IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! I'm Justin Seeley, and I want to
welcome you to Illustrator CS6 New Features.
| | 00:09 | Illustrator is one of my favorite
Creative Suite applications, and in this
| | 00:13 | course, I'll be showing you all of the
new and exciting things that Adobe has
| | 00:16 | included in this latest release.
| | 00:17 | We'll start off by taking a look at
Illustrator's all new user interface.
| | 00:21 | That's right, the UI has been completely
redone in Illustrator CS6, and so have the panels.
| | 00:27 | Next we'll explore the all new
Pattern Creation tools in Illustrator.
| | 00:31 | This is going to be a huge timesaver
for those of you who need to create
| | 00:34 | seamless tiles for web
backgrounds or any other project.
| | 00:37 | My favorite new feature has
to be the revamped Image Trace.
| | 00:40 | This feature allows you to transform
bitmap images into scalable vector artwork.
| | 00:45 | We'll also cover other various
performance and file management upgrades that
| | 00:48 | Adobe has made to Illustrator, as well
as a small but cool feature that allows
| | 00:52 | you to add gradients to strokes.
| | 00:54 | I'm excited to show you all these new things.
| | 00:56 | So if you're ready, let's get
started with our look at Illustrator CS6
| | 01:00 | New Features.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you're a lynda.com Premium
Subscriber or if you're watching this course on a
| | 00:04 | DVD, you'll have access to the exercise
files that I use throughout the course.
| | 00:08 | Once you download the files, you'll
get a folder like the one you see on
| | 00:11 | my desktop, and inside, each chapter is
clearly marked with the exercise files inside.
| | 00:16 | If you're not a Premium Subscriber,
you can still follow along with your own
| | 00:19 | files with no problem.
| | 00:21 | In any case, once you have your files
ready to go, you're ready to begin the course.
| | 00:25 | So let's go!
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1. User Interface Adjusting the interface brightness | 00:00 | When you first open up Illustrator CS6,
you're going to notice a big difference
| | 00:04 | from the previous versions of the program.
| | 00:06 | Most notable is the new dark interface
which mimics the look of popular video
| | 00:10 | editing applications like
Adobe After Effects and Premiere.
| | 00:13 | Adobe has adopted this new darker
interface to help keep you engaged while
| | 00:17 | you're working in Illustrator.
| | 00:18 | Personally, I love it,
but I realize you might not.
| | 00:22 | Lucky for you, Adobe has provided
you with tools to change the interface
| | 00:25 | brightness at any time simply
by going into your Preferences.
| | 00:29 | If you want to access the
Preferences dialog box, you can go up to the
| | 00:32 | Illustrator menu on the Mac or the Edit
menu on a PC, find the Preferences, and
| | 00:37 | select User Interface.
| | 00:39 | You can also access the Preferences
dialog box by using the keyboard shortcut
| | 00:43 | Command+K on the Mac, Ctrl+K on the PC.
| | 00:46 | Once you're inside of the
Preferences dialog box, and you're on the User
| | 00:49 | Interface tab, you can find the
Brightness controls here at the top.
| | 00:52 | You'll notice that you have
a dropdown menu and a slider.
| | 00:55 | The dropdown menu
provides you with four choices:
| | 00:58 | Dark, Medium Dark which is the
default, Medium Light, and Light.
| | 01:06 | You'll notice each time I change the
brightness level, Illustrator automatically
| | 01:09 | updates itself to reflect
that change. It's pretty cool!
| | 01:13 | If you're not happy with any of these
brightness controls, you can simply use the slider.
| | 01:18 | Dragging the slider to the left
decreases the brightness of the interface,
| | 01:23 | dragging the slider to the
right, brightens it right back up.
| | 01:27 | Depending on your personal choice, you
could set this at any level you want.
| | 01:31 | For now, I'm going to reset this
back to the default, Medium Dark.
| | 01:35 | You'll also notice that you
have a Canvas Color control.
| | 01:38 | This is the area that surrounds your artboard.
| | 01:41 | Currently, it's set to
Match User Interface Brightness.
| | 01:44 | So as you can see, the area around my
artboard is dark just like my interface.
| | 01:48 | If I happen to switch this to a lighter
color, the canvas automatically updates itself.
| | 01:53 | If you don't like this auto-updating
feature, you can change this to simply be white.
| | 01:58 | Once you do that, the surrounding area
around your artboard will always be white.
| | 02:02 | Personally, I like to match the user
interface brightness, and keep it on the Medium Dark.
| | 02:08 | It just helps me center my eyes right on
my artboard and the things I'm working on.
| | 02:12 | Once you've got your interface
brightness exactly where you like it, just hit OK
| | 02:17 | and you can continue working.
| | 02:19 | No matter what your preference, the
new Illustrator UI is certainly easy to
| | 02:22 | customize, whether you want it super
dark or light as a feather, Illustrator now
| | 02:27 | allows you to fine-tune its
appearance to any degree you see fit.
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| Understanding the Control panel| 00:00 | Another UI enhancement that's
been made to Illustrator CS6 is the
| | 00:03 | reorganized Control panel.
| | 00:05 | If you're not sure exactly what the
Control panel is, it's this panel that runs
| | 00:09 | across the top of your document window here.
| | 00:11 | In previous versions of Illustrator, the
Control panel was a little all over the
| | 00:14 | place in terms of how the
options were presented to you.
| | 00:17 | Depending on which tool or what type
of object you had selected, the options
| | 00:21 | always seem to be in a different place.
| | 00:23 | Now in Illustrator CS6, the Control
panel has been reorganized so that the
| | 00:27 | most used controls appear at the same
location depending on what object you
| | 00:31 | have selected on screen.
| | 00:32 | The goal here is to create a consistent
user experience that makes it easier for
| | 00:35 | you to find the tools you
need. Let's take a look.
| | 00:38 | Here on my artboard, I have some art
work, and I'm going to select the small
| | 00:42 | portion of the bear's ear here on the right.
| | 00:44 | You'll notice when I do that, my Control
panel reflects that I have an object selected.
| | 00:48 | You can see things like Fill and
Stroke Controls as well as Opacity and
| | 00:51 | Style Controls as well.
| | 00:53 | If I switch what type of object I
have selected, for instance switching to
| | 00:56 | this text object here, you'll notice my
Control panel remains the same on the front-end;
| | 01:01 | Fill, Stroke, et cetera, but on the end
of it, it's added Character, Paragraph,
| | 01:06 | and Paragraph Alignment Controls.
| | 01:08 | This is all corresponding to the fact
that I have a text object selected, but
| | 01:12 | the front-end remains sticky or in the
same place, so that I can instantly grab
| | 01:16 | those tools if I need to.
| | 01:17 | The same holds true if I
were to switch tools as well.
| | 01:21 | Let's click away to deselect that
object and notice here I have the
| | 01:24 | Selection tool selected.
| | 01:26 | If I switch to the Type tool, my
Control panel remains basically the same all
| | 01:30 | the way across until you get to the end,
where you see Character, Paragraph, and
| | 01:34 | Paragraph Alignment Controls.
| | 01:36 | So no matter what you're working on
inside of Illustrator, the Control panel
| | 01:40 | is always going to stay organized and only
add the tools you need to the very end of it.
| | 01:45 | This is a nice little UI tweak that
makes Illustrator so much easier to use, and
| | 01:49 | I for one really appreciate it.
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| Exploring the panel system| 00:00 | The final UI enhancement that was made to
Illustrator CS6 applies to the Panel system.
| | 00:05 | Previously, the panel systems in
Adobe Illustrator lacked the ability to do
| | 00:09 | things like in-line text
editing or keyboard navigation.
| | 00:12 | Well, in CS6, that's all been corrected.
| | 00:15 | As a part of their modernization
efforts for this release, Adobe has ported all
| | 00:19 | of the panels in Illustrator over to a
completely new system which allows for
| | 00:24 | better navigation, and ease of use
when you're doing things like renaming
| | 00:27 | layers, actions, or even variables.
| | 00:30 | Let's take a look at the
Layers panel as an example.
| | 00:32 | So I have got the Layers panel
undocked and out here on my Document window.
| | 00:37 | As you'll notice, I have a lot of
artwork inside of this document and none of it
| | 00:40 | is really named in the Layers panel.
| | 00:43 | I have things like Paths, and Groups
and stuff like that, but none of it is
| | 00:46 | easily identifiable.
| | 00:48 | In previous versions of Illustrator, if
I wanted to make a change to the name of
| | 00:51 | a Path or a Group, I would have to
double-click the name, a modal box would
| | 00:55 | open, I would change the name, commit
to that change, and then it would finally
| | 01:00 | change in the Layers panel.
| | 01:01 | That could be a huge headache, and
it actually cost me valuable time when
| | 01:04 | working on projects.
| | 01:05 | But now with this new panel system, I
have the ability to locate the object I
| | 01:09 | need, double-click it, rename
it, hit Enter, and I am good.
