Overview Illustrator rev -02/14/2014 Not… · Web viewto inches, portrait, 8 ½ x 11 “, save the document as . practice.ai. inside . InClass/Illustrator. What you will see is

Overview Illustrator rev -02/14/2014

We use it to create vector graphics

o Can resize without losing qualityo Place dots (anchor points)o Connect the dots with paths o Creates shapes, with or without fill and stroke

Creating Shapes

We use various tools to create the shapes, and then may fill inside the shapes and maybe add a stroke (border)

Can use predefined shapes or create your own: anchor points and paths

Illustrator overview Page 1

Once we have the anchor points, can fill the resulting areas, push, pull the points and paths to change the shapes.

Start Illustrator and choose a new print document; set units to inches, portrait, 8 ½ x 11 “, save the document as practice.ai inside InClass/Illustrator

What you will see is called the artboard (drawing area)

The document (page) also has a scratch area, aka. canvas area. Store stuff there so you can access it later

Change workspace to Essentials, or reset Essentials


Don’t see my Artboard

What if I can’t find the artboard?

Maybe you held down the space bar, clicked and held the left button and moved artboard so can’t see it anymore. Solutions:

View>Fit Artboard in Window

Or left mouse and spacebar at same time

Change toolbox to two columns, rather than one…personal preference: click tiny double-arrow top left:

Basic Shapes Draw a red ellipse (circle). Black stroke

Find, choose the Ellipse Tool

Hold down shift key to draw a perfect circle/square


Or, click once on the artboard and enter the desired size:

Choose Red as fill, black as stroke


Or, select Swatches panel:


Use black arrow (selection tool) and select the circle…look for anchor points.

Add a 4 pt black stroke

Bring stroke tool to top

Choose color (black)

Set size using Window>Stroke or

Use control area at top:


Paths connect the anchor points

Select>Deselect

Choose white arrow (Direct select ) and double-click an anchor point, drag it:

Ctrl-Z


Draw a small blue rectangle and drop on top of circle…

Assumes square ends up in layer above circle (Window>Layers)

Drag the circle layer above the square…what happened?

Ctrl-Z

Adding Anchor points Click and hold on the Pen tool, choose Add anchor point

Tool


Go ahead and add a few additional anchor points to the blue square along a path…

Use the Direct Selection tool (white arrow) and pull and push the anchor points…look for the word anchor:

Scaling and rotating

And


Example: Scaling Select the objects by dragging over them using Selection

tool (Black arrow)

Method # 1

o Double click the Scale Tool and resize by 200%

This opens


And:

Objects have a box around them: Rotation is relative to that box; called a bounding box. You can rotate using it


Add two perfect yellow circles:

Rotation Method # 2: Undo rotation


Use the Transform panel to rotate:

Select the entire object (drag over all of it)

Open the Transform panel (Window>Transform)

Use Rotation tool:

Select the red circle

Use the Transform panel to resize W, H to 3”:


Set width and height to 3” see above…look for link symbol:

Rotation Method 3: Make sure the Bounding Box is visible (Window> Show>

Hide Bounding Box)


The Swatches panel shows colors, gradients, and patterns. You can add additional ones from built-in libraries, or “mix your own” colors.

Panel Menus and Color Management The Swatches panel,

like most Illustrator panels, has a panel menu…find the small arrow in upper right


Panel Menu Example

Adding a new swatch library member ( Library: A group of related items)

Click upper right corner, just below the “x”

Choose Open Swatch Library… then Celebration


Drag Celebration panel onto to Swatches panel:


Choose colors that are indicative of the purpose; i.e. use Foliage colors for a wildlife project,

Process Colors versus Spot Colors Swatch colors can be process or spot. Spot adds in

additional colors other than CMYK

In general, stay with process colors-made with CMYK inks…cheapest …

Review: Gamut=number of colors a given color model can reproduce…Red Green Blue gamut on monitor larger than CMYK (paper) and Spot colors have larger gamut than process

Use spot only when:

Publication needs a color that cannot be accurately reproduced with CMYK inks, such as precise color matching of a corporate or logo color.

Need more vibrant colors than what CMYK inks produce. Project requires special effects such as metallic or

fluorescent spot inks.

Basically, spot colors are more expensive, try to not use them

Close, don’t save Start new document, practice2


Practice using anchor points, Fills, strokes and tracing objects

Drawing using Pencil tool

It draws using the current stroke color, and size

Turn Fill off

Draw a 4-point black line:

Look for anchor points

Click the white arrow (Direct Select) Click the line

Find an anchor (Direct Select) and drag


Drawing using Pen tool

Click once, move cursor, click again to draw a straight line

Make a triangle

or

Click once, Click again at another location but drag cursor to create a curve with handles

Practice: Use the pen tool to create a shape like this:


Viewing Smart Guides

if Smart Guides turned on , and you pause over a corner of a selected object, you will see the word anchor.

