding these
| | 06:10 | artboards via this panel.
| | 06:11 | I can also rearrange the artboards
utilizing these arrows here, moving one
| | 06:15 | up, down, et cetera.
| | 06:18 | You'll notice in the Control panel I've
several different options for artboards;
| | 06:21 | Move and Copy, Show the Center Mark,
Show Cross Hairs, Show Video Safe Areas,
| | 06:26 | Artboard Options. I can change the
Reference Point for the artboards, and I
| | 06:30 | can even change the X and Y coordinates of
the artboard, as well as the Width and Height.
| | 06:35 | Now if I go into Artboard Options,
you're going to notice that it brings me into
| | 06:38 | this particular dialog box.
| | 06:40 | I can change the Width and the Height
of the artboard, the X and Y coordinates.
| | 06:45 | I can choose to constrain proportions.
| | 06:47 | I can choose whether or not I show Center
Marks, Cross Hairs, and Video Safe Areas.
| | 06:51 | I can also Delete it or hit OK.
| | 06:54 | If I click Cancel, it takes me right
back out and I can continue working.
| | 06:57 | So now I'll zoom out. So you can see
in just a few short and easy steps, I've
| | 07:01 | created three additional screens to
go along with my login screen, which I
| | 07:05 | can now fully modify and make a fully-
working, almost prototype-like scenario
| | 07:10 | of this application.
| | 07:12 | So even though Illustrator doesn't
technically support pages, you can certainly
| | 07:16 | achieve the same type of
effect by utilizing artboards.
| | 07:19 | You can also turn a single design into
a multifaceted group of designs, simply
| | 07:24 | by modifying and creating new
artboards around that document in the window.
| | 07:28 | This is going to save you a lot of
time and clutter on your desktop, because
| | 07:32 | instead of creating four individual
files here inside of this document, I've
| | 07:35 | actually created four files in one.
| | 07:38 | And that's going to save me a ton of
time and also some space in my folders
| | 07:42 | and on my hard drive.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Selecting and Transforming ObjectsSetting your selection preferences| 00:00 |
This chapter is all about objects and one
of the most basic things you need to be
| | 00:04 |
able to do with an object is select it.
And so in this movie I'm going to be
| | 00:08 |
walking you through how to set up your
selection preferences to make that just a
| | 00:12 |
little bit more easier for you.
So, the first I'm going to do is zoom in
| | 00:16 |
here on this piece of artwork and I'm
going to go right up here to the top left
| | 00:18 |
corner, focus on these two paintbrush shapes.
| | 00:21 |
When I grab my Selection tool I can come
out here and I can select an object simply
| | 00:24 |
by clicking on it with my mouse.
You'll notice when I click on it, that it
| | 00:27 |
has this bounding box around the outside
of it, indicating that I have it selected.
| | 00:31 |
This bounding box is very important.
This is what you use to scale, rotate,
| | 00:34 |
move it, everything, about it corresponds
to this bounding box.
| | 00:38 |
When I have an object selected, it's very
easy just to click on it, like so.
| | 00:42 |
But if you have a lot of objects on your
art board, you might want to have a more
| | 00:46 |
precise way of selecting something.
Let's jump into something called Outline
| | 00:50 |
mode and show you what I mean here.
I'm going to press Cmd or Ctrl+Y, on my
| | 00:54 |
keyboard.
And when I press Cmd or Ctrl+Y, it's
| | 00:56 |
going to jump me into Outline mode, which
essentially shows me a skeleton view of
| | 01:00 |
the artwork that we're looking at.
When I come over here to make a selection
| | 01:04 |
on the paintbrush, if I click, nothing happens.
| | 01:07 |
That's because when you're in Outline
mode, it assumes that there's no fills
| | 01:10 |
anywhere.
It's just the path.
| | 01:13 |
So, when I select the path, it actually
makes the active selection just like it
| | 01:16 |
did before.
Same thing over here, if I click in the
| | 01:18 |
middle, nothing.
If I click over here, it selects the
| | 01:20 |
shape.
That's exactly what I wanted to do.
| | 01:23 |
Now, in some cases, this makes sense.
Like I said, if you have really intracate
| | 01:26 |
artowork that you really want to get down
to the nitty gritty and make sure that you
| | 01:28 |
get it, or if you're working a lot of
times on things that have effects.
| | 01:33 |
And things like that applied to them, or
you don't know what has been done to the
| | 01:36 |
artwork.
Turning on an option that requires you to
| | 01:39 |
select a path makes it a lot easier to
know exactly what you're working with.
| | 01:43 |
So, I'm going to press Cmd or Ctrl+Y again
to turn Outline mode off, and let's go
| | 01:47 |
into the Selection Preferences.
going to go to the Edit menu on a PC, the
| | 01:51 |
Illustrator menu on a Mac, and I'm
going to go down and select Selection and
| | 01:55 |
Anchor Display.
And we're going to come right here to the
| | 01:58 |
very top, the first section of this is the
tolerance level.
| | 02:02 |
How close do you need to be to an object
when you click on the art board before
| | 02:06 |
that object becomes selected.
Right now the tolerance level is three
| | 02:10 |
pixels.
That may be too close.
| | 02:12 |
That may be too far away and that's
going to be up to you and how much stuff
| | 02:16 |
is on your art board.
If you have a lot of small intricate
| | 02:18 |
pieces of art on your art board, you might
want to knock that down a little bit so
| | 02:21 |
you're more precise.
If you've got big chunky things on your
| | 02:24 |
art board, you might want to take that up
a few notches just so it's easier for you
| | 02:27 |
to select things.
In the object selection by path option,
| | 02:31 |
what you're basically doing here is making
Illustrator perform like it's in Outline
| | 02:35 |
mode all the time.
So, if I hit OK to that, and come back,
| | 02:38 |
into Illustrator.
Now if I try and make that same selection
| | 02:41 |
I did before, regardless of whether I'm in
outline mode or not, when I click in the
| | 02:44 |
middle of this paint brush, nothing happens.
| | 02:47 |
Same thing over here If I find the path
though, and click on it, then it becomes
| | 02:52 |
active.
And I can be again within three pixels of
| | 02:54 |
the path, and still make the active selection.
| | 02:56 |
Now like I said, this is going to be handy
in some cases, but not all.
| | 03:00 |
So, you might not want Illustrator to
behave this way.
| | 03:02 |
That's easy enough to turn off, just hit
Cmd or Ctrl+K to bring up your Preferences
| | 03:07 |
again.
Switch over to selection and anchor
| | 03:09 |
display, and uncheck the Object Selection
By Path Only.
| | 03:14 |
Once you do that illustrator will perform
in its normal fashion.
| | 03:16 |
You can also choose whether or not objects
snap to a point and how close to that
| | 03:21 |
point they need to be.
And then finally Ctrl+click to select
| | 03:24 |
objects behind, that means if you have
objects stacked on top of each other, do
| | 03:28 |
you have to use the Ctrl key in order to
select those objects that are behind them?
| | 03:33 |
Finally the last piece that I usually pay
attention to here is the anchor point and
| | 03:37 |
handle display.
We talked about this briefly in the
| | 03:39 |
preferences, but I want to go over these again.
| | 03:42 |
If I wanted to change the way that my
things are displayed, I could easily
| | 03:46 |
change just by clicking and making this active.
| | 03:49 |
And as you start to working with pads you
will develop your own choices for these.
| | 03:53 |
The only thing that I absolutely do
recommend having turned on is Highlight
| | 03:56 |
Anchors on Mouse-Over.
Because at many times it can be very
| | 03:59 |
difficult to determine where the anchor
points are in a given piece of artwork,
| | 04:03 |
especially if it's a piece of artwork that
you didn't create yourself.
| | 04:06 |
So, having this turned on allows you to
easily find those anchor points and
| | 04:09 |
manipulate them to get full control over
the thing you are trying to edit.
| | 04:14 |
Once we're done inside of this dialog box,
we're going to hit OK, and all of those
| | 04:18 |
preferences are now applied, and we can
continue our work with making selections
| | 04:23 |
of objects.
| | 04:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Direct Selection and Group Selection tools| 00:00 | Aside from the basic Arrow Selection
tool inside of Illustrator, there are two
| | 00:04 | other tools that are used
for point and click selections.
| | 00:06 | In this movie we will explore these
tools and how they can help you get a
| | 00:09 | grip on your artwork.
| | 00:11 | The first tool is the Direct Selection tool
and it's found right here in the Tool panel.
| | 00:15 | You can either click on it or simply
hit the letter A on your keyboard to
| | 00:19 | automatically invoke it.
| | 00:21 | The Direct Selection tool allows you to
select and modify paths within a shape.
| | 00:26 | As you can see, when I select this
object with the Direct Selection tool, you
| | 00:29 | are not going to see the normal
bounding box like you would when I selected it
| | 00:32 | with the Regular Selection tool.
| | 00:35 | Instead, it chooses the shape or object
that you've clicked on specifically and
| | 00:39 | also highlights the anchor points around it.
| | 00:42 | If I zoom in on this piece of artwork
right here you will see exactly what I mean.
| | 00:47 | When I switched to the Direct
Selection tool, you will notice I see only the
| | 00:50 | anchor points and the path
itself, no bounding box at all.
| | 00:54 | You can use the Direct Selection tool
to move an entire object around just like
| | 00:58 | this, but its most useful application
is selecting and modifying individual
| | 01:04 | anchor points around an
object. Let's take a look.
| | 01:07 | As I get towards the edge of this piece of
artwork, I can find one of the anchor points.
| | 01:11 | You will notice when I hover over it,
the anchor point highlights indicating
| | 01:14 | that it is an anchor point.
| | 01:16 | If I click on it, the anchor point
becomes active and I can then move that
| | 01:20 | anchor point independently of all
of the rest of the anchor points.
| | 01:25 | This is one of those things where
you have to be good or otherwise you're
| | 01:28 | dangerous, because you can actually
do some serious damage to your artwork
| | 01:32 | simply by clicking and
dragging these anchor points around.
| | 01:35 | So it's a good idea to take some time
to see exactly how these things work and
| | 01:38 | we will cover anchor points in-depth
in a future movie, but I just wanted to
| | 01:42 | point out how you get a hold of these
things, so that when we get to that part
| | 01:45 | of the course, you're ready to rock and roll.
| | 01:47 | Remember you can access the Direct
Selection tool from the Tools panel or
| | 01:52 | simply by hitting the letter A on your keyboard.
| | 01:54 | Either way it's a great tool for
targeted selections inside of Illustrator.
| | 01:59 | If you want to deselect the anchor
point or the object that you have selected
| | 02:02 | with the Direct Selection tool,
simply click away from it and it
| | 02:04 | automatically deselects.
| | 02:06 | The second point and click tool is the
Group Selection tool, and it can be found
| | 02:10 | inside of the same tools
section of the Direct Selection tool.
| | 02:14 | If you click and hold the Direct
Selection tool, you'll see the Group
| | 02:17 | Selection tool here.
| | 02:18 | Once you select the Group Selection
tool you'll notice that it looks much
| | 02:21 | the same as the Direct Selection tool,
although it has the little plus
| | 02:24 | icon associated with it.
| | 02:26 | This tool allows you to click once
and select an object, or click again and
| | 02:30 | it will select an entire group of objects,
providing the objects are grouped together.
| | 02:34 | If you happen to have a group within a
group, clicking a third time will then
| | 02:38 | select the parent group. Let's take a look.
| | 02:42 | If I come out here and select this
object it selects it when I click once.
| | 02:47 | If I click again it selects this part of
the object, let me zoom out so you can see.
| | 02:55 | Let's click away, and again, I'll
click this first, clicking it again
| | 03:00 | selects the entire group.
| | 03:01 | If it were a part of a bigger group, I
could click again and it would select the
| | 03:05 | entire thing, but there's
only one single group here.
| | 03:08 | It is one piece that goes diagonal.
| | 03:11 | Same holds true on this one.
| | 03:12 | If I click once, it selects this piece,
clicking again, selects the entire thing.
| | 03:17 | Let's group these objects together
really quickly by making a selection of
| | 03:21 | them, and then pressing Command+G or Ctrl+G
on my keyboard. That creates one big group.
| | 03:28 | Then I will switch to my Group
Selection tool and I will click away to deselect
| | 03:33 | everything, I'll click once here, twice
to select that next object and one more
| | 03:40 | time to select the entire group itself.
| | 03:43 | The point and click methods of selection
inside of Illustrator are certainly the
| | 03:46 | most primitive, but they're
also one of the most effective.
| | 03:49 | Making selections is one of the most
important pieces of modifying artwork.
| | 03:54 | After all, you can't modify what
you haven't selected, now can you?
| | 03:58 | No matter what your preferred method
of selection, take the time to play
| | 04:01 | with all of the Selection tools, so
that you'll know how to use them when
| | 04:04 | the need arises.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Magic Wand tool| 00:00 | Up until now we've been using very
precise methods of selection, wherein we
| | 00:03 | clicked on something and it became selected.
| | 00:06 | However, there may come a time when you
need to select objects that are similar
| | 00:10 | to one another, or you're working on a
complex piece of artwork and you need to
| | 00:13 | select multiple objects at a time.
| | 00:15 | Performing a task like this with tools
like the Direct or Group Selection tools
| | 00:19 | could prove to be quite tedious,
because you have to point and click and
| | 00:22 | point and click, and you have to hold
down the Shift key or other modifier keys
| | 00:26 | to make your selection more accurate.
| | 00:28 | Enter the Magic Wand tool.
| | 00:30 | The Magic Wand tool allows you to make
selections of multiple items simply by
| | 00:34 | clicking on one of them and then finding
other items with similar attributes and
| | 00:38 | making them part of the selection automatically.
| | 00:41 | Let's take a look at exactly what I mean.
| | 00:43 | First off, I'm going to show you just how
tedious the direct selection method can be.
| | 00:47 | If I come up and grab the Direct
Selection tool, let's say that I wanted to
| | 00:50 | select everything on my page.
| | 00:52 | Now I could make a marquee
selection like this and hopefully encompass
| | 00:57 | everything, or I could simply come in
here and click, hold down my Shift key and
| | 01:03 | click and click and click.
| | 01:06 | But you notice, by doing that, I've
only selected the top part of this artwork
| | 01:10 | and the top part of this artwork.
| | 01:11 | The bottom piece is not selected.
| | 01:13 | That would take a long time for
me to go through and select all of
| | 01:16 | these different objects.
| | 01:17 | Even if I'm using the Regular
Selection tool, I would click, hold down Shift,
| | 01:22 | click, Shift, click, click, et cetera,
and so that takes up a lot of time, time
| | 01:29 | that I probably don't have.
| | 01:31 | The Magic Wand tool works
in a much different way.
| | 01:33 | When I grab the Magic Wand tool, you
can see it turns into little wand, and I
| | 01:37 | can then hover over a piece of
artwork and then simply click and it
| | 01:41 | automatically selects artwork based
on the attributes that I've clicked on.
| | 01:44 | If you want to refine how the Magic
Wand tool works, you simply come over here
| | 01:49 | and double-click the Magic Wand tool.
| | 01:51 | This opens up the Magic Wand
tool preferences or options.
| | 01:55 | These are not located anywhere else.
| | 01:57 | You have to double-click the
Wand tool in order to bring them up.
| | 02:00 | When you first open up the Magic Wand
tool preferences, you're going to see the
| | 02:04 | basic options of Fill Color and Tolerance.
| | 02:07 | By default, the Tolerance
should be a lot lower than this.
| | 02:10 | Mine is actually set to a 100 to
encompass a broad range of objects.
| | 02:14 | The lower the Tolerance, the closer the
objects will have to be in appearance to
| | 02:18 | the original object in order to become selected.
| | 02:20 | Right now I've got the Tolerance set up
to 100, so it's a very broad selection.
| | 02:25 | If I were to take that down to
something like 10, watch what happens.
| | 02:28 | I'll set it to 10 and then I'll click
away from the objects to deselect them.
| | 02:34 | Remember before when I clicked on this
piece of artwork, almost everything on
| | 02:37 | the page became selected.
| | 02:39 | Clicking this object now, it only
selects the objects that are really close to
| | 02:43 | that neutral gray that I've selected.
| | 02:45 | Notice this area over here did not get
selected, the bottom part of the apple
| | 02:50 | did not get selected, neither that
this heart down at the bottom either.
| | 02:53 | Now in some cases, this is okay,
because then you can just go grab the
| | 02:57 | Direct Selection tool and finish off
selecting the little parts and pieces that you missed.
| | 03:01 | So for instance, if I wanted to select
the apple and the heart, I just grab the
| | 03:05 | Direct Selection tool, hold down
Shift, click, click, and I'm done.
| | 03:09 | But you see how much faster I got with
that selection now that I'm utilizing
| | 03:13 | the Magic Wand tool.
| | 03:14 | Adjusting the Tolerance is going to be
somewhat of a trial and error process.
| | 03:18 | So just take the Tolerance and remember,
dragging it to the left, makes it more precise;
| | 03:23 | dragging it to the right makes it more broad.
| | 03:25 | So if you need to select a lot of
objects on screen, try taking the Tolerance up.
| | 03:29 | If you need to select one or two
similar objects, just take it down.
| | 03:34 | Let's go up here to the panel menu
of the Magic Wand options and turn on
| | 03:38 | Show Stroke Options.
| | 03:40 | This is another way that you can
control how the Magic Wand tool works.
| | 03:43 | You can actually base the Magic Wand tool
on Stroke Color and Stroke Weight as well.
| | 03:48 | The Tolerance level here works much
the same way as it does with Fill Color.
| | 03:51 | For Stroke Color, you determine how
closely the stroke color has to be to the
| | 03:55 | original color in order for
the object to become selected.
| | 03:58 | Again, dragging it to the
left makes it more precise;
| | 04:01 | dragging it to the right makes
it more of a loose selection.
| | 04:04 | Stroke Weight, works the same way,
except this time it's not based on color;
| | 04:08 | it's based on the thickness of the stroke.
| | 04:11 | In this case, the stroke is
the border surrounding an object.
| | 04:14 | So for the Stroke Weight here, dragging
that to the left means it has to closely
| | 04:18 | match the stroke Weight or stroke Thickness.
| | 04:22 | Dragging it to the right means that
it can be a wide range of either thick
| | 04:25 | strokes or really thin
strokes and anywhere in between.
| | 04:28 | If I open up the options again, you'll
notice there's one more section I can turn on.
| | 04:32 | It's Show Transparency Options.
| | 04:35 | Clicking this automatically opens up
the bottom panel and I can choose Opacity.
| | 04:40 | Opacity works much the same way that
the others do, but in this case instead of
| | 04:43 | colors or weight, it's
actually based on Opacity level.
| | 04:47 | So you can adjust the Tolerance level
to be closer to the original Opacity,
| | 04:51 | or you can encompass a broad range
of Opacity levels by increasing the
| | 04:55 | Tolerance level as well.
| | 04:57 | You can also choose to select
objects based on the blending modes.
| | 04:59 | Now we haven't covered blending modes
yet, but just know that these are ways
| | 05:03 | that objects interact with one
another when they're overlaid on top of each
| | 05:06 | other, and so blending modes are a
great way to also select objects around
| | 05:11 | the canvas as well.
| | 05:12 | If you want to turn these off, just
uncheck the box, and if you want to hide
| | 05:16 | those options, just come right back up
to the panel menu and choose Hide Stroke
| | 05:20 | Options and Hide Transparency Options.
| | 05:22 | To close the Magic Wand Tool panel,
simply click the X in the top right corner.
| | 05:28 | Once you do that, you can then go back
to the Magic Wand tool and continue using
| | 05:31 | it with the settings that you specified.
| | 05:34 | As you start to work with more complex
artwork in Illustrator, you might find
| | 05:37 | that the Magic Wand tool becomes
very useful when making selections.
| | 05:40 | And it might even help you get a
little bit more efficient and faster along
| | 05:44 | the way.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Lasso tool| 00:00 | The Lasso tool is yet another Selection
tool that works much the same way as the
| | 00:04 | Direct Selection tool in Illustrator.
| | 00:06 | It can be used to select either single
objects within groups or single anchor
| | 00:10 | point on a shape as well.
| | 00:12 | The difference is that you'll be
using a marquee method of selection when
| | 00:15 | you're using this tool.
| | 00:16 | It also differs in the fact that the Lasso
tool is what we call a pure selection tool.
| | 00:21 | There are no modifying capabilities
like what you have with the Arrow tools.
| | 00:25 | For instance, when you make a selection
with one of the Arrow tools, you simply
| | 00:28 | click on the object, it become
selected, and then you can move the object
| | 00:32 | around, edit the anchor points in the
case of the Direct Selection tool, and
| | 00:35 | all that kind of stuff.
| | 00:37 | With the Lasso tool, you simply
make a selection and that's it.
| | 00:40 | There's no modifying anchor points, there's
no moving the object, it's simply selected.
| | 00:45 | Let's take a look.
| | 00:46 | In order to locate the Lasso tool,
come over to your Tools panel and find
| | 00:49 | this object right here.
| | 00:50 | You can also hit the letter Q on your
keyboard to instantly invoke that tool.
| | 00:55 | Once you have the Lasso tool selected,
you'll notice that it comes out, and it's
| | 00:58 | a little cursor with a lasso attached to it.
| | 01:01 | In order to make a selection with the
Lasso tool, you simply come out and draw a
| | 01:06 | selection around a piece of artwork.
| | 01:09 | Once you do that, you'll notice that
it becomes selected and much the same
| | 01:12 | way with the Direct Selection tool, you do
not get a bounding box around this object.
| | 01:17 | That's because this is essentially a free-
form drawing of the Direct Selection tool.
| | 01:22 | Let me grab the Direct Selection
tool and show you exactly what I mean.
| | 01:25 | The Direct Selection tool, just like
the Lasso tool, when I make a marquee
| | 01:29 | selection, will encompass whatever
piece of artwork that you have inside the
| | 01:32 | selection, just like that.
| | 01:35 | But in the case of the Lasso tool, I
actually get the ability to draw around
| | 01:38 | shapes, which makes it a lot easier
when I'm inside of a tight window or
| | 01:42 | when objects are overlaid over the
top of each other, for me to select the
| | 01:45 | objects that I really need.
| | 01:47 | When I'm using the Direct Selection tool,
I just get this big square and that's
| | 01:51 | really difficult to use inside
of complex pieces of artwork.
| | 01:54 | So again, let's go back
over to the Lasso tool here.
| | 01:58 | Once I've the Lasso tool selected, I'm
going to zoom in right down here in the
| | 02:01 | bottom on this little piece of artwork here.
| | 02:05 | So I'll zoom in, and then in order to
pan this to the center of my screen, I'm
| | 02:09 | going to use a really cool keyboard shortcut.
| | 02:11 | I'm going to temporarily
hold down the Spacebar key.
| | 02:14 | When I do that you'll notice that my
icon turns from the Lasso tool into the
| | 02:17 | Hand tool, and with my Spacebar
held down, I can then grab and drag my
| | 02:22 | canvas, just like this.
| | 02:24 | It doesn't matter what tool you have
selected in Illustrator, if you temporarily
| | 02:28 | hold down the Spacebar key, it
automatically turns into the Hand tool for just a
| | 02:31 | moment, and allows you to
reposition your artwork.
| | 02:33 | This is going to eliminate the need to
constantly go over to the Tools panel and
| | 02:37 | click the Hand tool in order to use it.
| | 02:39 | So remember, just temporarily hold down
the Spacebar, click and move your artwork.
| | 02:44 | Now that I've got my artwork in
position I'm ready to start making a selection.
| | 02:48 | You can see that this is a little
difficult to get in between these objects,
| | 02:52 | especially if I were using
the Direct Selection tool.
| | 02:54 | If I try to make a
selection of this, check that out.
| | 02:57 | I get the bottom part of the
paintbrush as well. You see that?
| | 03:02 | If I switch to the Lasso tool, I can
draw around this object, like so, and I
| | 03:09 | only select that particular part of it.
| | 03:12 | You can do the same thing for some of the
paperclip or even these stars over here.
| | 03:18 | I can draw around, and this is a really
tight window, but with the Lasso tool,
| | 03:23 | it's very easy. Just draw
around and release your mouse.
| | 03:28 | Now it's going to take some getting
used to, especially if you're not used to
| | 03:31 | drawing with a mouse.
| | 03:32 | I actually recommend when you're
working in Illustrator, for making selections
| | 03:35 | or using brushes to maybe use
something like a drawing tablet.
| | 03:39 | There are a ton of drawing
tablets out in the market.
| | 03:41 | They make it a lot easier to draw with.
| | 03:43 | They even make monitors nowadays that
you can draw directly on the screen.
| | 03:46 | They are pretty expensive, but they're
worth the money if you're going to be
| | 03:49 | doing a lot of freehand drawing or
making a lot of freehand selections.
| | 03:52 | As you can see, the Lasso tool is
great for performing precise free-form
| | 03:58 | selections inside of Illustrator.
| | 04:00 | So the next time you're in a tight spot
and need to select that one anchor point
| | 04:03 | in a sea of thousands, try using this
tool and see if it doesn't get you the
| | 04:07 | result you're looking for.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting objects by attribute| 00:00 |
In addition to using the Selection tools,
you can also make selections based on
| | 00:04 |
object attributes, and that's what we're
going to be talking about in this movie.
| | 00:07 |
So, first and foremost, I'm going to zoom
in once again on our little paintbrushes
| | 00:11 |
up here at the top.
And I'm going to grab my Selection tool
| | 00:13 |
and make a selection of one of these.
And once I have one of those selected, I
| | 00:18 |
am then going to go to the Select menu.
And I'm going to choose Same.
| | 00:22 |
In the Same menu, I'm going to find
several different options.
| | 00:25 |
Appearance, Appearance Attribute, Blending
Mode, Fill in Stroke, Fill Color, Opacity,
| | 00:30 |
Stroke Color, Stroke Weight, Graphic
Style, Symbol Instance, or Link Block
| | 00:34 |
Series.
So, if I wanted to select everything on
| | 00:37 |
the art board that had the exact same
color as this particular piece of artwork,
| | 00:41 |
I could select fill color.
When I do that and I zoom out, I'll press
| | 00:45 |
Cmd or Ctrl+0 on my keyboard to do that.
You'll see that there are several objects
| | 00:49 |
selected on the art board that are all
filled with this neutral gray color.
| | 00:53 |
This is great if you have several objects
that share the same color that you
| | 00:57 |
instantly want to change.
So, for instance, I can come over here and
| | 00:59 |
just click green, and everything that was
gray now is green.
| | 01:03 |
You will see that some of them did not change.
| | 01:05 |
For instance, the apple did not change,
and the heart down here did not change.
| | 01:08 |
Neither did the outline of the star or the
paintbrushes up here.
| | 01:12 |
Why?
That's because they're all using a
| | 01:13 |
different shade of gray than the rest of
these objects were.
| | 01:17 |
You can undo this change by hitting Cmd or
Ctrl+Z on your keyboard.
| | 01:21 |
I could also select an object like the
star, I'm then going to go to the Select
| | 01:27 |
menu > Same, and go down and select Stroke Color.
| | 01:31 |
Nothing is going to happen there.
That is because these two objects down
| | 01:35 |
here at the bottom have different appearances.
| | 01:38 |
This one has a fill and no stroke.
This one has a fill and a stroke on the
| | 01:42 |
outside.
Since it's a mixed bag, Illustrator
| | 01:45 |
doesn't know what to select.
So, it's very hard for it to do that.
| | 01:48 |
If you don't know the attributes that
you're looking for, you can just select an
| | 01:52 |
object on the art board, and then come up
here to the Control panel and find this
| | 01:55 |
button to select similar objects on the
art board.
| | 01:58 |
It's going to go out and it's going to
find things that it thinks are similar.
| | 02:01 |
In this case, it's most likely based it
off of the fill color that we have there.
| | 02:05 |
What if you have different types of
objects on your art board?
| | 02:08 |
Like lets say, text objects, so I'll take
this and I'll type out my name, for
| | 02:13 |
instance.
And I'll take that and scale it up, so you
| | 02:17 |
can see it.
And then, I'll copy that and I'll paste it
| | 02:20 |
a few times throughout the art board.
Lets say we have several different pieces
| | 02:23 |
of text.
I can then select a piece of text go to
| | 02:27 |
the Select menu.
This time go down to Object and I can say
| | 02:31 |
All Text Objects.
And when I do that, all the text objects
| | 02:35 |
become active and I easily make changes to them.
| | 02:37 |
I can change color.
I could change the font.
| | 02:40 |
I could also get rid of them by pressing
the Backspace or Delete key.
| | 02:46 |
So, the next time you're working with a
lot of different objects, a lot of
| | 02:49 |
different shapes, on your art board, try
out these select commands and see if it
| | 02:53 |
doesn't make it a just little bit easier
to find exactly what you're looking for.
| | 02:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Grouping objects| 00:00 | As you start to create artwork inside
of Illustrator, you may find the need to
| | 00:03 | modify or move objects in
unison with one another.
| | 00:07 | In order to do this,
you'll need to create a group.
| | 00:10 | In this movie, I'll walk you through the
basics of grouping objects together and
| | 00:14 | show you how they can help you
modify multiple objects at one time.
| | 00:17 | In order to make groups you have to
make a couple of selections first. Let's go
| | 00:21 | and grab the Regular Selection tool
and then click on a piece of artwork.
| | 00:26 | Once I have that piece of artwork
selected, I want to group it with
| | 00:29 | another piece of artwork.
| | 00:30 | Since these two pieces go hand-in-hand,
I'll hold down my Shift key and click
| | 00:34 | this piece of artwork as well.
| | 00:36 | Now I'm ready to group these objects
together, so I can then scale and rotate
| | 00:40 | them in unison with one another.
| | 00:41 | In order to make a group, there are two
things I can do, I can go to Object and
| | 00:46 | select Group, or as you see out to the
right, I can use the keyboard shortcut
| | 00:51 | Command+G or Ctrl+G, that's Command on
the Mac, Ctrl on the PC, and the letter G.
| | 00:56 | You can also see directly
underneath that I have the ability to ungroup
| | 01:00 | objects as well, with Shift+Ctrl+G
or Shift+Command+G on a Mac.
| | 01:05 | If I choose Group, nothing really
happens on my canvas, but these objects are
| | 01:11 | now grouped together. So if I click away
from them and then click back on this
| | 01:15 | single object, I actually select both
of them, because they're now grouped.
| | 01:20 | If I click to move them, they
both move in unison with one another.
| | 01:23 | As a matter of fact, since they're
grouped, the only way to move them
| | 01:26 | independently of each other is to
utilize the Direct Selection tool or something
| | 01:31 | called Isolation mode, which
we'll talk about in a future movie.
| | 01:35 | If you want to group multiple objects
within a group that's possible as well.
| | 01:40 | I can select this group, hold down my
Shift key and select this group and use
| | 01:46 | Ctrl+G, then I can hold down my Shift
key and select these objects in the second
| | 01:53 | row, hit Ctrl+G and now I've created a
group, within a group, within a group.
| | 02:01 | If I want to start ungrouping these, I
can go to Object > Ungroup, and now these
| | 02:07 | are independent of each other,
but these are still grouped.
| | 02:12 | In order to ungrouped these, Shift+
Ctrl+G or Shift+Command+G on a Mac.
| | 02:17 | Now if I click away, you'll notice
this and this are now separate groups.
| | 02:23 | Again, I can select this object,
Shift+Ctrl+G to ungroup it, and now each
| | 02:29 | individual piece is ungrouped.
| | 02:34 | I can go back over here Shift+Ctrl+G and
now these are independent objects as well.
| | 02:41 | As I said, once you've got your
objects grouped together, they act as one
| | 02:45 | solid object, but remember, you still
have the ability to edit the individual
| | 02:50 | components of a group by using
something called Isolation mode, which we'll
| | 02:54 | cover in a future movie.
| | 02:56 | Grouping objects is a great way to keep
your artwork together and to work with
| | 02:59 | multiple objects at one time.
| | 03:01 | Using groups as well as the keyboard
shortcuts for groups is a great way to help
| | 03:05 | you speed up your workflow.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using isolation mode| 00:00 | When you're dealing with artwork that's
been grouped together, you may find the
| | 00:04 | need to go in and edit
individual components of a group.
| | 00:07 | If that's the case, you're going to
have to utilize something called isolation
| | 00:11 | mode in order to get in and work
with those individual pieces of artwork.
| | 00:14 | In this movie, I'll explore isolation
mode and how it can help you get control
| | 00:18 | of those individual components.
| | 00:20 | The first thing I'm going to do
is zoom in on a piece of artwork.
| | 00:22 | So I'll grab the Zoom tool and
go right here on this little icon.
| | 00:29 | I'll grab my Selection tool and click on it.
| | 00:31 | As you can see, all of these
different objects are grouped together.
| | 00:34 | As a matter of fact, I can go up to the
Object menu and I could ungroup them if
| | 00:38 | I wanted to, but I want them
to remain one single object.
| | 00:42 | However, I need to get in
and change just a few things.
| | 00:45 | For instance, I might want to change
the brush tip or maybe some of the paint
| | 00:48 | splatters that are out here. But how I do that?
| | 00:51 | They're all grouped together.
| | 00:52 | Well you can utilize isolation mode to
get in and work with these individual pieces.
| | 00:57 | In order to enter isolation mode,
it's actually pretty simple.
| | 01:00 | You simply double-click anywhere on the artwork.
| | 01:03 | Once you do that, you're going to notice
that everything else on the canvas goes gray.
| | 01:08 | Notice over here, it grays this out,
as well as all these other icons.
| | 01:12 | Now they were gray before, but
they're a little lighter gray now.
| | 01:15 | If you're working on a colored piece of
artwork, you would see everything would gray out.
| | 01:19 | You'll also notice once you enter
isolation mode that you get this little strip
| | 01:22 | going across the top, indicating that
you're now working inside of this group.
| | 01:27 | You can also see that you're on this
layer and you can return out of isolation
| | 01:32 | mode by clicking this little arrow here.
| | 01:34 | As you go deeper down the rabbit hole
of isolation mode, you'll see breadcrumb
| | 01:39 | links here at the top.
| | 01:40 | You can actually go from group to group
to group within isolation mode without
| | 01:44 | ever having to exit.
| | 01:46 | And then finally, click
the little arrow to get out.
| | 01:48 | You can also exit isolation mode by
double-clicking outside of the objects
| | 01:52 | that you're working on.
| | 01:54 | When I double-click, see how that
highlighted back to normal and the strip went
| | 01:57 | away across the top.
| | 01:58 | That means I've exited isolation mode
and I can now click on this and it's
| | 02:02 | one solid group again.
| | 02:04 | Let's jump right back into isolation
mode and see exactly how to use it.
| | 02:08 | I'll double-click to enter isolation
mode, and now you can see I get control over
| | 02:12 | this item, this item, as well as this.
| | 02:17 | Now what if I wanted to change
something like the brush tips?
| | 02:20 | Well I'll come here and I'll
double-click this piece of artwork.
| | 02:24 | It jumps me into the isolation
mode for this piece of artwork.
| | 02:27 | See how everything else kind of fades
out to the background and this actually
| | 02:31 | comes to the foreground even
though it lies behind the paints?
| | 02:35 | Now I have control over this and all of the
little individual objects that go with it.
| | 02:41 | So if I want to change the brush tip,
I select it, I'll come over and make
| | 02:45 | sure I'm working on the fill color, and then
let's say I wanted to change that to black.
| | 02:49 | Change it, and there we go.
| | 02:52 | If I want to back out of this
isolation mode, I simply come up here and I'll
| | 02:56 | select the parent group.
| | 02:57 | That brings me back out.
| | 02:59 | Then I can select this, double-click,
and now I can change this brush tip,
| | 03:05 | just like so.
| | 03:08 | And again, I can go back to the breadcrumb
links and go back to the containing group.
| | 03:12 | Now let's click on this, let's double
-click, and now I have control over
| | 03:18 | each individual paint.
| | 03:21 | If I run into another group, I can
enter isolation mode for that as well
| | 03:25 | by double-clicking.
| | 03:28 | Then let's say I wanted
to change the yellow color.
| | 03:30 | I can change that to maybe
a brighter shade of yellow.
| | 03:35 | The red; I want that to be a
little bit more bright red.
| | 03:38 | The blue; let's make that a little bit
more blue, and I'll just go down the line
| | 03:43 | in making all these different changes.
| | 03:52 | Now if I need to get back out to
change these, remember, I just use my
| | 03:54 | breadcrumbs and I can change these.
| | 04:00 | If I need to get inside of the group
again, double-click, make the change, and
| | 04:07 | then again, use my breadcrumb
links to step my way back out.
| | 04:09 | If I want to exit isolation mode
completely, I'll just step back out using the
| | 04:15 | arrows or I could have double-
clicked out there to the side.
| | 04:18 | Now I'll zoom back out.
| | 04:20 | So as you can see, this still
maintains its grouping. I can still move and
| | 04:24 | rotate and scale it all as one object.
| | 04:26 | But anytime I need to get in and
edit an individual piece of it, I
| | 04:30 | utilize isolation mode.
| | 04:32 | So the next time you're working on a
piece of artwork that's grouped together,
| | 04:35 | don't ungroup it for the sake of ungrouping it.
| | 04:38 | Just jump into the isolation mode, make
your changes, and jump right back out.
| | 04:42 | It's a great way to make sure that you
maintain the structure of your document
| | 04:45 | and also maintain full control.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Resizing your artwork| 00:00 | In this next movie, we'll be exploring
something that you've probably seen me do
| | 00:04 | a few different times throughout
this course, but you might not have been
| | 00:07 | exactly sure how I did it.
| | 00:08 | So I've thought I'd take some time
and actually show you how to resize your
| | 00:12 | artwork here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:14 | So the first thing you have to do is
actually have your artwork selected on the artboard.
| | 00:18 | So I've grabbed the Selection tool and
I'll just grab my little bear here, and
| | 00:22 | once I grab the bear, you'll notice
that I get a bounding box all the way
| | 00:25 | around the outside.
| | 00:26 | The bounding box is simply an invisible
container that holds your artwork together.
| | 00:32 | This container is where you're able to
do all of the resizing directly on screen.
| | 00:37 | You'll notice that in the four corners of
this bounding box, you have little squares.
| | 00:41 | These little squares are what we
call control points and on those control
| | 00:45 | points, you can move your cursor to them,
and you'll see that it turns into two
| | 00:48 | little arrows, in the corner here,
here, and here, and down here as well.
| | 00:54 | You'll also notice when I go to the
ones in the middle, they go straight up and
| | 00:57 | down or straight across.
| | 01:00 | This indicates that I'm going to
resize horizontally, this indicates that I'm
| | 01:03 | resizing diagonally, and this
indicates that I'm resizing vertically.
| | 01:08 | When you are resizing artwork you need
to make sure that you're constraining the
| | 01:11 | proportion of your artwork, unless
of course you're going for some funky
| | 01:14 | distortion, but in most cases, you want
scale equally on all sides up or down.
| | 01:19 | So in order to do that, you are going
to have to utilize something called a
| | 01:22 | modifier key, and in this case,
the modifier key is the Shift key.
| | 01:26 | So let's say that I needed my
bear to be a little bit smaller.
| | 01:29 | I am going to come up here to the top-
right corner and wait for my cursor to
| | 01:32 | turn into the two-pointing arrows.
| | 01:34 | Once it turns into the two-pointing
arrows, I'm going to hold down my Shift key.
| | 01:38 | I'm not going to let go of my
Shift key until I'm done resizing.
| | 01:41 | I'm then going to take my mouse,
click, and drag straight down.
| | 01:47 | As you can see, I'm resizing it way down.
| | 01:51 | Once I have got it where I want it, I'll
release my mouse and then release my Shift key.
| | 01:56 | And now it's the same piece
of artwork, only scaled down.
| | 01:59 | If I want to bring it back up, I make a
selection, go to the corner, hold down
| | 02:04 | Shift and click and drag.
| | 02:07 | What happens if I don't hold down the Shift key?
| | 02:09 | Well if I do this without holding
down the Shift key, you can see I can
| | 02:14 | seriously distort my artwork.
| | 02:16 | I can make him really short and fat or
I can make him really tall and skinny,
| | 02:22 | but it doesn't look the same.
| | 02:23 | It's not actually scaling everything
to make it look like he grew or shrink.
| | 02:28 | It's just making him look squished or wide.
| | 02:31 | So in this case, I'll select him and I'll
undo those changes and get him back to normal.
| | 02:36 | I undid those changes by using
Command+Z or Ctrl+Z on my keyboard.
| | 02:40 | You could also go up to the
Edit menu and choose Undo.
| | 02:43 | Now that I've got him up, let's take a
look at other ways that we can resize.
| | 02:47 | We can actually use a tool to resize as well.
| | 02:51 | Over here on the left, there is the
Scale tool, which you can access via the
| | 02:55 | letter S on your keyboard
or by clicking on it here.
| | 02:57 | With the Scale tool selected, you
can actually click an anchor point and
| | 03:03 | Scale artwork like this.
| | 03:06 | If you hold down the Shift key,
it'll constrain based upon the angle that
| | 03:13 | you're dragging, like so.
| | 03:16 | You see you still get some
distortion as well, but it does scale
| | 03:19 | everything equally as you go.
| | 03:24 | So it's a little bit difficult to
utilize a Scale tool in terms of just
| | 03:27 | resizing, but it is a great way to
perform basic scales of smaller objects.
| | 03:33 | In any case, resizing artwork is
always going to be a necessity.
| | 03:37 | You are going to have to scale things up,
you're going to have the scale things
| | 03:40 | down, especially if you're repurposing
artwork for multiple projects like print,
| | 03:44 | web, or even going to mobile and tablet devices.
| | 03:47 | You're going to have to able to scale
artwork and utilizing these controls that
| | 03:51 | I've just shown you is the easiest
and quickest way to do just that.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rotating objects| 00:00 | Another basic transformation that you'll
probably have to make to your artwork
| | 00:03 | quite often is a rotation.
| | 00:05 | In this movie, I'll explore the
rotation options and how you can perform those
| | 00:09 | to transform your artwork.
| | 00:11 | In order to perform a rotation, you
have to have your artwork selected or a
| | 00:15 | group of artwork selected.
| | 00:16 | In order to do that, you can simply
use the Selection tool and draw marquee
| | 00:20 | around the objects or, if they're
already group together, you can simply click
| | 00:24 | on them and they automatically become selected.
| | 00:27 | Once you have your objects selected,
you're going to use the control points
| | 00:30 | around the bounding box to make your rotation.
| | 00:33 | Again, the bounding box is this
invisible box that contains your artwork.
| | 00:38 | Once you find the bounding box, bring
your cursor to the top right corner or any
| | 00:42 | corner for that matter, and wait
for the arched arrow to appear.
| | 00:45 | Once you see the arched arrow, you
can simply click and drag clockwise or
| | 00:50 | counterclockwise to rotate your object.
| | 00:58 | Once you're ready to complete the
rotation simply let go of your mouse.
| | 01:02 | Your artwork automatically stays
in the position you rotated it to.
| | 01:05 | If you want to undo that transformation
simply hit Command+Z or Ctrl+Z on your keyboard.
| | 01:10 | If you'd like to rotate your artwork
in specific increments, like 45 degree
| | 01:14 | angles for instance, you can come to
the corner and hold down the Shift key and
| | 01:18 | then rotate either clockwise or
counterclockwise to 45, 90, 135, -135, -90, -45
| | 01:31 | or back to your original starting point.
| | 01:33 | So again, that's coming to the corner,
waiting for the arched arrow, holding
| | 01:38 | down the Shift key, and
then clicking and dragging.
| | 01:40 | That's how you go in specified increments.
| | 01:44 | Once you've performed your basic
transformation, you can save your artwork and
| | 01:48 | continue working or simply continue
transforming other objects on your artboard as well.
| | 01:53 | As I said, rotating artwork is an
essential part of an illustrator's workflow.
| | 01:57 | You'll find yourself
rotating things all the time.
| | 02:00 | So utilizing this is the quickest and
easiest way to get you there and using
| | 02:04 | modifier keys is a great way to ensure
precise rotations each and every time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Distorting and transforming objects| 00:00 | Up until now, we have been
performing some really basic and mundane
| | 00:03 | transformations on our artwork.
| | 00:05 | Now it's time to get a little bit
more creative by utilizing some of
| | 00:09 | Illustrator's Distortion and
Transformation tools. Let's take a look.
| | 00:13 | I have got a blank document open here
and you can do that by simply going to the
| | 00:16 | File menu and choosing
New and creating a document.
| | 00:19 | It doesn't matter how big or anything
else, just a blank document will do.
| | 00:23 | And then we are going to draw some
basic shapes that we can manipulate.
| | 00:26 | I am going to come over to the Shapes,
click and hold and find the Star tool.
| | 00:31 | In the Star tool, I am just going to
click and draw out a star like this and I
| | 00:37 | will move it out on my artboard.
| | 00:38 | I am then going to hold down my Option or
Alt key and click and drag out a duplicate.
| | 00:43 | Then I will hold down my Option or Alt
key again and duplicate this one as well.
| | 00:49 | So now I have three stars out of my artboard.
| | 00:51 | Once I have my stars out there, I am
going to select the first one here and I
| | 00:55 | will give it a nice color
there, take the stroke away.
| | 01:00 | The middle one here, I will put a no
stroke on that as well, make it yellow.
| | 01:07 | And then the final one, we will
make that green, just like this.
| | 01:14 | So I have got these three stars out here
and I'm going to distort them all differently.
| | 01:19 | Let's first select this one and then
we will come over here to tools and I'm
| | 01:22 | going to look inside of a
tool called the Width tool.
| | 01:24 | This is what you should see by default.
| | 01:26 | When I click and hold on the Width tool,
you are going to notice that there are
| | 01:29 | several other tools inside of this toolbox.
| | 01:32 | If you want to break this toolbox out, you can
simply click right here on this little arrow.
| | 01:37 | Doing so, turns those tools in their own
free-floating panel, which is really cool.
| | 01:42 | Right here, the first tool,
it's called the Warp tool.
| | 01:45 | The Warp tool allows you to warp
objects based on anchor points that you draw
| | 01:50 | across while you are using it.
| | 01:51 | So for instance, I can click and drag
here and it warps in that point, click and
| | 01:55 | drag here warping that one,
and here warping that one;
| | 01:59 | almost gives me like a starfish like appearance.
| | 02:01 | I can undo that with Command+Z or Ctrl+Z. I
can then use something called the Twirl tool.
| | 02:07 | This is one of my favorites.
| | 02:09 | So I will come here, click and hold, come
here, click and hold for a shorter time.
| | 02:14 | I will come right here to the bottom
and I will click and hold for a longer
| | 02:18 | time, and you can see that I created
three totally different looks with the same
| | 02:23 | tool, simply by holding my cursor down
at different lengths, it's pretty neat.
| | 02:28 | Now let's switch over to the
Pucker tool to see how that works.
| | 02:31 | The Pucker tool is located right here,
and basically what the Pucker tool
| | 02:35 | allows you to do is suck different
pieces of the artwork inward creating a
| | 02:40 | puckered like effect.
| | 02:41 | I am going to do this on the middle
star right here, so I am going to actually
| | 02:44 | grab the Selection tool really quick and
select this star, then I will grab the Pucker tool.
| | 02:49 | Once I grab the Pucker tool I can then
pucker different pieces of this inward.
| | 02:54 | See how it kind of just draws those points in,
as I drag, so I can almost create like
| | 03:02 | a flower really quickly,
something kind of like that.
| | 03:08 | Finally, let's take a look at the Bloat tool.
| | 03:09 | Again the Bloat tool works much the
same way the Pucker tool does, in that
| | 03:14 | I just come to an anchor point, click hold
and it bloats it out rather than sucking it in.
| | 03:19 | So I will use it for this shape over here.
| | 03:21 | I will grab my Selection tool and grab this guy.
| | 03:25 | Select my Bloat tool.
| | 03:26 | Then I can come right here and watch
what it does to the end of the star.
| | 03:29 | It just bloats it right up.
| | 03:33 | Same thing right there,
right there, right there.
| | 03:40 | As you can see, you can get
pretty creative with what it does.
| | 03:43 | I'll actually bloat this out a
little bit more, almost making like a
| | 03:50 | little person out of this.
| | 03:53 | Then I will just click away to deselect.
| | 03:55 | So three shapes that started out
identical, now look completely different simply
| | 04:00 | by clicking and dragging
around with these tools.
| | 04:03 | You can experiment with all the
different tools such as the Scallop tool, the
| | 04:06 | Crystallize tool and the Wrinkle tool as well.
| | 04:09 | Each one does different things and will make
your artwork look that much more different.
| | 04:12 | A lot of these tools referred to as
Instant Logo tools, because you can take a
| | 04:16 | basic shape and transform them
instantly into a remarkable shape, like the one
| | 04:21 | you see here in the middle, and
then use that for a logo or an icon.
| | 04:24 | It's really simple to transform
ordinary artwork into something really amazing
| | 04:28 | just by using these little tools.
| | 04:30 | If you don't like the way these tools
behave, that's okay, you can actually
| | 04:34 | refine the way the tools behave by
going into the tool options for each tool.
| | 04:39 | This is not something that you'll find
in the Object menu or the Preferences
| | 04:42 | or anything like that.
| | 04:43 | Again, it's hidden inside the tool itself.
| | 04:46 | So if you wanted to change the way
that the Twirl tool worked for instance,
| | 04:50 | simply come to the Twirl tool and double-click.
| | 04:54 | Double-clicking opens up the Twirl tool options.
| | 04:56 | This is where you can adjust the Width
of the tool, that's how big the actual
| | 05:00 | brush is that you are working with,
the Height of the tool, the Angle of the
| | 05:04 | tool, and also the Intensity.
| | 05:07 | If I bump up the Intensity, so let's
say a 100, and bump up the size, so let's
| | 05:14 | do 200x200, then I can also select the
Twirl Rate, so I will set this at about
| | 05:22 | 75 degrees and I can
type that in just like that.
| | 05:26 | The amount of Detail, I can crank that
up just a little bit to 5, and we want
| | 05:32 | this to remain a simple path, so the
Simplify option, we want to crank that
| | 05:36 | up just a little bit.
| | 05:37 | Once we have that all set, I'll go ahead hit OK.
| | 05:40 | When I hit OK, you'll notice my
brush is significantly larger than it was
| | 05:43 | before, and if I come over to this
shape, the same shape I was on before and
| | 05:47 | click, look how wacky that is, really quick and
really fast, because I turned up the Intensity.
| | 05:53 | Do the same thing right over here.
| | 05:56 | And you notice, since I was in between
these two and I didn't actually have them
| | 05:59 | selected, it twirled both of them
together intertwining them in that pattern,
| | 06:04 | which is really neat.
| | 06:05 | Do the same thing right here.
| | 06:13 | Really and truly the magic formula
here is putting yourself in a seat and
| | 06:16 | playing with these tools to see
exactly how they work and how they will
| | 06:20 | interact with your artwork.
| | 06:21 | You can create some amazing things
simply by pointing, clicking, and
| | 06:25 | watching the magic happen.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Repeating transformations| 00:00 | As you continue to work with
transformations, there may come a time when
| | 00:03 | you need to repeat a certain
transformation or create multiple copies of a
| | 00:07 | transformed object.
| | 00:09 | In this movie, I'll show you how to
work with multiple copies and also how to
| | 00:12 | repeat transformations using both
a keyboard shortcut and an effect.
| | 00:17 | First of all, let's see how to
perform basic repeatable transformations.
| | 00:21 | I am going to select this piece of
artwork on my artboard right here by clicking
| | 00:25 | and dragging a selection around it.
| | 00:26 | Once I have it selected, I can come over
the top of it, hold down the Option key
| | 00:30 | on Mac, the Alt key on PC, and once I
see the double cursors appear, I can
| | 00:35 | click and drag it to the right.
| | 00:37 | Once I have it where I want it, I'll
release the mouse and release my Option or
| | 00:40 | Alt key and I've created a
duplicate copy just like you see there.
| | 00:45 | If I hold down the keyboard shortcut,
Ctrl+D or Command+D on the Mac, it
| | 00:50 | automatically creates a duplicate of
that object with the same transformation
| | 00:53 | that I just applied.
| | 00:55 | This could be spacing it out, rotating
it, whatever it is that I just did, it
| | 00:59 | goes ahead and remembers it and
transforms it just like I had before.
| | 01:04 | You can see it's the same distance from
here to here as this one is from here to here.
| | 01:08 | Pretty cool!
| | 01:09 | So I can go and create several
different copies all the way across the screen.
| | 01:13 | These are individual objects and they are
not linked to the original one whatsoever.
| | 01:18 | If I undo that by hitting Command+Z
or Ctrl+Z and come right back to my
| | 01:23 | original. Let's resize this a little
bit, and I'll stick it right there.
| | 01:29 | And let's go into the Effect menu and
choose Distort & Transform and then select
| | 01:34 | the Transform command.
| | 01:37 | Inside of the Transform command,
you can actually perform multiple
| | 01:41 | transformations at a time and
create copies simultaneously.
| | 01:45 | So in this case, what I am going to do is
I am going to scale the object down 80%.
| | 01:50 | That means each time that I recreate the
object, the next one that I create will
| | 01:54 | be 80% smaller than the one before.
| | 01:56 | I'm also going to adjust the Horizontal
and Vertical spacing, but I'll wait on
| | 02:01 | that for just a moment.
| | 02:03 | Finally, I'll rotate at 15 degrees
and I am going to turn on my Preview.
| | 02:07 | You'll notice when I turn on my Preview that
it rotates the apple and it shrinks it down.
| | 02:12 | But it's not exactly what I wanted;
| | 02:15 | I wanted the original to still be there.
| | 02:16 | So I'll create a copy.
| | 02:18 | Right here, I just hit the Up
Arrow key and it creates a copy.
| | 02:23 | Now if I wanted to change where
this apple is positioned, I change the
| | 02:27 | vertical positioning.
| | 02:28 | So I'll just bump this up and I am
just holding down my arrow key right now,
| | 02:33 | until this gets exactly where I want it to go.
| | 02:37 | Once it's cleared, I'll go
ahead and create some more copies.
| | 02:41 | You can kind of see the little
swooping action that I am creating here.
| | 02:46 | I can also change the horizontal
alignment if I wanted to as well.
| | 02:50 | So I'll change that by
moving it over a little bit.
| | 02:53 | Now if I move my dialog box out of the
way, you can see by creating these copies
| | 02:59 | exactly what I'm able to do.
| | 03:00 | So I'll create ten copies and let's
actually shrink the scale down just a
| | 03:05 | little bit as well; 75 and 75.
| | 03:11 | If I change the Rotation amount,
they rotate around like so.
| | 03:20 | So I've created something where it looks
like it's spiraling from the background
| | 03:23 | all the way up into the foreground.
| | 03:25 | When I'm ready to commit
to this change, I'll hit OK.
| | 03:29 | You'll notice that when I do that, I
still only got this one apple selected.
| | 03:33 | That's because these are
technically not individual objects as of yet.
| | 03:37 | There's still one object merely
transformed and repeated all the way around.
| | 03:43 | If I were to make a change to this
original object here, since all of these are
| | 03:46 | linked to it, they would change as well.
| | 03:49 | Watch what happens when I rotate it;
| | 03:51 | they all rotate as well.
| | 03:54 | If I scale it, they are
going to get smaller as well.
| | 03:58 | It isn't until you break the link
between these and the original that they
| | 04:03 | become active objects that you
can then manipulate on their own.
| | 04:06 | In order to do that, what you're going
to have to do is go up to the Object menu
| | 04:11 | and choose Expand Appearance.
| | 04:13 | Basically this means, take any of these
live effects that I have applied to it
| | 04:17 | and expand them out to be
their own separate object.
| | 04:20 | If I click that, everything
becomes its own editable path.
| | 04:25 | Once I've done that, I can then edit
them individually and also transform them
| | 04:29 | one at a time as well.
| | 04:31 | The unfortunate thing once you've
broken the link is if I work on this first
| | 04:35 | one, I can't
automatically update the rest of them.
| | 04:38 | So until you are absolutely sure that
you're ready to break that link, I would
| | 04:42 | just leave it alone.
| | 04:43 | So in this case, I'll use Command+Z or
Ctrl+Z to undo that expansion and now
| | 04:48 | everything is completely
tied to this one apple again.
| | 04:51 | As you can see, when I rotate it here,
all the rest of them follow suit.
| | 04:56 | So again, this is how you create
multiple transformations and repeatable
| | 05:00 | transformations inside of
Illustrator, utilizing some of the basic
| | 05:03 | transformation tools as well as a live effect.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reflecting and skewing objects| 00:00 |
The final stop on our tour of Illustrator
is Transformation tools.
| | 00:03 |
Brings us to the Reflection and Shear tools.
| | 00:06 |
And so, first thing's first, let's worry
about the reflection.
| | 00:09 |
I'm going to select this piece of artwork
on screen, and I'm going to come over here
| | 00:12 |
and click and hold on the Rotate tool and
select Reflect.
| | 00:16 |
And with the Reflect tool selected, you'll
notice you get a little reference point
| | 00:19 |
here in the middle.