| | 01:14 | So for instance, if I wanted to find
this hat right here, I look over in the
| | 01:19 | Layers panel, here it is, and I can
double-click where it says Group, rename it
| | 01:23 | Hat, hit Enter, and I'm done.
| | 01:26 | If I want to find this paintbrush, I can
locate the Paintbrush, double-click it,
| | 01:32 | call it Paintbrush, Enter, and I am done!
| | 01:34 | It's so much easier now to make
changes in the Layers panel now that in-line
| | 01:38 | editing is part of this system. I love it!
| | 01:40 | The Type panel is another great example
of what they've done in this Panel system.
| | 01:44 | Previously, what I would have to do to
make changes inside the Type panel is
| | 01:48 | click, make my change, click, make
my change, click, make my change.
| | 01:53 | That was so annoying because I'm
what you call a keyboard cowboy.
| | 01:56 | I live and die by keyboard shortcuts,
and using my Tab key and all the good
| | 02:01 | stuff, and I recommend that you do the
same because that's a great way to get faster.
| | 02:05 | And now in CS6, you actually have the
ability to navigate these panels using
| | 02:09 | nothing more than the Tab key, your
number pad and the arrows. So much better.
| | 02:14 | So let's select this text object
right here, and watch how quickly I can
| | 02:17 | actually go through this panel and make changes.
| | 02:19 | Let's say I want to change the font, I
will change that really quick with my
| | 02:22 | arrow key, and I can also
change the font-weight if needed.
| | 02:26 | But watch this, I can just Tab
down, change the size of the font.
| | 02:30 | I can change the Leading.
| | 02:31 | I can go down and change the
tracking between the letters.
| | 02:36 | I can go down and I can change the
vertical scale, the width of the characters.
| | 02:43 | I can change absolutely everything in here
simply by navigating around with my keyboard.
| | 02:47 | You haven't seen me move my mouse one
single time, and that is so much easier
| | 02:52 | for me, and it's going to make me a
whole lot faster when I'm working on text
| | 02:55 | objects or anything else, because all I
have to do is tab around, punch in some
| | 02:58 | numbers, hit Enter and I'm good to go.
| | 03:01 | In addition to the functional
enhancements of the panels in Illustrator CS6, all
| | 03:05 | of the panels are now
supporting new icons as well.
| | 03:08 | There aren't any major changes to the
icons that you're used to, but these do
| | 03:11 | fit the new UI style much
better than the old ones.
| | 03:14 | So you'll notice things like the
Paintbrush tool, the Pencil tool and all of
| | 03:18 | the tools over here in the Tools panel
are sporting this new light gray, kind
| | 03:21 | of simplified look.
| | 03:23 | Not so much that you can't tell what
they are, it still looks like a Paintbrush and
| | 03:26 | a Pencil, but they're much nicer
and easier to see in my opinion.
| | 03:30 | As with any new software release, you
should take some time to get familiar with
| | 03:34 | all of the new interface features,
and become accustomed to them, so you can
| | 03:37 | easily make the transition from one
version to another in your daily workflow.
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2. Pattern CreationExploring the Pattern Options feature| 00:01 | Traditionally, the pattern
creation process in Adobe Illustrator was
| | 00:04 | something that most designers avoided,
due to its complexity, and well, less
| | 00:08 | than desirable results.
| | 00:09 | However, in Illustrator CS6, I believe
they've made good strides towards making
| | 00:13 | this feature not only easier to use,
but actually functional as well.
| | 00:17 | The New Pattern Options feature in
Illustrator allows you to take a piece of
| | 00:20 | artwork that you have, and turn it into
a repeatable pattern in many different
| | 00:24 | styles and configurations.
| | 00:26 | To access Pattern Options, you can go to
the Window menu and choose Pattern Options.
| | 00:31 | This will bring up the Pattern Options
panel and allow you to see all of the
| | 00:35 | options before you actually
get started making your pattern.
| | 00:37 | If you're not actually creating a
pattern, the options you see in this panel
| | 00:41 | will be completely grayed out.
| | 00:42 | In order to make them active, you must
first select a piece of artwork on your
| | 00:45 | artboard and then go to Object > Pattern > Make.
| | 00:52 | You'll notice that once you hit Make,
Adobe Illustrator comes up with a dialog
| | 00:56 | box indicating that it's going to add
your pattern swatch automatically to the
| | 01:00 | Swatches Library, and it will keep
that swatch updated each time you make a
| | 01:04 | change, so that your pattern stays up
to date any time you're working on it.
| | 01:08 | If you want to show this box each and every
time that you do this, you can simply hit OK.
| | 01:13 | If you don't want to see this box every time,
simply hit Don't Show Again, then hit OK.
| | 01:17 | Once you do that, you'll see your
Swatch pop up right over here on the right.
| | 01:21 | You should now have all of your
options activated inside of this panel here.
| | 01:25 | You'll also notice at the top you get
the small gray bar, indicating that you
| | 01:29 | can Save a Copy, tell Illustrator
you're Done, or simply Cancel out.
| | 01:34 | On the left-hand side, there's a
breadcrumb link indicating that you can Exit
| | 01:38 | Pattern Editing mode.
| | 01:39 | So at anytime if you've made changes to
your pattern, and you're finished with
| | 01:43 | it, you can exit by clicking this little arrow.
| | 01:45 | Now let's take a look at the
Pattern Options panel itself.
| | 01:48 | You'll notice at the top of the panel,
you have the ability to name your pattern.
| | 01:52 | The naming convention is up to you.
| | 01:53 | But, I would suggest using something
pretty descriptive, just in case you have
| | 01:57 | trouble identifying your patterns later.
| | 01:59 | So in this case, I'll
just name this Blue Flower.
| | 02:05 | Directly underneath that, you'll be
able to determine the type of pattern
| | 02:07 | that you're creating.
| | 02:08 | So you can do things by Grid, Brick by Row,
Brick by Column, Hex by Column, or Hex by Row.
| | 02:18 | All of these are totally up to you,
but they each change the look and feel of
| | 02:23 | your pattern instantaneously.
| | 02:25 | You'll also be able to change the
Width and Height of your pattern.
| | 02:28 | If you want them to remain in
proportion, click the little link button to
| | 02:31 | the right-hand side.
| | 02:33 | You can also Size the Tile to your Artwork.
| | 02:36 | Clicking this eliminates the ability
to change the Width and Height, and make
| | 02:39 | sure that these follow the
same size as the original artwork;
| | 02:43 | meaning, as you move the
artwork around, the tile follows suit.
| | 02:47 | I'll go ahead and uncheck Size Tile to Art
and let's make a change to the Width and Height.
| | 02:51 | I'll constrain my proportions, and I'll
change this to something like 200 points.
| | 02:56 | When I do that, you'll notice that
everything resizes to fit within that window.
| | 03:00 | Now if I want it to go back to its
original size, I can simply hit Size Tile to
| | 03:05 | Artwork and everything goes back to normal.
| | 03:07 | I can also change the Horizontal and
Vertical Spacing in between each tile.
| | 03:12 | So if I want to add some space on the
left and right-hand side, I can just
| | 03:15 | simply increase the space like so.
| | 03:19 | If I want to change the
Vertical spacing, I do the same thing.
| | 03:21 | And I'm just navigating with my arrow keys here.
| | 03:25 | Directly underneath that,
I can control the Overlap.
| | 03:28 | So do I want the left portion of the
pattern in front, the right portion in
| | 03:32 | front, the top in front or the bottom in front?
| | 03:36 | This basically determines exactly where
these tiles fall in the stacking order.
| | 03:40 | You can also determine how many copies of
your original artwork are applied to the pattern.
| | 03:45 | By default, this is set to 5x5.
| | 03:48 | I can change that to any
number I want 5x7, 7x5, or even 3x3.
| | 03:56 | Totally up to you which way you change
this, but as you can see, each and every
| | 03:59 | time you change it, it changes
the look and feel of your pattern.
| | 04:02 | I'll go ahead and reset that, to 5x5.
| | 04:05 | The last options here include Dim
Copies to, which just basically means okay,
| | 04:10 | everything but the original artwork,
dim the opacity a little bit to a certain
| | 04:14 | degree, so that I can actually see
what my original was, and what is actually
| | 04:17 | being created in the pattern.
| | 04:18 | You can also choose whether
or not to Show the Tile Edge.
| | 04:21 | That's this little blue line that
runs all along the pattern here.
| | 04:25 | And you can choose to Show the
Swatch Bounds if you want to.
| | 04:29 | Show exactly how big the
swatch will actually be.
| | 04:32 | Let's uncheck that box.
| | 04:34 | I actually prefer to have this turned on,
so I can see the original boundary of
| | 04:37 | my original artwork.
| | 04:39 | If you get confused about what any
of these things mean inside of this
| | 04:41 | panel, all you have to do is hover over these,
and it will tell you exactly what's going on.
| | 04:46 | So in this case, when I hover over
Show Swatch Bounds, it indicates here that
| | 04:50 | objects outside of these
boundaries will not be repeated.
| | 04:53 | So in this case, showing the swatch
bound, shows me exactly how big the swatch
| | 04:57 | is going to be, and tells me anything
outside of these boundaries that is not a
| | 05:01 | part of the original artwork, won't be included.
| | 05:03 | These little tooltips are very handy
if you don't know exactly what's going
| | 05:07 | on in the dialog box.
| | 05:08 | So anytime you get lost in Illustrator,
no matter if it's this panel or any
| | 05:11 | panel, take a look at those
tooltips and you'll be well on your way to
| | 05:14 | understanding exactly what's going on.
| | 05:17 | As you can see, the Pattern Options
in Illustrator are quite extensive.
| | 05:20 | So you really need to take some
time and study each part and understand
| | 05:23 | exactly how it works.
| | 05:25 | Once you've got an understanding of
these options and how to interact with your
| | 05:28 | artwork, you're ready to go on
and create your first pattern.