If you hover near the center of an object, look for center to appear

Same for paths

Try it

Fill with a Gradient

A gradual change from color to color

Draw a couple yellow circles

Use the black arrow (Selection tool) to select any object …select the fill, NOT the stroke

Now click the Gradient> Fill tool


Result: A default gradient is applied

Now click the Gradient tool and manipulate the bar:

Just drag across the circle:


Try another gradient in the Swatches panel:

Try the orange, green gradient

Choose Fade to Black gradient again

Roll your own

Double-click the Gradient tool (Not the gradient fill) or Window>Gradient

Result:


Drag a start and end stop color

Move the middle diamond left and right to see the effect on the gradient fill

You can drag the cursor to apply the gradient from any angle (Drag from right to left so darkest is on the right)

The icons on the bottom of the horizontal bar are called stops There are two at the present time

Can drag a color from the swatch panel to any stop, can add, delete stops

Drag a red swatch to the leftmost stop:


Add a new stop in the middle of the line (choose a new color)

Pull down to delete a stop

OK, so those are the most often used fill options (There is a fill with Pattern, which we skipped

Using the Transform Panel…Precise Placement Can verify size (and location) of an object via Transform

panel, which we opened at the beginning of this module.


Select the rectangle and look at Transform panel values: Note the 9 references...center one is selected below…can also use the control panel reference object

Draw a rectangle and fill it with blue with black stroke

Open the Transform panel:

Select the rectangle and use the Transform panel to position its center at X=4, Y=4. Click the middle proxy :


Selecting Objects Use the Black Arrow (Selection Tool)

Drag or shift-click to select more than one object

Selecting part of an object-

Deselect everything first (Can “click away” with Selection tool or Select>De-select)

Use white arrow…called Direct Select tool

Click a corner of any rectangle using Direct Select

Pull a corner anchor point to deform the rectangle

Note:

Look at corner anchor points…only the one you selected should be filled in…if not, click away (deselects), then click a corner anchor again click each anchor point and turn the fill color be hollow:


Save your document (practice2.ai)

Symbol Spray Tool

Choose Window>Symbols

Click on a symbol ( I chose grime)

Find Symbol Sprayer tool on left side

Spray away!

Add more symbols:panel menu>


Symbol LibrariesThere are many collections of symbols. To see then, Choose Window>Symbol Libraries and choose a category

Here is the flowers library:


Drag one to the document and resize

Cropping esp for WebMaybe want a piece of your artboard for a web site you’re doing. Of course, the object then becomes a bitmap

The cropping tool is actually called the artboard tool

It puts sizing handles around the artboard: try itHere is mine after I resized the box:


Crop and then save for Web

The Blend tool Use pencil tool and draw two lines with zero fill, 4 point

stroke, two different colors

Select both lines


Object>Blend>Make

Another gradient!

As long as we’re on blend, let’s blend a rectangle to a star (a morph)

Draw an orange rectangle and a star

o Star tool is under Rectangle tool, just select and say OK, color it green

o Draw an orange square

Select both: (Drag over both, or select one, then shift-click on the second object)


Object>Blend>Blend Options:

Says to Blend in 8 steps

Then, Object>Blend>Make:


Back to basics…

Anchors and Paths Start a new document named AnchorsAndPaths.ai

Recall there are two selection tools: Selection (black arrow) and Direct Select (White arrow). The Selection tool selects entire objects. Direct Select: a part of an object

Goal: Create this:

Set Fill to none, stroke to 1 point black


Create a new rectangle 5” wide by 2”, (no fill), black stroke, 1 point

Show rulers

Click away

Use the Selection arrow and select, then move, the rectangle:

The small circles are the anchor points

Can resize/reshape the object using the anchor points

Click on a path (Turn SmartGuides on to see the word “path”, indicating you did, in fact, select a path)

a path connects two adjacent anchor points

Moving an Object Select the rectangle using Selection tool

Move it

Shift-Drag constrains to 45 degree angles.

Alt-Drag makes a copy of the object being moved


Summary: We use the direct selection tool to select part of an object; the Selection tool to select the entire object

Adding Anchor pointsWant to add two additional anchor points along the top path of the rectangle

Ctrl-Z to return the rectangle to its original 5” x 2” shape

Show rulers (if not already showing)

Drag out two vertical guides from the rulers

To precisely position where we want the new anchor points

Initially will be locked

To unlock:


View>Guides

Check the Lock Guides box

Rearranging stacking order

o Open the Layers panel

Expand Layer 1…


o The guides are on top, but we want the paths to be on top so we can add anchor points along a path…

Bring the rectangle to the top

Method # 1: drag the <Path> Layer to the top:

Method # 2: select the rectangle (black arrow)

Select Object>Arrange>Bring to front:

Select the rectangle using the Direct select (White arrow) tool


Now, select the Add Anchor Point tool

Click where your guides meet the path: look for “intersect” via smart guides

Deselect all

Select both by dragging over both with Direct Select tool (or select one, then Shift-click the second

Make sure both anchors are filled-in (i.e. Direct selected)


Anchor points are solid when selected, open when not selected.

Pull down the path between the two new points

Hiding the guides View>Guides>Hide Guides

Now : Pathfinder Draw a black ellipse and two smaller ones (Black also)…

unite takes on the color of whatever is on top


Now find Pathfinder panel

Select all three objects, then “Unite”

To subtract the top:Minus Front

Result:


Divide:

Draw a rectagle and a circle:

Select both

Choose pathfinder Divide

Use direct select to pull the objects apart:

Save

Close the document


Documents

Overview Illustrator rev -02/14/2014 Not… · Web viewto inches, portrait, 8 ½ x 11 “, save the document as . practice.ai. inside . InClass/Illustrator. What you will see is