That controls where the object is actually
| | 00:22 |
being reflected to.
So, for instance, I can change the
| | 00:24 |
reflection point by just clicking here.
And then, once I click to move the object,
| | 00:29 |
you notice that it flips, and then it
creates a reflection, just like that.
| | 00:33 |
If you want to create a copy of the object
as you're reflecting it, hold down the Alt
| | 00:36 |
key on the PC, the Option key on the Mac.
And then, when you release your mouse, you
| | 00:40 |
get a copy, and then you can release the
Alt or Option key.
| | 00:43 |
So again, that reference point plays a key
role in where the object actually gets
| | 00:47 |
reflected.
Now, in addition to using the tool, you
| | 00:50 |
can also just use a right-click command.
So, for instance, I could take this
| | 00:55 |
right-click and I could choose Transform
and select Reflect.
| | 01:00 |
I could then choose Horizontal or Vertical.
| | 01:02 |
I'm going to turn on my Preview, so I
actually see it.
| | 01:05 |
The issue that I have with this is the
fact that I can't change the reference
| | 01:08 |
point.
If I were to hit OK, it just reflects this
| | 01:11 |
current object.
If I hit Copy, it creates a copy of that
| | 01:14 |
object.
Which I can then switch to my Selection
| | 01:16 |
tool, an then nudge it over using my arrow keys.
| | 01:20 |
And you can see that it is a completely
reflected copy of that.
| | 01:24 |
Now, while this might be the easier way,
just the right-click-and-go method, it's
| | 01:28 |
actually not the best way, opinion because
you don't get full control over how the
| | 01:32 |
object is reflected.
If you create a copy that's 50 pixels
| | 01:35 |
across, or 100 pixels across, I mean it
just doesn't make sense for me to use that
| | 01:40 |
command.
That's why I almost always use the Reflect
| | 01:43 |
tool, and again, you can get that by
selecting it here, or by pressing the
| | 01:46 |
letter O on your keyboard.
Once you have that, bring it out into your
| | 01:50 |
document.
An if you want to temporarily get the
| | 01:52 |
Selection tool, so you can click an make a
selection of something, hold down the Cmd
| | 01:56 |
or Ctrl key on your keyboard.
Make a selection, release that key, and
| | 02:00 |
then you can continue to reflect.
So let's try this one more time.
| | 02:03 |
Click the reference point.
Then, just click an drag to reflect it.
| | 02:06 |
Option+Alt key creates a duplicate.
Now, undo that.
| | 02:12 |
The last part of this is going to be how
to shear something.
| | 02:15 |
And you can reach that tool by going into
the Shear tools right here.
| | 02:19 |
And this is sort of like skewing it in one
direction or the other.
| | 02:23 |
Click and drag in a direction that you
want to take it.
| | 02:26 |
So, something like that, for instance.
It takes a little while to get used to
| | 02:30 |
this.
I'll Cmd or Ctrl+Z to undo that and bring
| | 02:33 |
it out here in the middle.
This one is a little bit, what I call
| | 02:35 |
wonky, as you start to click and drag, it
kind of snaps to different points and
| | 02:39 |
creates some really weird effects that
it's hard to keep control of.
| | 02:43 |
You can try to hold down the Shift key and
it will try to constrain that.
| | 02:46 |
If you wanted to, you could also hold down
the Option or Alt key.
| | 02:49 |
While you're doing this, it would create a
copy that you could then move over and you
| | 02:52 |
could compare the two to see.
Skewing it is just another way of
| | 02:56 |
transforming an object.
In addition to doing it manually, you can
| | 03:01 |
also do it as an effect.
You can go to the Effect menu and you can
| | 03:05 |
go down here.
And you can choose Distort and Transform
| | 03:08 |
and you can choose something like Free Distort.
| | 03:12 |
And the Free Distort tool will actually
allow you to skew it that way as well.
| | 03:17 |
The beauty part about this is it's a
non-destructive edit to the original file.
| | 03:21 |
So, anytime you need to undo that, you can
just go in the Appearance panel and either
| | 03:25 |
remove it or change the parameters that
you set forward.
| | 03:29 |
So, I'll hit Cancel here.
That wraps up our look at the
| | 03:32 |
Transformation tools.
I know that's a lot of stuff to cover, and
| | 03:35 |
I know that there are a lot of different
tweaks and things that you're going to
| | 03:38 |
learn along the way as you play with these things.
| | 03:41 |
And that's exactly what I encourage you to do.
| | 03:43 |
Take some time, open up this file,
practice with it using all of the
| | 03:46 |
different tools we talked about in this chapter.
| | 03:48 |
And I think you'll be really amazed at
some of the creative things that you can
| | 03:52 |
do just using these basic transformation
tools.
| | 03:54 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Aligning and distributing objects| 00:00 | Even with the use of Smart Guides
inside of Adobe Illustrator it can be
| | 00:03 | somewhat difficult to lineup multiple objects
or even distribute them evenly across a page.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, I'll show you exactly
how to utilize some of the Alignment
| | 00:12 | commands inside of Illustrator to
lineup your artwork and evenly distribute it
| | 00:15 | in multiple directions.
| | 00:17 | As you can see here I've got several
circles on my artboard, and they are all
| | 00:20 | scattered about, but I want to make
sure that they line up properly and that
| | 00:24 | they are evenly distributed across the page.
| | 00:26 | Maybe I am showing multiple versions of
a logo and I don't want the position of
| | 00:29 | one of them to throw the client
off when they are picking one.
| | 00:32 | I want everything to be right in the
middle so they can just go straight across
| | 00:34 | and look at all the different versions.
| | 00:36 | In order to utilize the Alignment tools
inside of Illustrator you can go to two places;
| | 00:40 | one would be the Control panel. Remember
that's the area that stretches all the
| | 00:44 | way across the top, like so. Or you can
bring up the Alignment panel by going to
| | 00:48 | Window and choosing Align.
| | 00:51 | The Alignment panel has
several different options in it.
| | 00:54 | You can align horizontally to the left,
align to the horizontal center, align
| | 00:59 | horizontally to the right, vertically
align to the top, vertically align to the
| | 01:04 | center or vertically align to the bottom.
| | 01:07 | You also have distribution options
like distribute vertically from the top,
| | 01:12 | distribute vertically from the center,
or distribute vertically from the bottom.
| | 01:17 | You can also distribute horizontally
from the left, distribute horizontally from
| | 01:21 | the center and distribute
horizontally from the right.
| | 01:25 | I can also go up to the Align
panel menu and choose Show Options.
| | 01:29 | Inside of the Show Options I can
actually determine the Distribution Spacing and
| | 01:35 | where the objects aligned to.
| | 01:37 | By default you are aligning to the
selection, meaning that you make a selection
| | 01:41 | and all of the objects align themselves
based upon the selection you have made.
| | 01:45 | Or you can choose to align them to the artboard.
| | 01:48 | Aligning them to the artboard allows you
to align things based upon the size and
| | 01:52 | dimensions of your artboard.
| | 01:53 | I am going to turn on Align to
Artboard first to show you how this works.
| | 01:57 | I will select all of these circles.
| | 02:02 | Since it's set to Align to Artboard I
can now vertically align them to the
| | 02:07 | bottom and watch what happens to the circles.
| | 02:10 | They all go flushed to the bottom of the page.
| | 02:13 | I can then Horizontally Distribute them
from the Center and they all spread out
| | 02:18 | evenly across the artboard.
| | 02:20 | If I want them in the middle of the
page, as I discussed before, I can actually
| | 02:24 | come right here and
vertically align them to the center.
| | 02:27 | Now I have accomplished my task
that I have originally set out to do.
| | 02:31 | All of the logo variations are right there in
the center, perfectly aligned and distributed.
| | 02:36 | Pretty neat!
| | 02:36 | But what if I wanted to
align them to each other?
| | 02:39 | Well let's undo this, get them
right back to their original position.
| | 02:45 | If I choose Align to Selection, now
when I hit Vertically Align to the Bottom,
| | 02:50 | they are all going to vertically align
to the bottom edge of the lowest object
| | 02:54 | that was in the set.
| | 02:55 | Then if I Horizontally Distribute
them, they are going to horizontally
| | 02:59 | distribute based on this selection.
| | 03:00 | So you notice there is not so much
spacing in between them, that's because this
| | 03:04 | one was here and this one was here,
they were not able to spread across because
| | 03:07 | we were not aligning to the artboard.
We were aligning to the selection of the
| | 03:11 | overall bounding box.
| | 03:13 | So let me undo and go back
to the original position.
| | 03:17 | Every project is different and you
are going to have to use the alignment
| | 03:19 | options based on your needs, but just
remember, you can open up the Alignment
| | 03:23 | panel and utilize these options at any
time to help you evenly distribute and
| | 03:27 | align your objects perfectly on your artboard.
| | 03:30 | Let's close this panel up and take a
look at how we can utilize the same options
| | 03:34 | without ever having to open that panel.
| | 03:36 | Let's say I had all these objects
selected on my artboard, I don't want to go
| | 03:40 | find the Alignment panel because I have
to go to the Window menu and find it and
| | 03:43 | all that kind of stuff.
| | 03:44 | If I want to access the Alignment
Controls from this screen here, I can simply
| | 03:49 | look in my Control panel for
a small link that says Align.
| | 03:53 | When I click that it automatically
brings up the Align panel for me.
| | 03:57 | These are all of the options we just saw.
| | 04:00 | I can change this to Align to Artboard,
I can also align them to the bottom and
| | 04:06 | horizontally distribute them, or I can
align them to the middle and horizontally
| | 04:10 | distribute them as well.
| | 04:12 | Look at how much easier that was for me to do.
| | 04:14 | A click, make a few other clicks, and I am done.
| | 04:17 | I didn't have to find a panel, I
didn't have to open a panel, didn't have to
| | 04:21 | close the panel, anything.
| | 04:23 | It pops up, I use it while I need it,
it closes when I don't. So no matter
| | 04:28 | which way you choose to align or
distribute your objects, hopefully by now you
| | 04:32 | have a better understanding of how to
use that feature and how it can help you
| | 04:36 | in your workflow.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Working with ColorRGB vs. CMYK| 00:00 | As we begin our exploration of color
inside of Illustrator, it's very important
| | 00:04 | that you understand the two basic
color modes that you have available to you.
| | 00:08 | In this movie I'll be exploring both
RGB and CMYK color, so you can get the
| | 00:13 | better understanding of what
they are and how they are used.
| | 00:16 | Let's first start off with CMYK.
| | 00:19 | CMYK is a color mode which stands
for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black; as
| | 00:26 | represented by these colors
at the bottom of the screen.
| | 00:29 | If I jump over to the second artboard
in this document, you'll see that CMYK is
| | 00:33 | primarily used for print publications.
| | 00:36 | Most of the things that you see that
have gone out of commercial print, have
| | 00:39 | been printed with CMYK colors.
| | 00:42 | The CMYK color palette consists of these
four colors which are overlaid over the
| | 00:46 | top of one another, to display all of
the colors in the spectrum that you have.
| | 00:50 | Whereas RGB, and if I jump back to
the original artboard, you'll see, is
| | 00:55 | comprised of three colors Red, Green and Blue.
| | 00:59 | These are the colors that are represented
on things like TV screens, computer
| | 01:03 | monitors, and anything like
a tablet or wireless device.
| | 01:08 | If I jump over to the third artboard,
you'll see that RGB is primarily used for
| | 01:13 | web or screen graphics.
| | 01:16 | So any time you're creating graphics
that are not going out for print, you want
| | 01:20 | make sure that you're
working in the RGB color space.
| | 01:23 | So again, the basic difference is, they're
different colors; cyan, magenta, yellow,
| | 01:28 | and black, red, green and blue.
| | 01:31 | But the big difference is, CMYK is used
for print, RGB is used for web or screen.
| | 01:38 | Now that you've the seen the
difference between the two, hopefully you can
| | 01:41 | get your next project started off in
the right color mode for the right type
| | 01:45 | of project.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting Illustrator color settings| 00:00 | Before creating your first swatch
inside of Illustrator, it's important to
| | 00:04 | understand the different settings for
color that you're able to change prior to
| | 00:08 | getting started with the document or
even after you have open up a document, how
| | 00:11 | to modify those settings after the fact.
| | 00:13 | In this movie I'll be walking you
through Illustrator's Color Settings panel and
| | 00:17 | how to navigate it and
exactly what everything means.
| | 00:20 | In order to open up Illustrator's Color
Settings dialog box, you need to go up
| | 00:24 | to the Edit menu and go down and
choose Color Settings, or you can simply use
| | 00:29 | the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+K
on the PC, Shift+Command+K on the Mac.
| | 00:35 | Once you open that up, you are going to
see that the Color Settings dialog box
| | 00:38 | has a lot of information in it.
| | 00:41 | It tells you at the top, For
more information on color settings
| | 00:43 | you can search for "setting up
color management" in the Help document.
| | 00:47 | The Help documentation on color is
actually really good in Illustrator, so I
| | 00:50 | recommend reading through
that if you have the opportunity.
| | 00:53 | At the top you'll be able to pick the Settings.
| | 00:55 | In most cases, North American General
Purpose 2 will be okay, but you may want
| | 01:01 | to switch this, especially if you are doing a
lot of print work to North American Prepress.
| | 01:05 | North American Prepress always has the
right settings when dealing with print.
| | 01:10 | Let's break this down by section.
| | 01:12 | Let's start off here by the Working Spaces.
| | 01:15 | The Working Spaces options govern the
display of RGB and CMYK colors, and they
| | 01:20 | serve as the default color profile
for new documents that are created.
| | 01:25 | Underneath here you have
Color Management Policies.
| | 01:27 | The Color Management Policies govern how
colors are treated when you open a file
| | 01:31 | that lacks a color profile or when a
file's profile conflicts with the currently
| | 01:36 | chosen color settings.
| | 01:37 | So for instance, if I have a color
setting set for RGB to be Adobe RGB (1998)
| | 01:44 | and I have the CMYK setting set up to U.S.
Web Coated (SWOP) v2, that means if I
| | 01:49 | open up a file that conflicts with
either one of these, these rules down here at
| | 01:53 | the bottom will then help take care of that.
| | 01:56 | So therefore, if I open up a document
that has a different RGB profile embedded
| | 02:00 | in it, this RGB rule says, Preserve
the Embedded Profile. That means ignore
| | 02:06 | Adobe RGB (1998) and go with the
profile that's embedded in the file.
| | 02:11 | Same for CMYK, if I open up something
that's a different CMYK profile, then the
| | 02:15 | CMYK U.S. web Coated (SWOP) v2, go
ahead and Preserve the Numbers, but Ignore
| | 02:21 | the Linked Profiles.
| | 02:22 | That means keep the CMYK values for all
the colors, but ignore the profile and
| | 02:26 | add it to the U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
| | 02:29 | For Profile Mismatches, you can have
Illustrator ask you when opening what to do.
| | 02:35 | That means if your profile doesn't
match what you're currently set to,
| | 02:38 | Illustrator will pop-up and say, hey,
what would you like to do? Would you like
| | 02:42 | to preserve it or would you like to convert it?
| | 02:44 | You can also ask when pasting, so if
you paste from one document to another you
| | 02:48 | can have Illustrator pop-up and say, hey,
this isn't exactly the right profile
| | 02:52 | for the way I am setup, but would you
like to preserve the profile that's here
| | 02:56 | or switch to the profile that I am using?
| | 02:58 | For Missing Profiles, you can
also ask when opening as well.
| | 03:02 | You will notice when you hover over
these you get a description down in the
| | 03:05 | Description field at the bottom of the
screen. This is going to be extremely
| | 03:08 | helpful in you understanding
exactly what all these options mean.
| | 03:11 | So if I hover over this, it tells me
that when enabled, you will be notified
| | 03:15 | whenever the embedded color profile in a
newly opened document doesn't match the
| | 03:19 | current working space.
| | 03:20 | Like I said, you open up a document
in Bruce RGB versus Adobe RGB (1998).
| | 03:26 | At any time you can come in here and change
your general color settings for Illustrator.
| | 03:31 | You can also load color settings that
someone gives you, like a commercial
| | 03:35 | printer for instance.
| | 03:36 | If they have their own specific color
settings they need, they can send those to
| | 03:39 | you and you can load them by
clicking the Load option right here.
| | 03:42 | You can also customize all of these
settings and save them and send them out to
| | 03:46 | other designers or other
printers that you might be working with.
| | 03:50 | At the bottom of this dialog box,
you'll see an option called More Options.
| | 03:55 | The More Options indicates the
conversion options, like the Engine that's used
| | 03:59 | and the Intent as well.
| | 04:01 | If you're not very clear on what these
options mean, my suggestion would be just
| | 04:05 | to hide them for now.
| | 04:06 | You can figure that out as you go along.
| | 04:08 | For now all you need are these
options here and here, and remember, always
| | 04:13 | use the hinting that's available to
you in these dialog boxes. Hovering over
| | 04:17 | these will temporally highlight them and show
you a description at the bottom of the screen.
| | 04:22 | In most cases, your printer, your
client or someone will tell you the colors
| | 04:27 | that you need to use.
| | 04:28 | But if you're not sure, the North
American Prepress or North American General
| | 04:32 | Purpose are definitely a safe way to go.
| | 04:35 | Once you have setup your color settings
inside of Illustrator, hit OK and those
| | 04:39 | rules are automatically
applied. No need to restart.
| | 04:42 | So before you get started creating your
own swatches and working with different
| | 04:46 | color palettes inside of Illustrator,
take the time to go through your color
| | 04:49 | settings and set them up properly.
| | 04:51 | You might also want to check out the
different files that you've been working on
| | 04:54 | previously to make sure there's no
profile mismatches or any errors like that.
| | 04:58 | Once you've got all of your color
settings set the way you need them to be,
| | 05:01 | you can take comfort in knowing that
you won't have any conflicts or any
| | 05:04 | trouble with what you're seeing on the
screen matching what comes out of the
| | 05:08 | printed finished product.
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| Process vs. global swatches| 00:00 | Once you begin working with objects
and color inside of Illustrator, you may
| | 00:04 | find the need to create your own swatches.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I am going to walk you
through the process of creating both a
| | 00:09 | global and a process swatch, and I'll
also discuss the differences between the
| | 00:14 | two and why you might use one, versus the other.
| | 00:17 | In this case, I am going to be using
the blue circle of this logo right here.
| | 00:22 | In the blue circle, I've just opened
this file up and I want to add this swatch
| | 00:26 | to my swatches over here on the right-
hand side, and I'll actually bring this
| | 00:30 | out so you can see exactly what I'm doing.
| | 00:33 | In order to add this to my swatches, I
am going to come down and I am going to
| | 00:37 | click the New Swatch icon.
| | 00:39 | When I click the New Swatch icon, it's
automatically going to come up with a swatch name.
| | 00:43 | The swatch name by default in
Illustrator goes to the exact values of the C, M,
| | 00:49 | Y, and K values, otherwise known as
cyan, magenta, yellow and black, that are
| | 00:54 | associated with the object that you selected.
| | 00:57 | In this case, my CMYK
values are 93, 64, 1, and 0.
| | 01:02 | You can even see that it kind of
rounds up or down to the nearest number.
| | 01:07 | For my Color Type, by default,
it's set to a Process Color.
| | 01:10 | Now I am going to use the Process
Color for now, and then later I'll show you
| | 01:14 | what the Global check box is used for.
| | 01:17 | Underneath I have my CMYK Color Mode,
which is what I want to leave it as, and I
| | 01:21 | am actually going to name this
swatch, Logo Blue. Then I'll hit OK.
| | 01:28 | Once I hit OK, you are going to see that
that swatch is then added to my library.
| | 01:32 | After I've added the swatch to my
library, I can then go through and select
| | 01:36 | other objects and apply that swatch accordingly.
| | 01:40 | In this case, I have to get inside the group.
| | 01:42 | So remember, to get inside the group,
double-click to enter isolation mode, then
| | 01:46 | select your object and then apply your color.
| | 01:49 | You do not have to ungroup your objects.
| | 01:50 | I can double-click to exit and now
theoretically, all of them are using
| | 01:55 | that particular swatch.
| | 01:56 | But watch what happens here.
| | 01:59 | If I were to go into this Logo Blue,
let's say, the client came back to me, for
| | 02:02 | instance, and said, well,
it's not exactly blue enough.
| | 02:06 | Okay, let's go in and change the blue.
| | 02:08 | I'll double-click to edit the swatch.
| | 02:11 | I can pump up the cyan just a little bit;
| | 02:13 | maybe I'll even drag up the magenta a
little bit to make it a little bit more rich.
| | 02:17 | If I hit Preview, you are going to notice
that none of the objects on screen changed.
| | 02:23 | But wait a minute!
| | 02:23 | They are all using the Logo Blue
color swatch, right?
| | 02:27 | So how come when I change the
swatch, none of those update?
| | 02:31 | It's because I've created this simple
process color and I didn't check the Global box.
| | 02:37 | The Global box ensures that anything in
your document that's currently using the
| | 02:41 | color you're editing is always going
to update once you create the swatch.
| | 02:46 | You can think of a global swatch
as sort of like a "smart swatch".
| | 02:51 | It remembers that it's
attached to these objects.
| | 02:54 | So therefore, any time you update it, it
automatically updates the objects as well.
| | 02:58 | So here I'm going to click Cancel
and come back out into the document.
| | 03:03 | I'll throw this swatch away and let's
recreate it utilizing the global color swatch.
| | 03:10 | I've already got it right here.
| | 03:12 | So all I have to do is drag this over
into the Swatches panel and drop it, and it
| | 03:18 | automatically creates it.
| | 03:19 | If I double-click it, it opens
up and allows me to make changes.
| | 03:24 | I'll go ahead and check the Global box,
I'll call it Logo Blue, and then I'll hit OK.
| | 03:32 | Notice when I do that, you'll get
this little white triangle in the bottom
| | 03:36 | right-hand corner of the swatch,
indicating that it is a global swatch.
| | 03:40 | Now I can select the pieces of
artwork and apply that global swatch.
| | 03:45 | Again, this grouped object on the end,
I double-click, then select it, then
| | 03:51 | apply the blue, double-click to exit.
| | 03:54 | Now let's say, for instance, the
client came back to me and again, said,
| | 03:58 | it's not blue enough.
| | 03:59 | Okay, let's go into the global
swatch and let's make a change.
| | 04:04 | I'll pump up the cyan, rich it up a
little bit with magenta, and maybe I'll even
| | 04:09 | darken it a little bit with some black.
| | 04:12 | If I hit Preview, did you see all of
those change on the artboard?
| | 04:15 | That's because they're
utilizing that global swatch.
| | 04:19 | If I make a big change, like really
darkening it up, you'll see they all
| | 04:23 | changed like that, or if the client
comes back and says you know what, I don't
| | 04:27 | really want blue at all.
| | 04:28 | Okay, remove the cyan and we can
make it red and you notice all of those
| | 04:34 | update accordingly.
| | 04:36 | Whatever you do in here, if you're
doing it to a global swatch, anything on
| | 04:40 | the artboard that has that global swatch
applied to it will automatically update as well.
| | 04:46 | So let's go ahead and click Cancel for
now, because I want to keep it with the
| | 04:49 | blue, but just know that anytime you
need to go in and edit that swatch, it's
| | 04:53 | automatically going to update
anything in the document using it.
| | 04:57 | Now that you know how to do that, you
can hopefully employ some global swatches
| | 05:00 | into your artwork to make it easier
to change things on multiple objects or
| | 05:04 | even multiple projects.
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| Creating spot colors| 00:00 | In many cases when you're dealing with
branding, especially logos and letterheads
| | 00:05 | and things like that, you're going to
run across the need to create something
| | 00:08 | called a spot color swatch.
| | 00:10 | This is a swatch that's used to
reproduce a color exactly as it's supposed to
| | 00:15 | appear each and every time.
| | 00:17 | Famous brands utilize their own
special swatches all the time, stuff like
| | 00:22 | Coca-Cola red, Pepsi blue; they're iconic
colors that you instantly recognize and
| | 00:27 | they wouldn't have you use any
other color but that specified color.
| | 00:32 | Now I'm going to show you how to create
your own spot color swatches here inside
| | 00:35 | of Illustrator. It's actually really simple.
| | 00:38 | Once you have your colors like you like
them, in this case I have this purple,
| | 00:42 | the orange and the gray, I'm going to
add those to my Swatches Library and then
| | 00:47 | I'm going to turn them into spot colors.
| | 00:49 | I'm going to go up to my Window menu
and I'm going to bring back up my Swatches
| | 00:53 | panel, because I temporarily closed it.
| | 00:55 | Once I get the Swatches panel back
out on screen I can then start adding my
| | 00:59 | swatches. I'm going to go into
isolation mode for a moment so I get a hold of
| | 01:03 | these individually. I'll double-click
and then I'll select this gray color here.
| | 01:08 | Once I have that done, I'm going to
hit the New Swatch button. It gives me a
| | 01:12 | Swatch Name and it indicates here that
this is a grayscale color. I'm going to
| | 01:16 | change this to a Spot Color.
| | 01:19 | The name is indicating to me
exactly what level of gray it actually is.
| | 01:23 | In this case I'm just going to
call this Logo Grey, and I'll hit OK.
| | 01:29 | You'll notice as soon as I do that a
new swatch is added and also there is a
| | 01:33 | small dot in the bottom right-hand
corner of that white triangle. This indicates
| | 01:37 | that it's a spot color,
because it's given it a little spot.
| | 01:41 | Same holds true for this A right here.
I can create a new swatch, change it from
| | 01:46 | a Process Color to a Spot Color,
you'll notice as soon as you change from
| | 01:50 | Process Color to Spot Color, Global
automatically becomes checked and is grayed
| | 01:55 | out so you cannot turn it off. That's
because spot colors are meant to be true
| | 01:59 | all the way through, you're not
supposed to be able to change them
| | 02:03 | independently or anything.
| | 02:05 | If anything is using the spot color
throughout the document or that spot color
| | 02:08 | is updated at any time,
the global aspect is applied.
| | 02:12 | Once I have that set, I'll
name this Logo Orange, hit OK.
| | 02:19 | Finally, I'll take this light purple
color, create a new swatch, I'll go ahead
| | 02:24 | and call it Logo Purple, and change
it to a Spot Color, again Global is
| | 02:29 | applied, and I'll hit OK.
| | 02:32 | Now for the text at the bottom, you'll
notice it's currently still using the
| | 02:36 | process value for this.
| | 02:37 | I need to go ahead and switch that over
to this Logo Grey, because this is going
| | 02:42 | to be a three color spot logo.
| | 02:45 | So everything needs to be
using one of these three colors.
| | 02:48 | Since the text is utilizing the same
level of grey as this R, I can go ahead and
| | 02:52 | apply the spot color right there.
| | 02:55 | Remember these are global, so at
anytime during the branding process if we
| | 02:59 | happened to come in and make a change
to this orange color in the middle, I can
| | 03:02 | just come to the spot color, double-
click to edit it, let's say we needed to
| | 03:06 | make it just a little bit more orange.
| | 03:09 | I'll drag the Magenta slider up a
little bit, let's move this over, hit
| | 03:13 | Preview and you can see that it makes
that change for me. Let's back that down
| | 03:18 | just a little and hit OK.
| | 03:20 | So now, anytime I need to share my
company colors with somebody I can then just
| | 03:25 | take these three swatches, export them,
and send them to the person and they'll
| | 03:30 | have the exact same
representation of my branding as I do.
| | 03:34 | That's the beauty of spot colors and a
great way to keep your message consistent
| | 03:38 | across all printed products.
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| Using the swatch groups| 00:00 | When you first begin to work with
color inside of Illustrator, you'll notice
| | 00:03 | that Illustrator provides you with
several different swatches that are already
| | 00:06 | pre-built into the Swatches panel.
| | 00:09 | However, they're not really organized
with any rhyme or reason, except for
| | 00:12 | the two at the bottom.
| | 00:14 | You'll notice here that I have two
little folder icons, one labeled Grays and
| | 00:18 | one labeled Brights.
| | 00:19 | The Grays folder displays all different
levels of gray that I'm able to select,
| | 00:23 | while the Brights folder contains
several bright colors that I'm able to use.
| | 00:27 | This as a great way to organize
different swatches into small folders
| | 00:31 | called color groups.
| | 00:32 | And in this movie, I'm going to show
you how to start organizing your colors so
| | 00:36 | that you can better work with
them here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:38 | I'm going to drag out the Swatches panel
so you can actually see what's going on
| | 00:42 | and I'll expand it out to give us some room.
| | 00:44 | In order to create a new color
group inside of Illustrator, you'll find
| | 00:47 | this little icon here.
| | 00:49 | It looks a little manila folder.
| | 00:51 | Once you find this icon, go ahead and
click on it, and it comes up with the New
| | 00:55 | Color Group dialog box.
| | 00:56 | I'm just going to call this Branding Swatches.
| | 01:00 | These are all of the colors that are
going to be used in my company's branding.
| | 01:03 | So I'll hit OK and it
automatically creates a new folder for me.
| | 01:07 | I can then start to select objects,
like this circle here, and I can just drag
| | 01:13 | the swatch right there into the group.
| | 01:15 | Same holds true for this.
| | 01:16 | Click and drag it over.
| | 01:20 | If I misplace it, I can just drag
it back down and put it in the group.
| | 01:25 | Same holds true for my blue.
| | 01:27 | Drag it over, this blue, and I'm just
basically putting them all in this one
| | 01:34 | group making it easier for me
to get to and easier to find.
| | 01:40 | Once I've got them all loaded, you can
see here by clicking the little folder, I
| | 01:44 | can select all of them at one time and
I'm able to then utilize those, export
| | 01:49 | them, send them to people, and it's
just a much better way to keep your colors
| | 01:53 | organized in the Swatches panel.
| | 01:55 | You can create as many of these color
groups as you want and I highly recommend
| | 01:58 | that you do so, especially if you're
working on multiple client projects, you
| | 02:01 | can have a new color group for
every client that you work on.
| | 02:05 | That way it's easy to find the
color group for project A or project B.
| | 02:09 | It doesn't matter how
close the colors are together.
| | 02:12 | You can just simply come here and
hover over it and it would actually say,
| | 02:15 | company A branding, company B branding,
or whatever you choose to name them.
| | 02:19 | This is a great way to keep all of those
colors separate but organized at the same time.
| | 02:24 | So as you start to work with colors
inside of Illustrator, start building up
| | 02:27 | your color groups and see if that
doesn't help you become more organized and
| | 02:31 | definitely more efficient.
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| Working with color libraries| 00:00 | There will come a time when you're
working in Illustrator, especially if you do a
| | 00:03 | lot of client work, that the client
simply won't know what color they need for
| | 00:07 | any particular project.
| | 00:09 | In that case, it's up to you to
determine exactly what swatches you use for
| | 00:13 | that given project.
| | 00:15 | In this movie I am going to show you
how to utilize some of the built-in swatch
| | 00:18 | libraries to hopefully
alleviate some of that pain.
| | 00:20 | As you can see here, I've got lots
of different shapes here on my
| | 00:23 | artboard. They are all individual and they've
all got different colors applied to them already.
| | 00:28 | Well let's say the client didn't
really know exactly what they wanted
| | 00:31 | these colors to be.
| | 00:32 | I might have to use the built-in swatch
libraries to find something that I like.
| | 00:37 | In order to access the swatch
libraries you are going to have to go over
| | 00:39 | the Swatches panel and find this little
stack of books in the bottom left-hand corner.
| | 00:44 | When you hover it, it says Swatch
Libraries menu. When you open it up
| | 00:49 | you will see things like Art
History, Celebration, Color Books, Color
| | 00:54 | Properties, Corporate, Default
Swatches, Earthtone, Foods, et cetera.
| | 01:00 | There are some colors in
here that are extremely helpful.
| | 01:03 | For instance, Color Books, you can
come in and actually bring up different
| | 01:07 | Pantone libraries to work with.
| | 01:09 | If you're a graphic designer, this
is killer, because you can come in and
| | 01:13 | open all of these different Pantone
swatches and apply them instantly to your artwork.
| | 01:18 | If you're not sure what Pantone
swatches are, they are basically spot colors
| | 01:22 | that are easily an applyble to any of
your artwork inside of Illustrator that
| | 01:25 | you don't have to craft yourself.
| | 01:27 | You can buy Pantone books and reference
different colors in the books and they
| | 01:31 | look just the same as they would
here in Illustrator, it's fantastic.
| | 01:35 | Let's go ahead and open up
something else inside of Illustrator though.
| | 01:39 | Let's say for instance that the client
wants this to look a little bit more organic.
| | 01:42 | Well I've got this library called
Earthtones and I can open that up and
| | 01:47 | automatically I get all of these different
color groups with Earthtones inside of them.
| | 01:51 | If I hover over them, you'll see once
called Earthtone 10, 9, 8 all the way up.
| | 01:56 | They are not really labeled descriptively.
| | 01:59 | And the colors aren't labeled more
descriptive either, but you can kind of look
| | 02:03 | at them and see exactly--does
it work or does it not?
| | 02:06 | I am going to start using these right now.
| | 02:08 | I'll double-click to enter isolation
mode on this object and I will just
| | 02:11 | start applying colors.
| | 02:13 | So for instance I am going
to use this set right here.
| | 02:15 | So I will go in and select this object,
apply color, I can then go through and
| | 02:21 | select other objects and apply that
swatch accordingly. Apply color, this one,
| | 02:27 | apply the next color and so forth.
| | 02:29 | Once I have applied my colors I can
click away from it to see if I like it.
| | 02:33 | If I don't, I can simply apply more.
| | 02:37 | So in this case I'll use
this last swatch library here.
| | 02:41 | The best part about swatch libraries
is that they are all in harmony already.
| | 02:45 | They are grouped logistically to look good.
| | 02:48 | So utilizing these is a great way to
ensure that your artwork looks consistent
| | 02:52 | across all the different objects that you have.
| | 02:55 | Once I have that done, I can exit
isolation mode, and I can also close this
| | 03:00 | swatch library if I want to, and now
the artwork that my client wanted to be a
| | 03:04 | little bit more earthy, is just that.
| | 03:07 | So the next time you're stumped on
what colors to use for a particular project,
| | 03:11 | dive into the swatch
libraries and see what you can find.
| | 03:14 | You will be amazed at the amount
of creativity that it will spark.
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| Importing swatches| 00:00 | Up until now, we've been exploring
different ways of creating your own swatches
| | 00:04 | here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:05 | In this movie, I will be focusing on
how to import swatches that someone else
| | 00:09 | has created into your Illustrator document.
| | 00:12 | That way it makes it easier for you to
take artwork from another person, or even
| | 00:15 | your client, and import it directly
into Illustrator and start applying those
| | 00:18 | colors to your artwork.
| | 00:20 | Let's first start off by bringing the
Swatches panel out in the open so you can see it.
| | 00:24 | There are many ways to get swatches
into Illustrator, the first of which is to
| | 00:28 | open up an Adobe Swatch
Exchange file or a .ase file.
| | 00:32 | I am going to show you how to create
one of these momentarily, but first I want
| | 00:35 | to show you how to open one up in
case you ever get one sent to you.
| | 00:39 | The first thing you will need to do is
go to this little Library icon right here
| | 00:43 | and I'll go down and choose Other Library.
| | 00:46 | Once I choose Other Library, it
automatically takes me to the Presets area of my
| | 00:49 | Illustrator files on my computer.
| | 00:51 | I am going to go my Desktop though,
navigate to my Exercise Files, go to Chapter
| | 00:56 | 04, and open up brand_colors.ase.
| | 01:01 | Once I do that, it automatically opens
up the Adobe Swatch Exchange file, and
| | 01:05 | here at the bottom, you'll see
the different swatches that I want.
| | 01:09 | If I hover over this, you will see it's
the roux color palette for the Roux Academy.
| | 01:13 | If I want to add these to my Swatches
panel, I can click them one at a time and
| | 01:18 | it will add it over here, or I can
simply click the folder and it adds those
| | 01:22 | automatically to my Swatches panel.
| | 01:25 | Now I can close the file and I actually
have all of these available to me right here.
| | 01:31 | Now let's say that I was working on
something and I needed to send these
| | 01:34 | colors to someone else.
| | 01:36 | I could actually select them by
clicking right there on the folder and then I
| | 01:40 | can go up to the panel menu, and I can
choose Save Swatch Library as ASE or Save
| | 01:46 | Swatch Library as AI.
| | 01:49 | By saving it as an ASE file, you're
able to share this file throughout other
| | 01:52 | applications like Adobe InDesign.
| | 01:54 | You could also save it out as an AI file
and simply share it between Illustrator files;
| | 01:59 | either way is totally fine.
| | 02:01 | Since I've got these swatches inside
of this document, let's go ahead and use
| | 02:05 | them on this artwork.
| | 02:06 | I will go ahead and double-click
to get into the group and I'll start
| | 02:10 | applying these swatches;
| | 02:12 | orange, yellow, blue, purple, the
light gray, and finally the dark gray.
| | 02:22 | Once I have my colors applied, I can
double-click to exit isolation mode,
| | 02:26 | and now all of these are contained inside
of this document and applied to the artwork.
| | 02:31 | Now I will simply save this piece of artwork.
| | 02:33 | If I close it and then go to create a
new file, hit OK, you will notice that
| | 02:40 | those swatches are no longer present.
| | 02:42 | However, I need to be able to get a hold of
those swatches so I can work with them again.
| | 02:48 | And let's also say that I lost
the ASE file. I can't find it.
| | 02:51 | How do I then get those swatches in here?
| | 02:53 | I can actually import them
from that other document.
| | 02:57 | If I go to Window and then scroll all
the way to the bottom and go down to
| | 03:00 | Swatch Libraries, I can then choose
Other Library, navigate to my Desktop, go
| | 03:06 | to my Exercise Files > Chapter 04 and in
this case, I will find color_libraries
| | 03:13 | and open it up.
| | 03:15 | When I do that, you'll notice that it
actually didn't open the file, it simply
| | 03:19 | opened the color_libraries file
Swatches panel, showing me all of the different
| | 03:24 | swatches that I have available to me,
including the roux color palette.
| | 03:29 | If I click, it automatically
adds those swatches to this panel.
| | 03:33 | Now I can close this up
and I can continue working.
| | 03:36 | If I draw some shapes, I can
easily apply those and go on my way.
| | 03:40 | So anytime you need to work with
swatches that are contained inside of a
| | 03:44 | separate document, or even stand-alone
files, you now know how to import them into
| | 03:48 | Illustrator and use them in
any document that you need to.
| | 03:51 | This is going to be great for
sharing colors across multiple projects and
| | 03:55 | multiple people as well, because once
you create your swatches, you can share
| | 03:59 | them with your coworkers, they can
share theirs with yours, and everyone can
| | 04:02 | be on the same page.
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| Using the Color Guide panel| 00:00 | As designers, we all have hit that one
creative wall where we just couldn't
| | 00:05 | figure out exactly what we wanted
to do, especially when it comes to
| | 00:09 | creating our own colors.
| | 00:10 | In this movie, I'll be walking you
through how to utilize Illustrator's Color
| | 00:14 | Guide panel to hopefully alleviate
some of those creative headaches.
| | 00:17 | As you can see here I've got some
artwork on my artboard, and I've only got one
| | 00:22 | petal of this flower colored because
that's the color I know I have to use.
| | 00:27 | But the other colors, I don't
exactly know what they need to be.
| | 00:30 | Maybe the client hasn't told me or
maybe I'm just experimenting to create even
| | 00:34 | more creative artwork.
| | 00:35 | So in this case I'm going to utilize the
Color Guide panel to sort help me along.
| | 00:40 | The first thing I am going to do
is going to find Color Guide panel.
| | 00:42 | It's right over here on the right,
and I will just click and drag it out.
| | 00:46 | The Color Guide panel basically allows
you to create color harmonies based upon
| | 00:51 | the active color that you have selected.
| | 00:54 | Once you have that artwork selected
you can then base the colors that the
| | 00:57 | color guide gives you off of that color, and
instantly find things that are in harmony with it.
| | 01:02 | You can also determine Shades
and Tints upon that color as well.
| | 01:06 | In this case, I've got this selected,
and I'm going to make that my active
| | 01:10 | color by clicking right there. You can
see here that it automatically gives me
| | 01:14 | some Harmony Rules.
| | 01:16 | I can go in here to the dropdown
and actually change those to different
| | 01:19 | types of Harmony Rules.
| | 01:21 | For instance, if I wanted to keep it
Monochromatic, I could actually select
| | 01:25 | this, which gives me variation upon that one
color, which is kind of what I am looking for.
| | 01:30 | You can also going to Color panel up
here at the top to the menu item and choose
| | 01:35 | Color Guide Options.
| | 01:37 | Inside of the Color Guide Options you
can determine how many steps go cross
| | 01:40 | both Shades and Tints.
| | 01:42 | So in this case, I might bump that up
to 7 giving me more shades and more tints
| | 01:48 | of that color as well.
| | 01:49 | If you want less variation you
can actually drag this to the left.
| | 01:53 | And you'll notice as I drag to left the
colors become more unified, dragging it
| | 01:57 | more to the right, varies
them up a little bit more.
| | 02:01 | So in this case I think I'll go with
about 50% in the middle. 7 Steps looks
| | 02:06 | okay and I will hit OK.
| | 02:09 | So now I have all of these different
colors to choose from in the Color Guide
| | 02:12 | panel and I can use
those to apply to my artwork.
| | 02:14 | So I can select these, and I will
actually remove the stroke component from
| | 02:19 | these so that I don't have
to worry about that anymore.
| | 02:22 | And now I will just start
applying colors to the artwork.
| | 02:25 | Remember, I'm going to
this select is right here,
| | 02:28 | set this as my color, and
then I'm going to start working.
| | 02:31 | So I will select this, and I will
pick a blue, select another object, pick
| | 02:37 | another shade of blue, this object here, I
want that to be even lighter shade of
| | 02:43 | blue, and here maybe something a little lighter.
| | 02:49 | Finally here, maybe another one just like that.
| | 02:53 | So I have created something that is
technically in harmony and has lots of
| | 02:56 | different color variations in it and I
did that by utilizing the Color Guide panel.
| | 03:00 | Now you can come in and work with any
number of the Harmony Rules that you want to.
| | 03:04 | For instance, I could pick something
like this one here, and see all these and
| | 03:08 | then I could make a completely
different look instantaneously.
| | 03:11 | So I select this, then I
will just start applying colors.
| | 03:17 | Once I've got my colors like
I like them, just click away.
| | 03:20 | If I am still not satisfied, maybe I want
to base it off of one of these other colors.
| | 03:24 | I select it, make that the active
color, and then I can come in and choose
| | 03:29 | other color harmonys.
| | 03:30 | So for instance, maybe I want this one.
Now I'll select one of these and I will
| | 03:35 | just start applying colors.
| | 03:39 | There you have it. Quick and easy color
harmonies utilizing the Color Guide panel
| | 03:44 | inside Illustrator, which should
hopefully help you get over those creative
| | 03:47 | hurdles and put you well on your
way to creating better artwork.