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| Creating a simple pattern| 00:01 | Once you have a better understanding of
the Pattern Options that are available
| | 00:04 | to you in Illustrator, you're ready
to create your first pattern swatch.
| | 00:07 | In this movie, I'll be walking you
through how to create a simple pattern using
| | 00:10 | a shape that I have here on my artboard.
| | 00:13 | So the first thing I need
to do is select my shape.
| | 00:16 | Select it like so, and then I'll go
to Object > Pattern, and select Make.
| | 00:22 | Once I click Make, Illustrator
automatically adds my New Pattern swatch over
| | 00:26 | here to my Swatches panel and
I have the option to name it.
| | 00:29 | So I'll go ahead and name this Blue Flower.
| | 00:34 | Directly underneath that, I can
change the type of tiling that I use.
| | 00:38 | By default, it's set to Grid, but in
this case, I'm going to change it to Hex by
| | 00:42 | Row, which means hexagon
and I want it to go by row.
| | 00:46 | I can also choose to Size
the Tile to the Artwork.
| | 00:49 | If I do that, I have the ability to
change the Horizontal and Vertical Spacing.
| | 00:54 | So in this case, I'm going to change
the Horizontal Spacing to 20 points, and
| | 00:59 | I'm going to change the
Vertical Spacing to 15 points.
| | 01:02 | That's just going to give a little bit
of extra space in between each one of the
| | 01:05 | tiles, making the shape a
little bit more recognizable.
| | 01:08 | I can also change the
number of copies if I wish.
| | 01:11 | In this case, I'm going to switch that
to 3x3, you'll notice the pattern gets
| | 01:15 | significantly smaller.
| | 01:16 | Once I'm finished with that, I can
go up to the top, and choose Done.
| | 01:21 | Selecting Done makes your pattern sort
of disappear, but don't freak out, your
| | 01:26 | pattern is actually saved over here
in the Swatches panel as Blue Flower.
| | 01:29 | So now, you can apply this to any
other shape or object that you want here
| | 01:33 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 01:34 | So let me take this piece of artwork here, and
I'll move it up and to the left out of my way.
| | 01:38 | I'll then go over and grab my Rectangle
tool and I'll draw out a rectangle like so.
| | 01:43 | If I want to fill this rectangle with
my new pattern that I've created, I can
| | 01:48 | simply go back over to the Swatches
panel with that rectangle selected and
| | 01:51 | click on Blue Flower.
| | 01:53 | Doing that automatically fills
this rectangle with that pattern.
| | 01:57 | If I'm happy with the pattern, I'm finished.
| | 01:59 | If I don't like it, and in this case,
I'm not real thrilled with it, I can
| | 02:02 | actually make an edit right here.
| | 02:04 | All I have to do is find the
Pattern Swatch and double-click it.
| | 02:08 | Double-clicking it automatically
enters you into Pattern Editing mode.
| | 02:12 | This means you can make any changes to
this you want, and when you're done, you
| | 02:15 | click Done, and the changes
are reflected in your swatch.
| | 02:18 | You also have the ability to save a
copy of this swatch, so that you have a
| | 02:21 | whole different swatch in your library.
| | 02:24 | In this case, I want the
pattern to be significantly smaller.
| | 02:26 | So I'm going to click on the artwork,
and then I'm going to hold down my
| | 02:30 | Shift key, and my Option key on Mac,
the Alt key on PC, and I'll drag it down
| | 02:35 | to resize the artwork.
| | 02:37 | You'll notice when I do that, the rest
of the flowers follow suit because I have
| | 02:40 | it set to Size the Tile to the artwork.
| | 02:43 | So I'll shrink this down.
| | 02:45 | I'm also going to change the number of copies.
| | 02:47 | I want this to be 9x9; pretty big change.
| | 02:51 | Once I'm done, I'll simply save a copy of it.
| | 02:53 | I'll call this new pattern
Small Blue Flowers, and hit OK.
| | 03:01 | Once I've done that, it tells me that a new
pattern has been added to my Swatches panel.
| | 03:05 | I'm going to say Don't show this again,
because I don't need this to appear
| | 03:07 | each, and every time I do this. I'll hit OK.
| | 03:10 | Then I'll simply click Done.
| | 03:12 | You'll notice that when I click Done,
my new pattern is now reflected inside of
| | 03:16 | my shape that I was working on.
| | 03:18 | I also have two new patterns;
| | 03:20 | Blue Flower and Small Blue Flowers,
and I can apply those to any object
| | 03:24 | inside of Illustrator.
| | 03:25 | So there you have it!
| | 03:26 | How to quickly create a new pattern here
inside of Illustrator using the all new
| | 03:30 | Pattern Options feature.
| | 03:32 | Take some time and explore this
feature on your own and you'll be amazed at
| | 03:35 | the type of stuff you can create.
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| Creating a repeatable pattern for the web| 00:01 | Now it's time to put our creative
energy to good use, and put together
| | 00:04 | something we can actually use in
one of our future web projects.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, I'll be walking you
through my process for creating a
| | 00:10 | repeatable pattern that you can use
on the web or any other type of project
| | 00:14 | you might be working on.
| | 00:15 | In the last year, texture in web
design has become an essential part of any
| | 00:20 | designer's repertoire.
| | 00:21 | However, there aren't too many
programs out there that let you create
| | 00:24 | textures or patterns easily.
| | 00:26 | Let's take a look at how easy it is
to add a little something extra to this
| | 00:29 | iPhone mockup using the new
Pattern Options in Illustrator.
| | 00:33 | As you can see this is already a pretty
good mockup, but I want to add a little
| | 00:37 | bit of polish by putting some
texture into the background.
| | 00:40 | I could spend time crafting a pattern
with multiple paths and shapes by hand,
| | 00:44 | but I think I'll just use the Pattern
Options in Illustrator CS6 and let that
| | 00:47 | do the work for me.
| | 00:48 | The first thing I have
to do is draw out a shape.
| | 00:50 | So I'll come over here to my shapes and
I'll make sure I grab the Polygon tool.
| | 00:55 | By default, it automatically draws out
a hexagon for me, and that's what I'm
| | 00:58 | going to use for this demonstration.
| | 01:00 | Let me zoom in using Command+Plus
on the Mac, Ctrl+Plus on the PC.
| | 01:03 | I want this shape to be
approximately 25 pixels wide.
| | 01:08 | Once I get the shape drawn, I'll switch to my
Selection tool to make sure I have it selected.
| | 01:12 | Now it should be noted that once you
start creating patterns, you're going to
| | 01:15 | be brought to a screen
that's relatively light in color.
| | 01:18 | So if you're working with a shape that
has a light color in it, it might be hard
| | 01:21 | to differentiate it from the background.
| | 01:23 | So in this case, while I'm designing the
pattern, I'm going to switch the stroke
| | 01:27 | color of this object to black
so that you can actually see it.
| | 01:31 | I'm also going to make sure that
the Stroke is set to 0.5 points.
| | 01:34 | I want it to be relatively small.
| | 01:36 | Once I have that done, I'm
ready to create my pattern.
| | 01:39 | So I'll go up here to the Object
menu, choose Pattern, and select Make.
| | 01:44 | Once I do that, it's going to
automatically start to create my pattern for me.
| | 01:48 | For the Name, I'll call this honeycomb.
| | 01:52 | For the Tile Type, I'll choose Hex by Column.
| | 01:56 | The Width and Height, I'm okay with,
and I'm not going to add any horizontal
| | 02:00 | or vertical spacing.
| | 02:01 | I like the fact that it's altogether.
| | 02:03 | I'm also happy with the number of copies.
| | 02:05 | Once I've got all of my options set
like I need them to be, I can then make the
| | 02:09 | change to the color, and set it to
white like I originally wanted it to be.
| | 02:13 | So I'll select the artwork in the
center and then I'll make sure I'm working on
| | 02:16 | the Stroke and I'll change it to white.
