Illustrator CC Digital Classroom

Jennifer Smith is Vice President of American Graphics Institute and the author of numerous books on Adobe products. She is a member of the AGI Creative Team, which develops and delivers training programs for creative, marketing, and communications professionals through the American Graphics Institute.

Starting Up

About Illustrator Digital Classroom 1

Prerequisites 1

System requirements 1

Starting Adobe Illustrator CC 2

Loading lesson files 5

Working with the video tutorials 6

Setting up for viewing the video tutorials 6

Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player 6

Additional resources 7

Lesson 1: Adobe Illustrator CC Jumpstart

Starting up 9

The project 10

Setting up the Artboard 12

Creating the background shape 13

Combining shapes 14

Using the new Kuler panel 15

Applying a fill and stroke 16

Creating the smaller combined shape 17

Applying color and effects 18

Cloning the small shape 20

Aligning and distributing the shapes 22

Adding text 23

Applying the Warp effect 24

Adding text to the small shape areas 25

Distorting a shape 27

Importing an image 29

Adding lines of text 30

Using the new Touch Type tool 35

Self study 36

Review 36

Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workspace

Starting up 37

Opening Illustrator 38

Exploring the Illustrator CC interface 39

Choosing a workspace 40

Opening a file 41

The document window 43

Using Artboards 43

Navigating multiple Artboards 43

Using the Artboards panel 44

Creating new Artboards 46

Switching screen modes 47

Changing your view 48

Preview versus Outlines 48

Zooming and scrolling 49

Scrolling with the Hand tool 53

Changing views with the Navigator panel 54

The Tools panel 55

Using tools and panels 56

The Control panel 60

Moving the Control panel 61

Panel groups and the dock 62

Custom workspaces 65

Saving workspaces 65

Using the Manage Workspaces dialog box 66

Customizing keyboard shortcuts 67

Default shortcuts 67

Custom shortcuts 68

Saving shortcut sets 70

Deleting shortcut sets 71

Self study 71

Review 72

Lesson 3: Illustrator CC Essentials

Starting up 73

Using the shape tools 74

Repositioning and visually resizing the rectangle 76

Finding or changing the shape’s dimensions using the Transform panel 77

Rotating and shearing using the Transform panel 78

Constraining a shape 79

Entering exact dimensions 80

Selecting artwork 82

Helpful keyboard shortcuts for selections 82

The selection tools 82

Using shape and transform tools to create artwork 87

Using the transform tools 87

Adding a fill color 89

Entering a shape size in the Transform panel 90

Viewing in Outline view 91

Rotating the shape 91

Changing the color of the triangles 93

Using layers when building an illustration 94

Creating a new blank layer 95

Cutting and pasting objects 95

Creating bubbles 97

Cloning the bubble group 98

Repeating a resize transform 99

Moving objects from one layer to another 101

Self study 102

Review 102

Lesson 4: Adding Color

Starting up 103

Basics of the Appearance panel 104

Changing colors 105

Adding effects 106

Creating a colorful illustration 108

Using Live Paint 108

Converting the artwork to a Live Paint group 111

Applying Live Paint to the group 111

Adding a symbol to your artwork 112

Expanding the symbol 115

Saving swatches 115

What is a Global Color? 117

Selecting the Same color 117

Saving a set of colors as a group 119

Creating a color group from selected colors 119

Using the Color panel 120

Adding Pantone (Spot) Colors 122

Adding Pantone colors 123

Taking advantage of the new and improved Kuler panel 125

Review 128

Lesson 5: Working with the Drawing Tools

Starting up 129

Working with the Pen tool 130

Drawing straight lines 131

Drawing curved lines 133

Drawing hinged curves 134

Drawing curved lines to straight lines 136

Drawing straight lines to curved lines 138

Tracing images 139

Placing an image as a template 139

Placing an image using Image Trace 142

Working with the new Image Trace Method option 147

Other drawing tools 150

Using the Line Segment and Arc tools 150

Using the Pencil, Smooth, and Path Eraser tools 152

Using the Eraser tool 154

Editing existing paths 154

Adding and removing points 154

Refining a curve 156

Cutting and joining paths 157

Combining shapes using the Shape Builder tool 159

Combining the shapes 162