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|
|
5. Working with Fills and StrokesUnderstanding fills and strokes| 00:00 | In this movie we will be discussing
one of the basic pieces of any type of
| | 00:04 | artwork that you create inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:06 | You've actually seen me do this a
few different times if you have been
| | 00:09 | watching the entire course.
| | 00:10 | But in this movie I am actually going
to dive-in and show you exactly what it
| | 00:14 | means and how it works to
utilize a fill versus a stroke.
| | 00:19 | So as you can see, I have got some
artwork out here on my artboard and it looks
| | 00:23 | rather complex. It's got some sketchy
looking strokes around the outside, the
| | 00:26 | letters also have some hand-drawn
aspects to them, and the gradient background
| | 00:31 | actually fades from one color to the other.
| | 00:33 | This may look complicated in a way,
but at its heart it's nothing but several
| | 00:38 | different paths with various
fills and strokes applied to them.
| | 00:42 | If I select everything on my artboard
by using Command+A or Ctrl+A on my
| | 00:45 | keyboard, and then I enter an outline
mode with Command+Y or Ctrl+Y, you'll see
| | 00:51 | that I basically have a big
rectangle around the outside. I have the two
| | 00:54 | letters, the R and the A, and then the
Roux Academy Art Media and Design text
| | 00:58 | right there on the right.
| | 01:00 | There is nothing really fancy
about it, it's just basic paths.
| | 01:03 | But I have utilized fills and
strokes in order to make that happen.
| | 01:07 | So let's go ahead now and take a look at
the differences between a fill and a stroke.
| | 01:11 | I'll turn off Outline Mode by using
Command+Y or Ctrl+Y again on my keyboard and
| | 01:16 | I will click away to deselect
everything, and then I will click right here to
| | 01:19 | select just the letters.
| | 01:21 | Once you have an object selected on
screen you'll be able to see both the fill
| | 01:25 | color and the stroke color
in various different places.
| | 01:29 | The fill color refers to the area inside the
path, it's actually filled with a specific color.
| | 01:35 | In this case the R and the A
are both filled with white.
| | 01:39 | How do I know that? I can look over
here in my Tools panel and I can see right
| | 01:43 | here that this solid block is white.
| | 01:45 | The solid block over here on the left
is always referring to the fill color.
| | 01:49 | You'll notice when I hover
over it, it actually says Fill.
| | 01:52 | This color, the orange
color is the stroke color.
| | 01:56 | When I hover over it, it says Stroke, and I
can see there that it's set to an orange color.
| | 02:01 | You can also see these up in the Control
panel, here is the fill and here is the stroke.
| | 02:06 | Any time that you want to work on
these independently from each other you
| | 02:10 | can just come up here, and let's say you
wanted to change the fill from white to black.
| | 02:14 | Just click and change the color.
| | 02:17 | If you want to change the stroke color,
come here and pick a different stroke.
| | 02:22 | Once you're finished, click
away and it will close the box.
| | 02:26 | You can actually add multiple fills and
multiple strokes to your objects inside
| | 02:31 | of Illustrator, and I'll show you
how to do that when we learn about the
| | 02:34 | Appearance panel later on in this course.
| | 02:36 | For now though, let's just focus on
how I created the rest of this artwork.
| | 02:40 | I will undo these changes to get back to
normal, and let's click on the background.
| | 02:45 | Once I click in the background,
you'll notice that over here in the Tools
| | 02:48 | panel the colors change.
| | 02:50 | The fill color now has this gradient
swatch showing that my gradient goes from
| | 02:54 | light purple to dark purple, and then again
I am using that same stroke color for this as well.
| | 03:00 | If you wanted to make a change from
this region here, all you would have to
| | 03:03 | do is double-click, and you can go in
and make a change to set it or you could
| | 03:09 | switch over to the stroke color, double-
click, and make a change to that as well.
| | 03:15 | You can also simply pick fills and
strokes from the Swatches panel as well.
| | 03:20 | If I bring out the Swatches panel, you
will see there is no real control for
| | 03:24 | which one you're working on.
| | 03:25 | So what you have to do is set which one you
are working on over here in the Tools panel.
| | 03:30 | So right now I'm currently working on the fill.
| | 03:32 | So if I happen to make a change, like
clicking this blue for instance, it would
| | 03:36 | automatically make the background blue.
| | 03:38 | I can use Command+Z or Ctrl+Z to undo that.
| | 03:42 | If I make the stroke active, I can
then change the stroke color simply by
| | 03:46 | clicking a color in the Swatches panel.
| | 03:50 | In addition to the regular fills and
strokes, you can also do things like adding
| | 03:54 | gradients on strokes as well as
filling objects with patterns, gradients, and
| | 03:58 | other types of effects.
| | 04:00 | Throughout this chapter we will discuss
the various types of fills and strokes
| | 04:04 | that you're able to apply to your
various objects inside of Adobe Illustrator.
| | 04:08 | And hopefully by then you will have a
better understanding of what you can do
| | 04:12 | and you can really start to express
yourself even more creatively by utilizing
| | 04:16 | all of the options available to you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with fills| 00:00 | Now that we understand the differences
between fills and strokes, we're ready to
| | 00:03 | start applying that knowledge
here in a real world application.
| | 00:07 | Let's say, for instance, that an artist
has sent me a rendering of my mascot or
| | 00:11 | logo like you see here.
| | 00:13 | They've sent me a rendering of it, but
it's basically a wireframe and I need
| | 00:16 | to apply fills to this object based on colors
that I choose in order to make it come to life.
| | 00:22 | So I'm working on this fills_start
document, and if I hop over here to the
| | 00:26 | fills_finish document, you'll see
exactly what I'm trying to create.
| | 00:30 | I'm going to be coloring
in the bear just like this.
| | 00:33 | Essentially what you're thinking of here is
just like a coloring book when you were a child.
| | 00:37 | You're going in and you're just staying
within the lines and filling it with the
| | 00:40 | colors that you want.
| | 00:42 | The first thing you have to do before
you start applying fills is you actually
| | 00:45 | have to have an object selected
in order to apply fills to it.
| | 00:48 | So I'm going to select
this earpiece, for instance.
| | 00:52 | The first thing I'm going
to do is turn off the stroke.
| | 00:55 | If you notice in the finish
document, I don't have any strokes.
| | 00:58 | I use differences in color to let you
see exactly where certain pieces of the
| | 01:02 | bear start and stop.
| | 01:04 | So I'll go back over here, I've got
the ear selected, and with the stroke
| | 01:09 | active, I'll go ahead and click
None to make sure there's no stroke.
| | 01:13 | I then have to make the fill active and
I'll come over to my Swatches panel and
| | 01:18 | I'm going to find a fill.
| | 01:19 | And in this case, I'll fill it with
this kind of medium cyan, just like so.
| | 01:25 | After I do that, I can
click away to see the results.
| | 01:28 | Now I'll come right here and
I'll fill this inner earpiece.
| | 01:30 | Again I'm going to turn off the stroke,
select the fill, and this time it needs
| | 01:36 | to be sort of a lighter blue.
| | 01:37 | So I'll pick this one here and fill it.
| | 01:40 | These can be any colors you want though.
| | 01:42 | I encourage you to get creative with this.
| | 01:44 | If you want to have a pink bear,
go ahead and make him pink.
| | 01:46 | This is totally up to you.
| | 01:48 | I'm simply making it blue because
I'm following the finished pattern.
| | 01:52 | Now let's color in the hat.
| | 01:54 | I'll select both of these objects here
just by clicking and dragging across them
| | 01:58 | and I'm actually just going
to make one single change here.
| | 02:01 | You'll notice that I have no
fill but I have a black stroke.
| | 02:04 | Watch what happens when I hit
this little toggle switch here.
| | 02:07 | It automatically switches
the fill and the stroke.
| | 02:10 | So now there's no stroke and I have a
black fill, and that's exactly what I wanted.
| | 02:14 | I wanted the hat filled with that black color.
| | 02:17 | Click away from it to deselect it.
| | 02:19 | I'll then select both of the eyes,
holding down Shift to select both, and
| | 02:24 | I'll do the same thing, swap them so
that they're both black, and I'll select
| | 02:28 | the inner eye and I'm actually going
to take off the stroke and fill it with
| | 02:35 | white just like that.
| | 02:38 | Now I can actually fill the nose, the
mouth, and the goatee all at one time.
| | 02:43 | So I'll take these, click on one, hold
down Shift, click the other, and the other.
| | 02:48 | Then we'll reverse the fill and
stroke, instantly changes over.
| | 02:53 | As you can see, we're getting
pretty close to our finished product.
| | 02:56 | Let's switch back over and continue working.
| | 02:59 | I'm going to color in the face now,
so I'll select the entire face, this
| | 03:03 | big circle, take off the stroke, select the
fill, and I'll pick this darker cyan color.
| | 03:10 | Now I'm ready to work on the other ear.
| | 03:13 | I'll select the inner ear first, no stroke,
go to the fill, fill it with the lighter blue.
| | 03:20 | Once I filled it with the lighter
blue you're going to notice that a
| | 03:22 | problem actually happens.
| | 03:24 | I filled the entire ear with one
color and that happened because I didn't
| | 03:29 | actually have these objects ungrouped.
| | 03:32 | So if you have objects that are grouped
together and you pick a color from the
| | 03:35 | Swatches panel, it automatically
adds that color to both objects.
| | 03:40 | So what's the way around it?
| | 03:41 | Well you can always ungroup by using
Shift+Command+G on your keyboard and then
| | 03:45 | reapplying the color.
| | 03:47 | In this case though, I'm going to hit
Command+Z or Ctrl+Z on my keyboard or
| | 03:51 | Edit > Undo, and then I'm simply
going to double-click on the path.
| | 03:56 | That's going to allow me
to jump into isolation mode.
| | 03:59 | Isolation mode, if you remember, makes
sure that you don't actually ungroup the
| | 04:03 | objects, but allows you to
get to them individually.
| | 04:06 | So I'll select this small circle and
I'll fill it with the lighter blue, and I'll
| | 04:11 | select the big circle and I'll
fill it with the darker blue.
| | 04:14 | When I double-click the canvas, it jumps
me back out and my bear is ready to go.
| | 04:20 | The final piece of the puzzle here is
going to be right here, the mouth area.
| | 04:24 | So I'll take off the stroke and
I'll fill it with a really light blue.
| | 04:29 | Once I do that, I'll click away and let's
look at the start file versus the finish file.
| | 04:35 | As you can see, I've actually inverted
the colors on mine, but I think it looks
| | 04:38 | better, the lighter blue versus the dark.
| | 04:41 | So my finished product here, I think, looks
better than the original, but it's up to you.
| | 04:45 | Remember, when you're applying fills
and strokes, the possibilities are endless
| | 04:49 | and it's always a personal choice.
| | 04:51 | So take your time, practice a little
bit with this, and you'll be well on your
| | 04:55 | way to filling your artwork with great color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with strokes| 00:00 | One of the great things about Adobe
Illustrator is the fact that it gives you
| | 00:03 | control independently of both your
fill color and your stroke color.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, I am going to show you how
to work with strokes inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:12 | As we know, a stroke is merely a
border that goes around the outside of an
| | 00:15 | object and in Illustrator CS6,
| | 00:18 | it can actually be a solid
color or a gradient color as well.
| | 00:22 | In order to apply a stroke, you have to
have an object selected on your artboard
| | 00:25 | and then you have to gain control of
the stroke and then apply a color to it.
| | 00:29 | Once you've got the color applied,
you can actually change several stroke
| | 00:33 | options along the way to make the stroke
look very different and even more artistic.
| | 00:38 | You can even use brushes inside
of Illustrator as strokes as well,
| | 00:42 | to make your artwork look hand-painted,
or have a decorative border around the
| | 00:45 | outside of it. The possibilities are endless.
| | 00:48 | So let's take a look at how we
can apply strokes to some artwork.
| | 00:51 | I have got some artwork on my artboard
here and if I hover over the top, you'll
| | 00:55 | notice that I have got a shape
that has no fill and no stroke.
| | 00:58 | If I click on it, you'll actually see that
it's a flower that's behind the R in the logo.
| | 01:03 | Now I don't want a fill applied to
this necessarily, because I want it to
| | 01:06 | almost be ghosted behind the R. I
don't want it to detract away from the R,
| | 01:10 | that's the main part of the logo.
| | 01:12 | What I want to do is add a stroke to this.
| | 01:15 | In order to do that, I have to make
sure that I am targeting the stroke first.
| | 01:18 | I can do this in a lot of different ways,
but the easiest way is just to change
| | 01:23 | which part I am focusing on right over here.
| | 01:25 | You will notice when I hover
over that it says click to activate.
| | 01:28 | When I click that, I am now
working on the stroke of this object.
| | 01:32 | For this particular object, I think
a light blue color would work nicely.
| | 01:36 | So let's go over here to the Swatches
panel, and I'll just pick a light blue.
| | 01:40 | When I do that, I can click away and
you can see the work that I've done.
| | 01:43 | I actually think this is a little too much.
| | 01:46 | It's a little too bright and I might
want to take it down a little bit.
| | 01:49 | So how then do I work on that?
| | 01:51 | Well I'll target this object again and
now I have control of it again, and I am
| | 01:56 | also working on the stroke, as you can see.
| | 01:58 | Inside of the Control panel, I can
actually change several options about the stroke.
| | 02:03 | For instance, I can open up the
Stroke panel right here from this link and
| | 02:07 | inside the Stroke panel I get a
ton of options to choose from.
| | 02:11 | I can choose the Weight of the stroke,
which means the thickness of the stroke.
| | 02:15 | For instance, right now it's set to 1
point, which is pretty small, but I can
| | 02:19 | take that up to any number I want.
| | 02:22 | If I click here, I get some preset
options. I can go all the way up to something
| | 02:26 | like 100 points to where it's almost
unrecognizable, or I can take it down to
| | 02:31 | something like .25 points,
where it's a little bit more fun.
| | 02:35 | I actually like this smaller stroke.
| | 02:37 | If I click away, you can see that it's
just sort of ghosted behind this image.
| | 02:42 | If it's a little too light, that's okay.
| | 02:44 | You can click on it again
and just bump it back up.
| | 02:47 | Maybe something like .75 would work nicely.
| | 02:50 | Let's open up the Stroke panel again,
and this time I am going to open it up
| | 02:54 | from the panels on the right-hand side.
| | 02:56 | If you will notice over here, by default,
you have the Stroke panel, but it only
| | 02:59 | shows something that says Weight. You
don't actually see all those options that I
| | 03:03 | got from the Control panel.
| | 03:04 | So how do we get those?
| | 03:05 | Well let's undock the Stroke
panel for a moment and bring it out.
| | 03:09 | Once I have it undocked, I can
then go up to the menu and click here.
| | 03:14 | Once I go up to the menu and click Show
Options, it expands down to show me all
| | 03:18 | of the options that I had in the Control panel.
| | 03:21 | Again, this is a little tedious though
having to go find this panel, expand it
| | 03:24 | out and all that stuff.
| | 03:25 | So I actually prefer to work from the
Control panel because I can just click
| | 03:29 | that little word that says Stroke.
| | 03:31 | It opens up temporarily, I make
my changes and boom!
| | 03:33 | I am back to working.
| | 03:35 | In this case I have to deal with this
panel being out in the middle, moving it
| | 03:38 | back, it just kind of gets in my way,
but I wanted to show you how to get there,
| | 03:42 | just in case you like working this way.
| | 03:44 | The Weight, I can change right there again.
| | 03:47 | I can also change the Cap type.
| | 03:48 | If you hover over these, they will tell
you; Butt Cap, Round Cap or Projecting Cap.
| | 03:54 | The Butt Cap means that the end of the
stroke is actually going to butt up right
| | 03:58 | against the anchor points.
| | 04:00 | The Round Cap means that it will round
itself around an anchor point and the
| | 04:04 | Projecting Cap means that it will just
simply go outside of the anchor point, if
| | 04:09 | it's at a corner for instance.
| | 04:11 | You can also change the Corner type to a
Miter Join, a Round Join or a Bevel Join.
| | 04:17 | You can also set Limits, Align the
stroke to different areas and you can set
| | 04:22 | things like Dashed Lines and Arrowheads.
| | 04:24 | We'll cover that in a future movie though.
| | 04:26 | For now, let's take a look
at the alignment options.
| | 04:28 | Let me zoom in a little bit so
you can see exactly what I am doing.
| | 04:32 | I'll zoom in and go
right out here to the corner.
| | 04:36 | You'll notice on this stroke that it
actually goes on both sides of the path,
| | 04:40 | the inside and the outside.
| | 04:42 | If I increase the Weight of the stroke,
you can actually see it a little better.
| | 04:47 | So there is the path and
it goes outside both ways.
| | 04:51 | So if I want to change that, I can
change the alignment of the stroke.
| | 04:54 | Right now it's set to the Center.
| | 04:56 | I can actually set it to the Inside,
where it goes completely inside the path
| | 05:01 | or I can set it to the Outside as well,
which makes it go completely outside the path.
| | 05:06 | For this particular piece of artwork,
I think going on the outside of the
| | 05:09 | path works pretty well.
| | 05:11 | I may even take this down a
little bit though, back to about 2.
| | 05:16 | Now let's zoom back out.
| | 05:18 | I'll move my panel out of the
way a little bit, and click away.
| | 05:22 | So there's my newly stroked path right there.
| | 05:24 | I am going to leave that the way it is
for a moment, I'll show you how to make
| | 05:27 | some other changes to it in just a second.
| | 05:29 | I'm then going to select this
big circle in the background.
| | 05:33 | Now let's talk about how we can utilize
some of the more creative stroke options
| | 05:36 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 05:38 | So the first thing I'm going to do is
I am going to stroke it with the exact
| | 05:41 | same color as I had before.
| | 05:43 | So I am just going to come over
here and pick that light blue color.
| | 05:46 | It's going to be difficult to see,
but I am going to increase the Weight of
| | 05:49 | the stroke quite a bit.
| | 05:51 | So let's take this up to somewhere like 10,
that way you can actually see what's going on.
| | 05:56 | I'm then going to add what's
called a Bristle Brush stroke.
| | 06:00 | So I'm going to find the Brushes panel
which is right here beside the Swatches,
| | 06:04 | and I'll just drag that out
and dock it with my Stroke panel.
| | 06:07 | We are going to cover brushes a little
bit more in-depth later on, but I wanted
| | 06:11 | to give you an idea of how to work with
these as you're using strokes inside of
| | 06:15 | Illustrator as well.
| | 06:16 | I'll go to the Library button right here
at the bottom, and I am going to go down
| | 06:20 | and choose Bristle Brush and I'll
open up the Bristle Brush Library.
| | 06:25 | This is how you can create some really
realistic almost painted-like effects
| | 06:29 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 06:30 | I am going to drag this down and I am
going to select one of these brushes.
| | 06:34 | As you can see when you hover over them,
you get a descriptor of what they are,
| | 06:37 | Spotter Brush, Round Brush,
Liner Brush, et cetera.
| | 06:41 | I am going to pick the Liner Brush
and watch what happens when I click.
| | 06:43 | It actually changes the
overall appearance of the stroke.
| | 06:48 | It's set to 1 point right now, so I need to
blow that up so you can see it a little bit more.
| | 06:51 | I'll increase the Weight,
something kind of like that.
| | 06:54 | Then when I click away, you can see
that it's got almost like a painted
| | 06:58 | effect around the outside.
| | 06:59 | I didn't have to paint that,
Illustrator did that for me and it did that simply
| | 07:02 | by adding a stroke and changing the brush
that was applied to it. It's pretty neat.
| | 07:07 | Let's see what happens when I change
the flower inside of the logo as well.
| | 07:11 | I'll change that to the exact same brush.
| | 07:14 | When I do that and click away, you can
see that it added a pretty interesting
| | 07:18 | effect, although I don't like the
way it overlaps in certain areas.
| | 07:21 | So I may have to change the alignment
of the stroke or maybe even back down the
| | 07:25 | weight of the stroke a little bit.
| | 07:26 | Let's take that back down to
about .5 and see what happens.
| | 07:30 | When I take it down, some of the
overlapping points get a little better, still
| | 07:33 | not exactly what I wanted, but I
can continue to refine this and get it
| | 07:37 | exactly where I need to go.
| | 07:39 | Let's click on it to select it, and
the first thing I am going to do is I am
| | 07:42 | going to tone it back a little bit.
| | 07:43 | The easiest way to do that
is to tone down the Opacity.
| | 07:47 | In order to tone down the Opacity of
this object here, I am simply going to
| | 07:51 | come up to the Control panel and I'm going
to change the Opacity from 100 to about 50%.
| | 07:57 | When I do that and click away, you
can see that I have sort of ghosted it
| | 08:00 | into the background.
| | 08:01 | You could change the opacity to
whatever level you want, but in this case I
| | 08:05 | think 50% works pretty good.
| | 08:07 | So as you can see, if I revert
back to the original here by going to
| | 08:11 | File > Revert, it's going to say that
it's going to revert back to the saved
| | 08:15 | version of this document and you
are going to lose all of your current
| | 08:18 | changes and that's okay.
| | 08:21 | I'm simply going to hit Revert.
| | 08:22 | Watch the difference
between the before and after here.
| | 08:25 | Now I'll center it on screen.
| | 08:28 | Look how plain and simple this
looks compared to what we just
| | 08:30 | created beforehand.
| | 08:32 | It's an amazing transformation and it's
all done through the magic of strokes.
| | 08:37 | So as you continue to work in
Illustrator, take some time to explore, both the
| | 08:40 | Stroke panel, as well as the Brushes
panel and see what kind of creative stuff
| | 08:44 | you can come up with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating dashes and arrows| 00:00 | In addition to regular strokes inside of
Illustrator, you can also create dashed
| | 00:04 | and arrowhead strokes as well.
| | 00:06 | In this movie I'll explore those
features and how you can utilize them to
| | 00:09 | enhance your artwork.
| | 00:10 | Let's first go ahead and create a new document
by going up to the File menu and choosing New.
| | 00:15 | Once inside the New Document dialog box,
I'll go to the Profiles and select Web,
| | 00:19 | then I'll select a size of
1024x768 and I'll hit OK.
| | 00:24 | That creates a new blank
document for me, and I'm ready to go.
| | 00:27 | I'm going to quickly draw out some
shapes on the artboard, so I'll grab a
| | 00:31 | square and I'll hold down my Shift
key to do that, draw it out using the
| | 00:35 | Rectangle tool, and then I'll go ahead and grab
the Line tool, and I'll draw out a couple of lines.
| | 00:42 | We'll worry about the lines in a minute.
| | 00:43 | For now, I'm going to focus only on the square.
| | 00:46 | So I'll come up here and I'll zoom in,
I'll grab my Selection tool and make sure
| | 00:52 | I have the square selected.
| | 00:53 | With the square selected, I want to give
it a fill color, so I'll give it a fill
| | 00:57 | color of a blue, and the stroke,
| | 01:00 | I am going to increase the
weight to about 10 points.
| | 01:04 | That way you can see it really nice.
| | 01:05 | I'll then open up the Stroke panel from
this Control panel here and I'll go down
| | 01:10 | to the option for dashed Line.
| | 01:13 | Once I click that option, you're going
to notice that you get two little boxes
| | 01:16 | over here at the right.
| | 01:17 | The first one preserves the
exact dash and gap lengths.
| | 01:21 | That means if you enter in values
in these boxes here, then Illustrator
| | 01:25 | will respect those values and won't give
you these nice clean corners around each edge.
| | 01:30 | If you have this option selected, it
aligns the dashes to the corners and path
| | 01:34 | ends, and adjusts the lengths of those
paths to fit, meaning you get nice, crisp
| | 01:38 | corners on each edge or side of your path.
| | 01:42 | That's what I like and I'm going to keep it
that way, because I think it looks cleaner.
| | 01:46 | So this option again,
gives you the nice clean edges.
| | 01:49 | Here you can determine the length of
the dashes and the length of the gap in
| | 01:53 | between them, and you can do that
for several different iterations.
| | 01:57 | So here it starts off usually with 12 points.
| | 02:00 | I'm going to keep that on the 20
points that I've entered though.
| | 02:03 | For the gap, let's do 25 points.
| | 02:06 | Once you enter in a number, you
can just press the Tab key and it'll
| | 02:09 | automatically take you to the next box.
| | 02:13 | You'll notice as I tab over,
Illustrator gives me a live preview out of my
| | 02:17 | artboard of the changes that I'm making.
| | 02:19 | So in this case, if I wanted to make
the next dash only 10 points and press the
| | 02:23 | Tab key, you can see that
small 10-point dash is right here.
| | 02:29 | The next gap, let's
shrink that down to 5 points.
| | 02:33 | Then the next dash, let's do 25 points, and
then the next gap, let's make that 5 points again.
| | 02:40 | So you can see if I click away, I've
created a really interesting pattern of
| | 02:43 | multiple dashed lines and
gaps around this artwork.
| | 02:47 | I can then select it again and go back
and change it to make it more uniformed.
| | 02:51 | If I hit Stroke, all I have to do is go
back into these values and delete them.
| | 02:57 | As I delete them, you should
see that it changes, as I go.
| | 03:01 | Again, this is part of the live preview.
| | 03:04 | So once I get back, I get the 20-point dash and
I'm actually going to change that a little bit.
| | 03:09 | I'm going to change that to 30.
| | 03:12 | Let's give it a little bit more size.
| | 03:14 | Once I do that, I'm pretty much finished.
I can click on Stroke again to close
| | 03:18 | the Stroke panel and I'll click away
from it to see my results, and I'll hit
| | 03:22 | Command+0 or Ctrl+0 so I can
see the entire artboard again.
| | 03:26 | Now let's work on these lines down here.
| | 03:29 | I'll select this first line and I'll zoom in
a little bit, so we can see what's going on.
| | 03:33 | I'm going to give it a pretty
fixed stroke, something like 5 points.
| | 03:38 | Once I have that done, let's
go ahead and add some dashes.
| | 03:40 | I'll go to Stroke, click on Dashed
Line. Remember, I want those nice clean
| | 03:45 | edges, so I'll select this, and then
I'm going to vary this up a little bit.
| | 03:50 | I'll do 5 points for the gap, I'll do
20 points for the next dash, I'll do 5
| | 03:56 | points for that gap, and I'll do 50
points for this dash, and I'll do 5 points
| | 04:02 | for the next gap, just giving a
little bit of variation in between.
| | 04:05 | And you could come back in and make
any type of adjustment that you wanted.
| | 04:09 | Directly underneath that, you're going to
get the ability to add arrowheads to this.
| | 04:14 | So I can actually come here and
click and I can set the arrowhead for
| | 04:17 | the left-hand side.
| | 04:19 | Let's scroll down and I'll pick Arrow number 5.
| | 04:22 | Once I choose that, an arrow
automatically pops up right there on the left.
| | 04:26 | Once it's popped up there on the left, I
can then make changes to it. I can scale it,
| | 04:30 | I can also change the alignment.
| | 04:32 | In this case, I'm going to
scale it down just a little bit.
| | 04:34 | It's a little too big.
| | 04:35 | So let's change the scale by just
clicking until I get to about 75%.
| | 04:40 | I can also change this part of the
scale, the end of the arrowhead, so I'll
| | 04:44 | scale that back to about 75%.
| | 04:47 | If you want to keep these in proportion
with one another, click this little Link
| | 04:49 | button and it will automatically link
the start and end points of the arrowhead.
| | 04:55 | If you want to change the alignment, you
can extend the arrow beyond the path or
| | 05:00 | you can place the arrow at the end of the path.
| | 05:03 | In this case, I think I'm
going to extend it past the path.
| | 05:06 | Once I do that, you'll see it jump.
| | 05:08 | Now let's add an arrow to the end of the path.
| | 05:11 | I'll go back down to Arrow number 5 so
that they're equal, and then I'm going to
| | 05:15 | change the Scale as well.
| | 05:17 | So I'll change this back down to 75, and
again, I'm just clicking with my mouse.
| | 05:23 | You could also go in and enter that
value manually with your keyboard as well.
| | 05:26 | If I wanted to switch the alignment, I
could place the arrow at the end or I
| | 05:31 | could place it outside.
| | 05:32 | You'll notice that this
holds true for both arrowheads.
| | 05:35 | Any time I switch that,
it switches both of them.
| | 05:36 | It's because they're linked together.
| | 05:38 | So I'm going to keep it right here on
Extending the arrow tip beyond the path.
| | 05:43 | Once I've done that, I can
click away and my line is complete.
| | 05:47 | Let's try it one more time
with this line down here.
| | 05:50 | I'm not going to add a dash to this one though,
| | 05:52 | I'm just going to add some arrowheads.
| | 05:53 | So let's go ahead and beef up
this stroke just a little bit.
| | 05:57 | Let's put it up to about 10.
| | 05:59 | Now let's go back to the Stroke panel and
I'm just going to go down to arrowheads.
| | 06:03 | Let's take a look at all the
arrowheads we have available to us.
| | 06:05 | If I scroll down, you'll notice
that we get several different types.
| | 06:09 | As we go down, they become more ornate
and they also have different variations
| | 06:13 | of each arrowhead as well.
| | 06:14 | So let's scroll down and let's make one
end the end of the arrow, and the other
| | 06:18 | end the actual arrowhead.
| | 06:19 | So in this case, I'll pick Arrow 20 for
the left and I'm going to make sure that
| | 06:24 | it goes out past the path.
| | 06:26 | And then for the front end, let's
pick one of the other arrowheads,
| | 06:29 | something like Arrow 16.
| | 06:31 | Once I click away, you can see that
I've created a pretty nice-looking arrow.
| | 06:35 | But essentially inside of Illustrator,
it's nothing more than a line segment.
| | 06:40 | The tail end and the arrowhead itself
were just added inside of the stroke options.
| | 06:44 | It isn't until you expand this object
by going to Object > Expand Appearance,
| | 06:49 | that you actually get control over the paths
that make up the tail end and the arrowhead itself.
| | 06:54 | Once you do that though, you'll then have
full editing control over the entire segment.
| | 06:59 | The best part about using the arrows
and dashes inside of Illustrator, is any
| | 07:03 | time you resize or change the object in
any way, the arrowheads and the dashes
| | 07:08 | automatically change
with it. Let's take a look.
| | 07:11 | If I select this and resize the
square, the stroke and the dashes scale
| | 07:18 | proportionally with it.
| | 07:19 | Same thing holds true here.
| | 07:21 | If I zoom out a little bit, watch
what happens when I shrink this line up.
| | 07:25 | Normally you would expect these arrows
to become smudged, but if I drag it to
| | 07:29 | the left, the arrows maintain their appearance.
| | 07:32 | Same thing with this, if I were to shorten
this up, the arrow maintains its appearance.
| | 07:37 | Yes the stroke does shrink with the
line itself, but the arrows maintain their
| | 07:42 | full proportional appearance.
| | 07:44 | Scaling it back up, brings them
right back to where they were.
| | 07:47 | If you're ever working with
charts or anything like that inside of
| | 07:50 | Illustrator, you can utilize the
arrows to point to things or highlight
| | 07:54 | different parts of your design.
| | 07:55 | You can also utilize the dashed strokes
to add a little bit more of a decorative
| | 07:58 | border to your artwork.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating variable-width strokes| 00:00 | Up to this point in this course,
we've been performing some pretty static
| | 00:03 | adjustments to our artwork.
| | 00:05 | We've been doing some point and
click things where we just added a color,
| | 00:08 | added a stroke, et cetera.
| | 00:10 | In this movie, we are going to get a
little bit more exciting and actually
| | 00:13 | change our artwork manually by hand, by
utilizing one of the cool features called
| | 00:18 | the Variable-Width tool.
| | 00:20 | This is going to enable you to create
some really stylistic strokes inside of
| | 00:23 | Illustrator on your own.
| | 00:25 | And the best part is with a little
experimentation, you can create some awesome
| | 00:29 | stuff with very little effort.
| | 00:31 | So what I am going to do is
work on this piece of artwork here.
| | 00:33 | Actually, I have several different
pieces of art that comprises this
| | 00:36 | little flower shape.
| | 00:37 | I am going to start off with this petal
right here on the left-hand side and I
| | 00:41 | am just going to add a basic stroke to it.
| | 00:43 | I will add a dark green color so it's
easy to see, and let's also zoom in on it
| | 00:47 | so we can see it a little better.
| | 00:49 | Once I get that selected, I can then
go over and grab the Width tool and
| | 00:54 | with the Width tool selected, I can come out to
the path itself and start to make adjustments.
| | 00:59 | You will notice when I bring my
cursor out and place it on my path, I get a
| | 01:02 | little white dot that
follows me all around the path.
| | 01:05 | You will also notice if you have Smart
Guides turned on, that you get this small
| | 01:09 | gray box popping up.
| | 01:11 | The small gray box tells you two things;
how much weight of the stroke is on
| | 01:15 | each side of the path, in this case
there is 0.5 pixels on each side of the path
| | 01:20 | because it's a one-pixel stroke.
| | 01:22 | And underneath, it tells you
the width of the stroke overall.
| | 01:25 | So at this current point on the path, I'm set
to 1 pixel, with 0.5 pixels on either side.
| | 01:31 | If I wanted to increase or decrease
the size of the stroke, I simply click
| | 01:35 | and drag either to the left or to the right to
increase the stroke at that particular point.
| | 01:40 | I am going to come right down here,
close to the middle of this side and I am
| | 01:45 | simply going to click and drag to the left.
| | 01:49 | Look what happens to the stroke;
| | 01:52 | it actually grows as I drag.
| | 01:54 | So I can drag this out to about,
let's say, 20 points, roundabout.
| | 01:58 | Once I get it to about 20 points, I'll
release my mouse and there is my stroke.
| | 02:03 | At this point it almost looks 3D.
| | 02:05 | I could leave it like that or
I could make other adjustments.
| | 02:08 | You'll also notice that you can come
and grab that point on there anytime you
| | 02:11 | want and you can actually move it around.
| | 02:14 | As you move it, it increases the
weight of the stroke wherever you move it.
| | 02:19 | If I drop it back right about where it was,
everything pretty much stays the same.
| | 02:24 | You'll also notice that you can come in
here and you can adjust the handles at
| | 02:28 | any time as well, clicking and dragging
towards the center point shrinks the size
| | 02:32 | of the stroke, dragging it back
out increases the size of the stroke.
| | 02:37 | If you want to control these points
individually, you can hold down the Option
| | 02:41 | key on Mac, the Alt key on PC
and drag one in or drag it out.
| | 02:47 | So you actually have independent
controls of all of these different points.
| | 02:51 | Let me undo to reset that back.
| | 02:53 | Let's go over to the other side of my
path and add another variable-width point,
| | 02:57 | close to where the other one was.
| | 02:59 | Click and I will drag out.
| | 03:02 | I will try to make this as close
as I can to the other, and release.
| | 03:05 | Let's click away with the
Selection tool. I will zoom out.
| | 03:09 | See that nice little gradual fade of
the stroke that I have created there?
| | 03:14 | Here is the really cool part.
| | 03:15 | I will select the shape again, and I
am going to bring out the Stroke panel.
| | 03:20 | Inside of the Stroke panel, if you
remember, you can go to the panel menu and
| | 03:23 | choose Show Options.
| | 03:25 | In the Show Options dialog box, you'll
notice here at the bottom that you get
| | 03:28 | something called a Profile, and we are
going to actually go into profiles in
| | 03:33 | depth in another movie, but I just
wanted to make you aware that you can
| | 03:36 | actually save the profile for this
particular stroke that you've created and
| | 03:41 | then apply that profile to
every single piece of your artwork.
| | 03:44 | So if you didn't want to take the time
to go through and recreate what you've
| | 03:47 | done on each individual piece in here,
you could do it one time, save the
| | 03:51 | profile, and then apply it to
all pieces of your artwork.
| | 03:55 | So once you've got your variable-width
stroke exactly like you like it, you are
| | 03:58 | ready to then save it and apply it to
any piece of your artwork in your design.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using width profiles| 00:00 | As you start to create strokes with
varying widths, you may find the need to
| | 00:04 | save those profiles of the width, so
that you can then use them in other
| | 00:08 | pieces of your artwork.
| | 00:10 | For instance, on this particular
document that I've got here I've created a
| | 00:13 | variable-width stroke on this leaf of the flower.
| | 00:16 | I want to utilize the same stroke on
all of the different leaves, but I don't
| | 00:20 | want to take the time to redo
the stroke each and every time.
| | 00:24 | So I'm going to utilize something
called a width profile to get me there.
| | 00:28 | But first let's take a look at how
we can utilize some of the built-in
| | 00:31 | profiles that are already existing
inside of Illustrator to add a little
| | 00:34 | something extra to our artwork.
| | 00:36 | I'll select this leaf here on the top,
and I'll zoom in, and I'll add a dark green
| | 00:43 | stroke just the same color as I did over here.
| | 00:46 | You'll notice once I do that that I
get options in my Control panel, one that
| | 00:50 | says Uniform and one that says Basic.
| | 00:53 | The Basic refers to the brush that
you're currently using. I'm going to leave
| | 00:57 | that alone for now and focus
on the variable-width profile.
| | 01:01 | When I hover over that, it tells me
what it is, and I can dropdown this arrow
| | 01:04 | and I can see all of the different
profiles that I have available to me.
| | 01:08 | I can see Width Profile 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
| | 01:13 | Let's take a look at what some of these
look like. I'll click on Width Profile 1
| | 01:17 | and it sort of gives me an idea of
what's going on. I'll have to increase the size of
| | 01:21 | the stroke a little bit to actually see
it, so I'll increase this like to 10. Now you
| | 01:26 | can see that, let's go to 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
| | 01:36 | They all create a unique representation
of the stroke all using variable-widths.
| | 01:41 | However, I want to use this profile here.
| | 01:44 | So how exactly do I do that?
| | 01:46 | Well I'm going to go back up here,
I'm going to select Uniform just to make
| | 01:50 | it normal again, and I'll actually back this
down to about 1 point where it was by default.
| | 01:56 | Now I'll click away and I'll
select this leaf over here.
| | 02:01 | Once I have that selected, I can then
go into my Stroke panel, bring out my
| | 02:05 | Stroke panel and go to the
panel menu and choose Show Options.
| | 02:09 | In my Stroke panel options you'll
notice that I get a Profile here.
| | 02:12 | If I drop this down I can go
down and select Add to Profiles.
| | 02:18 | So it's actually going to copy the
profile from this leaf and add it to my
| | 02:22 | Profiles menu. So I'll hit this and I'll
just call this Green Leaf and I'll hit OK.
| | 02:30 | Once I do that it's now saved,
and I can close my Stroke panel.
| | 02:33 | I'll go back over to this leaf, select
Uniform, and change it to Green Leaf.
| | 02:41 | Once I do that I simply up the size
until I get it where I need it to go,
| | 02:46 | something like 20 points.
| | 02:47 | Now I'll zoom back out and I can do
this for each one of the leaves or I can
| | 02:52 | simply select all of them at once, set
the stroke color to dark green, change
| | 02:58 | the Profile to Green Leaf and change
the Width to 20. I'll zoom back out so you
| | 03:05 | can see the finished piece of artwork.
| | 03:07 | Now that I've got my finished product,
you can see just how easy it was to
| | 03:10 | change the entire look and feel of this
artwork simply by utilizing a variable-
| | 03:14 | width stroke and then using the profile
to apply to all of the different elements
| | 03:18 | that existed on my screen.
| | 03:20 | So as you start to work with variable-
width strokes, save your profiles as you go
| | 03:24 | along, that way you've got them anytime
you need to get back to them, and you can
| | 03:27 | apply them to all of your artwork
and even artwork in other projects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Outlining strokes| 00:00 |
Up until now, we've been working with
strokes just in their natural state,
| | 00:03 |
whereas we control the point size or pixel
size of how wide or how big they are, and
| | 00:08 |
we also control the width of those strokes.
| | 00:10 |
But there may come a time when you
actually need to convert those strokes
| | 00:13 |
into regular paths so that you have full
control of them, or if you're sending this
| | 00:17 |
file out to someone who you don't know if
they have Scale Strokes and Effects set up
| | 00:21 |
in their version of Illustrator.
Then you might have to worry about the
| | 00:24 |
stroke looking the same when they get done
with it versus what it was when you sent
| | 00:27 |
it to them.
In that case, you're going to want to do
| | 00:30 |
what we call outlining the stroke, which
basically takes the stroke in its standard
| | 00:34 |
form and changes it just into a regular shape.
| | 00:37 |
The benefit of this of course is that you
maintain the look and feel of the stroke
| | 00:40 |
no matter where it goes or how big or how
small that its scaled to.
| | 00:43 |
The downfall is you no longer get the
individual amount of control that you
| | 00:47 |
would normally, like with the width and
also the width profile that you've
| | 00:50 |
assigned to it.
So there are some tradeoffs but it is at
| | 00:53 |
the end of the day, the best way to make
sure that your stroke always looks
| | 00:56 |
consistent no matter who's using it or
where its going.
| | 00:59 |
So in order to do this, you're going to go
to the Object menu.
| | 01:02 |
You're going to go down to Path, and
you're going to choose Outline Stroke.
| | 01:06 |
And when you outline the stroke, just as
I've done here, you're going to notice
| | 01:09 |
that the stroke actually becomes a series
of anchor points that is now a path.
| | 01:14 |
You will still see what appears to be the
stroke in the middle, but that's actually
| | 01:18 |
just where it overlaps the existing path
underneath it, because when you create
| | 01:23 |
this outline stroke it's actually grouped
with, the original object that it was on,
| | 01:27 |
because they assume you want to keep them
both together.
| | 01:30 |
If you don't, then what you will need to
do is double-click to enter isolation
| | 01:33 |
mode, an then you can take the stroke, an
copy it an paste it somewhere else, or you
| | 01:37 |
can just simply take the inner object an
delete it with the delete key.
| | 01:41 |
Just like that.
Let me undo that, we'll just get out of
| | 01:44 |
isolation mode by double clicking and
we'll zoom back out.
| | 01:48 |
So again outlining a stroke a great way to
get full control over it.
| | 01:52 |
You now can manipulate it just as you
would any other type of path.
| | 01:55 |
You do lose the stroke edit ability but
you do gain the consistency of having the
| | 02:00 |
stroke look the same as you had it in this
document no matter where it goes from
| | 02:04 |
here.
| | 02:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and editing gradients| 00:00 | Gradient fills inside of Illustrator are
a great way to add some simulated depth
| | 00:04 | and texture to your designs.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll focus on creating
and editing your own gradient swatches
| | 00:10 | here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:11 | But first let's take a look at how
we actually apply a gradient swatch.
| | 00:14 | As you can see, I've got this
background of this wallpaper design that I'm
| | 00:19 | working on, and I want to add a little
bit of depth to it by using a gradient.
| | 00:23 | In order to add a gradient fill,
it's actually pretty simple.
| | 00:25 | I'm going to make sure that I have the
object selected, and then I'll come over
| | 00:30 | and make sure I'm targeting the fill.
| | 00:31 | Once I have the fill targeted, the
easiest way to add a gradient would simply to
| | 00:35 | be click the gradient swatch right there.
| | 00:37 | Once I click it, you'll see
that it automatically goes to the
| | 00:40 | white-to-black gradient.
| | 00:42 | But that's not exactly
the color I'm looking for;
| | 00:44 | it doesn't match my blue theme.
| | 00:47 | So let's drag out the Gradient panel.
| | 00:49 | Once I have the Gradient panel out,
you can see here that I can make several
| | 00:52 | different changes to the gradient.
| | 00:54 | The Type; I can pick between Linear and Radial.
| | 00:58 | Linear means it goes sideways from one side
to the other, one color fades into the other.
| | 01:04 | A Radial gradient means it's circular.
| | 01:06 | It originates from a center point
and goes outward, one color to another.
| | 01:11 | In this case, I think I want
to work with a Radial gradient.
| | 01:14 | Once I have the Radial
gradient applied, you'll see it.
| | 01:16 | In this case, it almost looks like
a spotlight or something like that.
| | 01:20 | Right here you can also click and you
can pick between the default gradients
| | 01:24 | that are available to you in
Illustrator, Fade to Black, Super Soft Black
| | 01:28 | Vignette, Green, Yellow and Orange.
| | 01:31 | Then you can also pick
between the Purple Radial gradient.
| | 01:34 | The best gradients are the ones that
you create yourself and you can get really
| | 01:38 | creative with these things.
| | 01:40 | You can also change the Angle of the
gradient right here, but for a Radial
| | 01:43 | gradient, generally 0 works pretty good.
| | 01:46 | You can also change the
Aspect Ratio of the circle.
| | 01:50 | I'll show you what this means by
changing it. Let's go to 400%.
| | 01:55 | See how the circle got larger?
| | 01:56 | If I take it down to 20%,
the circle gets very narrow.
| | 02:00 | So let's go ahead and keep that right at 100%.
| | 02:03 | Directly underneath those controls, you
have what's called the Gradient slider.
| | 02:08 | The Gradient slider contains these two
pin-like objects called Stops, and you can
| | 02:13 | add as many gradient stops
along the way as you want.
| | 02:15 | So what I'm going to do is actually add
some new gradient stops to this to add a
| | 02:20 | nice background to my design.
| | 02:22 | I have a couple of swatches over in my
Swatches panel, one called Dark Blue and
| | 02:27 | one called Light Blue, and I'm just
going to take these colors and replace the
| | 02:31 | existing colors in the gradient.
| | 02:33 | I want the light blue to be on the
inside and the dark blue to be on the outside.
| | 02:37 | So I take the Light Blue color, click,
and I just drag it over and drop it
| | 02:42 | onto the white stop.
| | 02:43 | When I let go, it pops in.
| | 02:46 | The Dark Blue swatch, I'll take that,
click and drag it over to the black swatch.
| | 02:51 | When I let it go, it pops right in.
| | 02:54 | Now if you can't tell the difference
between the light and dark swatches, that's okay.
| | 02:58 | You can always adjust them.
| | 02:59 | Like right here for instance, I can
come to this stop, let's say I wanted it to
| | 03:02 | be a little lighter, I can double-
click it and I get a little color picker.
| | 03:06 | I can then increase the R value a
little bit to lighten it up, or maybe even
| | 03:12 | lighten up the green portions as well.
| | 03:14 | Once I get it like a like it, I
can just click away from it and it
| | 03:17 | automatically changes.
| | 03:18 | If I want to darken up the blue color, double
-click, maybe I'll just richen up the blue.
| | 03:24 | Again, this is personal
choice and personal taste.
| | 03:28 | Click away from it.
| | 03:29 | Now let's say I wanted something in
the middle, kind of like a medium stop.
| | 03:32 | I'll click to add that and it actually
adds a stop that corresponds to whatever
| | 03:37 | color I clicked on right there,
and I can make an adjustment here.
| | 03:40 | I can double-click it, let's say I want
at this point to be lighter, I can make
| | 03:44 | it lighter or a different
color. It doesn't matter.
| | 03:47 | I'll brighten that up just a
little bit, like so. Click that.
| | 03:52 | If you need to get rid of a stop, just
click it and drag it away and it disappears.
| | 03:57 | If you want to move these stops,
it's really easy to do that as well.
| | 04:01 | Click and drag to the left making the
blue sort of overpower the light blue, or
| | 04:07 | you can drag that back out.
| | 04:09 | If I want to expand the circle, let's
drag this a little bit more to the right.
| | 04:12 | You can see it gets brighter
in the center. There we go!
| | 04:16 | Once I have this, I have my new
gradient right here in my fill.
| | 04:19 | If I want to add this as a swatch, I
could just click and drag it over to my
| | 04:24 | Swatches panel and drop it in.
| | 04:25 | If I want to name that swatch, I can
double-click on it and I can call this
| | 04:31 | Wallpaper Background.
| | 04:34 | I can then save that out as an .ase file
or Adobe Swatch Exchange file, and that
| | 04:38 | way I can use it in other
applications or another Illustrator document.
| | 04:43 | Once I'm finished editing my gradient,
I can click away and save my work, or I
| | 04:47 | can simply continue working.
| | 04:50 | Creating gradients in
Illustrator is relatively easy.
| | 04:52 | In addition to the gradients that you
create inside of Illustrator, you also
| | 04:55 | have access to a wide variety
of gradient libraries as well.
| | 04:59 | In order to access the gradient
libraries inside of Illustrator, simply go down
| | 05:03 | to the little Library icon in the
Swatches panel and find the Gradients section.
| | 05:08 | Once you do that, you'll see things
like Brights, Color Combinations, Color
| | 05:11 | Harmonies, Earthtones, Fruits and
Vegetables, Gems and Jewels, and Metals,
| | 05:17 | Neutrals, all kinds of stuff.
| | 05:19 | So take some time and go through these
and apply them to your artwork and see
| | 05:22 | exactly how they look and if you like them.
| | 05:25 | If you do, add them to your Swatches
panel and you can continue to use them
| | 05:28 | throughout your entire design.
| | 05:30 | As we're seeing with this design I'm
working on here, I've taken just a regular
| | 05:33 | blue background and turned it into
something that adds a little bit of depth and
| | 05:37 | also some texture as well.
| | 05:38 | It's very easy to take your basic
design and make it extraordinary, simply by
| | 05:43 | adding one of these gradient swatches.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying gradients to strokes| 00:00 | One of the great new features of
Illustrator CS6 is the ability to add
| | 00:04 | gradients to strokes.
| | 00:06 | In this movie I'll explore this feature and
how it can help you enhance some of your artwork.
| | 00:11 | Up until now, we've just been applying
basic colors to our strokes, nothing real
| | 00:15 | fancy, but now I'm going to show you
how to add a gradient to a stroke. And some
| | 00:20 | of you might be thinking that this has
been around in Illustrator for a while,
| | 00:22 | and when I first heard about it being
a new feature I thought the same thing,
| | 00:26 | but it's actually new to CS6, but now
we can indeed add a gradient to a stroke.
| | 00:32 | So I'm going to select this circle in
the background here and I'm simply going
| | 00:36 | to add a gradient to the stroke.
| | 00:39 | The easiest way to do that is to
target the stroke and then simply hit one of
| | 00:42 | the gradient swatches in the Swatches panel.
| | 00:45 | Once I do that the gradient stroke is
applied, you might not be able to see it,
| | 00:49 | because it's such a small point, but if
I increase the size of it, you will see
| | 00:53 | it as it grows. So I'll increase that
to about 20 points, then I'll go into the
| | 00:59 | Gradient panel and I'll drag
that out so you can see it.
| | 01:01 | When we first have this setup, you'll
notice here that I have the ability to
| | 01:06 | change the way the stroke is applied. I
can choose to apply the gradient within
| | 01:11 | the stroke, which is the default,
| | 01:13 | apply the gradient along the stroke,
which look like this, and also apply the
| | 01:19 | gradient across the
stroke, which look like this.
| | 01:22 | In this case, I think applying the
gradient along the stroke looks best.
| | 01:25 | It's kind of got a swirl, as if I was
brushing this with a paintbrush or something.
| | 01:30 | I can then go in and make
edits to the gradient as well.
| | 01:33 | Like for instance, I think the midpoint
is a little too far to the left, so I'll
| | 01:36 | drag that over, make it a
little bit more towards the middle.
| | 01:39 | If you won't know where the middle is,
just try to get the location to around
| | 01:43 | 50%, or you can just simply come
down and type 50 and you're good to go.
| | 01:48 | Once I do that, I'm going to take a blue
color from my swatches and drag it over
| | 01:53 | on top of the black.
| | 01:54 | If you're wondering how I got this
transparent end over here, you can just
| | 01:58 | select the stop and take
the Opacity level down to 0.
| | 02:02 | If you wanted to make this a color again,
you can take the Opacity back up to
| | 02:05 | 100, and so I could change this to let's
say a green color by dragging a green down
| | 02:09 | and dropping it on that stop.
| | 02:12 | Now once I change the color of the
gradient, you'll get a better understanding of
| | 02:15 | what it means when I reflow the stroke.
Let's come up here and take a look
| | 02:19 | again. Let's apply the gradient within
the stroke, looks like this, let's apply
| | 02:23 | the gradient along the stroke, looks
like this, and then applying the gradient
| | 02:28 | across the stroke, looks like that.
| | 02:29 | So now that I've changed the color,
I'm actually liking the across method the
| | 02:34 | most, because it fades in from green to light
blue, giving it sort of a 3D like appearance.
| | 02:40 | Now I can close the Gradient panel
and click away, let's zoom in to see
| | 02:43 | exactly what we've done.
| | 02:45 | Basically, I've added a 20 point
stroke all way around the outside of this
| | 02:49 | object and then I used the gradient
on a stroke to create this illusion of
| | 02:53 | depth. It's actually still just a normal
stroke with a gradient color applied to it.
| | 02:58 | And as I said, this is new to
Illustrator CS6, but it's a great way to add a
| | 03:03 | little something extra to your
strokes and give your artwork a little bit
| | 03:06 | more depth and flair.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying and editing pattern fills| 00:00 |
Creating seamless patterns is a really
tedious task in some applications.
| | 00:04 |
For instance, if you've ever tried to do
this inside of Photoshop you know what an
| | 00:07 |
immense headache it can be.
But in Adobe Illustrator it's actually
| | 00:11 |
pretty simple to create really nice patterns.
| | 00:14 |
So in this movie I'm going to show you how
to do that.
| | 00:16 |
I'm going to start off by selecting a
piece of artwork from this section here.
| | 00:19 |
And I'm going to copy it to my Clipboard,
Cmd or Ctrl+C.
| | 00:22 |
And then what we're going to do is, we're
going to zoom out a little bit.
| | 00:25 |
And I'm going to pan over and I'm going to
create a new artboard.
| | 00:27 |
So I'm going to grab the Artboard tool.