| | 02:19 | As you can see, the artwork pretty much
disappears but that's okay, I know that
| | 02:23 | it's correct because I've already set it all up.
| | 02:26 | Now, I'm simply going to hit Done,
and it's going to take me back out to
| | 02:30 | my original artwork.
| | 02:32 | I can now delete the shape and I'll
zoom out, so you can see the entire
| | 02:36 | iPhone mockup screen.
| | 02:37 | Now I'm going to select the background,
and I'm ready to apply this swatch to it.
| | 02:42 | I'll make sure I'm working on the Fill,
but I don't want to override this Fill.
| | 02:47 | I actually want to add a new Fill on top of it.
| | 02:50 | So in order to do that, I need to
utilize something called the Appearance panel.
| | 02:53 | So I'll come over here to the right
and find the Appearance panel, I'll just
| | 02:56 | drag this out, so you can see it.
| | 02:59 | Once I have the Appearance panel out,
I'll go ahead, and expand it a little bit,
| | 03:03 | and I'm going to add a new
Fill by clicking this button here.
| | 03:07 | Adding that new Fill adds it to the
top, and I can then click, and find my
| | 03:12 | honeycomb pattern and it's instantly applied.
| | 03:15 | Now it's a little too harsh, I just
want it to be a slight change to kind of
| | 03:18 | finish it off or add that little bit of polish.
| | 03:21 | So I need to tone it back a bit.
| | 03:22 | That's relatively easy in
the Appearance panel as well.
| | 03:24 | All you have to do is expand out the
Fill, click on the Opacity link, and then
| | 03:29 | dial back the opacity.
| | 03:30 | In this case, I think 20% works pretty good.
| | 03:33 | Once I do that, I can then bring the
Appearance panel back over to the right,
| | 03:38 | and I'll zoom-in a little
bit so you can see the pattern.
| | 03:41 | So it's just a subtle texture that I've
added to the background, and if I show
| | 03:45 | you here; here is before and
after, one more time, before, after.
| | 03:50 | So you can see, it's just that little
subtle change in the background, but it's
| | 03:54 | added a little something
extra to this that I really like.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Image TracingOverview of image tracing| 00:00 | We've come to my favorite new
Illustrator feature, the revamped Image Trace.
| | 00:05 | You may laugh it off, thinking that
Illustrator has had tracing capabilities for
| | 00:09 | quite some time now, and well,
technically, you're correct.
| | 00:13 | Illustrator has been able to trace
bitmap artwork and convert it to vector
| | 00:16 | format for quite a while.
| | 00:17 | But in previous incarnations of this
feature, I found it difficult to get the
| | 00:21 | results I was looking for.
| | 00:23 | But in CS6, the Image Trace is both faster,
and in my experience, more accurate as well.
| | 00:28 | Image Trace is actually replacing the
live trace feature in Illustrator CS6 and
| | 00:33 | it works very differently.
| | 00:34 | As a matter of fact, it's an
entirely new tool altogether.
| | 00:38 | The main benefits of the Image Trace
are cleaner paths, speed enhancements and
| | 00:42 | in my experience, better color
recognition, which is huge for us designers.
| | 00:47 | For those of you who aren't familiar
with tracing, let me break down exactly
| | 00:50 | what I'm talking about.
| | 00:51 | Let's say that you're working on a
project for a client, and the client brings
| | 00:54 | you a hand-drawn sketch of some
artwork that they like for you to create.
| | 00:57 | They want their artwork to
match the sketch exactly.
| | 01:01 | Well, it's your job to re-create that
artwork in a usable vector format.
| | 01:05 | So your options are, A; draw it by
hand in Illustrator and get as close as
| | 01:08 | you can, or B; utilize the Trace
feature and allow Illustrator to do the
| | 01:13 | heavy lifting for you.
| | 01:14 | Check out these examples of some
artwork that I've been working on.
| | 01:17 | Here you can see a photograph that
I've instantly turned into a poster.
| | 01:20 | I've also got another
photograph that I've changed into a
| | 01:23 | photographic representation.
| | 01:25 | However, this is vector artwork.
| | 01:27 | And finally, I have these flowers
over here which were scanned in.
| | 01:31 | They're all hand-drawn, and over
on the right, a complete vector
| | 01:34 | representation of those as well.
| | 01:36 | I'll cover exactly how to do this in
another movie, but watch just how easy it
| | 01:40 | is to convert a scanned piece of
artwork into a vector object using this tool.
| | 01:44 | I'll jump over here to
this document and select this.
| | 01:47 | It's just a JPEG that's
been embedded into the file.
| | 01:50 | If I click Image Trace, I now have a
scalable vector object that I can use
| | 01:55 | throughout any other projects for my client.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Performing a basic trace| 00:01 | In order to convert a raster image into
a vector object, you must use the Image
| | 00:05 | Trace feature in Illustrator.
| | 00:06 | In this movie I'll show you how to
utilize this tool to create a simple
| | 00:10 | tracing of a photograph.
| | 00:12 | The first thing you need to do is
get a photograph into Illustrator.
| | 00:15 | You can do that by going to File place or
simply opening up a photograph in Illustrator.
| | 00:19 | I actually have a photograph already
placed on my artboard and I simply select
| | 00:22 | it in order to make it active.
| | 00:25 | In order to perform a basic trace of
this image, I have to first, like I said,
| | 00:29 | make sure it's selected, and then go
to the Control panel and find the button
| | 00:33 | labeled Image Trace.
| | 00:35 | You'll notice when I hover over it, it tells
me it converts an image into a tracing object.
| | 00:39 | If I click Image Trace, it automatically
converts my photo into some vector art.
| | 00:45 | As you can see, the result
isn't all that great right now.
| | 00:48 | But there are ton of controls, which
we'll explore later, that will help you
| | 00:51 | refine this tracing and get
it exactly like you need it.
| | 00:54 | Of course, there's always the
possibility that you're going for this look, and
| | 00:58 | well, if that's the case, you're done.
| | 01:00 | Once the image has been traced, you'll
notice that you're able to move and scale
| | 01:04 | the artwork without any problems.
| | 01:06 | You'll also notice that as you resize
the image, the re-rendering time is much
| | 01:11 | faster than in previous versions of Illustrator.
| | 01:14 | That's the advantage of the new Image
Trace, and it is probably my favorite part
| | 01:18 | of the whole process.
| | 01:19 | If you remember back in old versions
of Illustrator, were we use Live Trace,
| | 01:23 | the process of resizing a traced image could
be a huge headache, and take a ton of time.
| | 01:27 | Now, it's not so bad.
| | 01:30 | Now that you've performed your basic
trace here inside of Illustrator, it's
| | 01:33 | time to explore the options even more
and check out some of the tracing presets,
| | 01:36 | or even the advanced options to help
you refine your artwork and get it as good
| | 01:40 | as possible.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using built-in tracing presets| 00:01 | Once you've performed an initial
trace of your artwork here inside of
| | 00:03 | Illustrator, you may be left
with less than desirable results.
| | 00:07 | If that's the case, you should try out
some of Illustrators built-in tracing
| | 00:10 | presets to help get your
artwork back on the right track.
| | 00:13 | None of the presets will necessarily be
a magic bullet for what you're trying to
| | 00:17 | do, but they'll most likely give you a
much better starting point, which you can
| | 00:20 | tweak to get it exactly where you need it to be.
| | 00:22 | In order to access the tracing options,
you can go up to your Control panel
| | 00:26 | with your tracing objects selected and find
this little button here called Image Trace Panel.
| | 00:31 | When you click it, the Image
Trace Panel automatically appears.
| | 00:34 | You'll notice that once the Image
Trace Panel opens, you have access to
| | 00:37 | Presets right here.
| | 00:39 | If I drop this down, you'll
notice I have a bunch to choose from.
| | 00:42 | So if I wanted this to look more like
a photo, I could choose something like
| | 00:46 | High Fidelity Photo.
| | 00:49 | We're going to be speeding up the
render time significantly on your screen, but
| | 00:52 | you should also notice that the render
time on your tracings has dramatically
| | 00:55 | improved over that of the old Live Trace.
| | 01:00 | If I wanted it to look a little
bit more artistic, I can switch it to
| | 01:03 | something like 6 Colors.
| | 01:08 | If I were taking this to print, 6 Colors
might be a little much, so maybe I need
| | 01:12 | to back that down a little bit.
| | 01:14 | So let's simplify it even
more, by choosing 3 Colors.
| | 01:20 | For this particular project, let's
pretend that I'm creating a stylized poster
| | 01:24 | design, and this guy is going to
be the background for that poster.
| | 01:27 | This Preset that I've
chosen here looks pretty good.
| | 01:29 | So I think I'll stick with it and
notice how well Illustrator has handled the
| | 01:32 | differences in color in this photo as
well, making it really easy to distinguish
| | 01:37 | features like the eyes
and nose, and even the hair.
