- [Voiceover] Alright, here's the project that we'll be creating, once again, absolutely from scratch over the course of this chapter. It's a little more more challenging than the previous project, but I'm confident you can do it. We're gonna start things off with the same opening moves from the previous chapter. In other words, we're gonna create a new basic RGB file. We're gonna add some center guides and all that stuff, which may make you wonder gosh, isn't there a way to avoid those first few folds in origami, for example. And while you can't avoid those first few folds in origami, you can avoid the first few steps in Illustrator by creating a template file, and I'm gonna show you how that works in this movie.
For starters, go up to the File menu and choose the New command or you can press control N or command N on the Mac. Let's go ahead and name this guy RGB with center guides. Change the profile to Basic RGB, just so that you and I are getting the same results. We want the Unit set to Points, and I'm gonna change the Width value once again to 1,008 points, and I'm gonna change the height to 672, which as I said before, is a size that works great for these videos. Then I'm gonna increase the Bleed value to 12 points, which is the same as one pica.
Otherwise, everything's fine. Having Rastor Effects set to 72 BPI is gonna work out nicely, and we want this Align New Objects to Pixel Grade checkbox to be turned off. At which point you can go ahead and click OK in order to create this new image, complete with the bleed. Now I'm gonna go over to the Layers panel, and I'm gonna click on the on the flyout menu and choose Panel options. Here inside this dialog box, I'll select Other and change the Thumbnail size value to 60 pixels and then click OK. And now I'll go ahead and rename this layer Guides by double clicking on its previous name and entering that new name.
Now let's add the center guides by pressing control R or command R on the Mac to bring up the rulers. Then press the control key or the command key on the Mac and drag from the intersection of those two rulers up here in the top left corner, and drag down like so. Assuming that you've got the control key down or the command key on the Mac, you're gonna create two new guides. We no longer need the ruler, so you can press control R or command R on a Mac to get rid of it. Then go up to the View menu, choose Guides and then choose Lock Guides to turn that command off.
Now you wanna go ahead and marquee those two guides like so using your black arrow tool. Then go up to the control panel, make sure that Align to Artboard is turned on, and then click on Horizontal Align Center, and then click no Vertical Align Center like so, and you'll end up with two center guides. We want those guides to be locked down, so return to the View menu, choose Guides, and choose Lock Guides in order to avoid messing them up in the future. Now what I suggest you do is drop down to the little page icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and alt or option click on it in order to bring up the Layer Options dialog box.
Let's just go ahead and call this layer Drawing so that it serves as a generic layer for drawing, of course, and click OK. That way it's unambiguous whether you should be drawing on a Guides layer. You shouldn't be. The Guides layers, they are to contain guides and nothing but guides. Now I'm gonna press control 0 or command 0 on a Mac to center my zoom. I might zoom in just a little bit more, as well, so that I'm taking in this entire artboard. Finally, we wanna go ahead and save our work by going up to the File menu and choosing Save as Template.
At this point, Illustrator may direct you to an internal folder, one of its special application folders, and that's gonna work out just fine, assuming that you can save to that location. On a PC you may end up getting an administrator error, and then you're gonna have to talk to your IT guy to figure out what in the world's going wrong, or you can just save to a different folder, so it's totally up to you. But I did have a conversation with my IT guy, so I was able to save to this folder right here, and, in fact, I'll just go ahead and save over this file by clicking the Save button followed by Yes.
At which point, I can go ahead and close it, knowing full well that I can bring back those settings just by going up to the File menu and choosing this command, New from Template. Then all you have to do is locate that template file and then click on the New button in order to create an untitled document. Notice in my case it's called Untitled 9 because I've done this a few times in advance. And we are once again working inside the RGB mode. Our document measure exactly 1,008 by 672 pixels. We have a couple of center guides, as you can see here, and we've got two layers ready and waiting for us with big, generously sized thumbnails.
And that's how you forevermore avoid redoing those upfront steps, by creating a template file here inside Illustrator.
Author
Updated
8/10/2016Released
9/23/2015Start watching to learn how to create multipage documents with artboards; how to draw anything you can imagine with the Pen, Pencil, and Curvature tools; and how to start adding color to your artwork with swatches. Deke also covers drawing shapes, adjusting strokes, formatting text, and painting digitally, with or without a tablet. Each chapter should leave you with a new set of skills—and a sense of accomplishment.