And once I have the Artboard tool selected
| | 00:31 |
I'm just going to draw out a new Artboard.
It does not matter how big or how small
| | 00:35 |
the Artboard is, I just want a clean
surface to work on without having to
| | 00:38 |
create a new document.
And then once I do that, I am then going
| | 00:41 |
to switch back to the Selection tool make
sure that I click on this artboard to make
| | 00:44 |
it active.
And then I'm going to paste on that
| | 00:46 |
artboard.
I am going to then align this to the
| | 00:49 |
center, I can just drag this in, something
like that and then zoom in.
| | 00:54 |
And we'll scroll over here.
Once I have this artwork over there I can
| | 00:58 |
resize and then I'm going to create a
seamless pattern out of this.
| | 01:01 |
But we also want to add some things to it right?
| | 01:03 |
That's kind of basic for a pattern.
So let's come back over here and grab a
| | 01:05 |
couple more pieces of artwork.
I'll grab this.
| | 01:08 |
Copy.
Come over here, click and paste.
| | 01:11 |
And then I'll just Option+Drag.
If you want to constrain it, hold down the
| | 01:17 |
Shift key while you're holding down Option
or Alt on the keyboard and then release.
| | 01:21 |
Same thing going down, hold down the
Option or Alt key, click, drag, hold down
| | 01:25 |
Shift to make sure it goes straight.
And then once it gets to where you need it
| | 01:28 |
to go, let go.
And then one more time Option or Alt+Drag,
| | 01:32 |
hold down the Shift key to constrain and
then when it gets lined up, just let go of
| | 01:36 |
the mouse then let go of Option or Alt.
And then I'm going to come back over, I'm
| | 01:40 |
going to grab two more pieces here.
So I'm going to grab something like one of
| | 01:43 |
these.
Come back over paste, this one's a little
| | 01:49 |
big so we're going to resize it a little bit.
| | 01:52 |
And then we're just going to Option or
Alt+Drag it across.
| | 01:56 |
Something like that.
And you can play around with the
| | 01:58 |
positioning to get it just right once you
have everything in place.
| | 02:01 |
One thing I want to point out here is that
these are symbols and these symbols can be
| | 02:05 |
somewhat tricky when working with patterns.
| | 02:06 |
So it's always a good idea just to go
ahead an expand those out by going to the
| | 02:09 |
object menu, choosing Expand and selecting
Object > Fill > Stroke.
| | 02:13 |
Hit OK.
That turns them into just regular path
| | 02:16 |
objects and won't give you any trouble
going forward.
| | 02:19 |
So I said I was going to grab one more
piece, and I will.
| | 02:21 |
Let's come back and we'll grab this little
pinwheel shape here.
| | 02:24 |
Come back over and we're going to paste
this in and I'm going to shrink it up
| | 02:29 |
considerably.
And then we're just going to move it into
| | 02:32 |
these little blank spots here.
And I'll just hold down Option or Alt,
| | 02:36 |
drag it up, Option or Alt and put it right there.
| | 02:41 |
And one more time.
Now I have a pretty complex pattern that
| | 02:47 |
I'm working with already.
And it would be a real pain to create
| | 02:50 |
something like this and then have it
repeat easily across say, a website
| | 02:53 |
background or something like that.
And so what I want to do is take this and
| | 02:56 |
make it a pattern swatch in Illustrator.
So I'm going to select all the artwork on
| | 02:59 |
the artboard.
Go to the Object menu, select Pattern and
| | 03:02 |
choose Make.
Once I select that, you see that the tiles
| | 03:05 |
are automatically created for me.
And yours probably looks something like
| | 03:10 |
this actually.
So, let me turn off all the things that
| | 03:13 |
I've turned on and show you this.
I always turn the dim copies to about 30%
| | 03:18 |
it makes it easier for me to see my
original artwork.
| | 03:20 |
I also turn on Show Swatch Bounds so I can
see the full width and height of my
| | 03:25 |
swatches as I create them.
First thing you want to do is give it a
| | 03:28 |
name so in this case I'll call it Flower Pinwheels.
| | 03:32 |
And then you can change the Grid Type.
Brick by Row, Brick by Column, Hex by
| | 03:38 |
Column, Hex by Row.
Again this is going to be up to you and
| | 03:43 |
what type of pattern you want to create.
I think for this particular one, the Brick
| | 03:46 |
by Column works nicely, creates a nice
little seamless pattern that goes all the
| | 03:50 |
way across there.
You can resize the tile if you want to, in
| | 03:54 |
this case I'm not going to do that but you
could if you wanted to.
| | 03:57 |
And you can also choose whether or not you
move the tile with the artwork.
| | 04:00 |
So if you move the artwork around does the
tile move with it or does it just keep the
| | 04:04 |
same thing and create a pattern from the
moved artwork that you created there.
| | 04:08 |
The Copies section, how many copies do you want?
| | 04:10 |
So, I start out with five by five.
You can go to seven by seven, nine by
| | 04:13 |
nine.
Again this just refers to how big the
| | 04:16 |
actual tile is going to be when you create it.
| | 04:19 |
So in this case I think five by five
works, okay?
| | 04:21 |
Once we are finished here, we hit Done.
You will notice that it snaps back out
| | 04:26 |
into a regular mode here and my artwork is
all there.
| | 04:29 |
I no longer need this artwork though, I
can just select and get rid of it.
| | 04:33 |
And over here in my Swatches panel you're
going to see that new swatch.
| | 04:37 |
And by the way, you may have gotten a
dialog box when you first created your
| | 04:40 |
pattern swatch that warned you that it
added a swatch over here to your panel.
| | 04:44 |
If you see that dialogue box pop up, it
does from time to time, just hit Don't
| | 04:48 |
Show Again and hit OK.
It's just a good reminder of letting you
| | 04:50 |
know where it is.
And so you'll notice over here I've got
| | 04:53 |
the Flower Pinwheels.
If I were to come over here and grab a
| | 04:56 |
shape, like a star.
I could then draw out the star.
| | 04:59 |
And I could apply that pattern to it just
by clicking on the pattern and it would
| | 05:02 |
apply that.
The interesting thing about patterns is
| | 05:05 |
that, as you move your artwork, the tile
stays put.
| | 05:08 |
It's because it's sort of clipped to the artboard.
| | 05:11 |
So, as you move you just have to position
your shape until you get it exactly like
| | 05:15 |
you want it.
And then after the fact, you could then
| | 05:18 |
expand the shape's appearance object
expand and that would allow you to then
| | 05:22 |
move that with the pattern inside of it.
So you just have to be aware of that.
| | 05:26 |
It's another one of those little quirky
things about Illustrator.
| | 05:29 |
Now what if I wanted to create a
repeatable tile to put on say a website or
| | 05:32 |
something like that a background?
That's actually pretty easy to do as well.
| | 05:35 |
I'm going to delete this and then we'll
come over here to the pattern swatch and
| | 05:39 |
I'm going to drag it out onto the artboard.
| | 05:41 |
And when I do that, you're going to see it
pop up and you're going to see two
| | 05:44 |
bounding boxes.
The inner bounding box is the one that
| | 05:47 |
you're more concerned with.
In order to understand how big the tile is
| | 05:50 |
you need to bring up the Info panel.
So go Window > Info or hit Ctrl+F8 on your
| | 05:55 |
keyboard or Cmd+F8 on the Mac.
And then what we are going to do, we are
| | 05:58 |
going to double click the inter isolation
mode and then we are going to select this
| | 06:01 |
inner square right here to see how big it is.
| | 06:03 |
So it is 412 by 450 round about and so
we'll close this up.
| | 06:11 |
And I'm going to double-click to exit out
and then we're going to create a new
| | 06:16 |
artboard.
So I'm going to grab the Artboard tool,
| | 06:20 |
click and drag.
As I drag out, I want to get this to about
| | 06:22 |
412 and if you can't get it just right,
that's okay, you can always edit it later.
| | 06:27 |
So here we go, I'll get it close and then
I'll come up here and I'll just do it
| | 06:31 |
manually.
So let's do 412 by 450.
| | 06:36 |
There we go.
So that's round about the size of the tile
| | 06:40 |
that I need.
Now all I have to do is delete that
| | 06:44 |
artwork there, come over here, grab my
rectangle tool, draw out a rectangle, fill
| | 06:51 |
it with the pattern.
Now, you have a repeatable tile that you
| | 06:55 |
could take and say for web and then apply
it as a background.
| | 06:58 |
And, how do I know it's repeatable?
because I can copy it and paste it, and
| | 07:02 |
look what happens when I move it to the
top here and line it up.
| | 07:06 |
Seamless.
Take it over here to the right.
| | 07:08 |
Paste and put it right there.
And I can take another one.
| | 07:15 |
And we'll just move it up.
And line it up like this and see as I get
| | 07:19 |
close, everything just sort of comes into place.
| | 07:22 |
So there we go, we have a nice seamless
tile background we could easily repeat
| | 07:26 |
anywhere as we save it out as a JPEG and
then use that on our website or whatever
| | 07:30 |
we need.
Hopefully this gives you a better idea of
| | 07:35 |
how easy it is to create pattern swatches
in Illustrator and hopefully I've got your
| | 07:38 |
creative gears turning a little bit.
And I hope that you take some time to play
| | 07:42 |
around with all these different options
and see what kind of crazy, creative
| | 07:45 |
patterns that you can come up with.
| | 07:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Working with PathsUnderstanding paths| 00:00 | Throughout this course, you've
probably heard me refer to the word path every
| | 00:03 | once in a while when I'm talking about
artwork that you see out in my artboard.
| | 00:07 | In this movie, I'm going to be
explaining exactly what paths are and why they're
| | 00:12 | so important to your
workflow inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:14 | I've got this document open here
which is called paths_anchors, and I've
| | 00:19 | built this document to give you a
better understanding of exactly what paths
| | 00:23 | and anchor points are.
| | 00:24 | Now we'll cover anchor points in
another movie, but for now, let's worry
| | 00:27 | about what paths are.
| | 00:29 | Think of paths just like the word sounds.
| | 00:31 | It's a path, a path that you could
walk down, a path you travel down.
| | 00:35 | Your artwork travels down this path and
uses it to make up the artwork itself.
| | 00:41 | A path is nothing more than the straight line
that you see here in between these two ends.
| | 00:46 | The two end points are known as anchor points.
| | 00:49 | Like I said, we'll get to
those a little bit later.
| | 00:51 | When you think of artwork inside of
Illustrator, you have to think of paths
| | 00:55 | because all vector artwork that's built
inside of Adobe Illustrator is made up of paths.
| | 01:01 | This is not to say the
stuff that goes inside the path.
| | 01:03 | This is merely the stuff on the outside,
the skeleton of the path, if you will.
| | 01:08 | Paths are nothing more than the line
segments that make up the overall structure
| | 01:12 | of the artwork that you create,
whereas the fills and the strokes and the
| | 01:16 | effects and everything else that you
pile on top of it, is just like clothing
| | 01:20 | that goes over a skeleton.
| | 01:21 | It doesn't matter if you're drawing
out a basic rectangle or drawing out a
| | 01:25 | vector portrait of somebody.
| | 01:27 | Either way you cut it, you're
always utilizing paths to do so.
| | 01:30 | Anything you create inside
of Illustrator is a path.
| | 01:33 | For instance, if I draw a rectangle,
that's a path, a path with multiple
| | 01:38 | anchor points in it.
| | 01:40 | If I draw out a straight
line, that too is a path.
| | 01:44 | If I happen to come up and
grab a circle, that's also a path.
| | 01:49 | As I said, a path is nothing more than
a skeleton that you throw things on top
| | 01:54 | of to make it look like something.
| | 01:56 | Basically when you jump into Outline
Mode by hitting Command+Y or Ctrl+Y on your
| | 02:00 | keyboard, you're actually seeing the
underlying path structure of whatever
| | 02:04 | artwork you have on screen.
| | 02:05 | For instance, you see these two squares
that I have filled right here on the artboard.
| | 02:10 | If I were to jump into Outline Mode
with Command+Y or Ctrl+Y, you would see the
| | 02:15 | underlying path is nothing more than the square.
| | 02:18 | It doesn't actually encompass the fill at all.
| | 02:21 | If I hit Command+Y or Ctrl+Y again,
it switches back to show me the actual
| | 02:24 | appearance of that path.
| | 02:26 | So as we move forward throughout this
course, anytime you hear me use the word
| | 02:29 | path, I'm referring to the overall
structure of whatever piece of artwork I
| | 02:33 | happen to be working with.
| | 02:35 | When I talk about the fills and the
strokes and everything else, that's just
| | 02:38 | clothing on top of the skeleton.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding anchor points| 00:00 | Another one of the building blocks of artwork
here inside of Illustrator are the anchor points.
| | 00:05 | Everything you create inside of
Illustrator is made up of paths and anchor points.
| | 00:09 | We've already talked
about exactly what paths are;
| | 00:11 | you know those are the skeletons that
make up the artwork that we are working on.
| | 00:15 | However, the anchor points are the
joints that hold that skeleton together.
| | 00:20 | If you look at this document that I
have open here, you will notice that I
| | 00:23 | have two squares on the end of
this line right in the middle.
| | 00:26 | If the path is this line going between
them, the anchor points are these boxes
| | 00:31 | at the end which serve as holding
places for the ends of that path.
| | 00:35 | Without those anchor points, the
path has nowhere to start and stop.
| | 00:39 | As you work throughout Illustrator, you are
going to see many different kinds of anchor points.
| | 00:43 | You are going to run into selected
anchor points, non-selected anchor points and
| | 00:46 | you may even see anchor points with
control handles associated with them as well.
| | 00:50 | What you need to know is these are the
points the control where your path goes,
| | 00:54 | and also how your path reacts in
terms of curves and things like that.
| | 00:57 | Let's take a look at a real world example.
| | 00:59 | I'm going to create a new document by
going up to the File menu and choosing New.
| | 01:03 | Once I do that, I will just hit OK to
accept the defaults and start a new document.
| | 01:07 | It doesn't matter what kind of
document you create as long as you get one.
| | 01:10 | I am going to go over and I am just
going to grab the Pen tool for a moment.
| | 01:13 | Don't worry if you have
never used a Pen tool before;
| | 01:16 | we are going to cover that in its
own chapter later on in this course.
| | 01:19 | But for now, I am just going to draw out
some paths with anchor point so you can
| | 01:22 | see exactly what I mean.
| | 01:23 | I am going to first draw out a straight line.
| | 01:25 | So I am just going to click
and click to draw the line.
| | 01:28 | You will notice here at the end of
this path, I have an anchor point here and
| | 01:32 | an anchor point here.
| | 01:34 | I can grab the Direct Selection
tool and find these anchor points by
| | 01:38 | hovering over them like so.
| | 01:40 | Notice when I hover, it actually says anchor.
| | 01:42 | If I click on one of those
anchor points, it becomes active.
| | 01:46 | When you're dealing with anchor points,
anytime you see one that's filled with
| | 01:49 | blue like the one you see here, that
means that anchor point has been selected.
| | 01:53 | And unselected anchor point will
have white in the middle, like this.
| | 01:57 | If I were to click over to this anchor
point, it becomes the one selected and
| | 02:00 | this one becomes deselected.
| | 02:02 | You could also hold down the Shift key
and click to select both anchor points.
| | 02:07 | Now they're both selected and I can
actually move them in unison with one another.
| | 02:12 | If however, I only had one selected, I
can move it independently of the other.
| | 02:19 | So you see I can easily change the
slant of my line simply by selecting the
| | 02:23 | anchor point and hitting
the arrow keys on my keyboard.
| | 02:25 | Again, the anchor points are
the control point for your paths;
| | 02:29 | they tell the path where to go.
| | 02:31 | So if you think of the path in
terms of a roadway that your artwork
| | 02:34 | follows, these are the road signs
that tell you exactly where you're
| | 02:37 | supposed to be going.
| | 02:39 | Let's undo this and get back to
my straight line, just like so.
| | 02:43 | Once I get my straight line back, I
can actually remove it because now I want
| | 02:47 | to go and do a curve.
| | 02:50 | So I will grab my Pen tool again
and I will just make a curved line.
| | 02:56 | Once I do that, you're going to see something
very different happened to the anchor points;
| | 03:00 | you actually seasonal antenna looking
things coming off of the anchor point.
| | 03:03 | These are called control handles.
| | 03:05 | And when you are dealing with curves
inside of Illustrator, you always have to
| | 03:08 | deal with control handles.
| | 03:10 | This is something that confuses a lot
of people because they don't understand
| | 03:13 | the difference between
control handles and anchor points.
| | 03:16 | The anchor point is merely a place
to tell the path to start and stop.
| | 03:19 | The control handles or control points
actually tell the path how to curve up or down.
| | 03:24 | For instance, if I come up here--let
me grab my Selection tool so you
| | 03:28 | can actually see this.
| | 03:29 | If I come up here and grab this handle
and start to drag, notice how it changes
| | 03:34 | the curvature of the line.
| | 03:35 | Getting closer to the original anchor
point, shrinks the curve, dragging it
| | 03:39 | farther away, increases the curve.
| | 03:42 | I can also change the
direction with this handle as well.
| | 03:48 | When I get the curve like
I want it, I can release.
| | 03:51 | The same holds true for this curve over here.
| | 03:53 | If I select this handle, I can
control the curvature of the line like this.
| | 03:58 | If I click away, I no
longer see those control points;
| | 04:01 | I only see my curved line.
| | 04:03 | We will get into drawing curves a
little bit later, but I just wanted to make
| | 04:07 | you aware of exactly what
anchor points are and how they work.
| | 04:11 | So hopefully, by now you have a
better understanding of what paths and
| | 04:14 | anchor points are, and how they affect
the overall appearance and structure
| | 04:18 | of your artwork.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Open and closed paths| 00:00 | Now that we have a better understanding
of paths inside of Illustrator, let's go
| | 00:03 | ahead and start drawing some very basic paths.
| | 00:06 | I'm going to create a new document
just by hitting Command+N or Ctrl+N on my
| | 00:09 | keyboard, or you can go to File > New,
and just hit OK to accept the defaults.
| | 00:14 | Once I get my new document created,
I'm ready to start adding some paths.
| | 00:18 | You can create two types of paths
in Illustrator: open and closed.
| | 00:22 | I'm going to first start
off with the closed paths.
| | 00:25 | In Illustrator there are several built-in
shape tools that provide you with closed paths.
| | 00:30 | They're located right here in the toolbar.
| | 00:32 | If you click and hold, you'll see that
the closed paths include the Rectangle
| | 00:35 | tool, the Rounded Rectangle tool, the
Ellipse tool, the Polygon tool, the Star
| | 00:40 | tool, and the Flare tool.
| | 00:42 | Let's see how some of these work.
| | 00:43 | I'm just going to grab the Rectangle
tool and I'm going to click and drag out
| | 00:46 | a rectangle like so.
| | 00:48 | You'll notice this is a closed path, and
by closed path I mean there are no open
| | 00:52 | points in the path whatsoever.
| | 00:54 | The path follows from anchor point to
anchor point and there's no open end.
| | 00:58 | However, if I were to grab let's say
the Line Segment tool and click and drag,
| | 01:04 | this one is considered to be an
open path, because there is technically
| | 01:08 | nothing connecting it. It's still open.
| | 01:11 | The same holds true for
something like the Spiral tool.
| | 01:13 | If I click and drag this open, you
can see there's no closing point.
| | 01:17 | It starts here, wraps all
the way around and goes here.
| | 01:20 | There's no connection between
these two points whatsoever.
| | 01:23 | So as you draw these out, you'll
have to learn that the behaviors are
| | 01:27 | quite different as well.
| | 01:28 | For instance, if I select the rectangle
by using my Selection tool and I fill it
| | 01:33 | with a different color like let's say
red, you'll notice that the color fills
| | 01:37 | evenly all across the shape. Why?
| | 01:39 | Because it's a closed path.
| | 01:40 | Here on the other hand on the
Spiral tool, it has no fill.
| | 01:44 | It has no fill, because if I were to
apply a fill, it would look somewhat
| | 01:49 | different, almost like a seashell.
| | 01:51 | But if I happen to add another point
to this path or modify it in a way that
| | 01:55 | connected it a different way, the
fill would be totally different.
| | 01:59 | The same holds true for the Line tool.
| | 02:00 | I can add a fill to the Line tool
by clicking, bit it doesn't really do
| | 02:04 | anything, because this is an open path,
there's nothing in there for me to fill,
| | 02:09 | so I'll just set that back to None.
| | 02:10 | Now there are some cool things that
you can do with some of these tools.
| | 02:14 | Let me back this up and I'll delete
the artwork that we've got on screen.
| | 02:18 | Let's grab one of the closed
shaped tools like the Star tool.
| | 02:20 | As you draw some of these shapes, hold
on to your mouse as you're drawing them
| | 02:24 | out and then utilize your Arrow keys to see
what kind of changes you can make on the fly.
| | 02:29 | For instance, to this closed path here of
the star, I can start drawing it out like this.
| | 02:34 | If I tap the Up Arrow key on my keyboard,
I actually get more points on the star,
| | 02:42 | and then I can finish drawing.
| | 02:43 | When I'm ready, I can release my mouse
and I get that star that looks like this.
| | 02:48 | The Spiral tool works much the same way.
| | 02:50 | If I start to draw out a spiral and I hit the
Up Arrow key, it continues to spiral inward.
| | 02:56 | If I hit the Down Arrow key, it
reduces the amount of segments in my spiral.
| | 03:02 | When I release, it draws it out.
| | 03:05 | Let's go back in here and grab the Arc tool.
| | 03:08 | When I start to draw the arc, you'll
notice that it just draws a simple arc.
| | 03:12 | However, using my Arrow keys, I'm able
to control how much this segment arcs.
| | 03:20 | When I get it like I like it,
I can release the mouse.
| | 03:24 | Most of these tools have the ability
to make changes on the fly like this.
| | 03:28 | Some of them are static though, like
the Rectangle tool or the Ellipse tool.
| | 03:32 | The ones that have options like this
available to them are ones that you would
| | 03:36 | normally change things, like the
Rounded Rectangle tool, you can change the
| | 03:39 | corner radius of how far
the corners are rounded.
| | 03:41 | The Polygon tool, you can change how
many sides there are in the polygon.
| | 03:45 | You've already seen the Star tool in action
and the Flare tool works much the same way.
| | 03:49 | Over in this segment, the open paths;
| | 03:52 | the Line Segment Tool, pretty
straightforward there.
| | 03:54 | There's nothing really to
change with the line segment tool.
| | 03:56 | You've seen the Arc tool in action as
well as the Spiral tool, but let's check
| | 04:00 | out the Rectangular Grid
and Polar Grid tools as well.
| | 04:03 | If I select this and start to draw out a
grid, watch what happens when I hit the
| | 04:06 | Arrow keys on my keyboard.
| | 04:08 | I can actually increase or decrease the
number of rows and columns that are in this grid.
| | 04:13 | Tapping my Up Arrow key
changes the number of rows.
| | 04:17 | Tapping my Down Arrow key
reduces the number of rows.
| | 04:21 | If I hit my Right Arrow key, it
increases the number of columns.
| | 04:24 | Tapping my Left Arrow key
decreases the number of columns.
| | 04:28 | Once I get that like I like it, I can
release my mouse and it creates a grid.
| | 04:32 | After you've created these shapes, you lose
the ability to make those on the fly changes.
| | 04:37 | So get them right before you release your mouse.
| | 04:40 | Finally, let's go in and
look at the Polar Grid tool.
| | 04:42 | If I start to draw this out,
you'll notice that it has a hard time
| | 04:46 | constraining itself.
| | 04:47 | Anytime you want to draw a perfect shape,
just hold down the Shift key and it'll
| | 04:51 | automatically draw a perfect circle, a
perfect square, or whatever it is you
| | 04:54 | might be trying to draw.
| | 04:55 | Once you get that, you can actually
hold down the Shift key and tap your Arrow
| | 04:59 | keys to change what goes on in here.
| | 05:02 | So tapping the Up Arrow key changes the rings;
| | 05:05 | tapping the Right or Left
Arrow key changes the pie segments.
| | 05:10 | Once you get that finished like you
like it, in this case, it looks almost like
| | 05:13 | a spider web, I can
release that and there we go.
| | 05:18 | So as you can see, there are ton of
options when it comes to drawing both open
| | 05:21 | and closed paths inside of Illustrator.
| | 05:23 | They all behave differently, but they
all create a very nice and unique look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Joining and averaging paths| 00:00 | As you begin to work with artwork
inside of Adobe Illustrator, especially
| | 00:03 | artwork that was created by other
people, you may run into some problems that
| | 00:07 | you need to remedy with
the paths that were created.
| | 00:10 | When I first started working with
Illustrator, I ran into this problem a lot.
| | 00:13 | As a matter of fact, I created this
problem a lot, and so in this movie I'm
| | 00:18 | going to show you how to take two
separate paths and join them together, or
| | 00:23 | average them together to create one single path.
| | 00:26 | Basically what I'm talking about, if
you focus on this area here inside the
| | 00:29 | artwork that I have open, you'll
notice that this leaf down here is actually
| | 00:33 | comprised of two separate
shapes, this one and this one.
| | 00:36 | They're both open ended paths though.
| | 00:39 | I simply drew one half of the leaf here,
and I drew one half of the leaf here
| | 00:43 | in the arcing shapes.
| | 00:45 | The line from here to here is actually
created because of the open-ended shape.
| | 00:49 | What I want to do is make sure that
this turns into one of these, and in order
| | 00:54 | to do that, I'm going to have to
utilize the Join or the Average Command.
| | 00:59 | So the first thing I need to do is
determine which one of those in need to use.
| | 01:01 | Well technically on this
particular shape, I can use either one.
| | 01:05 | Let's take a look at what they both do,
so you can see exactly what to use in
| | 01:09 | any given situation.
| | 01:11 | I'm going to first zoom in
really close to the edge of this leaf.
| | 01:14 | And you'll notice here at the end, I
have two endpoints, and I can actually take
| | 01:20 | these and make sure that they
match up really close, like so.
| | 01:24 | Once I get them really close, I can
then use something called the Join Command
| | 01:28 | and the Join Command is actually
going to take both of these and join them
| | 01:31 | into one single path.
| | 01:33 | Now could I manipulate these anchor
points individually and move them into
| | 01:37 | the right space and then use something like
the Pathfinder or Compound Shape to do this?
| | 01:41 | Absolutely, I could.
| | 01:43 | But that takes a lot of time and as
you know, we don't have a lot of time.
| | 01:47 | So let's go ahead and see how we can do
this quickly and easily by utilizing one
| | 01:51 | of these cool commands.
| | 01:52 | I'm going to grab the Direct Selection
tool, and the first thing I'm going to do
| | 01:55 | is draw a marquee selection
around the ends of the shapes.
| | 01:59 | I know there are only two
endpoints here, because I drew the shapes.
| | 02:02 | What you'll have to do is investigate
your artwork and see exactly how many
| | 02:06 | anchor points are at the
point where you're trying to join.
| | 02:09 | You have to work with two anchor
points here and they have to be close
| | 02:12 | together like you see here.
| | 02:13 | I'm going to go up to the Object menu,
and I'm going to go down the Path.
| | 02:17 | At the top of the Path menu you'll
see Join, and you also see the keyboard
| | 02:20 | shortcut, Ctrl+J. So if you wanted to
use the keyboard shortcut, as opposed
| | 02:25 | to this command, you could simply hit
Ctrl+J on your keyboard and you can do
| | 02:29 | the exact same thing.
| | 02:30 | Once I hit Join, you're going to
notice that the line in between disappears.
| | 02:34 | They become one unified point, and if
I zoom out, and click away, I've pretty
| | 02:40 | much created the shape that I wanted.
| | 02:41 | However, the endpoints
weren't exactly matched up.
| | 02:45 | So when I look at this, it joined
them into this slanted-off ending.
| | 02:50 | I don't like that at all.
| | 02:51 | So let's go ahead and undo what I just did.
| | 02:54 | So for this particular case, I don't believe
that Join is going to be the right thing to do.
| | 02:58 | So I'm going to click away and
grab my Direct Selection tool again.
| | 03:03 | This time I'm going to
select the two endpoints here.
| | 03:06 | Notice that these endpoints have a
little bit of distance between them, they are
| | 03:09 | not actually touching.
| | 03:10 | So in this case I have to
do something called Average.
| | 03:14 | So I'm going to go to the Object menu
and I'm going to choose Path and I'm
| | 03:18 | going to choose Average.
| | 03:20 | When it pops up, it's going to ask you
which Axis that you look at, in order to
| | 03:23 | determine how to join these paths together.
| | 03:25 | For this particular one, I'm going
to choose Both and see what happens.
| | 03:29 | When I hit OK, they snap right together
into one path, and if I zoom out, you'll
| | 03:35 | see here that it has completed
the shape just like I wanted it to.
| | 03:39 | If I click away and zoom back out, you can
see that it looks just like all the others.
| | 03:43 | Now there is somewhat of a seam down the
middle, and we could fix that simply by
| | 03:47 | creating a compound shape or
merging these with the Pathfinder.
| | 03:50 | But I've essentially eliminated the
problem that I had before, wherein I had
| | 03:54 | two separate paths.
| | 03:55 | Now I've one single path that I'm able
to edit and manipulate just like the rest.
| | 04:01 | So the next time you run into a
problem like this, try the Join and Average
| | 04:04 | Commands and see if they don't help
you get where you need to go, just a
| | 04:07 | little bit faster.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Knife and Scissors tools| 00:00 | In addition to joining paths together
inside of Illustrator, you may find the
| | 00:04 | need to actually split paths apart as well.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
exactly how to do that utilizing two
| | 00:10 | tools, one of which works exactly as
advertised, and the other which is a little different.
| | 00:16 | So let's first start off by zooming
in on a piece of our artwork, and then
| | 00:19 | come right here on the top of this leaf and I'm
going to grab something called the Scissors tool.
| | 00:25 | The Scissors tool is a tool that
allows you to split paths based upon anchor
| | 00:29 | points that you select.
| | 00:31 | I'm also going to be utilizing something
called the Knife tool, but we'll get to
| | 00:34 | that in just a second.
| | 00:35 | If you want these tools out on screen
where you can easily switch between them,
| | 00:38 | come over to the toolbar and click and
hold on the scissors and then grab this
| | 00:42 | little arrow right here.
| | 00:43 | That will give you your own
free floating panel to use.
| | 00:47 | Now before I get to use
this I need to select artwork.
| | 00:50 | In order to temporarily get a hold of
this leaf, I'm going to simply hold down
| | 00:54 | the Ctrl key on the PC, the Command key
on the Mac, and you'll notice when I do
| | 00:58 | that, it temporarily
turns into the Selection tool.
| | 01:00 | If I click, it becomes my active selection.
| | 01:03 | Now when I let go of the Ctrl key, I'm
right back to using the Scissors tool.
| | 01:07 | Now all I have to do is find this
anchor point at the end and click and find
| | 01:12 | this anchor point on the end and click.
| | 01:14 | When I do that, it splits the
path right down in the middle.
| | 01:17 | You may be able to see the seam or you may not.
| | 01:20 | If you can't see it, just take
this and drag it over, there we go.
| | 01:23 | I've split it pretty easy.
| | 01:25 | Let's undo that and I'll rejoin them again
by hitting Command+Z or Ctrl+Z, back to normal.
| | 01:30 | Now let's take a look at the Knife tool.
| | 01:32 | The Knife tool, like I said,
it works a little different;
| | 01:35 | it's not as precise as the Scissors
tool per se.
| | 01:39 | When I grab the Knife tool, you're
going to notice that I'm able to click and
| | 01:42 | start making a cut.
| | 01:43 | The issue is, by default, this acts
sort of like a liquid knife, because when I
| | 01:47 | click and drag, it doesn't draw on a
straight line, but you can create some
| | 01:51 | pretty cool curves just by
doing something like that.
| | 01:54 | Once I've made my cut, you'll notice
that I can then double-click to go into
| | 01:57 | isolation mode and I can actually move
the piece that I just cut from the other.
| | 02:01 | If I double-click and move back out, you
can see the full curve of both of them.
| | 02:05 | Now let's undo that.
| | 02:07 | Let me show you a little trick with the
Knife tool to make it work a little bit
| | 02:09 | more like it's supposed to in my opinion.
| | 02:12 | I'm going to grab the Knife tool and
I'm simply going to hold down on my
| | 02:15 | keyboard, the Alt key on PC, the Option key
on Mac, and I'm going to click and draw a line.
| | 02:23 | Notice how much straighter it goes.
| | 02:25 | If I let go, it makes a cut completely
straight, down the middle, and I can then
| | 02:31 | go in and I can move the
pieces apart, pretty easy.
| | 02:34 | So the Knife tool unlike the
Scissors tool is not precise by default.
| | 02:40 | It actually goes along with the
curvature of whatever you're drawing across.
| | 02:44 | But if you hold down that Option or Alt
key, you can make it behave a little bit
| | 02:47 | more like a knife should.
| | 02:49 | However I find that the Scissors tool
works much better for creating precise
| | 02:52 | cuts when you're working with paths.
| | 02:54 | Let's try it one more time.
| | 02:55 | I'll move over here to the right and
select this piece of the leaf, and I'll go
| | 03:00 | ahead and grab my scissors.
| | 03:02 | I'll click once, twice, and
I've split the path.
| | 03:07 | When I separate, you can see the
nice clean cut down the middle.
| | 03:11 | If I move over and split this leaf
using the Knife tool, I can go with a curved
| | 03:16 | line simply by clicking and dragging
through or I can undo that, hold down my
| | 03:22 | Option or Alt key and
then click and drag straight.
| | 03:27 | So again, if you want to make nice,
clean precise cuts, go with the scissors.
| | 03:31 | If you want to make creative cuts or
follow the curvature of a shape, you
| | 03:34 | should use the Knife tool.
| | 03:36 | These are great ways to split one
single path into two separate paths that you
| | 03:39 | can then edit and manipulate on their own.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Creating ShapesUnderstanding drawing modes| 00:00 | Before we get started drawing shapes
inside of Adobe Illustrator, we need to
| | 00:04 | make you aware of a couple of the
different drawing modes that you have
| | 00:07 | available to you in order to make you
more efficient at creating your artwork.
| | 00:11 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
the various drawing modes, and show you how
| | 00:14 | they can help you create artwork more
efficiently by changing the stacking order,
| | 00:17 | and even the appearance
of your artwork as you go.
| | 00:19 | I'm going to first zoom in on
these circles down here at the bottom.
| | 00:22 | These are what we're going to be
working with throughout this exercise.
| | 00:26 | As we know, inside of Illustrator,
everything has a particular stacking order.
| | 00:29 | As you draw new objects, they are set on
top of the previous object that you drew.
| | 00:34 | So for instance, this circle here on
the right is actually above this circle
| | 00:37 | here in the stacking order.
| | 00:39 | However, we have drawing modes inside
of Illustrator that help us change the
| | 00:43 | behavior of the way we draw.
| | 00:45 | On the bottom of the tools panel, you'll
see three buttons for Draw Normal, Draw
| | 00:49 | Behind, and Draw Inside.
| | 00:52 | You'll also notice when you hover over
them that you get a keyboard shortcut,
| | 00:55 | Shift+D, and you should commit that to
memory, because as I work, I'm going to be
| | 00:59 | using it a lot to switch drawing modes,
| | 01:01 | and that way it makes it easier for me
to do this without having to go over to
| | 01:04 | the tools panel each and
every time I want to switch modes.
| | 01:07 | So remember, switching drawing modes
equals Shift+D, and that's Mac, or PC.
| | 01:13 | You'll also notice that by default,
only two of the drawing modes are active,
| | 01:17 | and that's Normal, and Draw Behind.
| | 01:20 | When Normal mode is selected, you
simply draw new shapes, and they become the
| | 01:23 | topmost shape in the stacking order.
| | 01:25 | However, if you choose Draw Behind, you
reverse that behavior, and the new shapes
| | 01:30 | you draw automatically go behind either
the current shape you have selected, or
| | 01:33 | all of the shapes if you have
nothing selected. Let's take a look.
| | 01:37 | I'm first going to grab a circle, and I'm
just going to draw it out right above this one.
| | 01:42 | Right now I'm in Normal drawing mode,
| | 01:44 | so if I drew out a new circle, it would
pop up right there on top of the other two.
| | 01:49 | However, if I hold down the Shift key, and
press the letter D, I jump into Draw Behind mode.
| | 01:55 | So therefore, if I drew another circle,
here, it goes behind this one, but since
| | 02:01 | this was the active selection on the
artboard, it goes in front of this one.
| | 02:06 | If I have nothing selected, which I
can do by holding down the Control key, and
| | 02:10 | clicking out to the side, I can then draw one
back here that goes behind all of the shapes.
| | 02:18 | So once I click away, you can see here,
| | 02:19 | this is actually the last circle I drew,
but it's on the bottom of the stacking order.
| | 02:24 | This is the first circle I
drew, but it's on the very top.
| | 02:27 | And the second one that I drew is
sandwiched in between these two.
| | 02:31 | I did that simply by changing the drawing
mode; Shift+D on my keyboard. Pretty neat!
| | 02:37 | The last drawing mode is Draw Inside.
| | 02:40 | Draw Inside allows you to actually
place artwork within artwork, and by
| | 02:45 | selecting a piece of artwork first, and
then drawing inside of it, you actually
| | 02:49 | clip the artwork that
you draw within that shape.
| | 02:52 | Let me show you exactly what I mean by this.
| | 02:54 | I'm going to select this piece of
artwork here -- the circle on the bottom left
| | 02:57 | corner -- and then I'm going to
press Shift+D on my keyboard again.
| | 03:01 | That's going to switch me into Draw Inside mode.
| | 03:04 | When I switch into Draw Inside mode,
you're going to notice that I get a
| | 03:07 | bounding box all the way around my shape.
| | 03:09 | I'm then going to zoom out a little bit,
and I'm going to select this wacky star
| | 03:13 | shape right up here at the top.
| | 03:15 | When I select this star shape, I'm
going to copy it to my clipboard using
| | 03:19 | Command+C, or Control+C.
| | 03:22 | Once I copy it, I'm then going to
come back and click on the object that
| | 03:26 | I'm drawing inside of.
| | 03:28 | I'll then press Command+V
or Control+V to paste it in.
| | 03:32 | When I do that, you're still
going to see the overall shape.
| | 03:36 | But if I switch out, and click away from
it, watch how it clips that shape into
| | 03:40 | the circle, just like so.
| | 03:43 | If I switch back to Normal drawing
mode, the bounding box goes away, but the
| | 03:47 | shape remains just like this.
| | 03:50 | I can still go in and edit the individual
shapes as well by double-clicking to
| | 03:54 | enter Isolation mode, and
then selecting the circle.
| | 03:58 | I could then switch this
to a different color;
| | 04:00 | I could also select the shape inside
of it, and switch its color as well.
| | 04:03 | Then I can double-click to exit
Isolation mode, and you see that I've created
| | 04:07 | almost like a sunburst-like effect.
| | 04:10 | Utilizing the drawing modes is a
very important piece of drawing shapes
| | 04:14 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 04:15 | It makes it so much easier to create
complex artwork with very little effort.
| | 04:19 | So take the time and experiment with
these drawing modes, and see what you
| | 04:22 | can come up with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating compound paths| 00:00 | One of the best ways to create
complex artwork inside of Illustrator is to
| | 00:04 | create something known as a compound
path, and in this movie, I'm going to be
| | 00:08 | walking you through exactly how to do
that, using some of the Pathfinder commands
| | 00:12 | here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:14 | First thing I'm going to do is
zoom in on a piece of artwork.
| | 00:16 | So I'll just grab my Zoom tool, and zoom
in on this artwork in the top left corner.
| | 00:21 | Once I do that, I'm going to
select both pieces of artwork.
| | 00:23 | It's actually two separate pieces:
a starburst, and then the flower
| | 00:26 | pattern in the back.
| | 00:27 | Then I'm going to go up to the Window
menu, and I'm going to find the Pathfinder.
| | 00:32 | You can also bring that up by hitting
Shift+Control, or Shift+Command, and the F9
| | 00:36 | key on your keyboard.
| | 00:38 | Once I bring that up, I'll move it up
here in the top right corner, so I can see it.
| | 00:42 | I'm going to ignore the
Shape Modes for a moment;
| | 00:43 | we'll cover those in their own movie.
| | 00:45 | For now, we're just
worried about the Pathfinders.
| | 00:48 | The first option inside the Pathfinder
is called Divide, and Divide is one of
| | 00:51 | those that's a lot easier to
show than it is to explain.
| | 00:55 | So let's go ahead and just
click it, and see what happens.
| | 00:57 | When I click it, you're not
going to see a big visual change,
| | 01:01 | but basically what's happened here is
Illustrator has actually divided these
| | 01:05 | elements into their own individual shapes.
| | 01:07 | So now, if I were to grab the Direct
Selection tool, for instance, I could come
| | 01:11 | in here, and I could grab individual
pieces of this artwork, like you see here,
| | 01:16 | or even these little spikes around the
edges, and I could remove them individually.
| | 01:20 | So I'll go around to all these little spikes,
and maybe even this middle piece, and
| | 01:28 | I can delete those.
| | 01:30 | Once I delete them, you're going to
see that the underlying flower shape is
| | 01:33 | still there, but so are these shapes here.
| | 01:38 | If I were to change the color of
these, and I'll do so by selecting them
| | 01:41 | first, I'll grab the Direct Selection tool
again, and just Shift+Click across all of them.
| | 01:49 | I can then change the color to
something like yellow, and you can see
| | 01:52 | exactly what I've done.
| | 01:53 | Basically I removed all of those other
pieces, simply by pressing the Delete Key.
| | 01:57 | Let me step back now.
| | 02:00 | Let's get it back to a normal two path system.
| | 02:05 | So there's my starburst,
and then my flower behind it.
| | 02:07 | I'll select both of them again, and
let's take a look at the Trim command.
| | 02:13 | Basically what happens when you press
Trim is Illustrator automatically removes
| | 02:17 | the portion of the artwork that's
hidden by the overlying object.
| | 02:21 | So in this case, the starburst is
actually hiding portions of the
| | 02:24 | flower underneath it.
| | 02:26 | So if I were to deselect this,
and then go into Isolation mode by
| | 02:30 | double-clicking, and selecting the
starburst, I could remove the starburst, and
| | 02:35 | you can see there that it has removed
all the portions of the flower that were
| | 02:39 | overlapped by the starburst,
leaving a pretty good-looking design.
| | 02:43 | If I exit out of Isolation mode by
double-clicking, you go right back out, and
| | 02:47 | this is now one signal path.
| | 02:49 | Let's undo a few times to
get it back to normal.
| | 02:51 | Now I'll select them again, and let's
take a look at the next Pathfinder option.
| | 02:57 | This one is called Merge, and it does
exactly what you think it's going to do;
| | 03:00 | it merges the top object with the bottom
object, and turns them into one single path.
| | 03:05 | This almost looks like a crazy
butterfly or something; pretty neat.
| | 03:10 | I'll undo that with Command+Z
or Control+Z, and go back to there.
| | 03:15 | The next option is Crop, and Crop
divides the artwork into component-filled
| | 03:20 | faces, and then it deletes all of the
parts of the artwork that fall outside the
| | 03:24 | boundary of the topmost object.
| | 03:27 | Now what does that mean in real English?
| | 03:29 | Well, if I crop it, basically it removes
everything that was overlapped, like you saw there,
| | 03:35 | so I've cropped it in.
| | 03:37 | Let me undo that, and you can see
exactly what I did one more time; Undo.
| | 03:42 | Basically it's keeping all of these
areas that are inside that topmost object.
| | 03:46 | So crop; see, it keeps all these.
| | 03:52 | It's ignored the flower on the outside,
and also the areas where it overlapped here.
| | 03:57 | Let's undo that, and
let's take it to Outline mode.
| | 04:02 | When I click Outline, it basically
turns this into an outlined shape.
| | 04:07 | If I click away from it, you can see
everything is just in its own
| | 04:10 | individual little outline.
| | 04:12 | I'll undo that, and go back.
| | 04:16 | Finally, we have Minus Back, and Minus
Back subtracts the piece of artwork in the
| | 04:21 | back from the object in the front.
| | 04:23 | So if I click this, you'll notice
that the flower has actually been removed,
| | 04:28 | and everything that's left from
where the flower and the topmost object
| | 04:32 | overlapped is being displayed.
| | 04:34 | So let's undo that, and click away.
| | 04:37 | Using the Pathfinder options can give
you some really interesting looks, and for
| | 04:41 | this particular case, I think that I
would actually select this, and I would use
| | 04:46 | something like the Trim command.
| | 04:48 | Once I had the Trim command done, I
would just go in, and remove the starburst.
| | 04:53 | Removing the starburst leaves me with
this really cool pattern, which then I could
| | 04:57 | put something in the middle, like maybe
my logo element, or something like that.
| | 05:01 | No matter what, using the Pathfinder
tools is a great way to experiment with
| | 05:05 | creating some really
complex and neat looking shapes.
| | 05:08 | Take some time to see exactly how they
work, and then you'll be well on your
| | 05:11 | way to creating more complex
artwork here inside of Illustrator.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating compound shapes| 00:00 | In addition to working with compound
paths here inside of Illustrator, we can
| | 00:03 | also work with compound shapes as well.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll be exploring the
Pathfinder panel Shape Modes in order
| | 00:09 | to give you a better understanding of how they
work, and how you can use them in your workflow.
| | 00:14 | The first thing I am going to
do is draw two simple circles.
| | 00:17 | We'll get to this artwork on
my artboard in just a minute.
| | 00:19 | I am going to take the Ellipse tool
and I am just going to draw out a circle
| | 00:22 | here, and I'll draw out a circle like that.
| | 00:26 | And I am going to give both of them a
blue color, and set that as their Stroke.
| | 00:32 | That way you can see
everything that's going on.
| | 00:35 | With those two circles selected, I am
then going to go into the Pathfinder.
| | 00:41 | Let's zoom in on this artwork
just a little bit, so we get a
| | 00:43 | better understanding.
| | 00:48 | Once we have the shapes zoomed in, and
we've got them both selected, I am going to
| | 00:51 | utilize the Shape Modes here at the top.
| | 00:54 | The first one is called Unite.
| | 00:56 | When I click on Unite, it
unifies these into one single shape.
| | 01:01 | If I undo that, they turn
back into two normal shapes.
| | 01:04 | You can also choose to Minus Front.
| | 01:07 | When I select this, you're going to
notice that the object that was in front of
| | 01:11 | the other object is subtracted,
leaving the underlying object by itself.
| | 01:17 | Again, I'll Command+Z or
Control+Z to undo that.
| | 01:20 | We also have an Intersect which is
basically going to eliminate everything
| | 01:24 | outside of the point where the
two shapes intersect each other.
| | 01:29 | And then finally, we have Exclude.
| | 01:31 | If I click this, you are not going to see
any visible change, necessarily, to the shapes.
| | 01:36 | However, if I were to reverse the fill
and the stroke, you see now that I've
| | 01:40 | left the middle of this empty, and if I
were to drag this over, you could actually
| | 01:44 | see this other shape coming through.
| | 01:48 | It does that because it has actually
removed the inner portion of those circles.
| | 01:54 | Step back, and now let's take this,
and delete it.
| | 01:57 | I'll zoom back out of my artwork, and
let's take a look at a real world example.
| | 02:01 | So let's say that I am creating a logo with
the R inside this circle for the Roux Academy.
| | 02:05 | Basically, what I need to do is make it so
that this R shape is cut out of this circle.
| | 02:11 | Right now it looks as though it's cut
out, but if I put something behind there,
| | 02:15 | you are not going to be able to see
through the R into the background.
| | 02:18 | The R is simply filled with white,
which is the same color as my artboard.
| | 02:22 | So what I want to do is take both of
these shapes, and make them a compound shape,
| | 02:26 | so that they both act as one single shape.
| | 02:29 | And I'll do that by selecting both of
them, and then utilizing the Pathfinder panel.
| | 02:34 | Let's take a look at the
options that we have available to us.
| | 02:37 | If I try Unite, it turns them into a circle.
| | 02:40 | That's certainly not what I want to do.
| | 02:43 | So let's undo that, and let's
take a look at Minus Front.
| | 02:47 | Remember, Minus Front takes the
front-most object, and subtracts it from
| | 02:51 | the back-most object.
| | 02:53 | If I click that, I think that gives me
exactly what I'm looking for, because as
| | 02:58 | you can see, this is now one unified
shape, and it's all using the same fill
| | 03:03 | color, whereas before, if I use Command+Z
or Control+Z to undo, Illustrator was a
| | 03:08 | little confused as to what fill
or stroke was being applied here.
| | 03:11 | That's because I had two separate
objects selected, both with different fills.
| | 03:15 | But once I use the Minus Front feature,
it automatically just tells me, well
| | 03:19 | okay, the R actually no longer exists;
| | 03:22 | it's now carved into the blue circle.
| | 03:25 | So the Pathfinder has made it really
easy for me to create this complex shape
| | 03:28 | with very little effort.
| | 03:30 | And now, if I take another shape, like
let's say a rectangle, and I'll give it a
| | 03:34 | red color, and I'll draw it, and then
I'll go up to the Object menu, and choose
| | 03:43 | Arrange, and I'll choose Send to Back.
| | 03:46 | When I do that you can see right
through that R to the red square.
| | 03:51 | If I move this, it's transparent all the way
through it, and that's exactly what I wanted.
| | 03:56 | So let's delete that red
square, and I can continue working.
| | 04:01 | So the next time you're trying to create
a complex piece of artwork like the one
| | 04:03 | that you see here, try utilizing some of
the Shape Modes in the Pathfinder panel
| | 04:07 | to see if it doesn't get you a
little closer to where were trying to go.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Shape Builder tool| 00:00 | Up until now, we have been relying on
the Pathfinder feature to get our complex
| | 00:04 | artwork created here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:07 | Now I am going to show you a way
that's a little bit more visual, and a little
| | 00:10 | bit more easy to use.
| | 00:12 | It's called the Shape Builder tool,
and it's a great way to create complex
| | 00:16 | artwork without all the guesswork
that's involved with the Pathfinder.
| | 00:20 | You see, the thing that's a little bit
confusing about the Pathfinder is that all
| | 00:22 | those buttons aren't necessarily descriptive,
and people get confused as to what they do.
| | 00:27 | So people spend time clicking, seeing
what it does, undoing, clicking, seeing
| | 00:31 | what it does, undoing; it's very tedious.
| | 00:35 | But using the Shape Builder tool is a
great way to visually create shapes, which
| | 00:39 | probably appeals more to the designer anyway.
| | 00:41 | I am going to zoom in on these
circles in the bottom corner of the page, and
| | 00:45 | when I zoom in on those, I am going to
start using the Shape Builder to interact
| | 00:48 | with them a little bit.
| | 00:50 | In order to use the Shape Builder tool,
you have to have the path selected that
| | 00:53 | you want to affect, so I will select
the two circles, and then I'm going to go
| | 00:57 | over and grab the Shape Builder tool.
| | 00:58 | You can grab that either in the Tools
panel, or by hitting Shift+M on your keyboard.
| | 01:04 | Once I have those selected, I can then
mouse over them, and you'll see that it
| | 01:08 | highlights different areas as I mouse over.
| | 01:10 | By default, the Shape Builder tool is
in what we call Merge mode, meaning that
| | 01:15 | it's going to merge the
objects together that you drag over.
| | 01:18 | So in this case, if I click and drag
across these circles, and let go, it merges
| | 01:22 | them into one single shape, like so.
| | 01:25 | If I undo that, I can also utilize the
Shape Builder tool to subtract objects,
| | 01:31 | or trim objects out.
| | 01:32 | In order to do this, you have to hold down
the Option key on Mac, and the Alt key on PC.
| | 01:37 | Then you click and drag across the items
you want to subtract, and in this case,
| | 01:41 | when I let go, it leaves me with this
little half circle down here. Pretty cool!
| | 01:46 | All right!
| | 01:47 | Now let's move up to
something a little bit more complex.
| | 01:52 | This piece of artwork here; I could
use the Trim command, or any number of the
| | 01:56 | Pathfinder commands to make it look like
I want it to, but in this case, I want
| | 01:59 | to visually be able to pick the
pieces that I keep inside of this artwork.
| | 02:03 | So in order to do that, I am going
to utilize the Shape Builder tool.
| | 02:06 | First of all, I have to make sure
that these objects are selected.
| | 02:10 | So I will select them with the
Selection tool, and then I'll grab the
| | 02:12 | Shape Builder tool again.
| | 02:14 | In order to start removing objects
from this, I have to come in, and hold down
| | 02:19 | my Option or Alt key.
| | 02:21 | Once I do that, I can click,
and objects start to go away.
| | 02:25 | Then I can come in and hold down my
Option key, and I can start removing other
| | 02:29 | pieces as well, just like this.
| | 02:31 | And I am just clicking on the
objects I don't want to see anymore.
| | 02:37 | If I find other objects that I don't
want, like these, but they might be a
| | 02:40 | little harder to click on, I can
just hold down my Option or Alt key, and
| | 02:44 | click and drag across them.
| | 02:58 | Even the tiniest of portions can be
removed by utilizing the Shape Builder tool.
| | 03:02 | However, you may find some times when
there are some stray paths, like this one
| | 03:05 | right here, that are causing you some trouble.
| | 03:08 | If that's the case, I can zoom in on
this, and I can find the troubled area,
| | 03:12 | which is right here.
| | 03:13 | I can just grab the Direct Selection tool,
find that anchor point, make sure the
| | 03:18 | anchor point is selected, and then I can
delete it. Then I can zoom back out, and
| | 03:26 | continue working with my Shape Builder.
| | 03:27 | I will grab the Shape Builder again.