| | 01:40 | The new image trace is a great at
recognizing subtle differences of color and
| | 01:44 | displaying it even when
using a limited color palette.
| | 01:47 | Now like I said, this is a pretty
good tracing, but however there are some
| | 01:50 | things that I'd like to change about it as well.
| | 01:52 | Some noise up in here, there are some
jagged edges and it doesn't really look
| | 01:56 | quite as artistic as I might want it to.
| | 01:58 | When you're going through the Presets,
you should try to find something that
| | 02:01 | gets you about 75% of the
result you're looking for.
| | 02:04 | The remaining 25% can be adjusted using
the other buttons and sliders that are
| | 02:09 | available to you inside of this panel.
| | 02:10 | You can also utilize something called
Advanced options, which is another great
| | 02:14 | way to fine tune your artwork.
| | 02:16 | Once you've got your tracing about 75%
of the way there, you're ready to start
| | 02:20 | your final tweaks to get it
exactly where you need it to be.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring advanced tracing options| 00:00 | The Image Trace presets
can only take you so far.
| | 00:03 | So it's a good idea to familiarize
yourself with all of the options that the
| | 00:06 | Image Trace panel has to offer in order to
maximize the effectiveness of your tracing.
| | 00:11 | In this movie, we'll explore the advanced
options of the Image Trace and how they
| | 00:15 | can help you refine your artwork.
| | 00:17 | First off, we need to expand the Advanced
options here inside the Image Trace panel.
| | 00:21 | So look for the small area labeled Advanced,
and click the tiny triangle next to it.
| | 00:26 | Once you do that, it should expand out
the Advanced options, and as you can see
| | 00:30 | there are quite a few.
| | 00:31 | Let's start at the top and work our way down.
| | 00:33 | The first option is the Paths feature,
which allows you to determine the
| | 00:37 | detail of your artwork.
| | 00:39 | Dragging the slider to the left
allows your tracing to be somewhat loose in
| | 00:42 | terms of adhering to the
original shapes of the bitmapped image.
| | 00:48 | Whereas, dragging the slider to the
right, tightens up the artwork and makes it
| | 00:51 | follow the contours of the
original a little more closely.
| | 00:56 | This number will ultimately be up to
you, but for this particular artwork, I
| | 00:59 | think that 5% will work just fine.
| | 01:02 | So I'll enter in a value of
5 and press the Enter key.
| | 01:08 | Once that finishes rendering,
you'll notice that I still get a nice
| | 01:11 | representation of the original image
without a bunch of jagged paths and extra lines.
| | 01:16 | In my opinion, lowering this value
makes the artwork look more artistic, while
| | 01:20 | increasing the value, makes it
look a little bit more technical.
| | 01:24 | The second option is the
Corners Emphasis control.
| | 01:28 | Dragging this slider to the right
increases the amount of corners in your artwork.
| | 01:34 | As you can see, when I push it up to
100%, I get some jagged lines around the
| | 01:38 | hairline and lot more sharp
corners throughout the entire image.
| | 01:42 | If I drag this to the left all the way,
you'll notice that my paths really start
| | 01:47 | to smooth out, especially around the
hairline and around his chin as well.
| | 01:51 | It really limits the amount of corners
that are in my image, making things a
| | 01:55 | little bit more smooth.
| | 01:56 | For this particular image I think
10% is going to work nicely here.
| | 02:00 | But again, this is always a personal
choice, so playing around with these values
| | 02:04 | each time will be beneficial to you.
| | 02:08 | Now let's move down to Noise.
| | 02:10 | The Noise feature is a great
way to clean up your artwork.
| | 02:13 | The higher this number is,
the less noise you'll have.
| | 02:16 | As you can see, if I take this down to 1
pixel, the Image Trace picks up more of
| | 02:22 | the smaller details of the image,
whereas if I take it up to 100 pixels, most of
| | 02:28 | those small details are ignored.
| | 02:30 | Generally I shoot for somewhere in between.
| | 02:33 | I'm not a big fan of all the little
extra paths and cluttering up my artwork.
| | 02:36 | But at the same time, I don't want
things to just run together either.
| | 02:39 | However, for this particular poster
design that I'm working on, I think 100
| | 02:43 | pixels works well and still maintain
the integrity of the original image.
| | 02:46 | Again, it's totally up to you,
anywhere between 1 and 100, your call.
| | 02:51 | Now let's jump down here to the Method.
| | 02:53 | The Method option allows you to
determine whether or not you create a budding,
| | 02:57 | or overlapping paths.
| | 02:59 | Now exactly was does that mean?
| | 03:01 | Well, if you choose the budding paths,
you basically get paths that are cut out
| | 03:05 | and fit right along each other's edge.
| | 03:06 | Think of it like this, you've taken
several pieces of construction paper, cut
| | 03:10 | them in individual shapes and
then fit them together like a puzzle.
| | 03:13 | That's what this is.
| | 03:14 | With Overlapping Paths, you create
solid shapes that are stacked on top of one
| | 03:18 | another in the form of the artwork.
| | 03:20 | Instead of the puzzle piece, you have layers.
| | 03:23 | Again, this will be up to you, but I
prefer the overlap, because it eliminates
| | 03:27 | any gaps or white space
that might exist in my artwork.
| | 03:30 | So in this case, I'll just
switch it to Overlapping.
| | 03:34 | The remaining options aren't necessarily
deal breakers, but they are nice to have.
| | 03:38 | For instance, you have the option to
create either Fills or Stroke Paths.
| | 03:43 | Fills are much easier to
deal with in my opinion though.
| | 03:46 | If you were to choose Strokes, you'd
be able to choose the maximum width in
| | 03:49 | pixels that would be recognized
and converted into a Stroke Path.
| | 03:53 | You also have the ability
to snap curves to lines.
| | 03:56 | This means that Illustrator will
inspect your artwork for slightly curved lines
| | 04:00 | and then force those lines to become straight.
| | 04:02 | In some cases if you needed straight
lines this might be a good thing, but in
| | 04:06 | artwork like this, not so much.
| | 04:07 | Let's turn it on and as you can see I
wind up with small gaps in certain areas.
| | 04:13 | Like right here in the hairline, see
how it converted that to a straight line?
| | 04:16 | Same thing on the side of the face,
the ears and all kinds of stuff.
| | 04:19 | It basically eliminates those small curves.
| | 04:22 | So now these straight lines
leave gaps in my artwork.
| | 04:25 | I don't like gaps in my artwork.
| | 04:27 | If you have white in your artwork, you
can also choose to ignore it and make
| | 04:30 | those areas of your artwork transparent.
| | 04:32 | This is great for tracing one color logos that
you might have scanned in on a piece of paper.
| | 04:37 | If you have artwork like that, you
simply hit Ignore White right here and it
| | 04:41 | automatically ignores white and
turns it into transparent section.
| | 04:45 | Finally, you'll notice at the bottom
of the panel that you have information
| | 04:48 | about your tracing.
| | 04:49 | This indicates the number of paths, the
number of anchors and also the number of
| | 04:53 | colors that are present in your trace.
| | 04:55 | This is a great way to track your
artwork during the tracing process to see how
| | 04:59 | much you've either complicated
or simplified it along the way.
| | 05:02 | All right, let's turn off Snap Curves to Lines.
| | 05:05 | Once I do that, you'll see the artwork
flows back together, all those gaps have
| | 05:08 | been eliminated and I'll
zoom out, and there we go.
| | 05:13 | My artwork is now traced and I'm pretty
happy with the results that I've gotten.
| | 05:16 | The only thing left for me to do is
actually convert it into paths, so that I
| | 05:21 | can tweak it even further
here inside of Illustrator.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Converting pixels to paths| 00:01 | After you've traced your artwork using
the Image Trace feature in Illustrator
| | 00:04 | CS6, you'll want to convert the tracing
into paths so that you can manipulate it
| | 00:08 | just like any other object in Illustrator.
| | 00:11 | In order to do this, you have to do
something called expanding your artwork.
| | 00:15 | Expanding an object in Illustrator
allows you to divide a single object, in this
| | 00:19 | case your tracing, into multiple
objects that make up its appearance.
| | 00:22 | It should be noted that expanding
your artwork converts it from its current
| | 00:26 | Image Trace state and you'll no
longer be able to tweak your Trace settings
| | 00:30 | after you've expanded it.
| | 00:31 | This should be the very last step you
perform when you're tracing artwork.
| | 00:35 | In order to expand your tracing, you
can do one of two things, with the object
| | 00:38 | selected, you can A; hit the Expand
button in the Control panel, or B; open the
| | 00:44 | Object menu, go down to Expand.
| | 00:46 | For this exercise, I'm simply going
to come out and hit the Expand button.
| | 00:50 | As you can see, Illustrator instantly
converts my tracing object into a regular
| | 00:55 | Illustrator object comprised of
multiple paths and anchor points.
| | 00:58 | You'll notice I can now move and resize
this object anyway I want, just like any
| | 01:03 | other object without any rendering whatsoever.
