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Learn how to take advantage of the next level of dynamic features in Adobe Illustrator CC.
Learn how to take advantage of the next level of dynamic features in Adobe Illustrator CC. This installment of industry expert Deke McClelland's Illustrator One-on-One series starts by showing you how to effectively manage layers, clipping groups, and swatches, so that you can easily swap out colors and content. Deke then explains how to create customized strokes and patterns and build complex gradients with transparency and dynamic effects, and then apply these features to paths, groups, and editable text to create professional-quality artwork. He also highlights some of the most popular features in Illustrator: Live Paint and all ten of its Pathfinder operations. The final chapters show how to prepare your projects for print and save them for distribution on the web.
Overview
Syllabus
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Introduction
- Welcome to One-on-One
- Creating and moving objects onto layers
- Creating and using sublayers
- Creating 3D type as a group
- Selecting and working inside groups
- Creating clipping groups
- Working in an isolation mode
- Applying effects to groups and layers
- Two containers that give you control
- Multiple views and power duplication
- Lifting a color and creating a swatch
- Creating and using global swatches
- Searching swatches by name
- Deleting, adding, and managing swatches
- Assigning and eyedropping colors
- Assigning colors to paths inside groups
- Adjusting the stacking order
- Selecting down a stack of paths
- Pasting in front and in back
- Combining multiple fills
- Trapping your art with rich blacks
- How swatches and stacking works
- Introducing the Stroke panel
- Caps, joins, and miter limits
- Dashes and arrowheads
- Using the Width tool to vary the line weight
- Adjusting the width of closed path outlines
- Making a coupon border with scissors
- Combining dashes with round caps
- Making an official money-like type effect
- Creating a wavy, engraving-line background
- Masking a pattern inside a background
- Creating tapering rules (with inset strokes)
- The rich world of strokes
- Assigning and modifying a gradient fill
- Using the Gradient tool and annotator
- Editing multiple gradients at a time
- Establishing symmetrical gradients
- Creating a radial gradient
- Adjusting the midpoint skew
- Mixing gradients with blend modes
- Adding transparency to a gradient
- Applying and editing dynamic effects
- Assigning a gradient to editable text
- Editing text that includes dynamic effects
- The three gradient stroke options
- How gradients work
- Drawing a linear spiral with the Polar Grid tool
- Assembling the raw ingredients for a pattern
- Using the Pattern Generator
- Tile types: Grid, Brick, and Hex
- The Size Tile to Art and Overlap options
- Creating a new pattern based on an existing one
- Applying patterns to strokes and text
- Moving and transforming patterns
- Fixing problem legacy patterns
- The reinvention of tile patterns
- Snapping one anchor point to another
- Aligning a group to the artboard
- Distributing objects across the artboard
- Aligning to a fixed "key" object
- Distributing by a specified amount of space
- Using the Align options to move objects
- Adding an extruded edge effect
- Optically aligning objects
- Adding a credible 3D cast shadow
- How alignment and distribution works
- Understanding all ten Pathfinder options
- Unite closed paths, join open ones
- Creating a dynamic compound shape
- Adding to a compound shape
- Variable width, Outline Stroke, and Unite
- Painting rough leaves with the Blob Brush
- Creating credible leaves with dynamic effects
- Contouring with the Blob Brush and Eraser
- Filling in branches with the Blob Brush
- Merging layers and uniting paths
- Using Divide and Minus Back
- Nesting one compound shape inside another
- Combining simple shapes to make complex ones
- Introducing Live Paint
- Stroking with the Live Paint Bucket
- Using the Live Paint Selection tool
- Adding paths to a Live Paint object
- Building a classic, interwoven Celtic knot
- Weaving one path outline into another
- Creating a path that overlaps itself
- Painting a path that overlaps itself
- Combining gradients and depth with Live Paint
- Swapping out Live Paint fills and strokes
- Casting shadows inside a Live Paint object
- Filling and stroking overlapping areas
- Placing a photograph into your artwork
- Dragging and dropping photos into Illustrator
- Working with linked images
- Scaling and cropping inside a bounding box
- Cropping an image inside a clipping mask
- Adding a border to an image and colorizing
- Creating a trendy gradient page curl
- Placing a Photoshop image with transparency
- Linking vs. embedding images
- Unembedding an image
- Packaging an Illustrator document
- Illustrator and the photographic image
- Convert all text to path outlines
- Setting the trim size and bleed
- Creating automatic and custom crop marks
- Introducing and applying Pantone spot colors
- Using the Separations Preview panel
- Troubleshoot, overprint, and trapping
- Printing: The General options
- Placement, scale, and tiling
- Adding trim and printer's marks
- PostScript and color separations
- The esoteric advanced printing options
- Local and commercial printing
- Aligning your artwork to the pixel grid
- Optimizing editable text for the web
- Increasing the resolution of your web art
- Saving a continuous-tone JPEG image
- Optimizing your art to a specific file size
- Saving high-contrast, low-color art to GIF
- The more flexible PNG format
- Saving PNG-24 for the web or PowerPoint
- Making art for the Internet
- Until next time