Now that I have got everything removed, I
| | 03:32 | can start unifying these into single shapes.
| | 03:35 | The first thing I have to do, of
course, is make sure they are selected.
| | 03:38 | So I'll temporarily switch to the Selection
tool by holding down the Control key,
| | 03:42 | and then I'll make a marquee selection
around the objects that I'm working on.
| | 03:46 | Once I get them selected, I'll make
sure that I go back to the Shape Builder
| | 03:49 | tool, I will just click and drag
across here to unify those, click and drag
| | 03:54 | here, here, here, and here.
| | 04:00 | Now they are all single shapes
that I can then move and manipulate
| | 04:04 | individually, or as a group.
| | 04:06 | If I zoom out, you will see I have
removed all of the different parts of
| | 04:09 | the star that I didn't want, but these act
like any other shape inside of Illustrator.
| | 04:14 | Let's take a look at one
more practical use for this.
| | 04:17 | I am going to zoom in
over here on these letters.
| | 04:22 | These are actually grouped together, so the
first thing I am going to do is ungroup them.
| | 04:25 | I am going to right-click
and just choose Ungroup.
| | 04:27 | You could also use Shift+
Control+G on your keyboard.
| | 04:30 | Then I am going to select the R. The R is
the object that I want to edit, in this case.
| | 04:36 | When I move it over, you are going to
notice that the R is still a regular R.
| | 04:40 | But what I want to do is remove this
portion of the R down here that was
| | 04:43 | overlapped by the A, so then I can use
that stylized R in different designs.
| | 04:47 | So let me undo this, and move it
back to where it's supposed to be.
| | 04:50 | I am going to select it, and I am also
going to select the A. I am going to
| | 04:53 | grab the Shape Builder tool, and I am
simply going to drag across the A. When I
| | 05:00 | drag across the A, even though the
A is one single shape, it's being
| | 05:05 | overlapped by that R, so that triangle
piece right there actually acts as a
| | 05:09 | totally separate piece.
| | 05:11 | When I drag across the A, it indicates,
well, you're basically wanting to
| | 05:15 | subtract that little triangle piece, but I
am also unifying the A at the same time.
| | 05:19 | That means it's going to subtract
it from the R, and leave the A alone.
| | 05:23 | So let's let go of the
mouse, and see what happens.
| | 05:26 | When I do that, automatically the A
changes to be a single shape, and the R
| | 05:31 | becomes a single shape as
well, minus that little tail.
| | 05:34 | If I grab my Selection tool, I can go
into Isolation mode, and move the R, and you
| | 05:39 | can see that I have sliced off
that end just where I needed it to be.
| | 05:43 | Now each and every time I use that R,
it's going to fit perfectly right up
| | 05:46 | against the A, just like it should.
Let's Undo that.
| | 05:49 | I will jump out of Isolation mode by
going back to Layer 1, and select the A.
| | 05:56 | Let's change that back to a similar
color from where it was, and then I will
| | 06:00 | completely exit Isolation
mode by clicking the arrow here.
| | 06:02 | Then I will hit Command+0
or Control+0 to zoom back out.
| | 06:06 | So as you can see, I have dramatically
altered all of the artwork on my page.
| | 06:10 | I have changed the way the R is structured,
I've removed the starburst, and left
| | 06:13 | this cool leaf design here, and I
have also cut out the remaining circle
| | 06:17 | piece from the bottom.
| | 06:19 | All in all, the Shape Builder tool
allows you to create some really complex
| | 06:22 | artwork without a whole lot of fuss.
| | 06:25 | Take some time to play with that, and
see exactly how you can fit it into your
| | 06:28 | workflow, and you'll be amazed at the
cool stuff that you're able to create
| | 06:31 | while you're using it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Blob Brush and Eraser tools| 00:00 | Now it's time to have a little
fun here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:03 | I'm going to be utilizing one of
my favorite tools: the Blob brush.
| | 00:07 | It's just fun to say -- Blob brush -- and in
this case, I'm going to use it to create
| | 00:12 | some really interesting artwork, and
also do some stuff that you probably didn't
| | 00:15 | even know you could do inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:17 | I'm going to create a brand new
blank document to start off with.
| | 00:20 | So I'm going to hit Command+N or Control+N
on my keyboard, and I'll just hit OK to
| | 00:24 | accept the defaults.
| | 00:25 | Now traditionally in Illustrator, you've
always been able to paint and draw, using
| | 00:29 | the brush, and the Pencil tool.
| | 00:30 | The problem with the Paintbrush tool
and the Pencil tool is, once you've drawn
| | 00:34 | something, it's kind of hard to add
something to that artwork, unless you knew
| | 00:38 | how to use things like the Average and
Join commands, or you knew how to use the
| | 00:41 | Pathfinder, or stuff like that.
| | 00:43 | With the Blob brush tool, you're
actually able to join artwork together by
| | 00:47 | utilizing a brush, which is really neat.
| | 00:50 | So in this case, I'm going to draw
out a basic shape; just a rectangle.
| | 00:55 | And with this rectangle, watch how cool
I can make it look in just a few short
| | 00:59 | and easy steps, utilizing the Blob brush.
| | 01:01 | I'm going to switch to fill and stroke,
so it's a black rectangle, and I'll make
| | 01:06 | sure I'm working on the Fill, and then
I'm going to grab the Blob brush tool.
| | 01:10 | When I bring the Blob brush tool out,
you're going to notice that it's a
| | 01:13 | little paintbrush, and also, it's got a little
circle target that follows me around as well.
| | 01:18 | This is a brush.
| | 01:20 | In Illustrator, you can actually alter
the size of a brush by pressing the right
| | 01:24 | bracket key, or the left
bracket key on your keyboard.
| | 01:27 | Pressing the right bracket key
increases the size of the brush, like so.
| | 01:32 | Hitting the left bracket key
decreases the size of the brush.
| | 01:33 | I'm going to get a
pretty big size brush here.
| | 01:39 | Now traditionally, if I had grabbed
the Paintbrush tool, and I started painting
| | 01:42 | over this thing, it would create a brand
new object on top of it, and it would
| | 01:46 | be separate, and I would
have to merge it together.
| | 01:48 | With the Blob brush, I can actually
unify whatever I paint with the underlying
| | 01:52 | object. Check this out.
| | 01:54 | I'll just make a scribble,
and let go.
| | 01:55 | If I grab my Selection tool, and
select it, this is all one object now.
| | 02:03 | Let's undo that, and try it again.
| | 02:07 | This time, I'll just kind of go
inside, and make some art like that.
| | 02:16 | When I select it again,
it's still one piece.
| | 02:18 | However, I left some gaps, right?
| | 02:20 | If I grab the Blob brush again, I can
come in and easily fill those up, and now
| | 02:27 | this is just one single piece of artwork.
| | 02:30 | I can also utilize the Eraser
tool to create my paths as well.
| | 02:34 | The Eraser tool is right here, and
you can get to it by clicking on it, or
| | 02:37 | utilizing Shift, and the letter E.
| | 02:40 | Once I hit Shift+E, it's
automatically going to bring the Eraser out.
| | 02:43 | Again, I get that same cursor, and I
can increase or decrease the size of the
| | 02:47 | brush by using my bracket keys.
| | 02:49 | If I wanted to alter my artwork with
the Eraser tool, I'll just click and drag,
| | 02:54 | just like I did with the Blob brush.
| | 02:59 | I'll just follow the
contours of this, like so.
| | 03:13 | I can even reduce the size of my brush,
and make even smaller details, like that.
| | 03:23 | Once I'm done, I click away, or select it,
and you can see, it's still one big object.
| | 03:29 | So I'm actually creating these complex
paths on the fly, without having to know
| | 03:33 | anything about the Pen tool,
the Pathfinder, or anything.
| | 03:36 | It's all joining and
maintaining its appearance as I go along.
| | 03:40 | Now remember, I started out with
a rectangle. How cool is that?
| | 03:45 | Let's delete this, and try something else.
| | 03:48 | I'll grab the Blob brush, and I'll just start
to make some artwork with the Blob brush.
| | 03:53 | I'll reduce the size of my brush by
holding down the left bracket key.
| | 03:57 | Once I get it to an optimal size,
I can begin to make some artwork.
| | 04:00 | In this case, I'm just going to
draw out a little cartoon character.
| | 04:02 | So I'll draw some eyes, like so.
| | 04:08 | Nose, mouth; give him some eyeballs.
| | 04:13 | That's not half bad for
somebody drawing with a mouse.
| | 04:20 | Now, once I do this, I can
actually add to this as well.
| | 04:25 | With my Blob brush selected, I can then
add something like hair to the outside,
| | 04:29 | whereas traditionally, you would have to add
the hair, and then join it with the face, right?
| | 04:33 | In this case, I've got the Blob brush selected,
| | 04:35 | so I just draw; I can add some hair.
| | 04:43 | Something kind of like that; you can
add little pieces here and there, and just
| | 04:48 | keep adding stuff, and it
becomes part of the original path.
| | 04:53 | So now, when I select the outside of
the face, it's automatically selecting
| | 04:56 | everything; even the hair that I've drawn.
| | 04:58 | So as you can see, the Blob brush gives
you a new opportunity for making paths
| | 05:02 | in a way that you've
probably never thought of before.
| | 05:04 | Traditionally, you've thought of paths as
sort of like this mechanical thing that you
| | 05:07 | had to put together, with
pieces and parts from other places.
| | 05:11 | Now you get to simply draw inside of
Illustrator, and the paths are created for you.
| | 05:15 | It's a much more visual way, almost like
putting ink on paper, and that's what I
| | 05:19 | like about the Blob brush.
| | 05:20 | It's so much easier to create freeform
artwork, without worrying about the
| | 05:24 | technical stuff going on in the background.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Paintbrush and Pencil tools| 00:00 | One of the most basic ways to draw
paths and shapes inside of Illustrator is to
| | 00:04 | freehand draw them utilizing
the Paintbrush and Pencil tools.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
using both of these, and how you can create
| | 00:11 | some really simple,
hand-drawn pieces of artwork.
| | 00:13 | I am going to start off by creating a
brand new document, and in order to do that,
| | 00:17 | I am going to hit Command+N or
Control+N on my keyboard.
| | 00:20 | Once I do that, I will
accept the defaults, and hit OK.
| | 00:23 | Once I get my new document created,
I am going to come over to find the
| | 00:27 | Paintbrush tool, and the Pencil tool.
| | 00:29 | The Paintbrush tool can be accessed by
hitting the letter B on your keyboard, or
| | 00:33 | simply by clicking it in the Tools panel.
| | 00:35 | The Pencil tool can be accessed by
hitting the letter N on your keyboard.
| | 00:39 | You'll notice the keyboard
shortcuts when you hover over them.
| | 00:41 | I am going to first start off with
the brush tool, and with the Paintbrush
| | 00:45 | tool selected, I can either come out here and
start painting, or I can set up some options.
| | 00:49 | I will worry about the options in just a second.
| | 00:51 | Let me show you exactly how
the Paintbrush tool works.
| | 00:54 | Basically, you just come out here, and
it's like you have a paintbrush in your hand.
| | 00:58 | Your mouse cursor is
controlling the paintbrush.
| | 01:01 | You just come out and start making shapes.
| | 01:03 | So in this case, I will just make, like, a
cursive J. There we go. Very simple; very easy.
| | 01:10 | It doesn't select the path after you get
done drawing it, though, but you can set
| | 01:14 | that up inside of the Illustrator options.
| | 01:16 | Let me grab my Selection tool, and
select this piece of artwork, and delete it.
| | 01:21 | Let's go over now to the brush, and
double-click on the Paintbrush tool.
| | 01:25 | When I double-click on the Paintbrush
tool, you are going to see that there are
| | 01:27 | several different options available to you.
| | 01:29 | Fidelity; this controls how far you
have to move your mouse or stylus before
| | 01:34 | Illustrator adds a new anchor point to the path.
| | 01:37 | Basically, when you are moving
your hand around, and drawing with the
| | 01:41 | Paintbrush tool, Illustrator is
automatically dropping anchor points every
| | 01:45 | four pixels, let's say.
| | 01:46 | You can increase or decrease this
amount by adjusting the Fidelity.
| | 01:50 | The Smoothness controls the amount of
smoothing that Illustrator applies when
| | 01:54 | you're using this tool.
| | 01:55 | When you are drawing with a
mouse, you might want to turn up the
| | 01:57 | Smoothness just a little bit.
| | 01:59 | If you are drawing with the drawing
tablet, you're probably to be okay here,
| | 02:02 | but you might want to crank up the
Smoothness if you find that your paths
| | 02:05 | are a little too jagged.
| | 02:06 | You also have several
options here at the bottom.
| | 02:09 | Fill new brush strokes;
| | 02:11 | basically this means the new path that
you draw is automatically going to have a
| | 02:14 | fill color associated with it.
| | 02:16 | In most cases, though, you might not
want this unless you are drawing a
| | 02:19 | completely closed path.
| | 02:20 | If you are just drawing strokes,
there's no need for a fill.
| | 02:23 | Keep Selected; this determines
whether or not Illustrator keeps the artwork
| | 02:27 | selected once you have draw it.
| | 02:28 | I am going to go ahead and turn this on.
| | 02:31 | You can also choose to Edit Selected
Paths, which determines whether you can
| | 02:35 | change an existing path
with the Paintbrush tool.
| | 02:38 | Basically, this means if you have a
path already on your screen, you can use
| | 02:41 | the Paintbrush tool to add brushstrokes to it.
And then finally, you get a slider that says Within.
| | 02:47 | This means how far away from a path
do you have to be before Illustrator
| | 02:51 | allows you to add to it?
| | 02:53 | In this case, you have to
be within 12 pixels of this.
| | 02:56 | You can ask a reduce this to make sure
you are more precise, or you can increase
| | 03:00 | it to make it a little bit more loose.
| | 03:02 | If you want to reset this dialog box
after you have made any changes in here,
| | 03:05 | you can simply hit the Reset button.
| | 03:07 | I am going to hit OK, and keep going.
| | 03:09 | When I am drawing with the Paintbrush
tool, I can do lots of different things.
| | 03:13 | I can draw freeform paths, like this,
and as you can see, they remain selected
| | 03:19 | after I have drawn them, simply
because I made that change in the options.
| | 03:23 | In addition to the freeform paths,
I can also draw closed paths as well.
| | 03:28 | As I'm drawing with the Paintbrush tool,
I can hold down the Option or Alt key,
| | 03:33 | and a circle appears.
| | 03:36 | Once I go around, and I'm ready to
complete my path, I can let go of my mouse,
| | 03:43 | and Illustrator
automatically completes the path for me,
| | 03:46 | then I can let go of my Option or Alt key.
| | 03:49 | Let's try that one more time.
| | 03:50 | I am going to start drawing a shape,
and I will just draw something wacky,
| | 03:53 | kind of like a star.
| | 03:56 | When I am ready to complete this, I
hold down the Option or Alt key, let go of
| | 04:00 | my mouse, and then let go
of my Option or Alt key.
| | 04:04 | Illustrator has drawn the
shape for me, and closed the path.
| | 04:08 | Otherwise, if I don't hold down the
Option or Alt key, it's very difficult
| | 04:12 | to draw a closed path.
| | 04:17 | If I zoom in to the shape I just drew,
you will notice these didn't join up.
| | 04:23 | So I would have to use something like
Join or Average in order to get them to
| | 04:26 | make one single path.
| | 04:29 | Now let's select all of these,
and we will get rid of them,
| | 04:33 | and let's go over and
grab the Pencil tool.
| | 04:35 | The Pencil tool, much like the Paintbrush
tool, has options associated with it as well.
| | 04:40 | Let's double-click the
Pencil tool to open those up.
| | 04:43 | Again, you get Tolerances at
the top; Fidelity, and Smoothness.
| | 04:47 | Fidelity controls how for you have
to move your mouse or stylus before
| | 04:52 | Illustrator drops a new anchor point.
| | 04:54 | In this case, it's set to 2.5.
| | 04:54 | It's a little bit lower than
the Paintbrush tool is, by default.
| | 04:58 | Smoothness; smoothness with the Pencil
tool is very important, because the Pencil
| | 05:03 | tool is just like a pencil,
| | 05:04 | it's very fine pointed, and it's kind of
hard to draw a really nice curved line with it.
| | 05:08 | You might want to crank up the Smoothness
if you are drawing a lot of curves.
| | 05:12 | You also have Options: to
fill the new pencil strokes;
| | 05:15 | that means you add a fill as you
start to draw with the Pencil tool.
| | 05:18 | You can also choose to keep it selected
afterwards, Edit Selected Paths, which
| | 05:22 | means, if you already have paths on your
artboard, you can add pencil strokes to
| | 05:25 | it, and again, the Within slider at
the bottom, indicating how close to the
| | 05:30 | existing path you have to be
before you're allowed to add to it.
| | 05:33 | Let's go ahead now and hit OK.
| | 05:35 | Now I will come out here, and I will
just start drawing with the Pencil tool.
| | 05:41 | As you can see, it's very
simple just to come out and draw.
| | 05:45 | But I can't make very nice curves;
| | 05:47 | you see there, it's kind of jagged
in certain areas. Same way here.
| | 05:52 | So the Pencil tool without the
Smoothness cranked up is a little bit difficult
| | 05:55 | to use, in my opinion.
| | 05:56 | Let's double-click that, and I
will crank up the Smoothness quite a
| | 06:00 | bit; something like 50%.
| | 06:04 | Hit OK, and watch the difference.
| | 06:06 | See how nice and smooth that is?
| | 06:11 | It really simplifies the path,
and makes it a lot more smooth.
| | 06:14 | Same way here. If I draw that, not as
many anchor points; not as many corners.
| | 06:20 | Let me select all of this, we
will press Backspace or Delete.
| | 06:26 | When you are drawing with the Pencil
tool, or the brush tool, you always have the
| | 06:29 | option to create open or closed
paths, and it's totally up to you.
| | 06:32 | But remember, you had to hold down the
Option or Alt key while you are drawing
| | 06:36 | it in order for the path to know that it's
supposed to close itself when you're done.
| | 06:40 | All in all, freeform drawing inside of
Illustrator is best served when you're
| | 06:44 | using a tablet drawing device or a stylus.
| | 06:46 | Drawing with a mouse is pretty
difficult unless you have a really steady hand.
| | 06:50 | So my recommendation is to go out and
try to find some sort of drawing device
| | 06:54 | if you're going to be doing
a lot of freehand drawing.
| | 06:56 | Once you've mastered drawing with your
device, you can actually come back in and
| | 07:00 | start practicing with the Paintbrush
and Pencil tools, and see what develops.
| | 07:04 | You will be amazed that what you can
create with one of those devices, compared
| | 07:07 | to how it works with the mouse.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Smoothing and erasing paths| 00:00 | If you're going to be doing a lot of
freehand drawing inside of Illustrator,
| | 00:03 | you've got to familiarize
yourself with two tools:
| | 00:06 | one is the smoothing tool, and
the other is the Path Eraser tool.
| | 00:11 | Both of these are going
to be your best friend.
| | 00:13 | The Eraser tool, because it allows you
to undo that which you didn't intend to
| | 00:17 | do, and the smoothing tool, because it's
going to clean up those jagged paths that
| | 00:21 | you've created while
you're drawing with your mouse.
| | 00:23 | Let's take a look at exactly what I mean.
| | 00:24 | I am going to be using my Pencil tool
here, and I am just going to draw out
| | 00:27 | some freeform shapes.
| | 00:29 | So I am going to draw out something like
a flower, and I am going to hold down my
| | 00:39 | Option or Alt key to indicate that I
am going to close this path, then I will
| | 00:43 | release my mouse, and I will
release my Option or Alt key.
| | 00:46 | That's going to close that path for me.
| | 00:48 | But you can tell by looking at this that
it's pretty nasty. It's jagged, it doesn't
| | 00:52 | have a lot of smooth corners,
| | 00:54 | I don't like it, but I can come over
here, and I can grab the Smooth tool, and I
| | 00:58 | can actually smooth out some of these areas.
| | 01:01 | So if I come across here, you can see
that it kind of simplifies the areas that
| | 01:06 | I'm working on; rounds
them out a little bit more.
| | 01:13 | You just draw along the path, and
Illustrator takes care of the heavy lifting for you.
| | 01:20 | Hopefully, it's eliminating some of
those big corners that I created.
| | 01:23 | I might even zoom in to this
little area here,
| | 01:27 | grab my Smooth tool, and draw
around, just to kind of smooth it out.
| | 01:35 | It's going to take some doing, but
eventually it will smooth out exactly like
| | 01:42 | I need it to.
| | 01:44 | Let me zoom back out.
| | 01:47 | I can also do that to the circle in the middle.
| | 01:50 | I'll select it, and then grab my
Smooth tool, and I'll just drag around it.
| | 01:55 | It makes it a little bit more smooth.
| | 01:57 | So now I come back and grab my Pencil
tool, and I will draw a stem, and I will
| | 02:04 | also draw some leaves.
| | 02:05 | I will grab my smoothing tool, and
I will kind of smooth these out.
| | 02:17 | This one first. See, it kind of
simplifies the path a little bit, and I'll take
| | 02:27 | this, and I'll move it over;
something kind of like that.
| | 02:31 | This one, I'll select it, use the
Smooth tool again, simplify that side, and
| | 02:43 | simplify that side. Then I
will take that, and move it down.
| | 02:47 | It's not my best work, but it's
certainly a lot better than it was when I
| | 02:50 | first started drawing it.
| | 02:51 | Now I am going to go in, and I am going
to grab the Path Eraser tool, and the Path
| | 02:57 | Eraser tool actually allows me
to erase paths, just like it says.
| | 03:02 | If I come in here with the eraser tool,
I can actually start to remove certain
| | 03:05 | paths, based on what I draw across.
| | 03:08 | First of all I need to
have it selected, though.
| | 03:09 | So let's say that I wanted to redraw
the stem; I am not really happy with it.
| | 03:13 | I'll switch temporarily to the
Selection tool by holding down the Command or
| | 03:16 | Control, and click on it.
| | 03:19 | Then I am simply going to drag across
this, and it's going to erase what I had.
| | 03:25 | And go all the way down and
remove it entirely, if I want to.
| | 03:29 | The same holds true for the leaves.
| | 03:31 | I will switch to the Selection tool by
holding down command or Control, click, and
| | 03:37 | then I will just go all the way around.
| | 03:38 | Now I'll switch to my Selection tool,
select this last leaf, and I'll just
| | 03:57 | press the Backspace key.
| | 03:59 | You can utilize the Path Eraser tool,
or the regular Eraser tool as well.
| | 04:03 | If I grab the regular Eraser tool,
and then zoom in on this artwork, I can
| | 04:08 | actually remove some of the
pieces that I wasn't happy with before.
| | 04:10 | So like right here, where these overlap,
I can just come in here with this Eraser
| | 04:14 | tool, and temporarily hold down the
Control key to select this object, and then
| | 04:18 | simply brush away the parts that I don't need.
| | 04:22 | So I will brush away that,
and this little stem as well.
| | 04:26 | If I make a gap, like I just did, that's
okay, because I can then just use the
| | 04:29 | Join or Average commands to rejoin that, or I
can use the Pencil tool to join it as well.
| | 04:34 | Once I am finished with that,
I will click away.
| | 04:36 | Then I will use Command+Zero
or Control+Zero to zoom back out.
| | 04:40 | So, as you can see, utilizing the smoothing
tool, as well as the Path Eraser tool,
| | 04:44 | is a great way to refine your hand-drawn
artwork here inside of Illustrator.
| | 04:48 | If you're going to be doing a whole lot
of hand-drawing inside of this program,
| | 04:51 | I suggest getting to know
these tools extensively.
| | 04:54 | Take some time, and practice with them,
and over time, you will develop skills that
| | 04:58 | will help you do some amazing things.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Don't Be Afraid of the Pen ToolExploring the Pen tool| 00:00 | We've come to the point in this course
where we're going to start exploring a
| | 00:03 | tool that's either your
favorite, or your worst enemy.
| | 00:07 | It's called the Pen tool, and I'm here
to tell you that it's not as scary as
| | 00:11 | people make it out to be.
| | 00:13 | So in this movie, we're going to
explore some of the Pen tool options, and
| | 00:17 | the ways that you can utilize the Pen tool
to create some artwork inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:21 | Now, you may be tempted just to go on
past this movie, because you think the Pen
| | 00:24 | tool is something that you just can't do,
| | 00:26 | and that's really not true.
| | 00:28 | Anybody can use the Pen tool.
| | 00:30 | As a matter of fact, I think everybody
should use the Pen tool, because you get
| | 00:34 | so much control with the objects that
are created with the Pen tool that, really
| | 00:37 | and truly, you don't have to be precise at all.
| | 00:41 | I'll show you what I mean
throughout this chapter.
| | 00:43 | As you're looking at this piece of
artwork that I have on my screen, you'll see
| | 00:46 | several examples of basic lines and
shapes that I've drawn with the Pen tool,
| | 00:50 | the first of which is a curve.
| | 00:52 | A curve is probably one of the simplest
things that you can draw with the Pen tool.
| | 00:55 | All you have to do is click, and drag,
set another point, click, and drag.
| | 01:00 | A straight line is also another easy
thing you can draw with the Pen tool.
| | 01:03 | You click once, you click
somewhere else, a straight line appears.
| | 01:07 | Basically, the Pen tool is nothing more
than connect the dots, without the dots
| | 01:11 | already being in place.
| | 01:12 | You're the one setting the
dots, and drawing the lines.
| | 01:15 | You just have to follow it in your brain.
| | 01:18 | You can also draw closed paths, like
this circle here at the bottom, and you can
| | 01:22 | draw things like this shape
down in the bottom right-hand side.
| | 01:26 | You may be wondering exactly what I
was going for here. Let me explain.
| | 01:31 | You can take the Pen tool, and draw
basic two-dimensional artwork, like what
| | 01:35 | you see here, and then convert it into
something that's very amazing, and three-dimensional.
| | 01:40 | Let me show you how easy that is.
| | 01:43 | I've basically drawn half of a vase here,
and with this vase, I can select it, and
| | 01:48 | then I can go up to the
Effects menu, and go to 3D.
| | 01:52 | When I go to 3D, I can choose Revolve.
| | 01:55 | I'll move this out of the way, and
I'm not going to spend any time talking
| | 01:58 | about the options in here, but when I turn
the Preview on, look what happens to that vase.
| | 02:03 | It automatically turns into a three-
dimensional object that I'm then able to
| | 02:07 | move, and rotate around inside of Illustrator.
| | 02:11 | This is great for product mockups, or
anything else that I might be working on.
| | 02:15 | All I had to do was draw the basic
structure of it with the Pen tool, and I did
| | 02:19 | that with a couple of straight lines,
and a couple of curves. Pretty neat.
| | 02:23 | When I'm finished, I can hit OK,
or hit Cancel to get back out.
| | 02:27 | At its core, it's nothing more than that
basic path that I drew with the Pen tool.
| | 02:31 | It's a really great tool that can create
some great artwork if you take the time
| | 02:37 | to learn it and master it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Drawing straight lines| 00:00 | When using the Pen tool inside of
Illustrator, you have the ability to draw both
| | 00:04 | curved and straight lines.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
creating basic shapes with straight
| | 00:09 | lines using the Pen tool.
| | 00:11 | I'm going to create a new document by
pressing Control+N or Command+N on my keyboard.
| | 00:15 | Once that pops up, I'll just go ahead and
commit to the defaults, and get my new document.
| | 00:20 | Then I'll switch to the Pen tool by
pressing the letter P on my keyboard.
| | 00:24 | Once I've got the Pen tool, I'm
now able to start making paths.
| | 00:28 | In order to start drawing with
the Pen tool, you have to click.
| | 00:31 | Clicking once set your first anchor point.
| | 00:35 | When you make another click, the Pen
tool automatically draws a straight line
| | 00:38 | between those two points.
| | 00:40 | When I make another click, it
continues to draw that straight line.
| | 00:43 | Let me draw a completely closed path
here to show you exactly how this works.
| | 00:48 | I'll click right here to
create another anchor point.
| | 00:51 | Then I'll bring my cursor
up the original anchor point.
| | 00:54 | When you get back to the original anchor
point that you started with, you should
| | 00:57 | see a small circle appear at the
bottom right corner of the Pen tool.
| | 01:01 | This indicates that
you're about to close a path.
| | 01:04 | Once you see that, you can click, and it
will then close the path that you're drawing.
| | 01:09 | Once you've done that, you can grab the
Selection tool, and you can select the artwork.
| | 01:13 | The artwork is now a full scalable
vector object, just like any other path that
| | 01:18 | you would've drawn with the Shape tool, or
any of the tools inside of Illustrator.
| | 01:22 | But with the Pen tool, you get the
control over how the shape looks.
| | 01:26 | You get to set that simply by
clicking, and making the dots.
| | 01:29 | I'm going to delete this to get rid of
it, and now let's switch back to the Pen
| | 01:33 | tool, and I'm going to show you how
to constrain the Pen tool to draw at
| | 01:36 | complete 90 degree angles.
| | 01:38 | I'm going to click right
here to start my first point.
| | 01:40 | Now remember before, I just arbitrarily
clicked out here at the right, and the Pen
| | 01:44 | tool automatically drew a
straight line between those two points,
| | 01:47 | but if I want this to be at a 90 degree
angle from the same point I just drew, I hold
| | 01:51 | down my Shift key on my keyboard,
and then click.
| | 01:54 | No matter where I click, it automatically
draws that straight 90 degree line.
| | 01:59 | Same holds true if I'm drawing downward.
| | 02:01 | When I hold down the Shift key, I
could click out here even, which is far off
| | 02:05 | from the original point, and click; it would
automatically create a 90 degree line, just like that.
| | 02:11 | Now let's go over, and I'll use my
smart guides to find the intersection
| | 02:15 | point, just like this.
| | 02:16 | Now theoretically, if I clicked here, it
would automatically draw the 90 degree line,
| | 02:20 | but I'm going to hold the
Shift key just be sure, and click.
| | 02:24 | Then I'll close my path by coming right
back up here, and I'll click one more time.
| | 02:28 | Now I've drawn a completely straight
rectangle, simply by holding down the Shift
| | 02:33 | key with the Pen tool.
| | 02:33 | I can then grab my Selection tool, make
a selection, and remove it, resize it; do
| | 02:39 | whatever I need to it.
| | 02:40 | Now let's grab the Pen tool one more
time, and let's try to draw out a star.
| | 02:45 | I'm going to start right here in the
center of the document, and I'm just going
| | 02:48 | to make a point by clicking.
| | 02:51 | I'll then come down a little bit,
and click somewhere around here.
| | 02:56 | I'm then going to hold down my Shift
key, because I want this to be a straight
| | 02:58 | edge, and then I'll click.
| | 03:01 | Then I'm going to come down, and I'll
use my smart guides to determine exactly
| | 03:04 | where I need to come down.
| | 03:06 | Somewhere right along here; I'll
click, and I'll come back down here.
| | 03:10 | When I see the smart guide, I'll click
again, click again, and I'm basically just
| | 03:16 | drawing out a star, based
upon these smart guides.
| | 03:19 | It's not going to be a
perfect star, by any means.
| | 03:22 | If I wanted to make this a
straight line here, I could undo that,
| | 03:25 | hold down the Shift key, and
I can make a straight line.
| | 03:28 | You'll see here that this is a little
off center, and that's okay; we can fix
| | 03:32 | that in just a moment.
| | 03:33 | Then I'll go ahead and close
the path by coming up here.
| | 03:36 | So now I've drawn a basic star, and you
might be thinking, well it doesn't look
| | 03:40 | all that great, and that's
very true; it doesn't.
| | 03:42 | The great thing about the Pen tool is
I have all of these anchor points, which
| | 03:45 | I've set myself, which I can then
modify by using the Direct Selection tool, to
| | 03:50 | make it look more like a star.
| | 03:52 | Let's see exactly how that works.
| | 03:54 | I'll grab the Direct Selection tool,
and I'll click away from all the points.
| | 03:57 | I'm then going to come down, and I'm
going to select this point, and I'll hold
| | 04:01 | down the Shift key, and
select this point as well.
| | 04:04 | I'm then going to use my
arrow keys to just tap them up.
| | 04:09 | Once it gets equal with
that point, I can stop.
| | 04:13 | Then I'll click away, and I'll come down
here, and make a selection of this anchor point.
| | 04:17 | If I needed to back this out a little
bit to the left, I'll hold down my Shift
| | 04:20 | key, and then tap my left arrow.
| | 04:22 | I might also need to move it up a little bit.
| | 04:25 | I'll do the same thing for this side.
Select this anchor point, I'll press my
| | 04:30 | arrow keys to make sure that it goes out to
the right space, and I'll move it up a little.
| | 04:35 | So my star is looking better,
but it's still not perfect.
| | 04:37 | But you see how you can go in, and select
those individual anchor points to make
| | 04:41 | even the crudest of
artwork look a little bit better.
| | 04:44 | That's why I think people
are so afraid of the Pen tool;
| | 04:47 | they make a mistake, and they think
it's unfixable, so they just start over, or
| | 04:51 | they just throw it away altogether.
| | 04:53 | Every time you start to use the Pen tool,
just stick with what you've drawn, and
| | 04:56 | then utilize the anchor points and
control handles that you're given to make
| | 05:00 | that artwork look that much better.
| | 05:02 | Getting used to drawing with
the Pen tool is half the battle.
| | 05:05 | Once you figure out how it works,
then you're able to start editing those
| | 05:08 | points, and making your artwork
look even better.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Drawing simple curves| 00:00 | I think one of the most feared things
about the Pen tool is drawing curves,
| | 00:04 | but it's not exactly as hard
as people make it out to be.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, I'll explore drawing
some simple curves inside of Illustrator,
| | 00:12 | and hopefully it'll help ease
your mind on using this tool.
| | 00:15 | I'm going to go into the File menu and
choose New to create a new blank document,
| | 00:19 | and I'll just commit to the defaults.
| | 00:21 | Once I do that, I'll switch to the Pen
tool by pressing the letter P on my keyboard.
| | 00:25 | We've already seen how to draw straight lines.
| | 00:28 | You just click, and click to draw a point.
| | 00:30 | But what if I wanted to make that line a curve?
| | 00:34 | Well let's undo that with Command+Z or Control
+Z, and let's see how we can draw a curve.
| | 00:38 | I'm going to click to set one point,
and then I'll click to set a second point,
| | 00:44 | but when I click to set that second
point, I'm going to keep my mouse held
| | 00:48 | down, and I'm going to start dragging it one
direction or another; either up, down, or sideways.
| | 00:54 | Once I do that, you'll
start to see the line curve.
| | 00:57 | So I'll click, and I'll start to
drag down, and the line will curve up.
| | 01:02 | If I were to drag upward, the line would
curve down. And any degree in between,
| | 01:08 | you can see that it
shifts the way the line curves.
| | 01:11 | It's this relationship of going up
versus down that I think scares a lot of
| | 01:15 | people off, because you have to
think in terms of opposites.
| | 01:18 | When you drag up, the curve goes down.
| | 01:20 | When you drag down, the
curve goes up, and so forth.
| | 01:22 | It can be a little confusing.
| | 01:25 | Let's undo that, and let's see
how we can draw a simple S Curve.
| | 01:30 | I'll click with my first point, and
I'm not going to release my mouse.
| | 01:34 | I'll simply drag downward, and then I'll release.
| | 01:38 | Now I'll create a second point, and
I'll make sure that it intersects at a
| | 01:42 | 90 degree angle by using the smart
guide, and this time, I'll click and hold.
| | 01:47 | You'll notice when I click, it
automatically draws the curve down for me.
| | 01:51 | That's because I set a curved
point on the other anchor point.
| | 01:55 | When I drag this, if I drag
it up, it matches the curve.
| | 02:01 | If I drag it down, I start
to draw an S curve, like so.
| | 02:06 | When I release, the S curve is complete.
| | 02:10 | Now, here's the part of the Pen tool
that seems to throw a lot of people off.
| | 02:13 | If I wanted to put another point right
here, you would think that the Pen tool
| | 02:17 | would draw a straight line
between these two points.
| | 02:19 | After all, when you click and set a point,
and click to set another point, the Pen
| | 02:23 | tool draws a straight line.
| | 02:24 | Watch what happens when I click here.
| | 02:27 | It draws a line, but it's still
got a little bit of a curve to it.
| | 02:31 | A lot of people, when they make that
second point off of a curved line, it
| | 02:35 | actually creates this almost weird
whip looking effect on the curve.
| | 02:39 | Let me show you a little
trick when you're drawing curves.
| | 02:42 | I'll undo this, and I'll
come right back up here.
| | 02:44 | We'll cover this extensively when I talk
about using your keyboard a little bit later on,
| | 02:49 | but for now just know that you can
always reset the Pen tool to make it draw
| | 02:53 | straight lines, by coming back to
the original anchor point that you set,
| | 02:57 | holding down the Option key on the Mac, the
Alt key on the PC, and clicking the anchor point.
| | 03:03 | Notice how that one control handle
went away. Now if I were to come straight
| | 03:07 | down, and click, the Pen tool
draws a completely straight line.
| | 03:12 | I've essentially reset the Pen tool.
| | 03:15 | I've made it ignore that previous point.
| | 03:18 | Now I can continue to draw curves if I
wanted to, by clicking, and dragging out,
| | 03:24 | and they would just curve up away from that.
| | 03:27 | Now let's draw out a little curve
here, and I'll reset this point by
| | 03:33 | Option+Clicking or Alt+Clicking, and
I'll come back over here, draw another
| | 03:39 | curve, come back in the middle, and once
I've done that, you can see here, I've
| | 03:46 | drawn a whale, and I did that simply by
creating curved lines and straight lines
| | 03:51 | together, utilizing the Pen tool.
| | 03:53 | So again, if you go to make curves
inside of Illustrator with the Pen tool,
| | 03:57 | remember to click and hold with your
mouse, and then drag the handles until you
| | 04:02 | get the curve like you like it.
| | 04:03 | If the curve doesn't turn out perfect --
like for instance, I might go in here, and fix
| | 04:07 | some of these little sharp edges in here,
| | 04:09 | or I might even come back and try to
make this a little bit more curved, instead
| | 04:12 | of a straight corner point --
| | 04:13 | you can always get control of
that by utilizing the control handles
| | 04:17 | that surround a curve.
| | 04:19 | Let's grab the Direct Selection tool,
and I'll come in, and I'll find one of
| | 04:22 | these anchor points.
| | 04:23 | When I click on the anchor point, I get
the little control handles on each side.
| | 04:27 | The control handles
allow me to adjust the curve.
| | 04:31 | I can make it bigger, or I can make it
smaller, and the direction I drag it
| | 04:35 | alters the way the curve works.
| | 04:38 | Basically, you just have to slow down
your mouse movements, and make small
| | 04:42 | adjustments until it fits
exactly like you like it.
| | 04:45 | You may have to adjust multiple
handles in order to get exactly what you're
| | 04:49 | looking for, but eventually, you'll get there.
| | 04:51 | Yes, it can be a little tedious, but
this is a really precise way to create
| | 04:55 | artwork, and I really like it.
| | 04:57 | Let's click right here in the middle,
and you can see here, I can just keep
| | 05:01 | adjusting all of these different
spaces in between these pieces of artwork.
| | 05:05 | This one here, I might move up a
little bit, and then I may also adjust the
| | 05:10 | curve; make it little bit more gradual.
| | 05:13 | So as you can see, it's not perfect
right off the bat, but these control handles
| | 05:17 | give me a great amount of ability to
manipulate this path in any way I see fit.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the many faces of the Pen tool| 00:00 | In Illustrator, the Pen tool does exist
as its own stand-alone tool, but it also
| | 00:05 | has many other faces that you might
encounter as you start working with artwork.
| | 00:09 | In this movie, we will explore the
many faces of the Pen tool, and what they
| | 00:12 | mean, so that you know what the Pen
tool is about to do as you encounter it
| | 00:16 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:18 | The first thing I have to do, of course,
is switch to the Pen tool, and I can do
| | 00:21 | that with the letter P on my
keyboard, or by clicking it.
| | 00:24 | I'm also going to bring the Pen tools out
on screen, so you can see them individually.
| | 00:28 | In order to do that, you're going to
click and hold on the Pen tool, then come
| | 00:31 | over here to the right, and
find this little arrow, and click.
| | 00:34 | Once I do that, it brings the Pen
tools out on screen, and I now have the
| | 00:38 | ability to see each one of them without having
to go back over to the tools panel each time.
| | 00:43 | The Pen tool is actually comprised of
four different tools: the regular Pen
| | 00:47 | tool, the Add Anchor Point tool,
the Delete Anchor Point tool, and the
| | 00:52 | Convert Anchor Point tool.
| | 00:54 | The Add and Delete Anchor Point tools
are merely the Pen tool with a Plus sign
| | 00:59 | or a Minus sign attached to
them, and their names pretty much tell you
| | 01:02 | exactly what they do.
| | 01:04 | The Add Anchor Point tool adds
anchor points to an existing path.
| | 01:08 | The Delete Anchor Point tool deletes
anchor points from an existing path.
| | 01:13 | The Convert Anchor Point tool
is the oddball in the family.
| | 01:16 | It doesn't have the Pen tool as part of
its icon, and it does something a little
| | 01:20 | bit different than the others.
| | 01:21 | We are going to cover this guy in his
own movie a little bit later on, but for
| | 01:24 | now, just know that it turns curves
into corners, and corners into curves.
| | 01:30 | Now let's focus on the Pen tool itself.
| | 01:32 | The Pen tool, when you have it selected
inside of Illustrator, will automatically
| | 01:36 | have a small Asterisk at the bottom of
the icon when you bring it out on the artboard.
| | 01:40 | This indicates that the Pen tool is
ready to start dropping anchor points.
| | 01:44 | At any given time, I can just
click to start creating new artwork.
| | 01:48 | The Add Anchor Point tool is the
Pen tool with a Plus sign in the
| | 01:52 | bottom right-hand corner.
| | 01:53 | This indicates that you're going to
add anchor points to an existing path.
| | 01:57 | So in this case, if I come down to this
line, I can click to add an anchor point
| | 02:01 | somewhere close to the middle.
| | 02:03 | It doesn't change the overall appearance
of the path -- as a matter of fact, it's
| | 02:06 | designed not to change the appearance --
but with that anchor point in the
| | 02:10 | middle, I now have finite control
over this portion of the path, and this
| | 02:14 | portion of the path.
| | 02:15 | So if I grab my Direct Selection tool,
for instance, I could select this
| | 02:19 | anchor point, and then nudge it upward
with my arrow keys, and create a slanted
| | 02:25 | appearance to the path, whereas before I
added that point, I couldn't have done that.
| | 02:30 | I could have curved it, but I
couldn't have made that little indentation.
| | 02:34 | If I go up and select the Delete Anchor
Point tool, and come right to this point,
| | 02:39 | and remove it, the path automatically
snaps back to a completely straight line,
| | 02:44 | because there is no point in between
to make that path go upward at all.
| | 02:48 | Let's take a look at how this
works on a more complex path.
| | 02:51 | I am going to go down, and I am going to
select the half of this vase right here.
| | 02:57 | If I grab the Add Anchor Point tool,
and I start to add anchor points to
| | 03:02 | this, here, and here, you can see that I get a
pretty decent level of control over those points.
| | 03:09 | I will zoom in so you can see this.
| | 03:10 | Now I've got two points -- here, and here --
that actually have their own control handles.
| | 03:15 | If I grab the Direct Selection tool, I
can come out here, and I can actually
| | 03:18 | maneuver these individually.
| | 03:20 | Now, this can be both good and bad,
because adding anchor points complicates a
| | 03:25 | path, and I'm of the opinion that a
simpler path creates smoother curves, and
| | 03:30 | better looking artwork.
| | 03:31 | The least amount of points you can
have while creating the artwork that
| | 03:34 | you desire, the better.
| | 03:36 | But in this case, I've added these
two, and I've kind of messed things up.
| | 03:39 | Let's see what happens when I
delete these anchor points now.
| | 03:43 | Come back, and I will delete this
anchor point, and I'll delete this point.
| | 03:48 | You'll notice that it automatically
snaps back to where these anchor points are
| | 03:52 | the only things that are controlling the curve.
| | 03:55 | However, it's trying to do this in the
least amount of space as possible, and
| | 03:58 | it's simplified these control handles as well.
| | 04:00 | If I want to bow that back out, I have
to then go back in, and use my control
| | 04:04 | handles to do so;
something kind of like this.
| | 04:08 | Then I will zoom back out, and click away.
| | 04:12 | So it takes a little bit of work,
if you add and delete anchor points
| | 04:16 | over and over, to get
things back to where they were.
| | 04:18 | That's why I say, leave it as simple
as possible, but if you absolutely have
| | 04:22 | to add an anchor point, or delete an anchor
point, just be careful while you're doing so.
| | 04:26 | Other things that you might see while
you're working with the Pen tool itself
| | 04:29 | are different icons that occur
while you're using the Pen tool.
| | 04:33 | Let's take a look at some of those now,
and I will zoom in so you can see this
| | 04:37 | by using Control+Spacebar, temporarily.
| | 04:40 | When I get next to a path, with the Pen
tool, that already exists, I can actually
| | 04:44 | add anchor points to this path
simply by clicking onto the path itself.
| | 04:50 | When I get close to the anchor point I
just drew, the Pen tool automatically gets
| | 04:53 | a little Minus sign next to it.
| | 04:55 | This indicates that the Pen tool has
temporarily changed from its regular self
| | 04:59 | to the Delete Anchor Point tool.
| | 05:01 | If I were to click, it
would remove that anchor point.
| | 05:05 | Now let's switch to the Direct Selection tool.
| | 05:07 | If the Direct Selection tool is selected,
I can actually find one of the anchor
| | 05:11 | points that makes up this path,
then I will grab the Pen tool.
| | 05:14 | When I am come in here with the Pen
tool, you notice I get that Minus sign
| | 05:17 | again, where I can remove that anchor point.
| | 05:20 | I can also add anchor points around it,
and you will notice it changes to the
| | 05:23 | Plus sign, indicating that I've now
switched to the Add Anchor Point tool.
| | 05:28 | If I come back to this point right here,
and I hold down the Option or Alt key, it
| | 05:34 | temporarily changes to the
Convert Anchor Point tool.
| | 05:38 | So as you continue to work with the
Pen tool, you don't even have to switch to
| | 05:41 | the other tools, necessarily.
| | 05:43 | The Pen tool is adaptive, in the fact
that when it comes to anchor points, or
| | 05:47 | existing paths, it automatically
changes itself to fit the context of what it
| | 05:51 | thinks you might be trying to do.
| | 05:53 | Let's zoom back out now, and I will
simply click away from this to deselect
| | 05:57 | all of the artwork.
| | 05:59 | As you continue to work throughout
Illustrator, you're going to encounter the
| | 06:02 | many faces of the Pen tool.
| | 06:04 | Hopefully by now you have a better
understanding of all them, and how to react
| | 06:07 | to them as you encounter them in your workflow.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Converting corners and curves| 00:00 | As you continue to work in Illustrator
with the Pen tool, you're inevitably
| | 00:04 | going to make some mistakes, and that's
okay, because Illustrator comes equipped
| | 00:08 | with lots of tools to help
you remedy those mistakes.
| | 00:10 | In this movie, I'll be walking
through how to use one of these tools,
| | 00:13 | to help you convert anchor points from
curves to corners, and corners to curves.
| | 00:17 | Let's take look at exactly
what I'm talking about here.
| | 00:20 | I have several paths out on my screen
already, and I'm going to focus on this one
| | 00:24 | down here in the bottom right corner.
| | 00:26 | I'm also going to go over and click
and hold on my Pen tool, and switch to the
| | 00:29 | Convert Anchor Point tool.
| | 00:31 | As I said before, I'm going to converting
corners into curves, and curves into corners.
| | 00:36 | In this case, let say that I wanted
the top of this vase to be a curve, as
| | 00:40 | opposed to this little
straight corner that I've created here.
| | 00:43 | With the Convert Anchor Point tool
selected, I can actually click right on
| | 00:46 | this anchor point, and continue holding down my
mouse, and I can actually turn that into a curve.
| | 00:52 | So if I click, and I hold,
notice what happens.
| | 00:56 | When I drag around, I actually
turned that corner into a curve.
| | 01:00 | Now, the curvature is up to you.
| | 01:02 | Once you release your mouse,
it is then a curve.
| | 01:05 | You no longer have that straight edge.
| | 01:07 | If you want to turn it back, you come
back to it again, click on it, and it
| | 01:13 | converts itself back into a corner point.
| | 01:15 | Let's try that one more time.
| | 01:17 | I'm going to click and drag out to
create a curve, and then I'll come back, and
| | 01:22 | I'll click once to make it a corner.