| | 01:05 | Again I've lost the ability to
tweak my tracing settings, so it's very
| | 01:10 | important to remember not to expand
your object until you're 100% happy with
| | 01:14 | your tracing results.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Performance ChangesUnderstanding 64-bit support| 00:00 | One of the things that Illustrator users
have been clamoring for is 64-bit support.
| | 00:05 | Well, in CS6, you're
getting your wish. That's right!
| | 00:08 | Illustrator is now a 64-bit
application on both the Mac and PC platforms.
| | 00:13 | Now you might be thinking this is an
amazing moment or you might be thinking, so what.
| | 00:19 | Let me explain exactly what this
means in terms of potential workflow
| | 00:22 | enhancements for you.
| | 00:23 | In previous versions of Illustrator
it didn't matter how much RAM you had
| | 00:26 | installed on your machine, because
Illustrator was 32-bit, so it couldn't
| | 00:30 | leverage more than 3 GB
of RAM in any given time.
| | 00:33 | This means a lot of out of memory
errors and even the occasional crash when
| | 00:36 | you're rasterizing large files or
working on multiple files simultaneously.
| | 00:40 | It also meant that applying complex
effects like Gaussian blurs and Drop Shadows
| | 00:44 | took an eternity to render.
| | 00:45 | With a 64-bit architecture, Illustrator
can now leverage more RAM, which makes
| | 00:50 | the processing time for things like
effects and rasterizations much faster.
| | 00:54 | But remember, just because the
application is 64-bit doesn't necessarily
| | 00:58 | mean it'll be faster.
| | 00:59 | You have to have the extra
RAM to throw out it as well.
| | 01:02 | Let's take a look at the difference
between rendering times in CS5 versus CS6.
| | 01:07 | As you can see, I have the same
file open in both applications.
| | 01:11 | I'll select the artwork and I'll apply
a drop shadow to everything on the page.
| | 01:15 | Watch how much faster it is in CS6 versus CS5.
| | 01:19 | As you can see, Illustrator CS6 is able
to apply the drop shadow in about half
| | 01:23 | the time that CS5 was able to do it.
| | 01:26 | And that's all due to the new 64-bit
architecture that's now in place inside the program.
| | 01:31 | So as you work on more complex files or
even start to work on multiple files at
| | 01:35 | once, you'll really begin to see the
benefits of this new 64-bit framework.
| | 01:39 | It's a great upgrade that users have been
wanting for a long time and it's finally here.
| | 01:43 | But remember, in order to take
advantage of it, you have to have a system with
| | 01:47 | enough RAM to throw at it as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Improved performance: Gaussian Blur| 00:00 | Another tool that saw significant
performance enhancements in CS6 is
| | 00:04 | the Gaussian Blur tool.
| | 00:05 | In previous versions of Illustrator this
feature has been somewhat of a headache for me.
| | 00:09 | The previous report, the render time
was always a little slow, but in CS6 the
| | 00:13 | Gaussian blur provides instant
previews and vastly improved render time.
| | 00:17 | Let's check it out.
| | 00:18 | First off I'm going to start here in CS5,
so I'm going to draw out a shape and
| | 00:22 | in this case I'm just
going to draw out a square.
| | 00:25 | And I'll make this pretty obvious by
giving it a red color, no stroke, and I'm
| | 00:30 | going to blur this thing out pretty good.
| | 00:32 | So I'll go to the Effect > Blur >
Gaussian Blur, and inside of this I don't
| | 00:39 | really get a preview necessarily.
| | 00:40 | I mean I can zoom out to see a preview
here, but on the artboard itself I don't
| | 00:44 | get a live preview, that always bothered me.
| | 00:46 | If I drag this all the way up to 250,
and hit OK, you'll notice that the render
| | 00:51 | time is somewhat slow to even start.
| | 00:53 | And then it finally pops in
and uses the Gaussian blur.
| | 00:57 | I'll save this in my Exercise Files
folder as square, and then I'll hit Save.
| | 01:04 | Now I'll jump over into CS6.
| | 01:06 | If I go in to open that file,
you'll notice that it comes right in and it
| | 01:10 | looks pretty much the same as it always
did, but if I click on it and then look
| | 01:14 | in my Appearance panel, which I'll drag
out here, you'll notice something called
| | 01:19 | Legacy Gaussian Blur.
| | 01:21 | Legacy Gaussian Blur means that it's
currently using the old Gaussian blur algorithm.
| | 01:26 | If I were to edit this appearance,
it would automatically be converted to
| | 01:29 | the new Gaussian blur algorithm, and
it will be much faster, and I also get
| | 01:33 | live previews in here.
| | 01:35 | For now though, I'm just going to remove this,
so I'm going to take this and throw it away.
| | 01:39 | I'll use the same square and add another
Gaussian blur to it to show you exactly
| | 01:43 | how much faster it really is, and how
much that live preview comes in handy.
| | 01:47 | I'll go up to Effect > Blur,
and select Gaussian Blur.
| | 01:52 | Immediately I'll drag it over
to 250 pixels and check this out.
| | 01:56 | If I click Preview, an instant preview appears.
| | 01:59 | Did you notice the render time?
| | 02:00 | Almost instantaneous.
| | 02:02 | If I hit OK, there's no waiting around
there's no sliders, there is no nothing.
| | 02:06 | There is no beach ball of death. I've got my
blurred out square all rocking and ready to go.
| | 02:12 | So that's the advantage
of the new Gaussian blur.
| | 02:16 | So again, it's not so much a new
feature as it is an improvement over the old
| | 02:19 | one, but it's still a pretty
good enhancement in my opinion.
| | 02:23 | So take some time and play around with
this and always make sure to convert your
| | 02:27 | old Gaussian blur to the new.
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|
5. File ManagementUsing startup profiles| 00:00 | The world of design is constantly changing.
| | 00:02 | As designers, we must now be able to
design not only for print and web, but also
| | 00:07 | for tablets, phones, and other devices as well.
| | 00:09 | One of the new features in Illustrator
CS6 that will help you with this are the
| | 00:13 | new startup profiles.
| | 00:15 | Basically a startup profile is a set of
document parameters that help you setup
| | 00:19 | your working environment for
different types of projects.
| | 00:22 | Each time you go to create a new
document in Illustrator, you have the option to
| | 00:26 | choose one of these profiles
to help jumpstart your document.
| | 00:29 | You can make any kind of change you
like along the way, but these are great
| | 00:32 | starting points for a multitude of workflows.
| | 00:35 | If I go up to the File menu and choose
New, the New Document dialog box opens.
| | 00:40 | Directly underneath the naming section
you'll see a section labeled Profile.
| | 00:45 | Expanding this down will show you
all of the different profiles that you
| | 00:47 | have available to you.
| | 00:49 | In previous versions of Illustrator,
you were given a limited number of choices
| | 00:52 | that were somewhat generic, like Print,
Web, Flash Catalyst, Mobile & Device,
| | 00:58 | Video and Film, and then my two
favorites, Basic CMYK and Basic RGB.
| | 01:03 | In Illustrator CS6, you'll
notice that the CMYK option has been
| | 01:07 | removed altogether.
| | 01:08 | Mobile & Devices has simply been dubbed
Devices, and Flash Catalyst has now been
| | 01:13 | renamed to Flash Builder.
| | 01:14 | The great part about these profiles is
that Adobe is actually taking note of
| | 01:18 | the popularity of devices like iPad, iPhone,
and also the Fire and Nook Tablets as well.
| | 01:24 | You'll also notice that the Web
profile supports a new default size, which is
| | 01:28 | more indicative of modern times.
| | 01:30 | Let's take a look at some of these profiles now.
| | 01:32 | So if I switch to Devices, you'll
notice if I go down to the Size section, I
| | 01:37 | have the option to choose between iPad,
iPhone, Xoom, Fire/Nook, and also the
| | 01:43 | Galaxy S. So if I choose iPad it
automatically updates to be 768 pixels wide
| | 01:50 | by 1024 pixels high.
| | 01:52 | If I switch the Orientation, switches at
1024x768, the default size for the iPad.
| | 01:58 | If I switch to something like the
Motorola Xoom, it automatically changes to fit
| | 02:03 | that resolution as well.
| | 02:05 | It's an instant change and it's
really helpful, that way I don't have to
| | 02:08 | remember what all these devices screen sizes
are, Illustrator takes care of that for me.
| | 02:13 | Like I said, you can modify these
settings all you want, but if you have a
| | 02:16 | specific need to design for a device
like the Kindle Fire or the Motorola Xoom,
| | 02:21 | these new profiles make it
much easier to do just that.
| | 02:25 | Let's go back up here and
switch to the Web profile.
| | 02:28 | You'll notice when I switch to the Web
profile the new default is 960x560. 960
| | 02:35 | is a very popular format in web design
today and that's why they've chosen it.
| | 02:38 | But if I drop this down you'll also
notice that you have the ability to choose
| | 02:41 | from 1024x768, 1280x800, 800x600,
and 640x480, so all of your favorites
| | 02:49 | are still there, as well
as some new ones as well.
| | 02:52 | Anytime you choose one of these, it
automatically updates and you're ready to go.
| | 02:55 | When you're ready to create your
document, simply hit OK, Illustrator
| | 02:59 | automatically creates your new document
with the profile you selected and you're
| | 03:03 | ready to start adding artwork.
| | 03:04 | So no matter what your next project,
take a look at the startup profiles that
| | 03:08 | are now available to you in Illustrator CS6.
| | 03:10 | It's a great way to jumpstart your
next project, no matter what the device
| | 03:13 | you're designing for.