Subtracting with the Shape Builder tool 162

Creating the fish eyes 164

Self study 166

Review 166

Lesson 6: Exploring Additional Color Options

Starting up 167

Taking a look at the finished illustration 168

Adding tonal values with gradients 170

Customizing an existing gradient 172

Saving the gradient 173

Applying a second instance of the gradient 174

Using the Gradient panel 175

Updating a gradient 179

Creating and using patterns 180

Creating a bounding box 181

Applying the pattern 182

Editing a pattern fill 183

Locating existing patterns 187

Finishing up the illustration 190

Creating a color group 193

Using the Color Guide 194

Self study 198

Review 198

Lesson 7: Using Patterns

Starting up 199

The Pattern Options panel makes creating patterns more manageable 200

Creating a pattern 200

Applying a pattern 201

Editing a pattern swatch 203

Editing a pattern in an object 204

Editing a pattern’s application visually 205

Self study 206

Review 206

Answers 206

Lesson 8: Working with and Formatting Text

Starting up 207

Formatting type 208

Paragraph formatting 211

Formatting imported type 213

Paragraph and character styles 216

Editing styles 219

Advanced techniques with text 222

Text on a path 222

Warping text 223

Text in a shape 225

Creating outlines 227

Check spelling 229

Find and Replace 231

Self study 231

Review 232

Lesson 9: Organizing your Illustrations with Layers

Starting up 233

Getting to know the Layers panel 234

Using layers to organize your illustrations 236

Using the Layers panel to make selections 237

Creating new layers and moving items between layers 238

Paste remembers layers 241

Template layers 243

Self study 244

Review 244

Lesson 10: Working with Symbols

Starting up 245

Cleaning out the symbol library 246

Creating symbols 247

Editing symbols 248

Importing a symbol library 251

Using the symbolism tools 252

Editing nested symbols 259

Replacing symbols 260

Saving symbol libraries 261

Self study 262

Review 262

Lesson 11: Using Effects and Transparency

Starting up 263

Working with the Appearance panel and effects 264

Applying effects 265

Editing effects 267

Using graphic styles 269

Creating and saving graphic styles 270

Applying and modifying graphic styles 272

Working with object transparency 272

Working with multiple opacities 273

Working with blending modes 274

Saving and importing graphic styles 276

Applying graphic styles to layers and symbols 277

Self study 279

Review 279

Answers 279

Lesson 12: Exporting and Saving Files

Starting up 281

Saving using the AI file format 282

Saving an illustration with layers 283

Making a template layer 283

Using the Transform Effect 284

Duplicating a Stroke 285

Saving different versions of the logo onto separate layers 287

Expanding appearance 287

Saving the first version 288

Using Live Paint 288

Using the Color Guide panel 289

Saving the third version 289

Using Recolor Artwork 290

Saving a layered PDF 291

Integration with other applications 293

Exporting for Photoshop 293

Integrating with InDesign 293

Integrating with Flash 293

Integrating with Microsoft Expression Blend (XAML) 293

Integrating with Premiere and After Effects 293

Saving as EPS 293

Saving for the Web 295

Making a Flash animation 297

Exporting a Flash animation 300

Self study 304

Review 304

Lesson 13: Advanced Blending Techniques

Starting up 305

Using the Blend tool 306

Applying a gradient 310

Applying radial gradients 312

Applying gradients using Illustrator’s Gradient Mesh options 314

Adjusting the Mesh 317

Revisiting Blend options 318

More mesh work 321

Overlapping images 323

Applying a gradient mesh using the Mesh tool 326

Finishing up with the Mesh tool and automatically adding a Highlight 330

Using the Symbol tools 332

Creating a symbol 336

Modifying a symbol’s appearance 338

Self study 342

Review 342

Lesson 14: Adobe Illustrator CC New Features

Starting up 343

What makes Adobe Illustrator CC so great? 344

Opening the finished file 344

Creating the luggage tag 344

Punching out the strap holder 348

Cloning the tag 349

Placing multiple images 350

Converting an image to vector art 351

Investigating the improved Links panel 352

Adding text 355

Using the new Touch Type tool 356

Embedding an image 357

Creating an image brush 358

Applying the image brush to a stroke 360

Packaging a file 361