| | 01:25 | Same hold true down here. If I click,
it turns that into a straight line.
| | 01:31 | By clicking again, I am then able to
re-create the curvature of the vase.
| | 01:38 | You can do this for any corner or any
curve that you have inside of Illustrator,
| | 01:42 | and using this tool makes it
really easy to accomplish this task.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Your keyboard is your friend| 00:00 | When it comes to working with the Pen tool,
your keyboard is definitely your friend.
| | 00:05 | In this movie, I'll be walking you
through some useful keyboard shortcuts that
| | 00:08 | you can utilize while working with the
Pen tool, to make it easier on you, and
| | 00:11 | make it less tedious by going over to the
Tools panel all the time and switching tools.
| | 00:15 | Now, we already know that the Pen tool
is adaptive, and when you get close to a
| | 00:19 | path, it's going to automatically
change to whatever tool it thinks you're
| | 00:22 | going to be using, but what if the tool that
it thinks you're using isn't the tool you want?
| | 00:27 | You need to be able to switch almost
instantaneously to the tool that you're
| | 00:31 | wanting, and so we're going to
utilize the keyboard to do just that.
| | 00:35 | I'm going to zoom in on this circle
in the bottom left of the artwork.
| | 00:39 | When I get on this circle, I am then
going to switch to the Pen tool by coming
| | 00:43 | and clicking on it inside of the Tools panel.
| | 00:45 | You'll notice, when I click and hold on
that Pen tool, it automatically opens up
| | 00:49 | to show me all of the other tools.
| | 00:51 | These are the keyboard shortcuts
that you're going to be using as well.
| | 00:53 | For instance, to invoke the Pen tool,
you'll hit the letter P on your keyboard.
| | 00:58 | Let me bring this out, and
show you exactly what I mean.
| | 01:01 | I'll switch back to my Selection tool
for a second. Let's say that I'm working
| | 01:05 | on this, and I've just resized it with my
Selection tool. So let's go ahead and
| | 01:08 | resize it, and now I want to add some
anchor points to it with the Pen tool.
| | 01:12 | Well, I can just hit the letter P,
and I get the Pen tool, and I can start
| | 01:16 | adding my anchor points.
| | 01:17 | If I need to remove anchor points, I
can hit the Minus sign on my keyboard,
| | 01:22 | and it switches to the Delete Anchor
Point tool. I can hit the Plus sign on
| | 01:27 | my keyboard, and it automatically
switches me to the Add Anchor Point tool.
| | 01:31 | I can also press Shift and the letter C
to invoke the Convert Anchor Point tool.
| | 01:38 | Now let's say I have drawn out my
artwork, and I actually need to cut it, or
| | 01:42 | remove a portion of it.
| | 01:43 | Well I can actually invoke the Scissors
tool here as well, by pressing the letter
| | 01:48 | C on my keyboard to grab the scissors.
| | 01:50 | Then I can come in, and I can
make my cut, just like that.
| | 01:56 | Once I do that, I've got my
two separate paths, like so.
| | 02:01 | So as you continue to work with the Pen
tool, try to incorporate some of these
| | 02:05 | keyboard shortcuts into your workflow,
so that you get a little bit more
| | 02:08 | efficient, because as we know, productivity
in the design world is usually equal
| | 02:12 | to dollar signs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tracing artwork with the Pen tool| 00:00 | Now we have come to a point where we
are ready to start putting what we've
| | 00:03 | learned into a practical application.
| | 00:05 | And in this movie, we are going to
be drawing a simple cartoon character
| | 00:09 | utilizing the Pen tool inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:12 | As you can see, I have got this
document open called tracing_bear.
| | 00:14 | And inside of this document, I
actually have two layers, and I realize we
| | 00:18 | haven't talked about layers yet, but
let me bring this out, so you can see what
| | 00:20 | I have got going on.
| | 00:22 | The idea here is that you have
received artwork from a client,
| | 00:25 | and the artwork from the client is
in a raster-based format of some kind.
| | 00:28 | It might be a JPEG, or a TIFF;
| | 00:31 | either way, it's not suitable for use in
Illustrator, and you need to be able to
| | 00:34 | trace that artwork for use in your projects.
| | 00:38 | This is how I start any tracing that
I'm about to do inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:42 | I put the artwork that I'm going to be
tracing on a layer called Background,
| | 00:46 | and then I lock that layer. That way, I
cannot alter that layer in any way, and I
| | 00:51 | can't make any changes to that layer either.
| | 00:54 | I then create a new layer called Tracing.
| | 00:56 | This way, I have a layer on top of the
background, which I can then trace with.
| | 01:00 | So I want to make sure that I'm working
on this layer, so you need to target the
| | 01:03 | Tracing layer by clicking on it, like so.
| | 01:05 | Once you have the Tracing layer
targeted, you're ready to start your tracing.
| | 01:10 | Now, this bear can actually be re-created
by utilizing some basic shapes, but you
| | 01:15 | also need utilize the Pen tool to
create various things, like the goatee, maybe
| | 01:20 | even the mouth part, and
some other parts, like the hat.
| | 01:23 | So I am going to go through, and
I am going to create some of the basic
| | 01:26 | shapes, and then we will
finish it off with the Pen tool.
| | 01:30 | So I am going to go ahead and dock
the Layers panel back down where it's
| | 01:32 | supposed to be, and let's get started.
| | 01:35 | The objects that are in the back, I am going
to draw those first, and build on top of them.
| | 01:40 | So the first thing I
need to do is draw the ears.
| | 01:43 | Those are the parts that
are farthest away from me.
| | 01:45 | So I am going to come over here, and I
am just going to grab the Ellipse tool,
| | 01:49 | and I am going to start to
draw out an ellipse.
| | 01:52 | When you are drawing shapes inside of
Illustrator, you can actually reposition
| | 01:56 | them on the fly, before you let go of your
mouse, by temporarily holding down the Spacebar key.
| | 02:01 | So I am going to do this, and just
position it fairly close to there.
| | 02:07 | Once I get that done, I will
release my mouse, and there's one ear.
| | 02:12 | I am going to fill this with no fill;
that way I can see back behind it, and then
| | 02:17 | I am going to grab my Selection tool.
| | 02:20 | I'm then going to Command+C or Control+C to
copy it, and Command+V or Control+V to paste it,
| | 02:27 | and I will move that right over here.
| | 02:29 | After all, we want the ears to
match up as much as possible.
| | 02:31 | So extend that out;
something kind of like that.
| | 02:34 | If they don't match exactly, you can
rearrange them, and resize them to fit.
| | 02:40 | Once I have got that done, I've
pretty much got my ears intact.
| | 02:44 | Now let's draw the inner ears, and the face.
| | 02:46 | I will draw the inner ears first.
| | 02:49 | I can do that simply by selecting the
circle that I had before, Command+C or
| | 02:52 | Control+C on my keyboard to copy it,
| | 02:55 | and then I'm going to use another
keyboard shortcut that I haven't showed you yet.
| | 02:59 | It's Command+F or Control+F,
which means paste in front.
| | 03:04 | Once I do that, you are not going to
see it paste anywhere onscreen; that's
| | 03:07 | because it pasted directly in front of
the object that you just copied it from.
| | 03:10 | I can then resize it, like so.
| | 03:12 | Here is the inner ear, and I'll copy
that, and paste it, and then move it over
| | 03:20 | here to draw that portion of the inner ear.
| | 03:23 | Now I will draw the face.
| | 03:25 | Another circle; again this is a
pretty simple character to draw.
| | 03:29 | Hold down my Spacebar to
reposition, then I will adjust, let go,
| | 03:32 | grab my Selection tool; I can sort
of position this to fill a little bit
| | 03:40 | more like the face. There we go.
| | 03:41 | Now I have got the basic parts of my bear down.
| | 03:45 | The rest of these, I can utilize the Pen
tool to draw, and that's what I'm going to do.
| | 03:50 | I am going to create a new layer,
and I am going to call this Pen tool.
| | 03:57 | And I did that simply by double-clicking
on the layer name, and typing in Pen tool.
| | 04:00 | I am then going to temporarily
hide the layer called Tracing.
| | 04:05 | That's going to hide all the
artwork that I just created.
| | 04:09 | Working on this Pen tool layer, I'm
then going to go out and start drawing the
| | 04:12 | pieces that I need use the Pen tool for,
| | 04:16 | the first of which is the hat.
| | 04:18 | I am going to grab the Pen tool; zoom in
a little bit closer, so you can actually
| | 04:22 | see what I am doing.
| | 04:23 | I am going to start somewhere here; I
usually start in a simple place, like a corner.
| | 04:27 | And this point tells me that I'm
intersecting with it, so that's good.
| | 04:30 | I will go ahead click to add my first point.
| | 04:33 | There is a little bit of a curve here,
so I am going to click, and then I'll draw
| | 04:37 | upward to follow that curve.
| | 04:39 | Like I said, it doesn't matter if you
don't follow it perfectly; no big deal,
| | 04:42 | and I will go there.
| | 04:43 | I am going to come over here,
and try to make my next point.
| | 04:48 | When I do that, I can adjust the curve to fit.
I will come down here, and try the next point.
| | 04:54 | When I do that, you're going to
notice that the Pen tool doesn't exactly
| | 04:57 | behave like I want it to.
| | 04:59 | The curve just doesn't quite match up.
| | 05:01 | Remember what I said; if you run into this
problem, undo -- Command+Z or Control+Z -- go
| | 05:06 | back to your original point, hold down the
Option key on Mac, the Alt key on PC, and click.
| | 05:12 | That other control handle will go away,
and you have essentially told the Pen
| | 05:14 | tool, reset yourself.
| | 05:16 | I will come back down here, click, and
now I can draw out a more simple curve.
| | 05:23 | If you find that your curve doesn't
quite match up with what you're trying to draw,
| | 05:26 | chances are, you've tried to put too much
space between the first point, and the second point.
| | 05:30 | So in this case, I've got a little
bit of a gap here, so I am going to undo
| | 05:33 | this one more time.
| | 05:35 | And I'll come back a little bit closer
to the original point, click, and draw.
| | 05:40 | And now I can line that
up pretty much perfectly.
| | 05:42 | There we go. I will go over here, and
try to do another point. There we go.
| | 05:46 | You will notice that I am going
very slow while I am drawing this,
| | 05:51 | and when you are drawing something for the
first time, I recommend you go slow as well.
| | 05:54 | That's going to get you acclimated to using
the Pen tool. Eventually you can get faster,
| | 05:58 | but for now, we are going at a
snail's pace to make sure we get it right.
| | 06:01 | Let's go right up here,
and attempt this curve.
| | 06:05 | That lines up pretty good,
but it's still little off.
| | 06:09 | So let's undo that, and I am going to
try to reset this point; Option+Click or
| | 06:13 | Alt+Click. There we go.
| | 06:14 | I will back that down a little bit, and
I'm able to create a point that pretty
| | 06:19 | much follows the flow of the hat.
| | 06:22 | Come back up, follow along;
go right here in the corner.
| | 06:26 | There's a little bit of a curve
downward right here, so I will do that.
| | 06:31 | Come right here; here's where I get
that weird whipping that I talked about.
| | 06:35 | The whipping is very annoying.
| | 06:37 | So I'll undo that, again, Option+Click or
Alt+Click the point to reset it, click,
| | 06:42 | adjust the curve, and go.
| | 06:46 | Same thing here; I'll make my curve.
| | 06:49 | There we go. Option+Click or Alt+Click,
because here, I don't want to curve at all;
| | 06:53 | I want it to be relatively straight.
There we go.
| | 06:56 | And then finally, I can complete my path
by coming right here, and adjusting it.
| | 07:01 | There we go; our first item
is drawn with the Pen tool.
| | 07:04 | Let's see how we did.
| | 07:05 | I am going to fill this with black,
so you can actually see it. Not bad!
| | 07:09 | Looks almost exactly like the original hat.
| | 07:11 | I am pretty satisfied with that,
| | 07:13 | so let's move down.
| | 07:15 | Grab my Pen tool again.
| | 07:17 | I want to make sure that I'm
working on a Fill that is set to None.
| | 07:21 | That way I can actually see
inside of this as I draw around.
| | 07:24 | So I am going to start right here;
it's a little difficult to draw right here
| | 07:28 | around this eye, because there's
no real straight edge to start on.
| | 07:31 | But that's okay; I am going to start
right here at the top. I am just going to
| | 07:35 | click, and I will click to set another point,
| | 07:36 | and I will draw right there. Notice
I get the whip again. I will undo,
| | 07:43 | Option+Click or Alt+Click to reset,
and then draw around, just like this.
| | 07:49 | I am going to continue around this
eye, and I am just Option+Clicking or
| | 07:53 | Alt+Clicking to reset the Pen
tool as I draw around. There we go.
| | 07:59 | And finally, I will come back here
to this curve, and finish it off.
| | 08:02 | Let's see how we did there.
| | 08:06 | Fill it with black; looks pretty good.
| | 08:09 | Now here's the cool part about this: I
can just take this, copy it, and then I can
| | 08:13 | paste it, and then I can
rearrange it to fit this other eye.
| | 08:17 | Because theoretically they
are supposed to be same, right?
| | 08:19 | So we will move it, get it
into place, and there we go.
| | 08:25 | The nose; that can probably be accomplished
with a circle, but in this case, I am
| | 08:29 | going to practice with
the Pen tool a little bit.
| | 08:31 | So I will click here, and I am going
to draw out a line, just like this.
| | 08:36 | I will come down here, and
draw out another line, like that.
| | 08:41 | Then I will complete the
curve, like that; pretty quick.
| | 08:46 | If you want to keep using the Pen tool,
but you don't want to add to the path
| | 08:49 | you are currently working on, temporarily
hold down the Control key on your
| | 08:52 | keyboard, and click somewhere on your canvas.
That will deactivate the Pen tool momentarily.
| | 08:57 | Now let's try this one. Go ahead here,
and then draw around. There we go.
| | 09:02 | Notice, here it's filling it with black;
I don't want that to happen, so I will
| | 09:05 | just come over here, and fill that with None.
| | 09:06 | I can attempt to keep going
around; something like that.
| | 09:10 | I will go ahead and click, get in the
middle there; try something right around here.
| | 09:15 | Now, you notice here I am going
to get that S curve, the whip,
| | 09:19 | so I'll come right back, Option+Click
or Alt+Click, fit it perfectly around the
| | 09:24 | mouth, let's go right down here;
there we go.
| | 09:29 | And then I will round that off,
just like that. Doesn't look too bad.
| | 09:32 | I am going to select the nose, right-click
on it, choose Arrange > Bring to Front;
| | 09:39 | puts the nose right over the top of
that little mouthpiece that I just drew.
| | 09:42 | This mouthpiece can be
accomplished with a circle, I think,
| | 09:45 | so I am just going to do this: draw it
out, just like so, and then I'll take this,
| | 09:51 | right-click, Arrange > Bring Forward,
and I need to fill that with white.
| | 09:58 | Right-click on it,
choose Arrange > Bring to Front.
| | 10:03 | The nose may have gotten lost in the
shuffle, so I'll have to bring that to the
| | 10:05 | front again as well.
| | 10:08 | Let's zoom out a little bit.
| | 10:08 | We have got the eyes, the
nose, and the mouth completed.
| | 10:13 | The last piece I need is the goatee.
| | 10:15 | So let's zoom in on that.
| | 10:16 | This is probably going to be the most
challenging, because it has got these little
| | 10:18 | spikes, and that's okay.
| | 10:19 | I 'll grab the Pen tool,
and I will start with spikes.
| | 10:23 | So I will start right here.
| | 10:24 | Now, I am just clicking points as I go.
| | 10:29 | If this black fill is throwing you off,
just come over here; set it to None.
| | 10:33 | There's a little bit of a curve
here, so I will curve it in,
| | 10:37 | and I will come around.
| | 10:43 | You have just seen something
happen that happens a lot;
| | 10:46 | any time you make a corner handle drag
off, and you go off the side of the screen,
| | 10:50 | you may experience this sudden rush,
where Illustrator zooms you automatically to
| | 10:55 | another point on screen.
| | 10:56 | All you have to do is hit Command+Z or
Control+Z on your keyboard to undo the point
| | 11:00 | you just did, temporarily hold down the
Spacebar key, click, and drag back to the
| | 11:06 | point where you just were.
| | 11:08 | Then you can continue working.
| | 11:09 | Come back, and I will finish
drawing that curve, just like that.
| | 11:13 | And I will come over, draw that
point, and I'll finish right there.
| | 11:21 | Now, let's get rid of the stroke on
that, fill it with black; there we go.
| | 11:25 | Now let's zoom out.
| | 11:27 | So there is my bear.
| | 11:29 | Let me turn on my Tracing layer
again, and I will also hide the
| | 11:32 | original Background layer.
| | 11:34 | Now let's start filling this with
color and see exactly what we came up with.
| | 11:38 | Select this, and I'll flip-flop that, so
it's filled with dark gray. Select both
| | 11:44 | the ears, flip-flop those; select the
inner ears, and I'll flip-flop those, and
| | 11:52 | then fill them with white, and there we go.
| | 11:56 | So as you can see, we've drawn a pretty
simple character, in not too much time,
| | 12:01 | by utilizing some shapes, and also utilizing
what we've learned about the Pen tool so far.
| | 12:06 | To give you some extra practice, I've
also included another piece of artwork in
| | 12:10 | your exercise files called tracing_flowers.
| | 12:14 | This is a great real-world example of
artwork that we as designers have to deal
| | 12:18 | with on a daily basis.
| | 12:19 | So the next time your client comes in
with a hand-drawn sketch, or a 72 dpi JPEG,
| | 12:24 | hopefully you'll be well equipped to
trace it, using the methods that we've
| | 12:27 | covered in this chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Using Type in IllustratorAdjusting your type settings| 00:00 |
Before we get started working with Type, I
think it's important for us to understand
| | 00:04 |
the different Type settings that we have
available to us inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:07 |
So, I'm going to go up to the Edit menu on
a PC, the Illustrator menu on a Mac, and
| | 00:12 |
choose Preferences.
And I'm going to jump right into Type.
| | 00:15 |
And once I'm inside of the Type dialog
box, you can set up things like default
| | 00:19 |
Letting, Tracking, and Baseline Shift.
But in my personal experience, this is
| | 00:23 |
going to be on a case by case basis based
on the type Project you're working on.
| | 00:26 |
And most of the time you're going to
adjust these attributes from inside of the
| | 00:29 |
Type panels anyway, so I don't usually
worry about these.
| | 00:31 |
The language options, you can turn on show
East Asian options an show Indic options
| | 00:36 |
as well if you wanted to.
Type Object Selection by Path Only.
| | 00:40 |
This is much the same behavior as you saw
earlier in the course when we were talking
| | 00:43 |
about, the selection portion of this.
If you remember correctly, we had Object
| | 00:47 |
Selection by Path Only.
Same thing with Type.
| | 00:50 |
You can have Type Object Selection by Path Only.
| | 00:52 |
If I were to turn that on and hit OK and
then we create a new document.
| | 00:57 |
And we'll just do something like a web
document hit okay.
| | 01:02 |
And then I have the Type tool selected
I'll just type here.
| | 01:05 |
Type my name and let's blow up the text a
little bit.
| | 01:09 |
I'm using Shift+Ctrl+> or Shift+Cmd+> on
the mac to increase the size of my font on
| | 01:16 |
the fly.
And so once I do that, I've got my type
| | 01:19 |
there, and if I click away from it.
You'll notice I cannot come in here and
| | 01:23 |
click on the type object.
I can't select the bounding box around it.
| | 01:27 |
And you'll also notice when I zoom in,
that I can't click on the interior
| | 01:31 |
portions, either.
I have to be right on the path.
| | 01:36 |
But, even when I click on the edge, it's
not doing anything.
| | 01:39 |
The issue is that Type is actually sitting
on a path.
| | 01:44 |
And the path is a straight path that goes
right along the bottom, also known as the
| | 01:47 |
baseline.
So, in order to select this, you have to
| | 01:50 |
find that path.
If you have that option turned on.
| | 01:53 |
This makes it really difficult in some
cases to select pieces of type.
| | 01:56 |
But it also makes you have to be super accurate.
| | 01:59 |
So, that's totally up to you if you want
that turned on.
| | 02:01 |
I personally don't like it, so I'm
going to go back and turn it off.
| | 02:04 |
So, Preferences, and we're going to go
into the Type menu, and I'm going to turn
| | 02:08 |
off Type Object Selection by Path Only.
Show font names in English, if you have
| | 02:12 |
foreign fonts that you wish to show in
English you can go ahead and turn that on.
| | 02:16 |
Number of recent fonts in your type dialog
box you will see a list of recent fonts
| | 02:21 |
that you've used.
If you use a large range of fonts on a
| | 02:25 |
regular basis you might want to increase
this number so that you show more of
| | 02:28 |
those.
If you don't use that many fonts on a
| | 02:31 |
regular basis or you're always changing
them you could either leave this at five
| | 02:33 |
or change it up to be less, totally up to you.
| | 02:36 |
The big one here though is going to be
Font Preview.
| | 02:38 |
By having Font Preview enabled you
actually take a little bit of performance
| | 02:42 |
away from Illustrator so turning it off
actually gets you a little more speed out
| | 02:46 |
of the application.
But having it turned on I think is very
| | 02:48 |
helpful especially for designers who are
just starting out because you might not
| | 02:52 |
know what font you want.
And so having a font preview turned on
| | 02:55 |
enables you to actually see the font that
you're working with.
| | 02:58 |
By default this is set to medium.
You may want to change it to small.
| | 03:01 |
You may want to change it to large.
In my experience, it really corresponds to
| | 03:06 |
how big your monitor is, or what your
resolution is set to.
| | 03:09 |
Right now medium is what it's set to.
Let's change it to small and see what
| | 03:11 |
happens.
Let's hit OK.
| | 03:13 |
And let's grab the type tool.
And inside of the Type tool let's go up to
| | 03:17 |
the Type menu.
Let's choose Font.
| | 03:20 |
And, see how small these are?
Some of these are really hard to read.
| | 03:22 |
Some of these are really hard to even see,
what they look like.
| | 03:25 |
I'm not really thrilled with that.
I'm going to hit Esc until it takes me
| | 03:28 |
out, then I'll go back to the Edit menu >
Preferences and select Type again.
| | 03:32 |
Then we're going to change this from
small, lets go to large, hit OK.
| | 03:37 |
So now we're going to both ends of the spectrum.
| | 03:39 |
Type > Font.
You see how much bigger?
| | 03:41 |
Very nice.
I can actually see a preview of what that
| | 03:44 |
font looks like.
It gives me a better idea of the look and
| | 03:46 |
feel of my type before I even type anything.
| | 03:49 |
It's not going to be a significant
performance increase if you turn this off,
| | 03:52 |
but it will give you a little bit more speed.
| | 03:54 |
So, if you're working on a slower machine,
and you're pretty confident in your
| | 03:56 |
selection of typefaces, I wouldn't worry
about having it turned on.
| | 03:59 |
But for now, we're just going to leave it
turned on to large.
| | 04:02 |
Let's go back now into the Edit menu >
Preferences and go back to Type one more
| | 04:07 |
time.
You can also Enable Missing Glyph
| | 04:09 |
Protection.
It tells you here it allows automatic font
| | 04:12 |
substitutions for missing glyph.
So, if you're using a font and it doesn't
| | 04:15 |
have a particular glyph inside of that
font family.
| | 04:18 |
Illustrator would automatically substitute
something for it.
| | 04:21 |
You can also choose to use inline input
for non Latin text.
| | 04:24 |
Again, these are all going to be options
that correspond to you an your workflow.
| | 04:28 |
So,my suggestion is just to come in here,
take a look at these and see what works
| | 04:32 |
for you an what doesn't.
Also, experiment with this.
| | 04:35 |
Turn this option on.
See if you like it.
| | 04:38 |
Change the number of recent fonts, change
the font preview, exit out, see what it
| | 04:41 |
looks like.
See how it behaves.
| | 04:43 |
See if that corresponds to how you like to work.
| | 04:46 |
Illustrator provides you several different
ways to change the way that the Type tool
| | 04:50 |
and the Type options behave.
And I really think once you learn all
| | 04:54 |
about them and find what works for you,
you'll be well on your way to creating
| | 04:57 |
some really cool stuff.
| | 04:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating point and area text| 00:00 |
When it comes to setting type in
Illustrator, you have two basic options.
| | 00:03 |
One is called Point Type and one is called
Area Type.
| | 00:06 |
In this movie, I'm going to be exploring
both of those options.
| | 00:09 |
First let's take a look at Point Type.
Point Type is pretty straight forward.
| | 00:12 |
You grab the Type tool, you click
somewhere on your art board and you start
| | 00:15 |
typing.
So in this case, I'll just add my name to
| | 00:17 |
this business card.
And when I do that.
| | 00:19 |
And I grab the Selection tool again.
You'll notice that I get a text box around
| | 00:22 |
this object.
The difference between Point Type and Area
| | 00:25 |
Type is the fact that Point Type is one
single line of text that could
| | 00:29 |
theoretically go on forever unless you
manually insert a line break.
| | 00:33 |
Also, Point Type is not surrounded by a
resizable text box.
| | 00:37 |
If I were to try to resize this, you would
see that the text actually scales with the
| | 00:40 |
box.
This isn't necessarily what you want in
| | 00:43 |
most cases.
If you want a resizable text box, you have
| | 00:47 |
to use Area Type.
Area Type is pretty simple to create as
| | 00:50 |
well.
Just grab the Type tool, come on, on your
| | 00:52 |
artboard, click and drag out a box like so.
| | 00:54 |
And then there you have created an Area
Type box.
| | 00:58 |
Now you can fill it out with information.
So let's do like a telephone number.
| | 01:01 |
And let's add a fax number.
And we'll also put in an email address.
| | 01:10 |
And we'll put in an address as well.
And once we have all of that in there, we
| | 01:16 |
can resize the text box to fit.
So I can grab the Selection tool, an I can
| | 01:20 |
make changes to the text box.
Just like this.
| | 01:22 |
if you go too far, you'll notice that you
start to create text wrapping in the box.
| | 01:27 |
You can fix that by resizing the box.
Just like that.
| | 01:31 |
If I need to create more space down here
at the bottom very simple.
| | 01:34 |
You'll notice the text does not scale with
the box that's because this is an Area
| | 01:38 |
Type object.
If I were to select the Point Type object
| | 01:41 |
up here at the top I can actually convert
it into an Area Type object by going to
| | 01:46 |
the Type menu and choosing Convert to Area Type.
| | 01:50 |
Once I do that you'll see a slight change
in the bounding box but now when I resize.
| | 01:53 |
It does so without penalty.
No scaling, no distorting of the text.
| | 01:59 |
I can then double-click, inside the box to
begin typing.
| | 02:02 |
Press Enter to, have a new line.
And I can change this to something like,
| | 02:07 |
Art Director.
And let's change the font size quite a
| | 02:10 |
bit.
Something like, eight points.
| | 02:12 |
There we go.
So now I've converted this Point Type
| | 02:14 |
object into an Area Type object.
I can do the same for this, converting it
| | 02:18 |
into a Point Type object, by going to Type
> Convert to Point Type.
| | 02:21 |
By doing that I eliminate the resizable
text box though and cause it to distort
| | 02:26 |
when I scale it.
So I probably don't want to do that.
| | 02:29 |
In the end it's up to you what type of
type object that you create, but just know
| | 02:33 |
there are certain benefits to each and
there are times when you would use one
| | 02:37 |
versus the other.
| | 02:38 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Basic text editing| 00:00 |
Now that we understand the different kinds
of type objects that we have inside of
| | 00:03 |
Illustrator, it's time to perform some
basic text editing.
| | 00:07 |
If you've ever used a word processing
program before, it's basically the same
| | 00:10 |
thing inside of Illustrator, you change
the font, font size.
| | 00:12 |
You can change it to be bold, italic,
underline, all that kind of stuff.
| | 00:16 |
And that's what we're going to be focusing
on in this movie.
| | 00:18 |
I have a type object selected here on my
screen and I want to change this, from a
| | 00:21 |
regular font to a bold font.
So I'm going to change that to something
| | 00:24 |
like, Myriad Pro Bold.
And I also want to move it, so I'm just
| | 00:28 |
going to, tap the arrow keys, on my
keyboard to move it over; something like
| | 00:32 |
that.
And 'm going to give it a different color
| | 00:34 |
as well.
I can do that pretty easily.
| | 00:36 |
I want to sample this blue color here.
Keep this object selected.
| | 00:39 |
Tap the letter I on your keyboard that
temporarily switches you over to the
| | 00:43 |
Eyedropper tool.
You can click, and it applies the blue,
| | 00:46 |
then you can hit the letter V on your
keyboard to switch back to the Move tool.
| | 00:51 |
Then we're going to go ahead and select
this text here.
| | 00:53 |
Let's say that this text is a little big,
which it is.
| | 00:55 |
That's okay.
I can change the font size right here.
| | 00:58 |
Just click, click, click to change the size.
| | 01:01 |
If I want to change the color of the text
that's easy as well.
| | 01:03 |
Just come to the swatches panel and click
on the white swatch right there.
| | 01:07 |
I can also go in here and I can make
changes like I can change these individual
| | 01:11 |
pieces to be bold.
Just like so.
| | 01:17 |
And then I can select that and click away,
and it looks pretty good.
| | 01:21 |
As for basic text editing, there's really
not much else you can do inside of
| | 01:25 |
Illustrator when it comes to just the basics.
| | 01:27 |
Changing font.
Font family.
| | 01:29 |
Changing the size.
Changing the style.
| | 01:30 |
All of those things are just basic edits.
A little bit later on in this course I'm
| | 01:34 |
going to be going over some useful type
shortcuts that are going to make these
| | 01:37 |
operations that I just performed here, a
whole lot easier.
| | 01:40 |
And as we continue to explore, the type
capabilities in Illustrator, you'll see
| | 01:44 |
that there's a lot more you can do.
Including setting up type styles, and even
| | 01:49 |
putting text along a path like this circle
that you see over here on the left.
| | 01:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating threaded text| 00:00 |
We've seen how easy it is to create single
column layouts of text.
| | 00:04 |
But what if we wanted to create a double
column layout?
| | 00:06 |
Something that goes across two columns of
text like these two columns that I have
| | 00:10 |
here.
I want text to flow from one to the other.
| | 00:12 |
So I'm going to grab my Text tool first
and foremost.
| | 00:16 |
And then I'm going to switch over into
Microsoft Word for a moment.
| | 00:19 |
And I'm going to select this text.
I included this file in your exercise
| | 00:23 |
files.
It's just a bunch of Lorem Ipsum text.
| | 00:25 |
You could type in whatever you want to
make this work.
| | 00:28 |
And I'm going to come back over in
Illustrator and then just click inside the
| | 00:30 |
first box.
I'm going to make sure that my Fill Color
| | 00:34 |
is set to white, and then I'm going to
Paste, Cmd or Ctrl+V in there.
| | 00:39 |
After that, I'm going to create some space
and I'm going to Paste and I'm going to
| | 00:43 |
hit Enter again.
Paste again, and you're not going to see
| | 00:47 |
anything, because it's actually exceeding
the height of the box.
| | 00:51 |
You know it's exceeding the height of the
box, because if you zoom in down here at
| | 00:54 |
the bottom you will see this little red
cross icon.
| | 00:57 |
Indicating hey, I'm a little bit outside
the boundaries.
| | 01:00 |
If you want to select this and then click
on the red cross until you see what's
| | 01:05 |
called a loaded cursor.
So once you see that loaded cursor, you
| | 01:09 |
can then move over until you see a little
link icon.
| | 01:12 |
And when you see the little link icon
appear underneath your cursor, click, on
| | 01:15 |
the frame.
You'll see a little thread, attach.
| | 01:18 |
And if I zoom out, you can see that the
text has indeed flowed over here.
| | 01:22 |
If I want to make changes to this text,
it's actually pretty easy to do that.
| | 01:27 |
I'll go up here to the paragraph panel and
let's say I wanted to add some space after
| | 01:30 |
each one of these.
Something like 12 points.
| | 01:33 |
See how they just all flow across.
Can also turn off hyphenation which
| | 01:37 |
adjusts everything makes it reflow.
I can also go into my Character panel and
| | 01:44 |
change the Leading, something like that.
I can also add text to it.
| | 01:51 |
Type out a very cool article.
And then we're just going to go right in
| | 01:55 |
here and change the font to Times New Roman.
| | 01:59 |
Change the Font Color to Orange and then
we're just going to increase the font size
| | 02:04 |
a little bit.
And so you can see there, each time I make
| | 02:08 |
a change, the text just reflows across
into this other frame.
| | 02:13 |
If you run out of space in this other
frame, that's okay.
| | 02:14 |
You can create another one and make it
reflow across as many as you need to.
| | 02:19 |
This is a great way to enhance your
layouts and make sure that you have full
| | 02:22 |
control over the typography that you create.
| | 02:25 |
Using Illustrator for longer text based
documents is probably not the best thing.
| | 02:29 |
You might want to do this in another
program like InDesign for instance which
| | 02:32 |
has better control over styling and text
layout than Illustrator does.
| | 02:36 |
But for the most part when you're looking
to do something quick and easy that has a
| | 02:39 |
nice elegant layout, threading text frames
is definitely the way to go.
| | 02:43 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the type panels| 00:00 |
In this movie we're going to be exploring
the Type panels.
| | 00:02 |
I think it's very important to understand
these panels and take full advantage of
| | 00:06 |
all of the options you have available to
you in them.
| | 00:08 |
So the first thing that we're going to do
is bring them out onscreen.
| | 00:11 |
I'm going to go to the Window menu, go
down to Type, an I'm going to select
| | 00:14 |
Character.
I am also going to go up to the Window
| | 00:17 |
menu, go down to Type, and select
Character Styles.
| | 00:20 |
And then I'm going to dock these two
together, just like so.
| | 00:23 |
And we'll keep those right over here on
the right-hand side of the screen.
| | 00:27 |
Let's first start off with the Character panel.
| | 00:29 |
The Character panel by default shows you
these options.
| | 00:31 |
You can come up here to the top and click
Show Options, to have the full amount of
| | 00:36 |
options shown to you.
This is really where you get the finite
| | 00:38 |
level of control.
Select this text down here and we're going
| | 00:42 |
to change it.
I'm going to change it from Arial Narrow
| | 00:45 |
to Arial Regular.
And when I change it to regular you're
| | 00:48 |
going to notice that it sort of reflows in
the box.
| | 00:51 |
And so I could readjust the size of the
textbox, but I really just want to
| | 00:55 |
decrease the size of the font.
So I'm going to just take it down a notch,
| | 00:58 |
to 8 points, something like that.
I may want to, increase the amount of
| | 01:03 |
space in between these lines, and that's okay.
| | 01:05 |
I can do that pretty easily by going there.
| | 01:07 |
So I'll increase that to 11.
You also have the ability to change things
| | 01:11 |
like Kerning.
So if you need to kern certain characters
| | 01:13 |
for a logo or something like that, that
changes the space in between two
| | 01:16 |
individual characters.
You can also change Tracking.
| | 01:19 |
Tracking refers to whether or not the text
has a loose or tight fit with the entire
| | 01:24 |
block of text.
So for instance, let's say I wanted to
| | 01:27 |
increase the tracking of this box here.
I could just start increasing the size
| | 01:31 |
manually or pick one of the presets or
something like 25.
| | 01:34 |
See how it just kind of expands the text,
puts a little bit more space in between
| | 01:37 |
the letters?
Sometimes makes it easier to read.
| | 01:41 |
You can also change vertical and
horizontal scaling, but I'm going to warn
| | 01:44 |
you against that.
Because sometimes it will distort the font
| | 01:47 |
and often take away from the aesthetics of
the font.
| | 01:49 |
If you're not getting what you need from a
font in terms of height or width, I
| | 01:52 |
suggest switching to another font.
You can also change Baseline Shift.
| | 01:56 |
Baseline shift is not necessarily
important for just straight text, like
| | 01:59 |
this.
But when you start working with text
| | 02:01 |
around a path, which we will later on In
this course, baseline shift becomes very
| | 02:06 |
important.
You can also change Character Rotation
| | 02:08 |
which will rotate an individual character
or an entire set of characters, based on
| | 02:12 |
your choice.
At the bottom of the Character panel you
| | 02:15 |
have options like All Caps.
Clicking once turns it on, clicking once
| | 02:19 |
turns it off.
You have small caps, Superscript,
| | 02:23 |
Subscript, Underline, and Strike through.
You also can control the language, and the
| | 02:30 |
anti-alias settings for the text.
Let's move on to the Paragraph panel.
| | 02:34 |
The paragraph panel's more straight forward.
| | 02:36 |
At the top you have Alignment options.
So you have Align left, Align center,
| | 02:39 |
Align right, Justify to the left, Justify
center, Justify to the right or completely
| | 02:47 |
justify.
I'm going to stick with Align left in this
| | 02:51 |
case.
You can also adjust things like, the Left
| | 02:54 |
indent, the Right indent, the First line
indent, Space before a paragraph, and
| | 03:00 |
Space after a paragraph.
We're actually going to use the Space
| | 03:03 |
after right now.
I'm also going to turn off hyphenation so
| | 03:06 |
that we do not hyphenate anything.
So what I'm going to do now is I'm going
| | 03:09 |
to double-click, on the text object so
that I can get in there to edit it.
| | 03:13 |
And I'm going to select this line of text
right here, this e-mail address.
| | 03:16 |
And I'm going to add some space after the paragraph.
| | 03:19 |
This helps you to eliminate hard returns.
It's just better to control things with
| | 03:22 |
paragraph spacing than to insert hard returns.
| | 03:25 |
So I'm going to, move that down, quite a
bit, something like eight points.
| | 03:29 |
And then we will, grab the selection tool,
click away.
| | 03:32 |
That way you can see now I've created some
space between, my information, and the
| | 03:35 |
address down here at the bottom.
Just move that up a little bit, and
| | 03:40 |
everything looks, pretty good.
Now in addition to the Character and
| | 03:43 |
Paragraph options you also have Character
and Paragraph styles.
| | 03:47 |
That you're able to create here inside of
Illustrator so let's focus on those.
| | 03:50 |
Character styles are going to be more for
individual pieces of text words phrases
| | 03:55 |
things like that.
That have a different style than the
| | 03:57 |
overall body of the text that its in.
A pargaraph style is for a large block of
| | 04:01 |
text that you want to specify.
So in this case my heading, I'm going to
| | 04:04 |
change this to a Paragraph style.
So I'm going to go to the Paragraph
| | 04:07 |
Styles.
A little trick here if you hold down the
| | 04:09 |
Option key on Mac, the Alt key on PC, and
click Create New Style.
| | 04:12 |
It actually opens up the Paragraph Styles
dialog box for you.
| | 04:16 |
If you just click this without holding
down that modifier key it creates a new
| | 04:19 |
style based on whatever you have selected.
But it does not give you the option to A,
| | 04:23 |
name the file or B, make any changes to
the parameters.
| | 04:26 |
So we're going to go ahead and hold down
the Option or Alt key here.
| | 04:29 |
Click, and it's going to load up this
Paragraph Styles options.
| | 04:33 |
In the paragraph style options I can make
a change to the name, so I'll just call
| | 04:36 |
this Biz Card Heading.
You can see all the information about it,
| | 04:42 |
it's Arial, Bold 14 points, Color,
Justification, all that is set up in
| | 04:46 |
there.
I'm going to hit OK.
| | 04:48 |
And I now have a new paragraph style
called Biz Card Heading.
| | 04:52 |
Going to go back to my documents, select
this group of text.
| | 04:55 |
And I'm going to do the same thing.
Option or Alt+click, call this Biz Card
| | 05:03 |
Body, and hit OK.
Once I do that, I now have that in place.
| | 05:08 |
And let's go over to the Character Styles panel.
| | 05:10 |
I want a few of these options in here to
be bold so I'm going to select by
| | 05:14 |
double-clicking and I'm just going to
change this to bold.
| | 05:18 |
Then I'm going to come over into my
character styles and I'm going to hold
| | 05:22 |
down the Option or Alt key and I'm going
to click Create New Style.
| | 05:25 |
And I'm going to call this Bold Leader,
because it'll lead in for the line of
| | 05:30 |
text.
Aerial, Bold, 8 points, everything's okay.
| | 05:34 |
Now I can select these pieces and just
apply that to it.
| | 05:38 |
Now, you may notice that it didn't change.
That's because you see this little plus
| | 05:41 |
sign right here?
That indicates that the style override is
| | 05:44 |
being performed.
To get rid of that, just hold on the
| | 05:46 |
Option or Alt key and click.
Same thing here, watch this.
| | 05:49 |
If I click Bold Leader, nothing happens,
Option or Alt+click, goes away.
| | 05:53 |
Style override is basically saying, you
know what, I'm going to override the
| | 05:56 |
current style based on the attributes that
have been applied to the font already.
| | 06:00 |
Now, anytime we want to create a new
business card, let's say on another art
| | 06:03 |
board or something like that.
We can instantly recreate these text
| | 06:06 |
styles by using our character and
Paragraph Styles Panel to do just that.
| | 06:10 |
So take some time to learn all of these
different options in here.
| | 06:14 |
Apply some of these to your text.
See what they do.
| | 06:16 |
Understand them.
Learn them, and really play around with it
| | 06:19 |
until you get it just right.
Because getting your Type right is one of
| | 06:22 |
the most important things you can do in
any document you create.
| | 06:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating text on a path| 00:00 |
As a designer, I understand that you're
not going to be just setting type straight
| | 00:05 |
across or straight up and down.
Many times we have to flow text around
| | 00:08 |
objects and we have to do it in a way that
looks good to our eyes as well as our
| | 00:12 |
client's.
In this movie, I'm going to show you how
| | 00:14 |
to flow text around a path.
In this case, a circle.
| | 00:17 |
It's a pretty easy process but you do have
to know some of the subtle things about it
| | 00:22 |
in order to make it look just right.
First things first, let's grab the Text
| | 00:25 |
tool.
Once I do that, if I click, I can just
| | 00:28 |
start to type out text.
No big deal.
| | 00:31 |
It's just straightforward text object.
I can try to make this look like it goes
| | 00:35 |
around the circle by rotating it.
I can even go into the effects menu and
| | 00:39 |
sort of arch it in certain ways.
But, what I really want to do is, I want
| | 00:42 |
it to be editable.
And I want it to flow naturally around the
| | 00:45 |
outline of this circle.
And so in order to do that, maybe I can
| | 00:49 |
grab the Text tool and just come over here
and click.
| | 00:51 |
After all, when I move my mouse over here,
it shows me a circle.
| | 00:54 |
So, that means that when I click I'm
automatically going to be typing around
| | 00:57 |
the circle, or at least you would think so.
| | 00:59 |
When I do click however, if I start to
type, then it just kind of fills up that
| | 01:04 |
circle.
That's because the Text tool changes into
| | 01:08 |
the area Type tool, when you bring it over
onto a vector shape.
| | 01:12 |
What you're actually looking for is
something called the type on a Path tool.
| | 01:17 |
So, let's do Ctrl or Cmd+Z until we get
back to our original state.
| | 01:20 |
And let's click an hold on the type tool
an choose, type on a path.
| | 01:25 |
Once you do that you, should see the
little I beam with a small squiggly path
| | 01:29 |
going through it.
And in order to make this flow across the
| | 01:32 |
path, just click anywhere on the path.
And once you do that it starts to blink,
| | 01:37 |
an then you can start typing out.
Roux Academy of art and design.
| | 01:44 |
It's not perfect by any means but its
getting there, and so now I can select my
| | 01:51 |
Selection tool.
And when I select my Selection tool you'll
| | 01:54 |
notice that I have several different lines
that appear out here on this.
| | 01:59 |
This one here, when I hover over it, see
that little arrow that pops up?
| | 02:02 |
Little arrow points to the right.
That indicates that if I click and drag,
| | 02:06 |
it'll do something.
So this actually changes the flow, of the
| | 02:10 |
text.
So, if I wanted the text to start on the
| | 02:13 |
opposite side, I just rotate around, until
I get the Roux right there in the middle.
| | 02:18 |
But, now I don't have the rest of the text.
| | 02:22 |
So, what do I do now?
That's where the endpoint, the one that
| | 02:24 |
points to the left comes in handy.
Take this, click and drag, and it will
| | 02:29 |
reveal your text once again.
So, I'll just drag this all the way over,
| | 02:33 |
give me the full width of the circle to
deal with, and there we go.
| | 02:36 |
Now, once I have this, I can do whatever I
want to this text.
| | 02:40 |
I can change the font the size, whatever I
need to do to make this text flow around
| | 02:45 |
the circle nice and neat.
So, in this case, what I'm going to do is
| | 02:48 |
increase the size one point.
I'm going to then go to the Window menu,
| | 02:53 |
go down to type and I'm going to choose
Character, that way I can make some
| | 02:56 |
serious adjustments.
And I am going to change it to a bold
| | 03:01 |
font, something like that.
And then, I'm going to also change the
| | 03:05 |
tracking.
So, something like 75.
| | 03:08 |
And that flows it a little bit closer, but
not exactly what I need.
| | 03:12 |
So, maybe we want to go 100, maybe one more.
| | 03:16 |
Let's go 200.
Here we go.
| | 03:18 |
It's a little bit better.
And then maybe we increase the size,
| | 03:21 |
something like that.
Now again, we can adjust the starting and
| | 03:25 |
end points of this.
But really and truly, I just need to
| | 03:28 |
adjust the spacing and things in between
all these.
| | 03:31 |
So, maybe we want to do a bigger font.
There we go.
| | 03:33 |
That actually looks better.
But I'm actually leaving a big gap in
| | 03:37 |
between here.
So, how do I make this fit tighter around
| | 03:40 |
the circle without actually just resizing
the text?
| | 03:42 |
I want the text to be the same size, I
just don't want it to be so far away.
| | 03:45 |
That's where baseline shift comes in handy.
| | 03:48 |
Remember, earlier we were talking about
the Character panel.
| | 03:50 |
I explained baseline shift was very
important when it comes to setting type on
| | 03:54 |
a path, and indeed it is.
When I come here, I can actually start to
| | 03:58 |
bring the text closer by adjusting the
baseline shift.
| | 04:03 |
So, something like seven points works
well, I think.
| | 04:06 |
And then, let's close this up and click
away and there we go.
| | 04:09 |
Now, I've got a little bit of a gap here
that I would have to deal with, but
| | 04:12 |
otherwise, it looks pretty good.
But, you're not always going to be flowing
| | 04:17 |
text around a perfect circle either.
So, how do you handle text on say, a
| | 04:20 |
curved path?
Let's take a look at that.
| | 04:23 |
I'm going to create a new document Cmd or
Ctrl+N, size irrelevant here, just hit OK
| | 04:29 |
to whatever the default is.
Then, we're going to grab the Pen tool.
| | 04:33 |
Click and drag up and then come over here,
click and drag up to create a nice curvy
| | 04:40 |
line.
Just like that.
| | 04:42 |
Then, you're going to grab your type on a
Path tool and you're going to click some
| | 04:46 |
where on the line and you're just going to
type something out.
| | 04:49 |
So, let's just type out Hello World, how
are you?.
| | 04:54 |
And then, we're going to select this and
we're going to increase the font size.
| | 04:59 |
Notice as I do this, it flows right along
that path.
| | 05:03 |
And even as the path turns upward, so does
my text.
| | 05:07 |
Now, I can grab my Selection tool and I
can adjust the starting and end points.
| | 05:11 |
So, I can take this for instance and
extend it all the way to the end of the
| | 05:15 |
path.
And take this one and extend it all the
| | 05:18 |
way to the beginning of the path.
And that way, when I increase my size, it
| | 05:22 |
actually goes until it reaches all the way
to the end.
| | 05:26 |
To get this text, I should look worth
anything what I would have to do is
| | 05:29 |
probably change some of the character rotations.
| | 05:31 |
Maybe even edit the path a little bit.
But for the most part, it flows around
| | 05:34 |
quite nicely.
Now, what if I wanted it to flow
| | 05:37 |
underneath the path?
That's where this middle handle comes in
| | 05:40 |
handy.
When I hover over it, see how it points
| | 05:42 |
upward indicating you're changing the
vertical orientation of the type if I do
| | 05:46 |
this and click and drag down?
See how it goes underneath?
| | 05:49 |
Click and drag up, it goes back up.
So now I can let go of that.
| | 05:54 |
And then we could say, rotate the text
around, and it's completely reversed.
| | 06:00 |
As you can see, there are literally
endless possibilities when it comes to
| | 06:03 |
flowing text along a path.
Whether it's a perfect circle, a square,
| | 06:06 |
or just a squarely little line that you
drew out yourself with the pen tool.
| | 06:10 |
Flowing text along a path is a great way
to show movement and simulate different
| | 06:14 |
effects in your designs, and add texture
and depth to what ever your project is.
| | 06:18 |
So, I recommend taking some time to play
with this.
| | 06:21 |
Understanding all those little handles and
controls that I pointed out to you and
| | 06:25 |
really tweaking it to get it to look the
very best you can.
| | 06:27 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Converting text into paths| 00:00 |
One of the biggest headaches for designers
is sharing their designs with someone else
| | 00:05 |
and that person doesn't have the font that
they used.
| | 00:07 |
And so, in this movie, I'm going to show
you how to get around that by converting
| | 00:10 |
your text to outlines.
This is also a great method to turn your
| | 00:14 |
live editable text into a path, so that
you get more control over it.
| | 00:18 |
This is how people customize the look and
feel of text when it comes to logo
| | 00:22 |
elements and things like that.
The first thing you need to do is make
| | 00:25 |
sure you have a text object selected.
And when I have the text object selected
| | 00:28 |
obviously it is just regular editable text
I can make any changes to it I want in the
| | 00:32 |
character paragraph panels etcetera.
If I want to convert this to outline so
| | 00:36 |
that I can send this off to somebody and
not worry about whether or not they have
| | 00:40 |
the font.
All I have to do is go to the Type menu.
| | 00:43 |
And select Create Outlines or hit the
keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+O Shift+Cmd+O
| | 00:48 |
on the mac.
When I do that, you can see there that it
| | 00:51 |
turns it from a text object into just
regular paths and the great thing is now I
| | 00:55 |
can send it to who ever I want.
And not have to worry about the fact they
| | 00:59 |
don't have the font installed.
The problem is, I lose the editability of
| | 01:03 |
the text so, my recommendation is for you
to save a copy of all of your artwork with
| | 01:09 |
the text intact and then save a copy of it
in outlines as well.
| | 01:13 |
You can append something to the end of the
filename like _outlines to let you know
| | 01:17 |
which one is which.
It just makes sense to have two copies of
| | 01:20 |
each file because of the fact the you want
to be able to edit this text because
| | 01:24 |
inevitably, the client is going to come
back to you at some point.
| | 01:26 |
And say, you know what, I really don't
like the look of that font, I need to
| | 01:29 |
change it or you misspelled my name or
something of that nature.
| | 01:32 |
And you really need to be able to make
those types of changes without having to
| | 01:36 |
completely reset the type.
Specially if it's complicated text that
| | 01:40 |
flows along a path like this right here.