And as Creative Cloud evolves, so will we. Check back every time Illustrator updates for new movies, new feature reviews, and new ways to work.
- Opening, creating, saving, and closing documents
- Working with artboards
- Zooming and panning
- Drawing lines, arcs, grids, and spirals
- Drawing shapes
- Creating compound paths
- Working in RGB vs. CMYK color modes
- Creating and applying swatches
- Adjusting the line weight of strokes
- Formatting text
- Building custom paths with the Shape Builder and Join tools
- Freeform drawing with the Pencil
- Painting and erasing artwork
- Painting with a tablet
- Drawing with the Curvature tool
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: This course was updated on 02/24/2016. What changed?
A: We added five new videos and updated eight others, to keep up with the latest version of Illustrator CC.
Related Courses
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Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland155h 5m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome to One-on-One4m 20s
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1. Working with Documents
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Creating a new document5m 2s
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Modifying your new document5m 59s
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Saving your changes7m 46s
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2. Working with Artboards
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Using the Artboard tool8m 51s
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Undo, Redo, and Revert3m 16s
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Artboard tips and tricks4m 46s
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Autoarranging artboards6m 41s
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Artboards and rulers7m 26s
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3. Getting Around
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Zooming in and out5m 59s
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Cycling between screen modes6m 38s
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4. Drawing Lines
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Now, we draw44s
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Creating center guides7m 13s
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Drawing straight lines5m 10s
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Duplicating and extending6m 15s
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Using the Move command5m 19s
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Joining your line segments5m 23s
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Using the Arc tool6m 45s
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Using the Polar Grid tool3m 29s
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Using the Spiral tool7m 31s
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5. Drawing Shapes
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Using the Ellipse tool7m 45s
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Live ellipses and pies4m 44s
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Drawing two perfect circles8m 22s
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Creating compound paths7m 1s
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Using the Rectangle tool5m 39s
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Using the crazy Flare tool6m 19s
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6. Color and Swatches
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How color works1m 7s
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Working with global swatches5m 43s
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7. Strokes, Dashes, and Arrows
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Adjusting the line weight4m 42s
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Caps, joins, and miter limit6m 25s
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Dashes and arrowheads7m 24s
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Variable-width strokes5m 58s
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Combining multiple strokes4m 18s
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8. Creating and Formatting Text
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Text at its best1m 2s
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Setting up page margins6m 25s
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Placing and flowing text5m 34s
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Formatting display text5m 47s
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Formatting body copy5m 59s
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Creating a drop cap3m 39s
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Resolving widows and orphans4m 49s
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Redefining a paragraph style6m 48s
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Creating type on a path6m 3s
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9. Building Custom Paths
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Join and the Shape Builder1m 12s
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Using the Join command6m 26s
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Using the Join tool4m 16s
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Creating an inset reflection6m 32s
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10. Using the Pencil Tool
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Creating a tracing template3m 28s
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11. Painting and Erasing
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The best tools for painting1m 27s
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Introducing the Eraser tool6m 56s
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Merging selected paths4m 58s
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Releasing compound paths6m 7s
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Erasing and smoothing lumps6m 13s
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12. Using the Curvature Tool
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Drawing one point at a time1m 46s
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Curvature tool curiosities4m 32s
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Creating quick smooth shapes6m 29s
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13. Using the Pen Tool
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Creating corner points6m 44s
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How smooth points work6m 51s
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Drawing smooth points7m 55s
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Creating cusp points6m 34s
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Using the Anchor Point tool5m 32s
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Drawing perspective edges5m 48s
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Drawing a few distress marks10m 1s
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A preview of round corners9m 26s
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14. Drawing with Round Corners
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Making corners smooth1m 7s
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The round corner widget3m 44s
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Rounding off corner points4m 54s
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Changing the corner type3m 37s
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Rounding characters of type6m 15s
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Decorating an iPhone screen6m 37s
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Reshaping rounded paths9m 40s
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15. Making Screen Graphics
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Pixel grid "gotchas"5m 5s
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Saving an 8-bit graphic6m 32s
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Saving a JPEG image5m 10s
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Assigning a copyright3m 10s
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Using the Asset Export panel4m 42s
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Conclusion
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Until next time1m 50s
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Video: Creating a time-saving template