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| Exploring the Save for Web dialog| 00:00 | Illustrator is a great tool for
designing for the web and mobile devices.
| | 00:04 | The vector graphics you create in
Illustrator are perfect for multi-screen
| | 00:07 | distribution, because they're able
to be scaled and exported at any size
| | 00:11 | without losing quality.
| | 00:13 | That being said, you still
export them in a web friendly format.
| | 00:16 | In order to do this, you're going to
have to use the Save for Web command.
| | 00:19 | This dialog box has been
completely reworked and streamlined in CS6.
| | 00:23 | Let's go ahead and open that dialog box
up now and then we will switch back and
| | 00:26 | forth from CS5 to CS6 to
showcase some of the differences.
| | 00:30 | So I will go up to the File menu, and
the first thing you are going to notice is
| | 00:33 | it's no longer called Save for Web and Devices.
| | 00:36 | It's simply Save for Web.
| | 00:39 | Once the dialog box opens, you'll
notice here several things have been removed.
| | 00:44 | Let's jump over into CS5.
| | 00:46 | One of the main differences in CS5
versus CS6 are the formats in which
| | 00:51 | images can be exported in.
| | 00:53 | You will notice here that you have GIF,
JPEG, PNG-8, PNG-24 as well as SWF,
| | 01:00 | SVG, and WBMP.
| | 01:03 | In Illustrator CS6, SWF, SVG,
and WBMP have all been removed.
| | 01:09 | You'll also notice in CS6, that the 4-Up
preview that you see here in CS5 has been removed.
| | 01:14 | You'll only be able to view your
objects 2-Up in Illustrator CS6.
| | 01:18 | You'll also notice that Device Central is
nowhere to be found in the CS6 dialog box.
| | 01:24 | In CS5, it was down here in
the bottom right-hand corner.
| | 01:27 | But now in CS6, Device Central has been retired.
| | 01:31 | You'll also notice a significant
difference over here on the right-hand side,
| | 01:34 | whereas in CS5, you had things like
the Color Table, Image Size, and Layers
| | 01:38 | all inside of individual tabs. In CS6
you now have the Color Table and Image
| | 01:44 | Size upfront in their own respective
panel areas, and the Layer section has
| | 01:48 | been removed entirely.
| | 01:50 | You'll also notice in CS6 that
there are no Internet Speed options.
| | 01:54 | They've all been removed as well.
| | 01:55 | So has the HTML Export option.
| | 01:58 | But at the bottom left-hand corner
of the CS6 dialog box there's a small
| | 02:02 | button that says Preview.
| | 02:04 | If you click this button, it automatically
launches your default web browser and
| | 02:08 | allows you to preview your
images in an HTML mockup.
| | 02:11 | This is how you get that HTML export
back, simply launch that up and then save
| | 02:15 | the file to your hard drive.
| | 02:17 | That's how you get around that being removed.
| | 02:19 | You'll also notice that in CS6, Export
Slices is now inside of this dialog box
| | 02:24 | right here at the bottom right-hand
corner, whereas in CS5 it was a completely
| | 02:28 | separate command altogether.
| | 02:30 | There is one new addition to the Save
for Web command in CS6 that is quite
| | 02:34 | useful in my opinion, and that's the
fact that the Image Size options now
| | 02:37 | update in real time.
| | 02:39 | Let's switch over to CS5 for just a moment.
| | 02:41 | If I were to resize the image here using the
Image Size tab, I would have to make my change,
| | 02:46 | in this case, let's make it 340,
and then I would have to hit Apply.
| | 02:50 | Whereas in CS6, if I come in and I
type out 340 and press the Tab key, it
| | 02:57 | automatically updates without me having to
hit an Apply button or anything like that.
| | 03:01 | All in all, the Save for Web command
equates more to addition by subtraction
| | 03:05 | than anything else, but it's still the
best way to get your vector artwork out
| | 03:08 | of the Illustrator and
into a web-friendly format.
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| Reviewing updates to units of measurement| 00:00 | One thing that's always driven me nuts
about Illustrator is the inconsistency of
| | 00:03 | the way the units of measurement were handled.
| | 00:06 | If I were working on one document in
pixels and the other in inches, whatever
| | 00:09 | the general preference of the
application happened to be would take priority
| | 00:12 | over the actual unit of
measurement I was using in the document.
| | 00:15 | This was a nightmare for somebody like
me who hates doing calculations and who
| | 00:18 | works on multiple print/web
projects at one time.
| | 00:21 | In CS6, the behavior of Illustrator
has changed, so that each document now
| | 00:26 | reflects a consistent unit of
measurement based on the document profile.
| | 00:29 | In other words, if I start
in pixels, I stay in pixels.
| | 00:33 | If I start in inches, I stay
in inches. Let's take a look.
| | 00:36 | I will start off here in
CS5 to show you an example.
| | 00:40 | I have open here a web
document and a print document.
| | 00:44 | If I were to change the unit of
measurement that I'm working on, for instance,
| | 00:47 | if I go to the File menu, choose
Document Setup, and change this to something
| | 00:51 | like Points, and hit OK, you'll notice
that when I try to do something like, let's
| | 00:56 | say, create a rectangle and I click,
it gives me the unit of measurement in
| | 01:00 | Points like it's supposed to.
| | 01:03 | However, if I go over to the web
document and do the exact same thing, it also
| | 01:08 | reflects that in points.
| | 01:09 | Well this is a web document.
| | 01:11 | I'm worried about pixels, not points.
| | 01:14 | So this was very inconsistent for
me and I was always having to make
| | 01:17 | calculations between inches and picas, and
points and all that kind of stuff. Very annoying.
| | 01:22 | Let's jump over to CS6 and see
how the behavior has changed.
| | 01:25 | I've got the same type of
documents open over here.
| | 01:27 | One of which is a Print Setup,
the other of which is a Web Setup.
| | 01:31 | If I were to choose the Rectangle
tool and click in this document, I get to
| | 01:36 | choose pixels, hit OK, the rectangle appears.
| | 01:39 | If I go over here and click, it's in
inches, just like the print document is.
| | 01:45 | Hit OK and my rectangle appears.
| | 01:48 | This isn't a groundbreaking change by
any means, but it's one of those little
| | 01:51 | things that has plagued the Illustrator
for quite sometime now, and frankly, I'm
| | 01:55 | really glad they decided to fix it.
| | 01:57 | So the next time you're working on
multiple print or web documents at one time,
| | 02:01 | you'll be happy to know your units of
measure will now be consistent, no matter
| | 02:05 | what document you are working on.
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6. Enhancing Your ArtworkAdding gradients to strokes| 00:00 | When I first saw this next feature touted
as something new, I was a little surprised.
| | 00:05 | In fact, I was almost certain that this
was possible in a previous version of
| | 00:08 | Illustrator, but it wasn't.
| | 00:11 | Thankfully now it is possible,
because now that I have this feature, I find
| | 00:15 | myself using it all the time.
| | 00:17 | I'm talking about adding gradients to strokes.
| | 00:20 | As I said, in previous versions of
Illustrator, you couldn't add a gradient swatch
| | 00:23 | as your stroke color.
| | 00:25 | It just wasn't possible, but now in CS6
you can do just that and it's really simple.
| | 00:30 | So as you can see here I have two
stars both identical on my artboard.
| | 00:35 | The one on the left already has
a gradient stroke applied to it.
| | 00:37 | As you see, it's just a yellow star with
a blue gradient that fades to transparent.
| | 00:42 | On the right I have just an
ordinary star with no stroke applied to it.
| | 00:46 | So let's see how easy it is to
add a gradient swatch to the star.
| | 00:49 | I am going to make sure I am working
on the stroke color, and I'll come over
| | 00:53 | here the right and I will find one of the
gradient swatches, and I will simply click it.
| | 00:58 | Once I do that it automatically
adds the gradient swatch to the stroke.
| | 01:01 | You can't really see it,
because a stroke is so thin.
| | 01:04 | So let's go ahead and bump
up the size a little bit.
| | 01:06 | I'll go ahead and bump it up to about 20
Points so it's big enough for you to see.
| | 01:10 | Once I have that done, I can then go into the
Gradient Section, and I can edit my gradient.
| | 01:15 | So for this stop over here on the left,
I am simply going to take the Opacity
| | 01:19 | to 0, and then I will take a blue color
and I'll drag it down and drop it right
| | 01:23 | on top of this stop.
| | 01:25 | Now I have a gradient stroke that
fades blue to transparent going all the
| | 01:29 | way around my star.
| | 01:31 | Once you've got your gradient applied
you can even use the Width tool to vary
| | 01:34 | the width of your gradient stroke
simulating a hand-drawn look or even creating
| | 01:38 | something crazy like I have
got over here on the left.
| | 01:40 | All you have to do is go over to your
toolbar and find Width tool, or hit the
| | 01:44 | keyboard shortcut, Shift+W on your keyboard.
| | 01:48 | Once you've got that you can come in
here and actually expand and contract your
| | 01:52 | stroke in different areas to
create a really cool effect.
| | 01:55 | So I will just manipulate this a
little bit to show you exactly what I mean.
| | 01:59 | Once you have got that applied,
simply click away from it and you are done.
| | 02:04 | As you can see, adding a gradient stroke
to your artwork lends itself to a whole
| | 02:07 | range of creative possibilities.
| | 02:09 | Try it out and see what you can
come up with in your next project.