You wouldn't want to have to spend the
| | 01:43 |
time setting that back up or anything else.
| | 01:45 |
You want to make sure you create a copy,
and then send the outlines out to your
| | 01:48 |
client after the
| | 01:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving time with keyboard shortcuts| 00:00 | One of the keys to becoming more
productive is to learn to utilize keyboard
| | 00:04 | shortcuts, and when you're
dealing with type,
| | 00:07 | keyboard shortcuts
can save you a ton of time.
| | 00:10 | In this movie, I'll be going through
some of my favorite Type shortcuts.
| | 00:13 | But don't worry about going
and writing them all down;
| | 00:15 | you have access to something called the
ai_cheat sheet, and it's located in the
| | 00:19 | Extras folder of your exercise files.
| | 00:22 | Inside of that document, if you scroll
down to the TYPE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS page,
| | 00:26 | you'll be able see all of my favorite
Type shortcuts in one convenient location.
| | 00:31 | I've also given you both
shortcuts for Mac, and PC.
| | 00:34 | Let me go over a few of these right here,
and then we'll go into Illustrator, and
| | 00:37 | I'll show you how they work.
| | 00:39 | The first Shortcut that I use all the
time is the increase and decrease Type Size.
| | 00:43 | Now, this is going to be a little
different if you've never done it
| | 00:46 | before, but that's okay.
| | 00:48 | When you have text selected inside of
Illustrator, simply hold down the Shift
| | 00:51 | key, and the Command or Control key, and
then press the little gator mouth keys, or
| | 00:56 | the less than greater than
keys; I call them gator mouths.
| | 00:59 | Once you do that, you'll be able to
shrink the text up and down in specified
| | 01:03 | increments, making it easy for you
to change the font size on the fly,
| | 01:07 | without having to go to the
Character menu, or the control panel.
| | 01:10 | To decrease the type size, it's the
exact the same thing; Shift, Command or
| | 01:13 | Control, and then you hold down the less
than key, or the little gator's mouth
| | 01:17 | that points the other direction.
| | 01:19 | You can also increase and decrease
Leading as well.
| | 01:21 | Leading is the distance
between two lines of text.
| | 01:24 | You select the two lines of text,
| | 01:26 | then hold down the Option key on Mac,
the Alt key on PC, and press the up or down
| | 01:30 | arrow keys to increase or
decrease the amount of space.
| | 01:33 | Same holds true for Tracking.
| | 01:35 | Select your text, hold down the Option
key on Mac, the Alt key on PC, and then
| | 01:40 | play around with the left and arrow keys.
| | 01:42 | That's going to increase the amount of
space in between individual characters.
| | 01:46 | If you find that you've messed your
text up, or that you just need to reset
| | 01:48 | everything, you can reset your Tracking and
Kerning values back to zero by selecting
| | 01:53 | the text, holding down the Command+
Option key on Mac, the Control+Alt on PC, and
| | 01:58 | pressing the letter Q.
| | 02:00 | Let's jump into Illustrator, and
I'll show you some of these in action.
| | 02:03 | Inside of Illustrator, I am going to
create a brand new document, and hit OK.
| | 02:07 | Inside of this new document, I'm
just going to create some text.
| | 02:11 | So I'll draw out a box; I am just
going to paste in some text, like so.
| | 02:15 | Now it's time to start editing this
text, utilizing some of those keyboard
| | 02:18 | shortcuts I talked about before.
| | 02:19 | I'm going to first select it by
using Command+A or Control+A on my keyboard.
| | 02:23 | Then I'm going to hold the Shift key,
the Control key on Windows, the Command key
| | 02:27 | on the Mac, and I am going to the press
little gator's mouth that's right above
| | 02:31 | the period key on your keyboard.
| | 02:33 | As I start to press that, the text is
bigger. When I press the little gator's
| | 02:37 | mouth that's above the
Comma key, it gets smaller.
| | 02:41 | That's a great quick and easy way
to change the font size of your text.
| | 02:45 | If you look in my control panel, as I'm
pressing these buttons, it's actually
| | 02:48 | stepping up and down in two point increments.
| | 02:51 | So if I start out with 12 point text, I can
go once to 14, 16, 18, all the way up to 22.
| | 02:58 | And then I can go back
just as quick as I got there.
| | 03:01 | If I want to change the leading in
between the lines, I can then hold down the
| | 03:05 | Option are Alt key on my keyboard, and
press the up or down arrow key on my
| | 03:10 | keyboard, increasing the
space between the lines.
| | 03:15 | If I want to change the tracking of the
text, I hold down that same key, Option or
| | 03:19 | Alt, and then use the left and right arrow keys.
| | 03:22 | So if I press to the right, I increase
the tracking; if I press to the left, I
| | 03:27 | decrease the tracking.
| | 03:29 | Let's push that up a little bit, increase
the size of the leading, and for good measure,
| | 03:35 | increase the font size as well.
| | 03:37 | See how quickly I am able to change that text,
simply by maneuvering around with my keyboard?
| | 03:41 | Of course, it's going to take
you some time to get used to that,
| | 03:44 | but once you've mastered these
keyboard shortcut keys, you'll be able to edit
| | 03:47 | your text without even touching your
mouse, and that's going to save you a
| | 03:50 | ton of time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Adjusting AppearanceExploring the Appearance panel| 00:00 | So far throughout this course, we've
been discussing various ways to change the
| | 00:04 | appearance of objects that we've
created here inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:07 | However, up until now, we've been
doing it in a rather primitive fashion.
| | 00:10 | Now it's time to explore something
called the Appearance panel, so you can see
| | 00:14 | how you can utilize it as a one stop
shop for altering your object appearance.
| | 00:19 | In order to find the Appearance panel,
you're going to have to come over here to
| | 00:21 | the right-hand side in your panel groups.
| | 00:23 | The Appearance panel lies next to
something called Graphic Styles, and I am
| | 00:27 | just going to click on it, and drag it out into
the window, so you can see it a little better.
| | 00:31 | If you don't see the Appearance panel on
your screen right now, you can go up to
| | 00:34 | the Window menu,
and you can choose Appearance.
| | 00:37 | You can also press the keyboard
shortcut Shift+F6 to bring up the
| | 00:41 | Appearance panel as well.
| | 00:43 | The Appearance panel is basically like a
giant Control panel for each individual
| | 00:47 | object that you work with inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:49 | It shows you various attributes that
are associated with your object, and it
| | 00:53 | allows you to target and
change them at a moment's notice.
| | 00:56 | You get control over the object's
opacity, its fill, and its stroke, as well
| | 01:00 | as all of the effects, and other things that
you do to your objects here in Illustrator.
| | 01:03 | Let me expand this out, so you can see
a little bit more of it, and let's go
| | 01:07 | through the Appearance panel.
| | 01:09 | The first thing you will notice at
the top is that it says No Selection.
| | 01:12 | That's because I don't have
anything currently targeted on my artboard.
| | 01:15 | Once I start selecting artwork, it will
then read the appearance of that object,
| | 01:19 | and display it below.
| | 01:20 | Directly underneath, where it tells you
what it has targeted currently, you'll
| | 01:24 | see the attributes.
| | 01:26 | Right now, it's showing a
Stroke on top, and a Fill underneath.
| | 01:29 | It's also showing an Opacity
control right beneath there.
| | 01:32 | Any time you see an orange link with
the little dots underneath it, that means
| | 01:36 | you can actually click on that, and temporarily
access the panel that goes along with it.
| | 01:40 | So for strokes, you can click here,
and it expands out to show you the
| | 01:44 | entire Stroke panel.
| | 01:46 | Same thing for Opacity.
| | 01:47 | If you click here, it will pop up,
and show you the full Opacity panel.
| | 01:52 | Clicking it again closes it.
| | 01:54 | The bottom of the Appearance panel
contains several different options, like
| | 01:58 | adding a new stroke, adding new
a fill, adding new live effects;
| | 02:03 | you can clear the appearance of an
object, duplicate a selected item, and also
| | 02:07 | delete a selected item as well.
| | 02:09 | When we start talking about targeting,
and moving specific attributes around, I
| | 02:13 | will show you how to use
all these tools at the bottom.
| | 02:16 | For now, though, let's worry about
reading the Appearance panel, so we can
| | 02:19 | understand exactly what
all this information means.
| | 02:21 | I am going to make sure that I have my
Selection tool selected, and I am going to
| | 02:25 | click right here on the
background element of this file.
| | 02:27 | Once I do that, you're going to notice
that it says Path here in the Appearance
| | 02:31 | panel, indicating that I now have ahold
of a single path inside of Illustrator,
| | 02:35 | and that's this rectangular path
that makes up the background element.
| | 02:38 | It also shows me that currently I
have no stroke associated with this path.
| | 02:42 | I also have a Fill, and the fill is
this blue to light blue gradient, and it's
| | 02:46 | being displayed right there.
| | 02:48 | Any time you want to get more information
about the attributes in the Appearance
| | 02:51 | panel, you can toggle this
little white triangle here.
| | 02:54 | Clicking on that expands down
to show you different options.
| | 02:57 | For the Stroke, for instance,
there's an Opacity control.
| | 03:00 | If I expand on the Fill, it
also shows an Opacity control.
| | 03:04 | So the great thing about the Appearance
panel is that you are able to control
| | 03:07 | each individual attribute separately.
| | 03:09 | You don't have to worry about adjusting
the overall opacity of an object; you
| | 03:13 | could come in and simply target the
Fill Opacity, or the Stroke Opacity.
| | 03:16 | Let's collapse these back up.
Let's look over here to the left.
| | 03:20 | On the left,
you'll see a small eyeball icon.
| | 03:23 | This indicates the visibility of the
current attribute that you are working on.
| | 03:26 | For instance, in this particular
document, if I were to turn off the visibility
| | 03:30 | for the Fill, you would see that, temporarily,
the Fill is hidden. It's not gone;
| | 03:35 | it's still a part of the object.
| | 03:36 | You can see it right there, but I've
temporarily hidden its appearance by going
| | 03:40 | ahead and clicking on that
little eyeball icon.
| | 03:42 | If I click on it again,
the Fill is simply restored.
| | 03:46 | The final thing that I want to make you
aware of inside of the Appearance panel
| | 03:48 | is the Appearance panel menu.
| | 03:50 | That's up here in the top right corner.
| | 03:51 | When you click on that, you'll have the
ability to do several different things,
| | 03:55 | like add a new fill, add a new stroke,
duplicate an item, remove an item, clear
| | 04:01 | the appearance,
reduce to a basic appearance;
| | 04:04 | you can also choose to hide the thumbnail
of whatever you're working on, and you
| | 04:08 | can show all hidden attributes.
| | 04:10 | If you happen to be working on a
graphic style, you can redefine a graphic
| | 04:14 | style from here as well.
| | 04:15 | When we talk about graphic styles,
I'll explain exactly what that means.
| | 04:18 | For now, though, let's click away from
this, and I'll take the Appearance panel, and
| | 04:22 | dock it back with the Graphic
Styles panel over here on the right.
| | 04:25 | Like I said at the beginning of this
movie, you should treat the Appearance
| | 04:29 | panel as your one stop shop for controlling
your object's appearance inside of Illustrator.
| | 04:33 | If you utilize the Appearance panel,
there is no reason why you should have to
| | 04:37 | ever go to several different tools
in order to change things like fill,
| | 04:40 | strokes, and effects.
| | 04:41 | You can do it all from one central location.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Attribute stacking order explained| 00:00 | When you're working with the Appearance
panel, you have to be aware of the
| | 00:03 | stacking order of the object's
attributes that are working on.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll be exploring the
stacking order of attributes, and how you can
| | 00:10 | utilize those to change the look and
feel of the artwork that you are creating.
| | 00:13 | I'm going to bring up the Appearance
panel, again and I'll dock it right here.
| | 00:18 | And inside on the Appearance panel,
remember, we have the ability to see all of
| | 00:21 | the different attributes associated for any
given object that we have selected on our screen.
| | 00:25 | You'll also notice that they
are stacked on top of each other.
| | 00:29 | This works the same way that
layers work in Photoshop or Illustrator.
| | 00:33 | The objects towards the bottom of the
stacking order will appear behind things
| | 00:36 | at the top of the stacking order.
| | 00:38 | So for instance, if I were to select
this button down here -- and I'll zoom in on
| | 00:41 | it, so you can see it --
| | 00:44 | I can select this button, and you'll
notice in the Appearance panel that I have
| | 00:48 | a Stroke, and a Fill.
| | 00:49 | The Stroke is actually above the Fill
in the stacking order, which makes the
| | 00:53 | Stroke the most prominent
thing, on top of the Fill.
| | 00:57 | If I were to move that Stroke
beneath the Fill, watch what happens;
| | 01:00 | I'll simply target it by clicking on
it, and drag it down beneath the Fill.
| | 01:06 | Once I do that, it automatically drops
behind it, and you can no longer see the
| | 01:09 | full weight of the stroke.
| | 01:11 | If I wanted to move it back, I
simply click, move it up, and drop it in.
| | 01:16 | So no matter how many attributes you
have, the stacking order comes into play
| | 01:20 | every single time.
| | 01:22 | You have to be aware of the stacking
order of your attributes in order to make
| | 01:25 | sure that things look the
way you want them to on screen.
| | 01:28 | So the next time you start to add
new fills or new strokes to any artwork
| | 01:31 | inside of Illustrator, be sure that
you're working inside of the Appearance
| | 01:34 | panel, so that you can control the
stacking order, and the overall appearance of
| | 01:38 | all of your objects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying multiple fills| 00:00 | You are probably already aware of
how to add a simple fill to an object
| | 00:03 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 00:05 | In this movie, I'm going to show you
how to expand upon that, and actually add
| | 00:09 | more than one fill, and I'll also give
you a real world example of how you can
| | 00:12 | utilize this in your work.
| | 00:14 | I'm going to be targeting the
background object in this document.
| | 00:18 | The background objects is this big
path in the background, which has a
| | 00:20 | gradient applied to it.
| | 00:22 | I want to take this gradient object, and
I want to add some texture to it, but in
| | 00:26 | order to do that, I have to be
able to add another fill to it.
| | 00:29 | Now, you may be thinking that I could
just duplicate this object, fill the
| | 00:33 | duplicate with something, and then use
a Blend mode, or maybe even reduce the
| | 00:36 | opacity, but that's a lot of work.
| | 00:38 | In this case, I'm going to save you a
lot of steps by simply allowing you to
| | 00:42 | create a new fill on top of this
existing fill, and we're going to do that by
| | 00:46 | utilizing the Appearance panel.
| | 00:47 | So I'll bring out the Appearance panel first,
just so we have that out, and ready to use.
| | 00:52 | I'm then going to focus on what type
of fill I want to put into the background.
| | 00:56 | In this case, I want to use a pattern fill,
so I need to find a pattern that I can use.
| | 01:02 | First thing I'm going to do is go down
here to the library icon inside of the
| | 01:05 | Swatches panel. Inside of that library,
I'm going to go down to Patterns, I'm
| | 01:10 | going to find Basic Graphics,
and I'm going to find textures.
| | 01:17 | Once I've got the textures open, I want
to make sure that I deselect the object
| | 01:20 | in the background, simply because if I
clicked on these, it'd automatically add
| | 01:24 | them to the object that I'm working on.
| | 01:27 | I'm going to find one of the patterns
that I think I might like, and in this
| | 01:30 | case, it's going to be the
Concentric Circles.
| | 01:32 | I'm going to take this, and I'm just
going to click it to add it to my Swatches
| | 01:38 | library over here on the
right. Then I can close this;
| | 01:41 | I don't need it anymore.
| | 01:43 | Now let's go ahead and
target the background.
| | 01:46 | Once I have the background targeted,
I'm going to come to the Appearance panel,
| | 01:50 | and I'm going to select the fill.
| | 01:52 | Once I have that fill selected, I'm
going to come down here, and I'm going to
| | 01:56 | click Add a New Fill. That automatically
duplicates the current fill that I have,
| | 02:02 | but I can drop this down right here,
and it brings up my full swatches panel.
| | 02:06 | Then I can come here, and I can
select the Concentric Circles pattern.
| | 02:12 | As you can see, it adds a nice textured
look to the background, however, it's a
| | 02:16 | little bit too dark for me,
| | 02:18 | so I might want to
lighten it up a little bit.
| | 02:20 | Now, I could edit the pattern swatch,
or I could simply stay inside of the
| | 02:25 | Appearance panel, open up this
second fill, and click the Opacity link.
| | 02:30 | Inside of the opacity panel, I take the
Opacity down to something like maybe 50%.
| | 02:36 | When I do that, and click away, you'll
see that I've effectively added some
| | 02:40 | texture to the background, without having
to add any extra objects to my artwork.
| | 02:44 | I now have two separate fills, which live
on this one single object; pretty neat.
| | 02:50 | And I can do this as many times as I want.
| | 02:52 | You can add multiple fills, and multiple
strokes to any object inside of Illustrator.
| | 02:57 | And in the next movie, I'll show you
just how to work with multiple strokes
| | 03:00 | as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying multiple strokes| 00:00 | One of the questions that I get
asked about a lot when I'm teaching Adobe
| | 00:04 | Illustrator is, how do I add
multiple strokes to an object?
| | 00:08 | There's a lot of ways
that you can actually do it;
| | 00:10 | there's ways to fake it, and
there's ways to actually do it.
| | 00:13 | In this movie, I'm going to be walking
you through, step by step, how to add two
| | 00:16 | or more strokes to an object.
| | 00:18 | It's pretty easy, and once you know
this little secret, by using the Appearance
| | 00:21 | panel, you will be amazed that you
have never been able to do this before.
| | 00:25 | The first thing I am going to do
is make sure the Appearance panel is
| | 00:27 | somewhere where I can see it.
| | 00:28 | If you don't have the Appearance panel
open, you can drag it out from the panels
| | 00:31 | on the right, or you can hit Shift+F6 to
make sure that it's up on your screen.
| | 00:36 | Once I do that, I am going to choose
artwork that I want to add the stroke to.
| | 00:39 | In this case, it's the
circle in the background here.
| | 00:41 | So I am going to zoom in a little bit, so
we can see this, and I will temporarily
| | 00:48 | hold down the Spacebar key, and
position this right in the center of my screen.
| | 00:51 | I am then going to target the circle
in the background, and I notice here that
| | 00:56 | when I select it, the Appearance panel
tells me that this is actually part of a group.
| | 01:00 | That's one of the handy things about
the Appearance panel; it's always going to
| | 01:03 | tell you what you have selected.
| | 01:05 | Now by clicking on this, to me, it looks
like I've just selected the circle, but
| | 01:09 | apparently, it's grouped
with some other objects.
| | 01:12 | So I need to go into
Isolation mode to get in there.
| | 01:14 | I will double-click, and
then I will click the circle.
| | 01:18 | Once I see that the fill color has
changed that blue, and also that it says path
| | 01:22 | here in the Appearance panel, I know
that I've got just the circle selected,
| | 01:26 | and that's what I wanted.
| | 01:28 | So if you can learn to read the
Appearance panel, like I just did there, it's
| | 01:30 | going to go a long way to helping you
get the right object each and every time.
| | 01:34 | I am going to scroll down here.
| | 01:36 | I am going to resize the panel here, so
we can see everything that's going on, and
| | 01:41 | I am also going to go to the Stroke.
| | 01:44 | When I target the stroke, I can drop
is down, and I can add a stroke to it.
| | 01:48 | I am going to start off by
adding a blue stroke.
| | 01:53 | When I do that, it might be kind of
hard to see, but I will increase the size a
| | 01:56 | little bit, like so.
| | 02:00 | Once I do that, I now want
to add another stroke to it.
| | 02:04 | So I will come down here to the bottom
left corner, and I will add a new stroke.
| | 02:09 | The new stroke is right here, and I can now
change the way this stroke looks and feels.
| | 02:16 | First thing I am going
to do is change the color.
| | 02:17 | I want this one to be white.
| | 02:19 | Watch what happens
when I do this, though.
| | 02:23 | My other stroke
seemingly disappears, right?
| | 02:25 | That's because they're both in
the exact same position on the path.
| | 02:28 | I have to change the positioning of
the stroke in order to make it look
| | 02:31 | like there are two.
| | 02:32 | So I'll come right here to
this little link that says Stroke.
| | 02:35 | I will click that, and it
opens up the stroke panel.
| | 02:39 | In the Align Stroke section of this dialog box,
I can pick which way I want the stroke to go.
| | 02:45 | In this case, I am going to
align the stroke to the inside.
| | 02:48 | When I do that, you'll see
the old stroke on the outside.
| | 02:51 | Then I will come back over here, and
I'll click Stroke again to close the panel.
| | 02:57 | If I want the original stroke to be
the most dominating part of this, I can
| | 03:01 | actually have it overlap the other
stroke by clicking, and dragging it up.
| | 03:04 | So I will target it,
click, and drag it up there.
| | 03:08 | Once I do that, I've now
got a double stroke.
| | 03:11 | I can add as many of these as I want.
| | 03:12 | For instance, I might want to
add one more to the outside.
| | 03:15 | So I will come down here, add another
new stroke; this time I will make this
| | 03:21 | one a black stroke.
| | 03:22 | I will increase the weight just a
little bit, and then I will drag it down
| | 03:31 | beneath both of them.
| | 03:33 | Once I do that, you'll still see it's on
the outside, but I may need to increase
| | 03:37 | the size just a little
bit more; something like 10.
| | 03:39 | Then I will click away, and if I want to
exit Isolation mode, I will double-click.
| | 03:46 | Now let's zoom out.
| | 03:48 | As you can see, I have completely
changed the look and the feel of this
| | 03:51 | particular object, simply by
adding in multiple strokes.
| | 03:56 | It's nothing special; it's just three
new attributes that I have added inside of
| | 03:59 | the Appearance panel, but there's a lot
of people that would have gone out and
| | 04:01 | created three different circles
in order to achieve this effect.
| | 04:04 | However, by utilizing the Appearance
panel, you're able to create this on one
| | 04:09 | object by just using these
three separate attributes.
| | 04:12 | So the next time your project calls
for something like this, you'll know
| | 04:15 | exactly how to do it, and how to
maneuver the strokes to get the exact look
| | 04:19 | that you want.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting appearance with live effects| 00:00 | Another great way to change the
appearance of objects that you create is to
| | 00:04 | utilize Illustrator's Effects, and in this
movie, I'll be exploring ways that you can
| | 00:09 | apply these effects to change the look
and feel of the artwork that you create.
| | 00:14 | The first thing you have to do
is target an object on screen.
| | 00:17 | In order to do that, just grab your
Selection tool, and click an object.
| | 00:22 | In this case, I'll select
this form field right here.
| | 00:24 | I am also going to make sure that I'm
working on the fill, because I might make some
| | 00:28 | changes to it down the road.
| | 00:30 | In order to start making effects, you
have to first target an object, like I said,
| | 00:34 | and then go up to the Effect menu,
and find the effects that you want.
| | 00:38 | When you look at the Effect menu, you're going to
see that there are two separate types of effects.
| | 00:43 | The first are Illustrator effects; the
second are what are called Photoshop effects.
| | 00:49 | These top effects here are
what we call live effects.
| | 00:52 | They're able to be applied, edited,
and reapplied at a moment's notice.
| | 00:57 | These are the Illustrator effects.
| | 00:59 | They might not be as fancy as some of
the Photoshop effects, but they do work
| | 01:02 | best, in my opinion, when you
are working with vector artwork.
| | 01:05 | The other effects down here are mainly
made for raster-based objects, although
| | 01:09 | they can be applied to
Illustrator objects as well.
| | 01:12 | In this case, I am going to start by
adding a drop shadow to this particular box.
| | 01:16 | I am going to go to
Stylize, and select Drop Shadow.
| | 01:20 | Once I get the Drop Shadow box open,
you will notice that I have several
| | 01:23 | different options to choose from.
| | 01:25 | The first option you turn on
needs to always be the Preview.
| | 01:28 | That way you can see exactly
what's going on at all times.
| | 01:32 | Now that I have this live Preview turned on,
I can see the drop shadow as I am creating it.
| | 01:37 | The mode refers to the blend mode that
it's currently using to make the drop
| | 01:40 | shadow appear like it is.
| | 01:42 | Currently, it's set to Multiply.
| | 01:44 | Multiply is a darkening blend mode,
meaning that the shadow will be darker than
| | 01:49 | the objects behind it.
| | 01:50 | If I happen to switch that
blending mode, you can change the overall
| | 01:53 | appearance of the drop shadow,
based on certain criteria, like the
| | 01:56 | hue, saturation, and brightness of the
colors that you choose, either for the
| | 02:00 | shadow, or the background.
| | 02:01 | In this case,
I am going go leave it on Multiply.
| | 02:04 | I might take the Opacity down a bit, though,
| | 02:06 | so let's select this,
| | 02:07 | and crank it down to about 45%.
| | 02:10 | When I press the Tab key, it's going to
automatically update out here on my screen.
| | 02:15 | Now let's go down to the X Offset.
| | 02:18 | Right now it's currently set to 7 points.
| | 02:20 | Decreasing that moves the
shadow closer to the original object.
| | 02:24 | I am actually going to set this to 0.
| | 02:27 | The Y Offset refers to how far it is
away from the bottom or top of this object.
| | 02:32 | In this case, I am going to
back this down to about 5 points.
| | 02:36 | Finally, you have the Blur.
| | 02:38 | The Blur can be as much or as
little as you want it to be.
| | 02:41 | In this case, I am also going to back
this down to something like 3 points.
| | 02:47 | If you want to choose a
different color, you can do so here.
| | 02:51 | Right now it's currently set to Black,
but I might want to get in here and
| | 02:54 | change it to something, like a darker Blue,
so it blends a little bit more evenly
| | 02:57 | with the background.
| | 02:59 | Hitting OK, you're going to see the difference.
| | 03:02 | I may go back in, and actually make it a
little darker than that. Hit OK, and there we go.
| | 03:08 | If it's still a little too harsh, you can
always back down the Opacity, just like that.
| | 03:15 | Once you're finished setting up your
live effect, you hit OK, and it's applied to
| | 03:19 | the artwork you had selected.
| | 03:21 | If I look inside of the Appearance panel
now, I now have this new attribute with an
| | 03:26 | fx icon next to it,
indicating that it's a live effect.
| | 03:30 | I can also go right here, and
click to edit the drop shadow.
| | 03:34 | All of the settings that I just had
are still there, and if I click Preview, I
| | 03:39 | turn on a live preview, so
that I can edit this again.
| | 03:42 | So, for instance, I could change the
color back to Black, I could change the
| | 03:47 | Opacity back to 45, and as I
make these changes, it's updating in
| | 03:52 | real time right there.
| | 03:54 | I may also increase the Y Offset a
little bit, and decrease the Blur;
| | 04:00 | something like that.
| | 04:01 | Any changes I make in here, again, are
automatically reflected as I do the work.
| | 04:06 | That's the beauty of the live preview.
| | 04:09 | So any time I make a change, you're
going to see it happen in real time.
| | 04:13 | Clicking OK commits to that, and
you can go right back to working.
| | 04:17 | As you continue to explore effects
inside of Illustrator, you may find the need
| | 04:20 | to reuse different effects.
| | 04:21 | For instance, I might want to apply
this drop shadow to this form field, and
| | 04:25 | the button as well.
| | 04:26 | The easy way to do that would be to
simply save this as a graphic style, and I'll
| | 04:30 | teach you how to do that in a future movie.
| | 04:33 | For now, though, I just wanted to let you
know exactly how to apply these effects,
| | 04:37 | and how to work with them
inside of the Appearance panel.
| | 04:39 | So hopefully by now you understand how
to apply live effects, and how to work
| | 04:43 | with them, and how they can
help you enhance your artwork.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving appearances as graphic styles| 00:00 | One of the great things about Adobe
Illustrator is the fact that you can take
| | 00:04 | effects, or combinations of effects and
appearances that you create inside of
| | 00:07 | this program, and save them as
something called a graphic style.
| | 00:11 | Graphic styles are basically a set of
appearance options that are saved, and
| | 00:15 | easily applied to artwork
with the click of a button.
| | 00:18 | Let me show you exactly what I mean.
| | 00:20 | I am going to select the background in
this object here, and once I have the
| | 00:24 | background targeted, I am going to
come over here to Graphic Styles panel.
| | 00:27 | You will notice, by default, I have a few
different graphic styles to choose from.
| | 00:30 | For instance, this one is
called Illuminate Yellow.
| | 00:33 | I also have Tissue Paper.
| | 00:35 | If I click on this, it automatically
applies the Tissue Paper graphic style to
| | 00:39 | the graphic that I'm working on.
| | 00:41 | It may take some time, because
there are several different effects and
| | 00:44 | things that go into this,
| | 00:45 | but as you can see, it changes it completely.
| | 00:48 | And if I look at the Appearance panel,
it's actually added three different fills,
| | 00:51 | and also adjusted the Opacity accordingly.
| | 00:54 | If I wanted to, I could undo that
with Command+Z or Control+Z, and it goes
| | 00:58 | right back to normal.
| | 00:59 | So if you find yourself doing things
that are repetitive, like adding certain
| | 01:02 | drop shadows, or different effects with
strokes and fills, you may want to save
| | 01:06 | those as graphic styles to use later.
| | 01:09 | Let's explore how to do that.
| | 01:10 | I am first going to select this form
field here, and I am going to go in and add
| | 01:14 | a drop shadow to it.
| | 01:15 | So I'll go up to the Effect menu >
Stylize, and I'll hit Drop Shadow.
| | 01:22 | Inside of this dialog box, I am
going to set the Mode to Multiply.
| | 01:26 | I'll set the Opacity down to about 35%.
| | 01:28 | I'll set the X Offset to maybe 1
point; Y Offset to about 4 points.
| | 01:36 | If you want to see this in real time,
click the Preview button, and you will
| | 01:39 | automatically see what's going on in here.
| | 01:42 | I'll keep my Color to black, and
my Blur point to 2; I'll hit OK.
| | 01:46 | It is true that I could just select this other
form field, and go up and do that effect again,
| | 01:51 | but I don't want to have to do that,
especially if I have got multiple
| | 01:54 | attributes applied to this form field.
| | 01:56 | For instance, what if I added a
stroke to it? Let's do that now.
| | 01:59 | Let's go here, and I'll add just a basic stroke.
| | 02:06 | I may even add another shadow on top of
it if I wanted to, like an inner shadow.
| | 02:09 | Let's go back up to Effect >
Stylize, and choose Inner Glow.
| | 02:15 | I'll move this over, and click Preview.
| | 02:20 | As you can see, I can change the
mode of this, so I'll change this from
| | 02:24 | Screen, to Multiply.
| | 02:26 | Remember, Multiply is a darkening blend mode.
| | 02:29 | And then I'll change this color
from white to black, and hit OK.
| | 02:33 | I'll change the Blur amount.
| | 02:37 | See, as I do that, it's darkening in the
edges, and then once I am done, I'll hit
| | 02:43 | OK, and I'll click away to see it.
| | 02:46 | So I have kind of added a 3D
appearance to this. I'll click it.
| | 02:50 | I'll come over to the Graphic Styles
panel, and I'll choose New Graphic Style.
| | 02:56 | Once I do that, it creates
the graphic style for me.
| | 02:59 | I can then double-click that
graphic style, and rename it.
| | 03:03 | So in this case, I'll call
it Form Field, and hit OK.
| | 03:08 | Now I can select this form field here,
click the graphic style, and it instantly
| | 03:13 | applies all of those effects.
| | 03:15 | The same would hold true if I
selected the button down here.
| | 03:18 | Click, and it changed it.
| | 03:21 | Now, it also picked up the
fill and stroke of these as well,
| | 03:24 | so it changed the overall appearance of this
button, which is not something I want to do.
| | 03:28 | So I'll undo that; Command+Z
or Control+Z; click away.
| | 03:32 | Now I am going to show you
another real world application for this.
| | 03:35 | So I am going to jump over into the
graphic styles document for a minute, and
| | 03:39 | basically what I want to do here is
create a style that I can reuse on different
| | 03:43 | pieces of text in my document.
| | 03:44 | So the first thing I am going to do is
target the text layer right here in the
| | 03:48 | middle, and then I'm also going to
make sure that I am working on the fill.
| | 03:51 | With the Fill selected, I am going to
come over here, and set it to None, because
| | 03:55 | by default, when you have text selected,
there is a fill applied to it, but it
| | 03:59 | doesn't show up inside the Appearance panel.
| | 04:01 | So I'm going to set the Fill to None,
and then come over to the Appearance panel,
| | 04:06 | and add a brand new fill on top of it.
| | 04:09 | Once I do that, it ensures that the
fill that I have put on top of it is
| | 04:12 | completely independent from the text.
| | 04:14 | So now the fill, I'm able to target, which
I have it selected right now, and then I
| | 04:19 | can go up to the Effect menu, and I can
go to Stylize, and I can select Scribble.
| | 04:26 | I'm basically going to be creating
almost like a hand-drawn appearance.
| | 04:30 | You've probably seen a lot of hand-drawn
fonts on the Internet. Well, not every
| | 04:34 | font comes in a hand-drawn variation,
but in this particular case, I am going
| | 04:38 | to create something that will look
exactly like a hand-drawn font, no matter
| | 04:41 | which font you choose.
| | 04:43 | So for this, I am going to
set a couple of parameters here.
| | 04:45 | I am going to set my
Angle to about 40 degrees.
| | 04:47 | I am going to set my Path Overlap to 0,
and I'll set my Variation to 2. My Stroke
| | 04:55 | Width, I am going to back that down to
1 pixel. For the Curviness, I am going to
| | 04:59 | make sure that's set to 0.
| | 05:01 | The Variation is going to be set to about 40%.
| | 05:08 | The Spacing is going be set to 2
pixels, and then finally, the Variation, down
| | 05:15 | here at the bottom, is going to be
set to 1.5 pixels, just like so.
| | 05:22 | When I'm finished with that, I'll
hit OK, and you can see I get sort of a
| | 05:25 | hand-drawn sketch look.
| | 05:27 | I am then going to finish it off by
giving it a little bit of a boundary, and I
| | 05:31 | am going to do that by adding a new stroke.
| | 05:33 | So I'll add a stroke, and I'll bump this
up to about 2 points; something like that.
| | 05:40 | Okay, so I have created my new style,
| | 05:42 | but I want to be able to apply
this to any font that I want,
| | 05:45 | so I'll come over to the Graphic Styles
panel, I'll click the New Graphic Style
| | 05:50 | icon, and it creates my graphic style for me.
| | 05:54 | I can double-click it, and
I'll call it Scribble, and hit OK.
| | 06:00 | Now I can delete this text; I don't really
need it anymore, and I'll grab my Type tool.
| | 06:05 | Then I'll come out here, and I'll just
type Hello World, and let's blow this up.
| | 06:13 | No matter what font I choose, I
can then apply that Scribble effect.
| | 06:21 | So I'll come up here, and
I'll pick a pretty wacky font.
| | 06:23 | Let's pick something like Brush Script.
| | 06:30 | When I pick that, you will notice Brush
Script is not, by default, a hand-drawn font.
| | 06:34 | But if I come over and apply this
graphic style, it instantly becomes
| | 06:38 | hand-drawn, or sketchy.
| | 06:40 | I can do this for any type of
object I want; not just text.
| | 06:44 | So I could convert anything instantly
into a hand-drawn sketch look by utilizing
| | 06:48 | this graphic style, so that you can then use
them in other artwork, or future projects.
| | 06:53 | When you're ready to take these
graphic styles and save them, you can simply
| | 06:58 | come up here to the panel menu, and
choose Save Graphic Style Library.
| | 07:04 | Once you do that, you can then pick a
place on your hard drive, and save them.
| | 07:08 | Then you can send them out to your
coworkers, or anyone else that you might want
| | 07:11 | to have them, or even sell them online.
| | 07:14 | People can make a pretty good living selling
graphic styles and effects over the Internet.
| | 07:19 | Once you've done this, they are ready to go.
| | 07:22 | To load a graphic style, all you have to
do is come here, and choose Open Graphic
| | 07:27 | Style Library, and then go to Other Library.
| | 07:30 | You then navigate to wherever that
graphic style library is located in your hard
| | 07:33 | drive, and it loads it up. Let's take a look.
| | 07:37 | I'll save this graphic style
library to my Desktop, and I'll save it as
| | 07:41 | scribble; hit Save.
| | 07:46 | Then I'll jump over into my appearance
panel document, go here, open up the
| | 07:51 | graphic style library, choose Other
Library, it automatically jumps me to my
| | 07:57 | graphic styles library section on my
computer, but I am going to go to my
| | 08:01 | Desktop, and locate that
scribble library, and I'll hit Open.
| | 08:07 | That's going to open all the graphic
styles that I had open in that other document.
| | 08:11 | Notice, there is my scribble.
| | 08:13 | So if I wanted to apply this to
something in my artwork, like maybe the R, I
| | 08:16 | could come up here and select the R, and
you will notice when I do that, that it
| | 08:20 | tells me it's inside of a
group in the Appearance panel.
| | 08:22 | I have to double-click a few times
to get into it, via Isolation mode,
| | 08:26 | but once I finally get that R
targeted, I can then come down and select
| | 08:31 | the scribble attribute, and it automatically
applies that hand-drawn look to my artwork.
| | 08:37 | Double-clicking here will exit me out.
| | 08:40 | Now of course, the scribble effect
doesn't exactly fit the look and feel of this
| | 08:43 | application mockup that I have
created here, but you get the idea.
| | 08:47 | You can share graphic styles from
document to document by saving out the graphic
| | 08:51 | style libraries, and then
reusing them in any project you want.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Working with LayersExploring the Layers panel| 00:00 | When it comes to dealing with
complicated artwork, Illustrator has a great
| | 00:03 | system for helping you keep yourself organized.
| | 00:06 | This is called the Layers panel, and in this
movie, we will be exploring it in its entirety.
| | 00:11 | The Layers panel is actually located
in the bottom right-hand corner of your
| | 00:14 | screen, and you can undock that
by clicking, and dragging it out.
| | 00:20 | Once it's out, you'll see all of the
layers that are in this particular document.
| | 00:24 | I've got things like Photo,
Logo, Buttons, and Background.
| | 00:28 | When you first open up a piece of
artwork inside of Illustrator, especially if
| | 00:31 | it comes from someone else, my
recommendation is to immediately open the Layers
| | 00:35 | panel, and start to look around.
| | 00:37 | The Layers panel is a great roadmap
for your document to let you know exactly
| | 00:40 | where everything goes,
and how it's put together.
| | 00:43 | Let's take a look at all of the
components of the Layers panel.
| | 00:46 | Over here on the left, you have
something called the visibility toggle.
| | 00:50 | This is a little toggle switch that
allows you to turn layers on and off.
| | 00:54 | For instance, on the Photo layer, if
I click, it temporarily turns it off.
| | 00:59 | The Logo, the Buttons, and the
Background; each one is able to be
| | 01:06 | controlled independently.
| | 01:07 | Here in the middle, you'll see a color,
which corresponds to the layer; each new
| | 01:13 | layer that you create in
Illustrator has its own specific color. You can
| | 01:17 | change the layer color at any time.
| | 01:19 | To the right of the color, you'll also
see a small thumbnail representing what's
| | 01:23 | on that current layer.
| | 01:24 | If this is too small, that's okay;
you can change that in the Layers panel
| | 01:28 | options, and I'll show you how
to do that a little bit later.
| | 01:31 | Right next to the thumbnail is the
layer name. By default, Illustrator names the
| | 01:36 | layers very generically, so you
might want to go in and change those.
| | 01:40 | If you wanted to rename a layer,
it's actually pretty simple.
| | 01:43 | Let me create a new layer by coming
down here, and clicking the New layer icon.
| | 01:47 | Once I do that, I can
double-click, and change the name.
| | 01:51 | So let's say I wanted to put
something out here like a home button.
| | 01:53 | I will put Home Btn, hit Enter, and I
now have a new layer labeled Home Btn.
| | 02:01 | To the right-hand side, you will see
a little indicator called a Target.
| | 02:06 | This indicates what you have
currently selected on your artboard.
| | 02:09 | Right now I don't have anything selected
on my artboard, so none of these are active.
| | 02:14 | If I clicked on something, you would
automatically see a little indicator light
| | 02:18 | pop up next to whatever layer it
was that I was targeting something on.
| | 02:21 | At the bottom of the Layers panel,
you get some information about the
| | 02:24 | current document you are working on, such as
how many layers exist in the current document.
| | 02:29 | Right now I have five layers: Home Button,
Photo, Logo, Buttons, and Background.
| | 02:36 | You also have a locate object button.
If you know a specific object that you're
| | 02:40 | looking for, you can click this, and it
will expand down the current layer you're
| | 02:44 | working on, and allow you to
find that specific object.
| | 02:50 | Any time you want to collapse this, just
hit the main triangle for that layer, and
| | 02:53 | it will automatically toggle it back up.
| | 02:56 | You'll also see things like make or
release a clipping mask. We haven't
| | 02:59 | discussed that yet, but once we
do, you will get a little bit better
| | 03:02 | understanding of what that means.
| | 03:04 | Create New Sublayer;
| | 03:06 | if you're working on a layer, and you
want to create a layer within that layer,
| | 03:09 | you would work on creating a new sublayer.
| | 03:11 | You can also create new
layers directly from here as well.
| | 03:15 | And then finally, if you want to throw
a layer away, you would use the Delete
| | 03:18 | Selection right here.
| | 03:19 | If at any time you want to change the way
the Layers panel behaves, you can go up
| | 03:23 | to the Layers panel menu, and go
down and choose Panel Options.
| | 03:28 | Inside of the Panel Options, you can
actually choose whether or not you show only
| | 03:32 | the layers. You can change the row
size; in this case, I will bump it up to
| | 03:38 | Large. Then you can also choose the
thumbnails; do you want to see all of the
| | 03:42 | thumbnails, top-level only, groups, or
objects. You can turn all of that on and
| | 03:46 | off at your discretion.
| | 03:47 | Then I will hit OK, and you can see
there that it automatically changes to
| | 03:52 | the bigger row size,
| | 03:54 | and making the thumbnails a little
larger as well, and hopefully a little easier
| | 03:57 | to see what's on each layer.
| | 03:59 | In any case, you should always try to
use layers to keep whatever you're working
| | 04:03 | on in an organized state.
| | 04:05 | That way, you can easily find things
any time you need to, and you can target
| | 04:09 | specific pieces of artwork without
having to dig through several sublayers that
| | 04:12 | can become really confusing.
| | 04:14 | I use layers all the time,
and I hope that you do too.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and editing layers| 00:00 | As you continue to work as a graphic
designer, you're go find that not everyone
| | 00:04 | is nice enough to use layers in their design.
| | 00:06 | So if someone ever sends you artwork
that doesn't have layers currently in the
| | 00:09 | document, I am going to show you how to
remedy that by creating and editing your
| | 00:13 | own layers along the way.
| | 00:15 | So in this case, I have got a piece
of artwork here, and it doesn't have
| | 00:18 | layers in it, necessarily.
| | 00:19 | It's got one single layer called Background,
| | 00:22 | and if I expand this out, you can see
that it's got several different groups, and
| | 00:26 | subgroups, and sublayers, and it's just a
big mess, making it hard for me to find
| | 00:31 | everything that I'm looking for.
| | 00:32 | So what I am going to do is create
several layers to help me out with the
| | 00:36 | organizational structure.
| | 00:38 | The first thing I am going to do is
take inventory of the document that I'm
| | 00:41 | looking at, and decide exactly what
pieces are going to go on each layer.
| | 00:46 | So I know for a fact that I want to
create a layer for this photograph.
| | 00:49 | I want the photo to be on its own layer.
| | 00:50 | So I am going to target the Background
layer, and I'll create a new layer by
| | 00:54 | clicking the Create New Layer icon.
| | 00:56 | When I do that, it automatically
creates a new layer called Layer 2, and
| | 01:00 | that's okay for now.
| | 01:01 | I didn't want all of the
buttons to be on their own layer.
| | 01:04 | So let's go ahead and create a new layer,
and this one is going to be called Layer 3.
| | 01:09 | I also want the logo to be on its own
layer, so I will click, and add a new
| | 01:13 | layer called Layer 4.
| | 01:15 | Now it's time to actually get in, and start
moving this information to these new layers.
| | 01:20 | Now that I have got my layers created,
let's go ahead edit those layers, so that
| | 01:24 | they make a little bit more sense.
| | 01:25 | I am going to go first to Layer 2, and
remember, this was from my photo, so I am
| | 01:29 | just going to call it Photo.
| | 01:32 | Layer 3 here is going to turn out to be
for the Buttons, and then Layer 4, I am
| | 01:37 | going to double-click to edit
that, and make that the Logo.
| | 01:42 | So each time I go to edit the layer, I'm
just double-clicking on it, changing the
| | 01:45 | name, and hitting Enter.
| | 01:47 | In previous versions of
Illustrator, that wasn't possible.
| | 01:49 | You actually had to double-click, a
modal box would open, you would fill out the
| | 01:53 | name, and then you would hit Apply.
| | 01:54 | In Illustrator CS6, though, they have
redone the entire user interface, so that
| | 01:58 | you can now do in-line editing on
your layers; so much more helpful.
| | 02:03 | At any time, you can also come in and
double-click a layer, and it will bring up
| | 02:06 | the Layer Options dialog box.
| | 02:09 | In the Layer Options, you will be able
to set the Name of the layer, change the
| | 02:12 | Color of the layer, and determine
whether or not it's a Template, whether or not
| | 02:16 | it's Shown, whether or not it shows a
Preview, also whether or not it's Locked,
| | 02:21 | whether or not it's a printable layer,
and whether or not you want to dim the
| | 02:24 | images in the layer to 50%.
| | 02:27 | In this case, I am not going to
make any change, except for the color.
| | 02:30 | So let's go down and let's
change the color of this.
| | 02:32 | I'm going to change it from this
Medium Blue to Cyan, then I will hit OK.
| | 02:37 | When I do that, it changes the color.
| | 02:40 | For buttons, I will double-click.
| | 02:41 | I will change it from Green to
Yellow, hit OK, and it makes that change.
| | 02:48 | For the Photo layer, I
will come in and change that.
| | 02:51 | Since the photo has a lot of red in it,
I want to get away from the red color.
| | 02:55 | So I will change this to something
that might contrast with it very nicely.
| | 02:59 | In this case, I think that
Green will contrast nicely,
| | 03:02 | so I will select it, and hit OK.
| | 03:05 | Finally, the Background; well it's
blue, and the color of the layer is blue.
| | 03:09 | So I will double-click, and I will
come back in, and I will change this to
| | 03:13 | something like Magenta, and hit OK.
| | 03:16 | Now that I've got all of my layers
created and edited the way they need to be,
| | 03:20 | I'm ready to start targeting individual
objects on the Background layer, and then
| | 03:23 | moving them to the correct
position in the document.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Targeting objects in the Layers panel| 00:00 | There may come a time when you're
working with objects that are on a single
| | 00:03 | layer where you have a little bit of
trouble discerning exactly what goes with
| | 00:06 | what, and how to find
whatever it is you're looking for.
| | 00:09 | You may also want to be able to move
certain objects from one layer to another.
| | 00:13 | The only way to do that is by utilizing
the Layers panel, and in this movie, I'm
| | 00:17 | going to be walking you through how to
target specific objects in the Layers
| | 00:20 | panel, and then how to move
those objects to other layers.
| | 00:24 | So if you've got the target layers
document open, you can see here that I have
| | 00:27 | got a Background layer, which
contains all of the artwork.
| | 00:30 | I've also got a layer called Photo, a layer
called Buttons, and a layer called Logo,
| | 00:34 | and I'm going to take each one of those
individual items from this composition,
| | 00:38 | and move them to their own respective layers.
| | 00:40 | The first thing I'm going to do is
expand out the Background layer, and in the
| | 00:45 | Background layer, you're going to
notice that I have a ton of stuff happening,
| | 00:49 | but I also have everything in groups.
| | 00:51 | So what I'm going to do is
find the groups that I need.
| | 00:54 | The first group, of course, is the photo,
and I knoe it's this big thing right here;
| | 00:58 | I can tell that by the thumbnail.
| | 01:00 | I'm going to go over and click the
targeting icon next to that group.
| | 01:03 | Once I do, you should see a bounding
box appear around that photo, and you do.
| | 01:08 | I'll then take this, and this is the
tricky part; we have to click right on this
| | 01:12 | little square. Click, and
notice I can drag it up.
| | 01:18 | When I get to the Photo layer, I
should see that little dot turn to green,
| | 01:22 | indicating I'm about to drop it in on
that layer, and when I let go, indeed, it
| | 01:27 | does jump up to that layer.
| | 01:28 | You don't see any visual change in the
document itself, aside from the fact that
| | 01:32 | the bounding box went from that
magenta color, to the green color, indicating
| | 01:36 | that I do in fact have it on the
Photo layer, and that Photo layer is green.
| | 01:40 | So I'm good to go with that layer.
| | 01:43 | The next piece of the puzzle are the
buttons, and as I can see here in my
| | 01:46 | document I've got one, two, three, four buttons.
| | 01:50 | And inside of my Layers panel,
underneath the Background layer, I've got one,
| | 01:53 | two, three, four groups right here.