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7. Features Available with Adobe Creative CloudUnembedding images (NEW)| 00:00 | In the latest update to the Adobe Creative Cloud
for Illustrator CS6, you now have access to
| | 00:06 | some new features inside of Illustrator CS6.
| | 00:09 | Now, this is exclusively for Creative Cloud
members, which means if you're not subscribed
| | 00:13 | to the Creative Cloud, you'll not actually see
these updates in your version of Illustrator.
| | 00:18 | In order to access the Creative Cloud Updates,
you'll just simply need to go to the Help
| | 00:21 | menu and choose Updates, and once you get
to the Update screen, it should give you the
| | 00:25 | option to install your
Illustrator Cloud updates.
| | 00:28 | The first new feature revolves around embedded
images inside of Adobe Illustrator. So before,
| | 00:34 | in Adobe Illustrator, you did have the
ability to embed images into a file.
| | 00:39 | So you would select the image, like so, and
you could then embed that image and then send
| | 00:44 | it off to someone.
| | 00:46 | The problem is that once that person got that
image, they were not able to access the image
| | 00:51 | itself. It was part of
the Illustrator document.
| | 00:54 | They couldn't then unembed that
image and make any alterations to it.
| | 00:58 | So now you'll notice in the Control
panel there is an Unembed option.
| | 01:02 | When I click Unembed I get a dialog box
that pops up that asks me to name this file.
| | 01:08 | I can choose for it to be a TIFF or a
Photoshop file, and once I select that, I give it a
| | 01:13 | name and then it goes to the same folder where the
original file was located, and I can choose to save that.
| | 01:20 | Once I save that I'm not able to access that file in
Photoshop to make any changes to it that I want.
| | 01:27 | So again, to embed a file you just simply
select the image and then embed it, and then
| | 01:32 | you can unembed it using the
same exact process that way.
| | 01:37 | And unembedding the images allows you to then
create a separate file from the embedded image
| | 01:42 | that you can then edit in a program like
Photoshop or any other image editing program that you might have.
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| The updated Links panel (NEW)| 00:00 | Another update that's now inside of Adobe
Illustrator CS6 with the Cloud update is the
| | 00:05 | new and improved Links panel, which is going to
remind you somewhat of the Links panel in InDesign.
| | 00:12 | And so in order to bring this up, you need to
go to the Window menu and go down to Links,
| | 00:16 | and that's going to bring
up this new Links panel.
| | 00:19 | And when you first open it up, it's not going
to look a whole lot different than the Links
| | 00:22 | panel did before, but there is this small
toggle option here that you can use to show
| | 00:26 | the link information. And so you can actually
see the name of the link, what type of format
| | 00:31 | it's in, the color space, the location of it.
| | 00:34 | You can also click here to have it show
you that file somewhere on your hard drive.
| | 00:39 | You can also see the PPI, the dimensions,
the scale at which it's being shown right
| | 00:44 | now, the size, when it was created, when it was
modified, and whether or not it is transparent,
| | 00:49 | or has transparency in it.
| | 00:51 | And so this is some great information that
is available now in the Links panel, and the
| | 00:56 | rest of the Links panel works much the same
way that it always did. You can still relink
| | 01:00 | images, go to the link, update the link, and
edit the original to take you to whatever
| | 01:04 | program edits this particular file.
| | 01:07 | But this information in the Links panel is
definitely an enhancement, and it gives you
| | 01:11 | a lot more information about the files
that you're going to be working with.
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| Packaging your artwork (NEW)| 00:00 | One feature that Illustrator users have been
clamoring for for a long time is the ability
| | 00:04 | to package the artwork that they create inside
of Illustrator and then distribute that artwork
| | 00:09 | to a third party.
| | 00:10 | And this is something you've been able to do
in programs like InDesign for a long time.
| | 00:14 | You've able to package your files, including
fonts, graphics, and photos, et cetera, and
| | 00:19 | then put that into a folder and send it out to
someone, like a printer or another colleague
| | 00:24 | or whoever it might be.
| | 00:25 | And now you have that same ability inside of
Adobe Illustrator CS6 with this new Cloud update.
| | 00:30 | So what you need to do is just go to the File
menu and choose Package, and once you do that,
| | 00:35 | it tells you the document must be saved, and
that's okay. Just click Save to save it, if
| | 00:39 | it hasn't been saved yet.
| | 00:40 | Once you save the document, it goes through the
process and brings up the Packaging dialog box.
| | 00:46 | It then tells you the location of where this
is going to be saved, and I'll just click
| | 00:50 | this and put it out on my
desktop and hit Choose.
| | 00:53 | It gives it a folder name, cloud_updates_Folder.
That's fine. And then you determine exactly
| | 00:58 | what comes along with this.
| | 00:59 | So do you want to copy the links? Yes, I do.
| | 01:01 | That means this linked image here.
| | 01:03 | Do I want to collect links in a
separate folder? Yes, I do.
| | 01:06 | Relink linked files to
the document? Yes, indeed.
| | 01:10 | Copy the fonts used in the document except
for a few different fonts. These are going
| | 01:14 | to be stuff like Chinese fonts and things
like that. Those will not be included.
| | 01:18 | And then finally, do you want to create a
report that tells you exactly what has been
| | 01:22 | packaged. And I do want to do all that, so
I'm going to leave all those checked and then
| | 01:25 | I'm going to click the Package button.
| | 01:27 | Once I click the Package button, you're going to
get a warning that tells you that restrictions
| | 01:30 | apply to copying font software
for use by a service provider.
| | 01:33 | Basically, what this is saying is, please don't
illegally transfer fonts between one another,
| | 01:38 | and I know this is something that they're
trying to police with this. If you want to
| | 01:42 | see this each and every time, just simply hit OK,
or you can say, Don't Show Again and then hit OK.
| | 01:47 | Once you do that, it packages up your
Illustrator artwork, and once it does, it comes up and
| | 01:51 | says the package was created successfully.
| | 01:53 | To view the package contents, press
Show Package. So, I'll press that.
| | 01:57 | It brings up the folder for me and now I see
I've got my file, I've got the fonts used,
| | 02:03 | I've also got the links, and
I've got a text document.
| | 02:07 | And once I get that open, you'll see the report
and inside of the report it tells me the document
| | 02:12 | name, the color mode, all of
the information about the file.
| | 02:14 | It also tells me the fonts, any embedded or
missing fonts, and also tells me the linked
| | 02:20 | images and some information about those.
| | 02:22 | It would also show me embedded images as well.
| | 02:25 | And so this is a great way to get a report of
exactly what's included inside this folder,
| | 02:29 | so when you send this to a commercial printer,
or whoever you might be sending it to, they
| | 02:32 | can open this up and make sure everything is
in place like you say it is, and that way
| | 02:36 | you can avoid confusion in the future.
| | 02:39 | So again, the next time you need to take
artwork and package it out of Illustrator, you no
| | 02:42 | longer have to do that in programs like InDesign.
You can just do that right within Illustrator
| | 02:47 | by going to File and selecting Package, and
that's part of the new Illustrator CS6 Cloud Update.
| | 02:53 |
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ConclusionWhere to go from here| 00:00 | Thank you for joining me on this tour of
the new features of Adobe Illustrator CS6.
| | 00:04 | As you can see, this is definitely a
nice upgrade over its predecessors and
| | 00:08 | I'm certain that most of these new
features will in some way help you to
| | 00:11 | improve your workflow.
| | 00:12 | If you like to get better acquainted
with Adobe Illustrator, I invite you to
| | 00:15 | check out all of the Illustrator
training courses that are available to you in
| | 00:18 | the lynda.com Online Training Library.
| | 00:20 | Thanks again for joining me!
| | 00:22 | My name is Justin Seeley, and I
hope to see you again real soon.
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