Hopefully those are the buttons.
| | 01:58 | I can target them to see.
| | 02:00 | If I click next to this group, you
can see it doesn't indeed highlight the
| | 02:03 | courses button, and so I'm going to take
this, click and drag it up to the Buttons
| | 02:09 | layer, and release, and it turns
yellow, just like the Buttons layer should.
| | 02:13 | Same thing for this one; I'll target it,
click it, drag it, and drop it. And
| | 02:21 | I'll just do this for each one.
| | 02:27 | Once I've got all of those buttons
there, I'm ready to put the last piece of the
| | 02:30 | puzzle in place, and that's the logo,
and it should be the last thing left,
| | 02:34 | besides the background.
| | 02:36 | So I'll target it, click it, and drag
it up to the Logo layer, and drop it in,
| | 02:40 | and as you can see, the bounding box
changed from magenta to the light cyan,
| | 02:45 | indicating that I've moved
the logo to its own layer.
| | 02:47 | Finally, I'll toggle back up the
Background layer, so it closes everything,
| | 02:52 | and as you can see, I've organized my document
a whole lot in just a few short and easy steps.
| | 02:57 | I now have all of the major pieces on
their own layer, and I can easily find them,
| | 03:01 | and target them at any given time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with sublayers| 00:00 | In addition to the main layers that we
have to deal with inside of Illustrator,
| | 00:03 | we also have to deal with sublayers as well.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll walk you through
what a sublayer is, and how you can use it.
| | 00:10 | The first thing I'm going to do is
come up here in my document, and expand
| | 00:14 | out the Buttons layer.
| | 00:16 | Inside of the Buttons layer, you're
going to see that I have several different
| | 00:18 | groups associated with each of
the buttons down here at the bottom.
| | 00:22 | When I click on these to target
them, I'm actually targeting the
| | 00:24 | sublayers themselves.
| | 00:26 | Sublayers are any layers that are
indented, like the ones you see here.
| | 00:29 | If I expand this group out, it's
actually got two more sublayers inside of it,
| | 00:33 | one of which is the text for campus
tours, and the other is the path that
| | 00:37 | makes up the button.
| | 00:38 | If I twirl that back up, I can
then control the group by itself.
| | 00:41 | By targeting this group, I
make it my active selection.
| | 00:45 | And you'll notice here, it's actually at
the top of the stacking order, but this
| | 00:48 | button is the last button on the page.
| | 00:51 | So I actually want to rearrange that.
| | 00:53 | So I'm going to drag this down until
it's beneath the final button, just like
| | 01:00 | that, and it becomes the
last button in the stack.
| | 01:03 | Let's click on this
button to see which one it is.
| | 01:05 | Okay, this one's actually the second
button called courses, so I'll just click,
| | 01:09 | and drag that up to be the second button.
| | 01:12 | And now everything should
be right where it should be.
| | 01:14 | If I target this one, it's still not the
right way, so I'll grab this one, and I'll
| | 01:19 | drag it down to be the third button.
| | 01:21 | Now if I click through the last one,
second to last, history is still out of place.
| | 01:29 | I'll click, drag it up, and drop it.
| | 01:32 | And now everything is in sequential order.
| | 01:36 | To make this a little bit easier for me
next time, I might want to come into the
| | 01:39 | sublayers, and actually rename them, and
that's exactly what I'm going to do.
| | 01:42 | I'll target this one, so I can see
which one it is. It's History, so I'll
| | 01:47 | type out History Btn.
| | 01:50 | Double-click here; this one should
be Courses Btn. This one's going to be
| | 01:58 | Faculty Btn, and this one
is going to be Tours Btn.
| | 02:06 | If you can't read the full name of a
sublayer, you can just expand the Layers panel
| | 02:10 | out a little bit, and you'll
be able to see all of them.
| | 02:12 | If you want to get extremely granular in
here, you can actually open these up, and
| | 02:16 | where they have stuff like path, or
text, or something like that, you can go in,
| | 02:21 | and actually rename those as well.
| | 02:23 | You can get as granular as
you want inside of this panel,
| | 02:26 | because everything you have grouped
together automatically has sublayers, and
| | 02:29 | sublayers, and sublayers applied to it.
| | 02:31 | So you can go in, find the sublayer item
that you need to edit, and then you can
| | 02:35 | target it, or double-click to edit the
name, or even rearrange the stacking order,
| | 02:40 | or move it to another layer.
| | 02:41 | It's just like dealing with one of the
main major layers, only this is contained
| | 02:46 | within one of those.
| | 02:47 | So if I toggle this up, you can see that
basically my layer structure is exactly the same.
| | 02:52 | I've done nothing but rearrange the
stacking order of these buttons down here at
| | 02:56 | the bottom, and I can do that for any
object, in any project that I'm working on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Hiding, locking, and deleting layers| 00:00 | The Layers panel is very powerful, and
it has the ability to do a lot of things
| | 00:04 | that can make working in
Illustrator even easier.
| | 00:07 | In this movie, I am going to be
exploring some of the ways that you can work
| | 00:10 | with your layers inside of the Layers
panel to do things like hide, lock, and
| | 00:15 | even delete layers that
you don't need anymore.
| | 00:17 | So the first thing I am going to do is
I'm going to do some locking of layers, to
| | 00:21 | ensure that I don't mess up something
that I've already completed in my drawing.
| | 00:25 | In this case, the background is pretty
much set, and I don't want to do anything
| | 00:30 | to remove that nice gradient I've created in
the background, or accidentally move, or delete it.
| | 00:34 | So I am going to go right here, and
you'll notice when I hover over this blank
| | 00:37 | space in the Layers panel, it
tells me that it toggles the lock.
| | 00:41 | Basically, when I click this, it locks
that layer down, so that I can't select it,
| | 00:46 | and can't modify it in any way.
| | 00:48 | If I come out here with my Selection
tool, and try to make a selection of the
| | 00:52 | background, it just doesn't work.
| | 00:57 | If I want to unlock that layer, I can
click the Lock icon, and then come back out,
| | 01:01 | and I'm able to click right
on it, just like I could before.
| | 01:05 | But locking it makes sure that I'm not
able to make any unnecessary changes.
| | 01:09 | Let's do the same thing for
the backgrounds on the buttons.
| | 01:13 | I'll come up to the Buttons,
and I'll expand out the layer.
| | 01:17 | Then I'll go into the sublayers here,
and I'm basically going to lock down the
| | 01:21 | button shapes themselves.
| | 01:22 | I'll leave the text editable, though, so
that we could change that in any given time.
| | 01:27 | So I'll go in, I'll find the path, then I am
simply going to lock the path. Same thing here;
| | 01:34 | open it up, find the path, lock the
path, and I'll do that all the way
| | 01:39 | down, just like so.
| | 01:45 | Then I'll twirl all of these back up.
| | 01:50 | So basically, it looks as though the Buttons
layer is unlocked, and technically it is,
| | 01:55 | but if I come out and try to click on
the backgrounds of these buttons, I can't
| | 01:58 | get anything to happen.
| | 02:00 | However, if I click on the text, you
can see that I am able to get right in
| | 02:03 | there, and start making changes.
| | 02:06 | I'll escape out,
and get right back to work.
| | 02:09 | I can also temporarily
hide artwork if I want to.
| | 02:12 | For instance, let's say that I wanted
to add several different photos to the
| | 02:15 | Photo layer, and then I wanted to toggle
the visibility of those photo layers, so
| | 02:19 | that I could test individual photos.
| | 02:22 | Well, to hide the overall appearance of
a layer, you simply come up to the left,
| | 02:26 | and toggle the Visibility.
| | 02:29 | When I do that, it temporarily
hides the layer that I am viewing.
| | 02:32 | When I click it again,
the layer comes back.
| | 02:34 | If I wanted to do this on a
sublayer basis, I would expand this out,
| | 02:38 | I would find the individual object, and
click the Visibility icon next to it.
| | 02:43 | Since there aren't any more photos on
this layer, it looks like this layer is
| | 02:46 | blank now, but if I had several photos
stacked up here, you would actually see
| | 02:50 | the next photo underneath it.
| | 02:51 | Then if I hit the next one, you
would see the next one, and so forth.
| | 02:55 | To turn it back on, just click the
Visibility icon right there. And I'll go ahead
| | 02:59 | and twirl this back up to
return it back to its normal state.
| | 03:02 | Now occasionally, you may find that you
move objects from one layer to another,
| | 03:05 | or that you've created one layer too many.
| | 03:08 | I've done that lots of times.
| | 03:09 | So then you might want to
be able to throw layers away.
| | 03:12 | For instance, in this case, maybe the
Photo and the Logo work best on the same
| | 03:17 | layer, simply because
they're part of the heading.
| | 03:20 | So I'm going to go ahead and
throw the Photo layer onto the Logo.
| | 03:24 | I am going to do that by targeting the
object, and then taking this little dot,
| | 03:28 | and dragging, and dropping it down.
| | 03:31 | So now I'm going to change the name of
the Logo layer to Header, and then I'll
| | 03:37 | take the Photo layer, and I don't
really need it anymore, so I can delete it.
| | 03:41 | I'll simply take this, and drag it down,
and drop it onto this little trashcan icon.
| | 03:47 | When I do that, the layer is removed.
| | 03:49 | Let me undo that, and show you
another way to accomplish the same thing.
| | 03:53 | I can simply target the layer, and go
down to the trashcan, and click, and it
| | 03:58 | automatically removes the layer.
| | 04:00 | In any case, you have a lot of
power when it comes to the Layers panel;
| | 04:03 | whether it's locking, hiding, rearranging,
renaming, or even deleting layers.
| | 04:08 | This is a great way to keep your files
organized, and make sure you can find
| | 04:12 | everything that you need
at a moment's notice.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Layers panel menu| 00:00 | In this movie, we're going to be
exploring one of the most important features
| | 00:03 | of the Layers panel,
| | 00:05 | although it's also one of the most
hidden features of layers panel as well. It's
| | 00:09 | called the Layers panel menu, and as
is the case for any panel inside of
| | 00:13 | Illustrator, it's tucked way up in
the top right corner of the panel.
| | 00:16 | So if I get the Layers panel out on my
screen -- and you can do so by either dragging
| | 00:20 | it out from the panels on the right,
or going to the Window menu, and finding
| | 00:23 | Layers, or by hitting F7 on your keyboard.
| | 00:26 | Once you've got the layers panel out there,
you can go up to this little button right here.
| | 00:31 | Even though this little button is tiny,
it contains a lot of information. When I
| | 00:35 | expand it out, you're going to see that
you have the ability to do all kinds of
| | 00:38 | stuff in here: create a New Layer,
create a New Sub-layer, Duplicate your
| | 00:43 | Selection, Delete a Selection,
options for your current selection, make, or
| | 00:48 | release clipping masks. Here are two of
my favorites: Enter, and Exit Isolation
| | 00:52 | Mode. Locate an object, merge
selected objects, flatten artwork;
| | 00:57 | there are a ton of different option that
you have available to you inside of this
| | 01:01 | menu. Let's take a look at how some of
these work on this document here. I'm
| | 01:04 | going to first go to the Photo layer,
and on the Photo layer, I'm going to move
| | 01:09 | it done to the Logo. I'm going to target that
object, click, and drag it down to the logo, like so.
| | 01:15 | Then I'll select the Photo layer.
| | 01:17 | Let's say, for instance, I didn't know that
I could use the trashcan to throw that away.
| | 01:20 | Well, the panel menu
actually has that in there for me.
| | 01:23 | I can go up here and I
can choose Delete "Photo".
| | 01:27 | What I like about the panel menu, versus
just hitting the trashcan, is it actually
| | 01:31 | gives me confirmation of the
name that I'm about to delete.
| | 01:34 | When I'm in a hurry, sometimes I target
the wrong layer, and hit the trashcan, and
| | 01:38 | that can be so frustrating.
| | 01:39 | So here it gives me almost like a confirmation
message that I'm deleting the correct layer.
| | 01:44 | If I hit that, the layer goes away. I
can then select the Logo layer, and go
| | 01:49 | here, and now I can go down and
select Options for "Logo."
| | 01:53 | Let's say, for instance, that I wanted to
change a couple of things; like, for
| | 01:56 | instance, I wanted to change the name.
| | 01:57 | Now I want to make it Header, and I also
want to change the Color from Green to
| | 02:02 | this light Cyan, then I'll hit OK.
| | 02:06 | Once I do that, the name changes, and so
does the color. Pretty quick and easy. I
| | 02:11 | didn't even have to know to
double-click on the layer.
| | 02:14 | The rest of these options are
going to come into play as you work
| | 02:16 | throughout Illustrator.
| | 02:17 | We don't have time to go through each
one individually, but it's best if you go
| | 02:21 | through, and actually look and see what
each one of these does, to see how they
| | 02:25 | can fit into your workflow.
| | 02:26 | And no matter what, always remember
that if you can't find it in the Layers
| | 02:30 | panel, that chances are, it's
hidden inside of the Layers panel menu,
| | 02:34 | and you can always get there by
clicking in the top right corner.
| | 02:37 | It's one of the most hidden features,
but like I said, it's also one of the
| | 02:41 | most useful.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Working with ImagesPlacing images into Illustrator| 00:00 |
Although Illustrator is a vector drawing
program, I understand that not all things
| | 00:04 |
are vector.
You may want to actually work with
| | 00:07 |
raster-based images inside of Illustrator
as well, especially if you're a Photoshop
| | 00:10 |
user and you need to bring in a
photograph, or a Photoshop file.
| | 00:14 |
In this movie I'm going to be showing you
how to place files into Adobe Illustrator.
| | 00:18 |
First thing you have to do is go to the
File menu an choose Place.
| | 00:22 |
Once you do that you're going to go out
into your Exercise Files folder and you're
| | 00:25 |
going to select the Images folder I've
provided and you're going to grab
| | 00:28 |
something called red_paint.
When you select that file look towards the
| | 00:33 |
bottom you're going to see some options
for you here.
| | 00:35 |
You're going to see Link and you're
going to see Template, you're going to see
| | 00:39 |
Replace and Show Import options.
If you choose Link that means that this
| | 00:43 |
file is going to come in as what is known
as a linked file.
| | 00:45 |
We're going to discuss the Links panel in
depth in another movie but just know that
| | 00:50 |
means that you have a link between this
original file and this Illustrator
| | 00:53 |
document.
Which means you can make changes to the
| | 00:55 |
file outside of Illustrator and still
update it inside the Illustrator document
| | 01:00 |
later.
Very important that you understand that so
| | 01:02 |
we want to make sure that we have the
checkmark next to Link checked.
| | 01:06 |
If you wish to show import options.
Then when you click Place you will be
| | 01:10 |
given this place cursor or a loaded cursor
where you can then click on the artboard.
| | 01:17 |
If there are any import options you'd have
been prompted with those ahead of time.
| | 01:22 |
For JPEGs, no import options here.
Had it been a multipage PDF or a PSD file
| | 01:29 |
with a lot of layers, you would have been
prompted with which page?
| | 01:32 |
Which layer?
What do you want me to do with the layers?
| | 01:34 |
Which ones are visible?
Etc., but since this was just a JPEG
| | 01:37 |
image, nothing happened.
I now have this file placed into my
| | 01:41 |
Illustrator document.
It is not technically a part of the file,
| | 01:44 |
it's just being referenced in the file.
It still lives outside of Illustrator, as
| | 01:48 |
noted by this Linked File section right up here.
| | 01:51 |
You can always get to it right here by
seeing red paint.
| | 01:54 |
When I hover over it, it tells me where
this file lives on my hard drive, tells me
| | 01:57 |
it's RGB, and it is 300 pixels per inch.
I can resize this image just by clicking
| | 02:03 |
and dragging.
You will have to hold down the Shift key
| | 02:06 |
to constrain the proportions though,
because you can distort it, as you can see
| | 02:09 |
here, if I.
Click and drag it way down.
| | 02:11 |
Then I'll just Cmd or Ctrl+Z to undo that.
So holding down the Shift key, and then
| | 02:16 |
I'll snap it in to the left side.
And then we'll, hold down the Shift key.
| | 02:21 |
Snap it on the right side too.
There we go.
| | 02:24 |
And then we'll just kind of nudge it up, a
little bit until it gets in place.
| | 02:29 |
And we're going to be covering a lot more
about how to work with raster based images
| | 02:33 |
in Illustrator throughout this chapter.
But I just wanted to give you a brief
| | 02:36 |
overview on how you actually get it in
here, because maybe you don't know that
| | 02:41 |
you can actually place it directly from
the File menu.
| | 02:43 |
Or if you're inside of Adobe Bridge.
You can select the file in Bridge and then
| | 02:46 |
go to File > Place and then select in
Illustrator and it will actually place it
| | 02:50 |
into the current document for you that way.
| | 02:53 |
So there's a lot of different ways you can
get the file in here, and once you get it
| | 02:56 |
in here, there's a lot of different things
you can do with it, and that's what we are
| | 02:59 |
going to continue to cover throughout this
chapter.
| | 03:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Links panel| 00:00 |
As we learned in the previous movie when
you place files into an Illustrator
| | 00:03 |
document by default it comes in as what's
called a linked object.
| | 00:07 |
When you open up a file and you see this
dialog box, it indicates that you have a
| | 00:11 |
problem with that link.
So, in this case Adobe Illustrator is
| | 00:14 |
telling me it couldn't find linked file missinglink.JPEG.
| | 00:18 |
And I can choose to replace it or select
another file by clicking either replace or
| | 00:23 |
ignore.
For right now, I'm just going to choose
| | 00:25 |
ignore and I'm going to continue working.
When I get into the Illustrator document,
| | 00:29 |
you'll notice I actually have a blank
frame right here in the middle, its hard
| | 00:32 |
to see because its blue on blue but it is there.
| | 00:35 |
And so once I select this, what I'm going
to do is bring up the Links panel.
| | 00:39 |
And that's what we're going to be talking
about in this movie.
| | 00:42 |
The Links panel is much the same in
Illustrator as it is in InDesign.
| | 00:46 |
At the bottom of this you get the option
to relink an object go to a link.
| | 00:50 |
If the link has an update available you
can update it here or you can edit the
| | 00:54 |
original.
In this case the file is actually missing
| | 00:57 |
and that's why the red x is showing up
right here.
| | 01:01 |
In order to fix this I need to click right
here on relink or I can go to the Panel
| | 01:05 |
menu and choose relink.
Either way takes me to the same place.
| | 01:08 |
So, I'll click the link and then I'll
click relink go into my images folder and
| | 01:13 |
I'll select missing link and click place.
And once I do it comes in just fine.
| | 01:19 |
Once I have that in my document, if I were
to expand out the Links panel.
| | 01:24 |
You'll notice now that the icon indicating
there's a problem is gone.
| | 01:28 |
I now also have the ability to update the
link and edit the original which would
| | 01:32 |
take me into Photoshop or my given image
editor of choice.
| | 01:36 |
If there is an update to the link I could
update it, it would automatically reflect
| | 01:39 |
that in Illustrator.
And then, if I want to go to the link,
| | 01:42 |
basically what this does is, let's say
that I have a document that's full of
| | 01:45 |
linked images.
I find one in the list here and I hit Go
| | 01:48 |
To Link.
It's going to take me automatically to
| | 01:51 |
that part of the document, or that art
board, and it's going to make that link
| | 01:54 |
the active selection.
So, for instance, let's say that I'm way
| | 01:57 |
over here and I've got another art board,
just draw something out here, and I'll
| | 02:01 |
just draw it a couple of shapes.
And let's say that I'm working on this
| | 02:06 |
shape.
Then I come to the Links panel.
| | 02:08 |
I need to go back over and work on that
photo but I'm not really sure where it is.
| | 02:11 |
I can select the link here and then when I
hit Go To Link, it centers that art board
| | 02:15 |
on the page and it makes that link the
active selection.
| | 02:19 |
So, that's how that Go To Link button works.
| | 02:22 |
Once you have a link selected, you can
open this little toggle button here to
| | 02:25 |
show you all different types of
information about it.
| | 02:28 |
So you can see the file name, the file
type, the color space, the location of the
| | 02:32 |
file.
And if you click this little folder it
| | 02:34 |
actually opens it up inside of the Windows
explorer or the Mac finder.
| | 02:39 |
You can also see the pixels per inch,
physical dimensions in pixels.
| | 02:42 |
The scale at which you're seeing it right
now and the rotation angle.
| | 02:45 |
You can see the size, when it was created,
when it was modified, and whether or not
| | 02:50 |
it has transparency.
And so, the main takeaway that you should
| | 02:54 |
have from this is the fact that this Links
panel is very, very important.
| | 02:58 |
Especially when you're going to be
managing multiple files that you've
| | 03:01 |
included inside of an Illustrator document.
| | 03:03 |
This thing becomes key.
It is a window to all of the assets that
| | 03:06 |
you're managing inside of a given
Illustrator document.
| | 03:09 |
By default, this panel is not displayed,
in your workspace, especially if you're
| | 03:14 |
using the Essentials workspace.
So, my recommendation is, to open this
| | 03:17 |
panel an dock it somewhere, in your UI so
that you have access to it at all times.
| | 03:22 |
Save that as a work space, so that every
time you open up illustrator, you have
| | 03:25 |
access to this Links panel.
Because if you don't have access to the
| | 03:28 |
Links panel you are really doing yourself
a disservice.
| | 03:31 |
Because this is like a said, where you
manage all of these assets and this very
| | 03:34 |
important for really complex design
projects.
| | 03:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Embedding images into Illustrator| 00:00 |
Many times, when you go to export a file
from Illustrator in order to share it with
| | 00:04 |
your client or your boss or whomever it
might be, you don't want to have to keep
| | 00:08 |
track of external files.
And so, it becomes very important that we
| | 00:11 |
find a way to include these images that
we've placed into our Illustrator document
| | 00:16 |
as a part of the original file.
Because right now, if I were to save this
| | 00:19 |
and send it to someone, I would also have
to find that accompanying file and send it
| | 00:22 |
along with it, and actually re-link it so
that they could open it up and have it
| | 00:26 |
displayed just like this.
So, in this movie I'm going to show you
| | 00:29 |
how to take an image that's been placed in
Illustrator and embed it into a document.
| | 00:33 |
And then after we've embedded it into a
document, I am going to show you how to
| | 00:37 |
unembed it from the document to turn it
back into an editable PSD or TFF file.
| | 00:42 |
So first things first, how do we embed
this into the document and make it part of
| | 00:46 |
the document?
Well, I'm going to open up my Links panel
| | 00:49 |
first.
When I bring up the Links panel, you're
| | 00:51 |
going to see that the Links panel has a
lot of information about the file, also
| | 00:54 |
all of these different icons are active
right now.
| | 00:57 |
I'm going to collapse this up, and we'll
shrink up the size and lengths panel just
| | 01:02 |
to have it over here on the side.
And then what I'm going to do with this
| | 01:05 |
selected is I'm going to click right here
on Embed.
| | 01:08 |
When I embed it into the image, notice
that the Links panel changes a little bit.
| | 01:12 |
A new icon appears over here on the right.
And if I expand this out, I can see here,
| | 01:17 |
it is still a JPEG but is now listed as an
embedded file; color space information not
| | 01:22 |
there anymore.
It's telling me where it was, but it's
| | 01:25 |
not, really living there anymore because
it's embedded in this file.
| | 01:28 |
It's got pixels per inch scale.
All these different things are still
| | 01:32 |
there, but I lose the ability to update
and lose the ability to edit original.
| | 01:36 |
So that's the problem.
When you embed a file, you lose that sort
| | 01:39 |
of constant connection that you have with
the original file; you have to manage it
| | 01:42 |
within Illustrator.
And up until recently, it was very hard
| | 01:45 |
when you got a piece of artwork from
someone or if you've created a piece of
| | 01:48 |
artwork and you had an embedded image in
it, and you wanted to edit that image.
| | 01:53 |
It was very hard to get it out, especially
at a decent resolution or size.
| | 01:57 |
Now, we have the ability to do something
called unembed.
| | 02:00 |
So I'm going to close the links panel
bottom part here and just collapse it so
| | 02:04 |
that its not in our way.
And then I'm going to hit the Unembed
| | 02:07 |
button.
When I hit the Unembed button, it's
| | 02:10 |
going to ask me to save it somewhere.
I'm just going to put this on my regular
| | 02:13 |
desktop, and I'm going to call this unembed.
| | 02:17 |
And I can save it, either as a Photoshop
file, or a TIFF.
| | 02:20 |
And, really it doesn't matter if you pick
Photoshop or TIFF, because in this case,
| | 02:24 |
it is a flattened file anyway.
But if you had something that was
| | 02:28 |
originally a PSD, you might want to save
it back out as a PSD, it just depends on
| | 02:31 |
your personal choice.
In this case I'm going to save it as a
| | 02:33 |
PSD, and then I'll click Save.
And once I do that, notice how the Control
| | 02:38 |
panel has changed now to say linked file
once again.
| | 02:41 |
It now shows unembed.psd; it is a
transparent RGB, 406 pixels per inch file.
| | 02:47 |
And if I look in the links panel, that
little icon is gone.
| | 02:51 |
All of these are now active.
And if I twirl this open, it shows you
| | 02:55 |
that it is now a PSD.
It is a linked file, it lives currently on
| | 02:59 |
my desktop.
If I go here I can actually see it, there
| | 03:01 |
it is.
It is a Photoshop document, I could open
| | 03:04 |
that up in Photoshop and make changes to it.
| | 03:06 |
And since it is a linked file now any
changes I make in Photoshop could then be
| | 03:10 |
reflected in Illustrator by updating the
link via the Links panel.
| | 03:15 |
Like I said, this is a great way to manage
raster-based graphics that have been
| | 03:18 |
placed into Illustrator files, and this is
just another way that you get even more
| | 03:22 |
control over your documents.
| | 03:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Cropping images with a mask| 00:00 |
One of the more common tasks you perform
on raster based graphics in a program like
| | 00:04 |
Photoshop for instance is masking.
Whether you want to hide portion of an
| | 00:07 |
image or you're just trying to, sort off
just crop it in some way.
| | 00:10 |
Being able to eliminate parts and pieces
of an image is an essential part of any
| | 00:14 |
raster based work flow.
In Illustrator it works much the same way.
| | 00:17 |
You just don't have this same controls as
you do inside of Photoshop.
| | 00:20 |
For instance, there is no Crop tool in Illustrator.
| | 00:23 |
And there is no Layer mask in Illustrator.
But you do have something called a
| | 00:26 |
Clipping mask which you can use.
And that's what we're going to be talking
| | 00:29 |
about in this movie, how to sort of quasi
crop things using a mask.
| | 00:33 |
So, I've got this object selected in the
middle of my art board right now, and the
| | 00:37 |
easiest way to add a mask to it would be
to go up into the Control panel and press
| | 00:41 |
on the mask button.
You could also go and create a frame,
| | 00:46 |
whether it's a circular frame, square
frame, star frame, whatever you want it to
| | 00:51 |
be and you could create it that way.
And then use the Object menu, select
| | 00:54 |
Clipping Mask and choose Make.
Either way is perfectly fine but in this
| | 00:58 |
case I think what I'm going to do is
select the Object and choose Mask.
| | 01:03 |
Once I choose mask I am now in mask
editing mode.
| | 01:06 |
I know that because I see these icons
right across the top here.
| | 01:09 |
So, when I'm on this button here that
means I'm editing the clipping path.
| | 01:12 |
When I'm on this button here that means
I'm editing the contents.
| | 01:15 |
If I'm editing the clipping path, I can
actually crop the image just by clicking
| | 01:19 |
and dragging down or clicking and dragging up.
| | 01:23 |
And so now I can just sort of move this
frame, nudge it over.
| | 01:29 |
And I'm moving everything in here.
I need to expand it out just a little bit,
| | 01:34 |
there we go.
Now it meets up with the sides, fits nice
| | 01:37 |
and even in between these two areas here.
And I can adjust the crop anytime I want
| | 01:41 |
just by clicking and dragging like so.
I could also make changes to the contents
| | 01:46 |
so I can go here and choose Edit Content.
When I do that, I'm actually making
| | 01:50 |
changes to the image itself.
When I do this, watch how it squishes down
| | 01:53 |
undo that.
I can also, expand it out.
| | 01:57 |
See how it stretches?
An I can also, reposition it, as well.
| | 02:02 |
Masking in Illustrator is a little bit
different, but it's basically the same
| | 02:06 |
premise.
You're just putting something over
| | 02:08 |
something else to temporarily, hide a
portion of it.
| | 02:11 |
An so again, let me go back to this.
And I'll release this clipping mask now.
| | 02:15 |
I'm going to go up to the Object menu, I'm
going to go down to Clipping Mask and
| | 02:19 |
select Release.
And when I do that you're going to see
| | 02:21 |
that it's released.
You'll also notice that the frame still
| | 02:24 |
exists.
I can get rid of that by pressing the
| | 02:27 |
Delete or Backspace key.
Or I can simply click and drag across.
| | 02:32 |
Hold down Shift and deselect the background.
| | 02:34 |
Then go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make,
and it should snap right back into place.
| | 02:39 |
So again, this is a way sort of around the
no crop, no mask feature of Adobe
| | 02:45 |
Illustrator to use something called a
clipping mask.
| | 02:47 |
And again, the easiest way to do that is
directly from the Control panel.
| | 02:50 |
And then using those controls in the
Control panel to dial it in and get it
| | 02:54 |
exactly like you want it to be.
| | 02:55 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the Image Trace panel| 00:00 |
Throughout this chapter, we've been
teaching pixel-based images to live in a
| | 00:04 |
vector world.
Now it's time to convert those pixel
| | 00:08 |
images into the vector world.
And that's by using something called the
| | 00:12 |
Image Trace panel.
This is where we turn raster-based
| | 00:15 |
graphics into live vector art that we can
scale infinitely without penalty.
| | 00:19 |
Make changes to using the powerful tools
in Illustrator.
| | 00:22 |
And have some beautiful art along the way.
I'm going to create a new file here, File
| | 00:27 |
> New.
Size doesn't necessarily matter in this
| | 00:29 |
case, I'm just going to choose something
like 1024 by 768, hit OK.
| | 00:33 |
Then I'm going to go to the File menu and
choose Place.
| | 00:35 |
Once I go into the Place command, I'm
going to go into the images folder, and
| | 00:38 |
I'm going to select red paint.
Hit Place, get a loaded cursor and just
| | 00:42 |
place it anywhere on the art board that
you want.
| | 00:45 |
And so let's say that I have this image
here, I need to turn it into a vector
| | 00:49 |
piece of artwork.
Maybe I'm going to use it on a business
| | 00:51 |
card and also on a billboard or something
like that.
| | 00:54 |
I need to make sure that it scales and I
need it to be as close to the original as
| | 00:58 |
possible, but still have that vector quality.
| | 01:00 |
That's what image trace is all about.
Image trace is not going to get you photo
| | 01:03 |
relaistic quality out of a vector object.
It's not possible, vectors are not pixels.
| | 01:08 |
So you're not comparing apples to apples
in that regard.
| | 01:10 |
You can get close, but you're not going to
get all the way.
| | 01:13 |
In order to perform a basic trace, you
just click the Image Trace button right
| | 01:16 |
here in the Control panel.
It may give you a warning saying this may
| | 01:20 |
slow down Illustrator, basically.
If you want to eliminate that, what you
| | 01:23 |
have to do is rasterize it to a lower resolution.
| | 01:25 |
I'm going to hit Cancel right here.
And I'm going to go to up to the Object
| | 01:29 |
menu and go down and we're going to select Rasterize.
| | 01:33 |
Once I select rasterize, I'm going to
change the resolution to something like 72
| | 01:37 |
pixels per inch.
Just for demonstration purposes.
| | 01:40 |
Once I hit OK, it's going to rasterize
that down to 72 pixels per inch.
| | 01:44 |
You see it loses a little bit of quality,
but at the end of the day, it's not that
| | 01:48 |
big of a deal since this is going to be
sort of an abstract piece of art anyway.
| | 01:51 |
Now I'm going to hit Image Trace, watch
how fast it converts it over.
| | 01:54 |
It's pretty quick, but it's only black and white.
| | 01:57 |
And that's not what I was looking for.
I have to use something called the Image
| | 02:01 |
Trace panel.
You can access that by clicking right here
| | 02:03 |
and it will open up the Image Trace panel.
You can also go to the Window menu and go
| | 02:07 |
down and select Image Trace.
And once you have Image Trace open, you
| | 02:11 |
will see here at the top that you have
several different presets to adjust.
| | 02:15 |
So we have autocolor, high color, low
color, grayscale, black and white,
| | 02:21 |
outline.
Those are the basic presets that they
| | 02:24 |
think are most often going to be your
jumping off point.
| | 02:28 |
None of these presets, even the ones here
in this long laundry list here, are meant
| | 02:32 |
to get you all the way where you want to go.
| | 02:34 |
Chances are you're going to get 50 or 75%
of the way and then the rest of it's on
| | 02:38 |
you.
You have to control the rest of these
| | 02:40 |
options to do that.
There are three basic steps to any trace.
| | 02:44 |
The first part is called Palette Selection.
| | 02:46 |
The second part is called Curve Fitting.
And the third part is going to be called
| | 02:51 |
Pixel Assignment.
With the Palette, you're determining
| | 02:55 |
exactly what colors you're using.
The palette for this, for instance, is in
| | 02:59 |
black and white mode.
And it is a limited palette.
| | 03:02 |
The Curve Fitting options and Pixel
Assignment options are all down here.
| | 03:07 |
Curve fitting refers to how tightly the
original is being followed by the paths.
| | 03:12 |
And the pixel assignment refers to which
fills correspond to which colors that you
| | 03:17 |
have in your trace.
If you want more information on that, I
| | 03:21 |
explain this in detail in my course here
at lynda.com called, Tracing Artwork with
| | 03:25 |
Illustrator.
It's a big course that covers this start
| | 03:28 |
to finish, how to trace objects in Illustrator.
| | 03:31 |
In this course here, Illustrator
Essentials, we're just trying to cover the
| | 03:34 |
basics to get you started.
So if you really want to take this to the
| | 03:37 |
next level, go and watch that course.
So the Image Trace panel, let's start off
| | 03:41 |
by clicking a preset.
I'll do Auto Color.
| | 03:43 |
And when I do that, it's going to go
through some of the processes here.
| | 03:47 |
So the Auto Color preset you can see that
it limits it to about 25 colors.
| | 03:51 |
And, that's okay, you can make some more
changes to that if you wanted to.
| | 03:54 |
You could do something like, High Color,
which is more photo realistic.
| | 03:57 |
Let's see how this changes.
It'll take a little bit longer to process.
| | 04:02 |
Now that that's finished, you can see
there that it is a little bit more clear,
| | 04:05 |
looks a little bit more photo-realistic, maybe.
| | 04:08 |
You could also drop this preset menu down
and choose from these.
| | 04:11 |
So something like High Fidelity Photo,
this would be really strict on making it
| | 04:14 |
look photo-realistic.
You could also choose something like Low
| | 04:18 |
Fidelity Photo, which is a little bit more
lax in its tracing capabilities.
| | 04:23 |
There you see it looks a little bit more
abstract than probably you would want.
| | 04:26 |
Here at the bottom, you have an Advanced
section, which controls the amount of
| | 04:30 |
paths, corners, noise and all that kind of stuff.
| | 04:33 |
As we start to trace different things like
photos and line art, I'm going to explain
| | 04:36 |
what all of these mean in depth.
The Image Trace panel is a really powerful
| | 04:41 |
tool, and we're going to be exploring that
throughout the rest of this chapter.
| | 04:44 |
I just wanted again, to give you a basic
overview of this panel so that you
| | 04:48 |
understand it and can use it to the
fullest of its capabilities.
| | 04:51 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tracing photographs| 00:00 |
Now we're going to continue our work with
the Image Trace panel and we're going to
| | 00:03 |
actually trace a photo.
So if you don't already have the Image
| | 00:05 |
Trace panel open just go to the Window
menu make sure Image Trace is open.
| | 00:08 |
Make sure you have the Advanced options
toggled open and we're getting ready to
| | 00:12 |
trace.
So I'm going to create a new document
| | 00:14 |
here.
From the Preset menu I'm going to select
| | 00:16 |
Print and I'm going to select Tabloid.
Once you have this setup just hit OK.
| | 00:21 |
And then I'm going to go to File place I'm
going to grab the girl trace image from
| | 00:25 |
our Chapter 12 images folder.
I'm going to turn off Show Import options
| | 00:30 |
and hit Place.
Then just click and place here somewhere
| | 00:33 |
out on the art board.
And shrink that down just a little bit so
| | 00:37 |
it fits.
And there we go.
| | 00:40 |
So once we have that on the art board it's
time to start tracing, but I'm going to
| | 00:43 |
zoom in because there are some key
elements that I'm worried about.
| | 00:46 |
Mostly the face.
In the face what I want to maintain detail
| | 00:50 |
around are the eyes, the nose, and the teeth.
| | 00:53 |
So these are the areas I'm going to be
focusing on.
| | 00:55 |
The rest of it I'm going to take some
creative license with, if you will.
| | 00:59 |
So first things first, when you have the
image Trace Panel open, you want to make
| | 01:02 |
sure that the Preview is turned on most of
the time.
| | 01:06 |
But since I'm going to be making some
major changes to a large image, I'm at
| | 01:11 |
first going to turn this off, that way I
can make these changes all initially
| | 01:15 |
without having to wait for a render each
and every time so make sure your Preview
| | 01:18 |
right now is turned off.
Then we're going to come up here and we're
| | 01:21 |
going to choose a preset.
We're going to choose something like High
| | 01:24 |
fidelity photo, its going to tell me that
tracing is going to be really slow on a
| | 01:28 |
high resolution image, that's okay.
Hit Don't Show Again, and hit OK.
| | 01:33 |
Now we are going to wait for this to process.
| | 01:37 |
Once that is finished processing, you're
going to see now that it has really
| | 01:42 |
converted this quite nicely.
But you really have to zoom out to sort of
| | 01:45 |
appreciate it.
It's close, like I said, but it is not
| | 01:48 |
going to be photo, it's never going to be
a photo so let's zoom in and let's take a
| | 01:53 |
look here.
How can we refine this a little bit?
| | 01:55 |
Well first off it turned my Preview back
on, so I'm going to turn that off, just so
| | 01:59 |
I can make some changes.
And then we're going to take a look at
| | 02:01 |
some of these more advanced options.
The Mode, I want this definitely set to
| | 02:05 |
color I don't want black and white, I do
not want grey scale either.
| | 02:09 |
The Palette in this case we're going full tone.
| | 02:12 |
I want all the tones I can get because
that's going to give me the more detail.
| | 02:15 |
I am going to crank up the colors though I
want at least 100.
| | 02:18 |
This is the color accuracy percentage.
So how accurate do the colors have to be.
| | 02:22 |
Well I'm trying to get this as photo
realistic as possible so give me an
| | 02:25 |
accurate measure of the colors.
The Advanced Options are where you control
| | 02:29 |
those other two points of a trace that I
was talking about earlier pixel assignment
| | 02:33 |
and curve fitting.
We're going to increase the number of
| | 02:36 |
paths to something like 65%.
We want more paths we want it to be a
| | 02:39 |
little bit more complex.
Corners, I've never seen a whole lot of
| | 02:43 |
straight lines or corner points on humans
very much, so I'm just going to take this
| | 02:47 |
down a little bit.
Something like 30%.
| | 02:50 |
Then we also want to change the noise value.
| | 02:53 |
Noise value basically reduces noise by
ignoring areas of specific pixel size.
| | 02:58 |
And so in this case, it's set to five pixels.
| | 03:00 |
A higher value means less noise, a lower
value means more noise.
| | 03:04 |
Well, maybe more noise means more detail
so let's take that down to one pixel and
| | 03:07 |
see how that works.
Underneath there we have a Method.
| | 03:11 |
You have either a budding or overlapping.
If you choose a budding path that means
| | 03:17 |
they're going to fit together like a
puzzle piece.
| | 03:19 |
If you choose overlapping paths that means
they're going to slightly overlap and
| | 03:22 |
eliminate trapping issues.
So I would actually recommend leaving it
| | 03:25 |
to overlap.
You can also choose Snap Curves to Lines.
| | 03:29 |
If you choose Snap Curves to Lines that
means anything that's relatively straight,
| | 03:33 |
they're going to automatically snap it
into a straight line.
| | 03:35 |
You don't really want that on a face, necessarily.
| | 03:38 |
On a technical drawing, sure.
Not on a face though.
| | 03:41 |
At the bottom you get information about
the trace.
| | 03:43 |
A lot of this is, irrelevant information,
but some people like to look at it.
| | 03:47 |
In this case what we're going to do is
turn Preview on.
| | 03:49 |
And we'll wait for this to render.
Once this is finished up you're going to
| | 03:54 |
notice that I get some detail back in the eyes.
| | 03:57 |
I'm getting a little bit more detail in
the nose.
| | 03:59 |
The teeth are actually showing some form
but I'm also getting some really jagged
| | 04:02 |
edges around the outside of her head.
The hair looks kind of chunky I've got
| | 04:06 |
some gaps missing in her skin tones.
It really just looks kind of bad
| | 04:10 |
everywhere else.
So I think what I'm really willing to do
| | 04:13 |
here is sacrifice a little detail here to
smooth out the rest of it.
| | 04:17 |
This is what you have to do with an image trace.
| | 04:19 |
You just have to get in here you have to
understand what the options do and then
| | 04:23 |
you have to adjust it on the fly.
Because its going to be different for
| | 04:25 |
every single project you have.
So in this case I can going to turn the
| | 04:29 |
Preview off again and we are going to make
some adjustments.
| | 04:31 |
The noise I think definetly needs to be
taken up.
| | 04:34 |
So we are going to take that back up to
five or six pixels, I think I am going to
| | 04:37 |
leave it at five.
I think the corner points can be taken
| | 04:41 |
down a little bit and then the pads, we're
actually going to reduce those back to
| | 04:46 |
about 60.
Once I do that, this should actually
| | 04:49 |
smooth out all these areas up here.
So I'm going to turn Preview back on, and
| | 04:52 |
again, we'll just wait for it to process.
Once that is finished processing you're
| | 04:57 |
going to see here that I get decent amount
of smoothing, but not as much as I want.
| | 05:02 |
So how do I fix that?
I'm going to have to take some of this
| | 05:05 |
back to its original setting points.
So I'm going to turn Preview off, and
| | 05:10 |
we're going to take the paths to about 50.
We're going to bring the corners up a
| | 05:15 |
little bit.
This time maybe a little bit closer to 40.
| | 05:19 |
And we're going to leave the noise
somewhere around, six.
| | 05:22 |
And let's turn the Preview on.
See what we got.
| | 05:26 |
This time, if I zoom in, you can see here
I'm still getting some little gaps in
| | 05:30 |
here, but that unfortunately is just
going to be part of it.
| | 05:33 |
I've smoothed that a little bit around the
outside of the head.
| | 05:36 |
But again this is all just things that I
can't really get around at this point.
| | 05:40 |
I can reduce it more by maybe increasing
this and sort of reducing the amount of
| | 05:44 |
noise.
I can also try to reduce the corners to
| | 05:47 |
smooth things out.
But I can spend all day on this.
| | 05:49 |
The key here is to get as close as you can
and then fix the rest of it after the fact
| | 05:54 |
using something like the Pin tool.
Or any of the other tools you might have
| | 05:58 |
available to you in Illustrator, the
brushes etcetera.
| | 06:01 |
Let's zoom out and let's take a look,
let's see how close we actually got here.
| | 06:04 |
I am going to switch from the tracing
result to the source image in the Control
| | 06:08 |
panel, you can see there's before there's after.
| | 06:11 |
So it's not too bad again, there's some
areas I would need to clean up, but
| | 06:14 |
overall not too bad.
So anytime you need to switch, just switch
| | 06:17 |
back and forth here from the Control panel.
| | 06:19 |
Or you can actually switch back and forth
inside the Image Trace panel as well.
| | 06:23 |
The idea here is to pick a preset that
gets you as close as possible.
| | 06:26 |
And once you get that preset nailed down,
then you can come in here and you can
| | 06:30 |
start to tweak.
Some of these other settings in here.
| | 06:32 |
An once you start to tweak those settings
just make sure you're previewing after
| | 06:36 |
each time you make a change, that way you
have a better idea of where you stand.
| | 06:41 |
And then as you get closer, you can
continue to refine it.
| | 06:44 |
And then once you finally nail it down,
you're good to go.
| | 06:47 |
If you come to a point where you think,
you know what, I'm going to be tracing a
| | 06:50 |
lot of objects that are like this.
You can actually save a custom tracing
| | 06:54 |
preset here inside of the Image Trace
panel as well.
| | 06:57 |
So you can choose Manage Presets, Save New Preset.
| | 07:00 |
So I could call this something like Senior Photo.
| | 07:04 |
Maybe I've got a lot of these that were
shot in the same area, same camera,
| | 07:07 |
etcetera.
I want them all turned into vector for
| | 07:08 |
some sort of design or collage that I'm
building or something.
| | 07:12 |
So I save this each time I bring in a new
photo, all I have to do is switch it to
| | 07:15 |
that senior photo preset, and they're all
done and ready to go.
| | 07:19 |
There's all different kinds of things you
can do with the Image Trace panel.
| | 07:21 |
At the end of the day, it comes down to
you taking the time to experiment and find
| | 07:26 |
out exactly what it does, and how it can
help you in your work.
| | 07:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tracing line art| 00:00 |
Up until now, we've been working primarily
with photographs when it came to the Image
| | 00:04 |
Trace panel.
But undoubtedly, the most common use for
| | 00:07 |
the Image Trace panel is taking something
like a hand drawn sketch or illustration,
| | 00:11 |
or a logo that's been scanned in, and
converting that line art drawing into
| | 00:15 |
scalable vector art.
And that's what we're going to be talking
| | 00:17 |
about in this movie.
How to take raster versions of line art
| | 00:20 |
and recreate them into a vector form.
So, I'm going to go to the File menu >
| | 00:24 |
New.
And this time I'm just going to choose
| | 00:26 |
something like a Print preset and letter,
and we're going to make sure we're in a
| | 00:33 |
Landscape Orientation, hit OK.
Then, we're going to hit File > Place.
| | 00:38 |
This time do car_sketch and place it into
the document.
| | 00:42 |
It doesn't matter where you place it, just
put it somewhere in there.
| | 00:44 |
And once I get that out on screen, I'll
move it so you can see it.
| | 00:48 |
I basically want to take this sketch and I
want to convert it into vector art.
| | 00:52 |
The key is going to be picking the right preset.
| | 00:55 |
If I were to choose something like
Technical Drawing or Sketched Art or Black
| | 01:01 |
and White logo, for instance, it might not
be exactly what I'm looking for.
| | 01:05 |
Like for instance, this is Line Art
because its drawn with a series of lines.
| | 01:07 |
But if I pick Line Art from that preset
and watch what it does, you're going to be
| | 01:11 |
amazed at how bad it is.
Absolutely terrible.
| | 01:14 |
It looks like a bunch of ants running
around my screen.
| | 01:16 |
Let's say I chose something like Technical Drawing.
| | 01:19 |
This is going to go through, it looks even worse.
| | 01:21 |
So, finding the right starting point is
the key.
| | 01:24 |
I'm going to turn Preview off.
And we're going to go in and I'm going to
| | 01:27 |
choose something like Sketched Art.
When I do, that's going to turn it on.
| | 01:32 |
That looks okay, but it doesn't have any colors.
| | 01:36 |
Easy way around that is to change this,
from Black and White, to Color.
| | 01:40 |
And then, the limited palette here, what
we're going to do, is we're going to scale
| | 01:45 |
that back to something like 30 colors.
And, when it finishes, it actually looks
| | 01:51 |
really smooth.
And if I zoom in, you can see it's not
| | 01:55 |
very chunky.
It looks like a pretty good
| | 01:57 |
representation.
And I did that just with a few clicks.
| | 02:00 |
All I did was take the Sketched Art preset
and change the palette from Black and
| | 02:05 |
White to a limited color palette with 30 colors.
| | 02:08 |
Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you
have to spend hours in here.
| | 02:10 |
I would still make some tweaks to this though.
| | 02:13 |
For instance, I really want this to have
pretty good path fitting.
| | 02:16 |
So, I'm going to increase the amount of
paths in here.
| | 02:18 |
And I didn't turn my Preview off, but this
renders pretty quickly with this preset
| | 02:23 |
here.
So, I don't really have to worry about it
| | 02:24 |
all that much.
The corners here, I'm going to leave those
| | 02:28 |
right about the middle.
There's probably as many straight lines as
| | 02:30 |
there are curved lines in this.
So, I really don't have to worry about
| | 02:33 |
that.
The noise value.
| | 02:34 |
This depends on how much I want to pick up.
| | 02:36 |
I'm going to reduce this to something like
five pixels.
| | 02:39 |
Let's see what this does.
When I do that, it should pick up more
| | 02:43 |
detail in some of the areas of the car.
Alright, now that that's finished you can
| | 02:47 |
see it's picked up a little more detail
here on the side right around the gas cap.
| | 02:51 |
Also picked up some more detail here in
the grill area.
| | 02:53 |
And so, that just helps bring back some of
those sketch lines.
| | 02:56 |
Makes it more of a hand drawn look.
Aside from that, I'm pretty much good to
| | 03:00 |
go.
Let's take a look here at the Source Image
| | 03:04 |
versus the Tracing Result.
Again, a pretty good conversion.
| | 03:09 |
You can also see outlines over the Source
Image to see just how close the paths are
| | 03:13 |
fitting.
You can say just the outlines.
| | 03:15 |
You can tracing result with outlines or
you can switch just between the regular
| | 03:19 |
Tracing Result and Source Image.
It's going to be different for each
| | 03:23 |
project that you bring in here.
And if you really want to dive deep and
| | 03:27 |
learn all there is to know about the
tracing artwork in Illustrator, I really
| | 03:30 |
suggest you go check out that course.
Otherwise, just take some time, play
| | 03:35 |
around with the presets.
Like I said, it's going to be different
| | 03:37 |
for each project, but hopefully by now
you've got a better understanding of what
| | 03:40 |
everything does in this panel.
So that when you bring in objects, you can
| | 03:44 |
get the most out of this panel your on
artwork as well.
| | 03:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Converting pixels to paths| 00:00 |
Once you completed tracing your artwork,
it's time to turn it into paths so that
| | 00:04 |
you can continue to clean it up an make
changes to it in Illustrator.
| | 00:08 |
If you don't turn it into paths, you run
the risk of actually having to re-render
| | 00:12 |
it every time you re-size it, or move it,
or rotate it, or whatever you do to it.
| | 00:16 |
An so in this movie, I'm going to show you
how to take a tracing object like you have
| | 00:20 |
here, an expand it to be regular paths.
The easy way to do this is just to select
| | 00:26 |
it, an then go to Expand, right here.
When you click on Expand, it turns it into
| | 00:31 |
paths almost instantly.
And you can scale this up, or down, any
| | 00:36 |
way you want.
And it's just a regular vector object like
| | 00:39 |
you would see in Illustrator normally.
You can make changes to this by coming in,
| | 00:43 |
double-clicking, selecting individual
pieces, changing colors, rotating,
| | 00:47 |
deleting, whatever you need to do.
This is a great way to clean up your
| | 00:51 |
traces after you've completed them.
Because, like I said before, you're not
| | 00:55 |
going to get all the way there with your trace.
| | 00:57 |
The bad part about this is, if I were to
save this image and come back tomorrow, I
| | 01:02 |
wouldn't have the ability to change the
tracing settings that I applied to it.
| | 01:06 |
So, my recommendation is actually to do this.
| | 01:09 |
I'll back up and we'll wait for this to render.
| | 01:13 |
Once it renders out, what I'm going to do
is save a copy of it.
| | 01:17 |
So, File > Save a Copy, and I'm just going
to save this out to my Desktop and we'll
| | 01:23 |
call this expanded_car_paths. Save.
| | 01:28 |
Hit OK, and so I've saved that out there.
I'm going to go open it up.
| | 01:33 |
There's my expanded_car_paths. Open.
| | 01:37 |
Once it renders out, you should see the
exact same object on your artboard as you
| | 01:41 |
saw before.
And so now, I can take this copy and
| | 01:44 |
expand it turn that into paths save it.
I've also got the live tracing object here
| | 01:50 |
so anytime I need to make changes, I can
open up the Image Trace panel and I can
| | 01:54 |
make a change to it.
So, for instance, if I wanted to switch
| | 01:56 |
this to let's say the color, and it would
go through and it would render it out, in
| | 02:01 |
color, just like that.
And now I have the color version, I also
| | 02:05 |
have the black and white expanded version.
And I have one version that I can go in
| | 02:10 |
and tweak anytime I want, and another
version I can quickly and easily send out
| | 02:13 |
to clients.
Change scale, put into other pieces of
| | 02:16 |
artwork and not have to worry about that
render time.
| | 02:18 |
Basically, expanding the artwork is a
great way to gain more control over it.
| | 02:23 |
And also at the same time speed up your
workflow and get around the need for
| | 02:27 |
rendering this stuff, each and every time
you make a change to it.
| | 02:31 |
But, as I said, I recommend saving a copy
of it so that you don't have to worry
| | 02:35 |
about overriding your original trace
setting and never being able to get them
| | 02:38 |
back.
| | 02:38 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
| 13. Creating and Using Symbols |
