Illustrator CS4: Introduction

DAY ONE

Welcome to Illustrator

• About vectors and bitmaps

Getting started in Illustrator

• Opening illustrations
• Using templates
• Creating new illustrations
• Tabbed document views
• Using document profiles
• Exploring panels and workspaces
• Navigating your illustrations

Artwork components

• Outline vs Preview mode
• Using multiple artboards in CS4
• Rulers, guides and grids
• Intuitive Smart Guides
• Paths, point and handles
• Grouping objects
• Group isolation mode
• Introduction to layers

Creating shapes

• Creating primitive shapes
• Creating polygons, stars and spirals
• Drawing lines, grids and arcs
• Snapping and aligning shapes

Working with colour

• Colour models
• Applying colour to objects
• Spot vs process colour
• Process and global process colours
• Managing swatches
• Creating colour groups
• Introduction to gradients
• Loading swatch libraries
• Sharing colour swatches across applications

Drawing in Illustrator

• Working with paths, points and direction handles
• Drawing freehand paths
• Tips for drawing curves
• Editing, manipulating and modifying paths
• Using the cutting tools
• Using the Average and Join commands
• Using the Eraser tool

Questions and answers

DAY TWO

Using LiveTrace

• Automatically tracing artwork
• Adjusting LiveTrace results
• Converting LiveTrace objects

Painting in Illustrator

• Manipulating stroke options
• Painting with the Paintbrush
• Introducing blends
• Introducing the Gradient mesh
• Creating multiple fills and strokes on a single object
• Introducing symbols

Introducing LivePaint

• Creating LivePaint groups
• Painting LivePaint objects
• Detecting gaps
• Path editing with LivePaint

Organising your artwork

• Editing the artboard size
• Using guides and smart guides
• Creating custom guides
• Positioning elements
• Using the Align palette
• Using layers
• Creating template layers

Transforming objects

• Using the Transform tools
• The Reshape tool
• Using the Transform panel
• Introducing the Liquify tools
• Basic Envelope distortions

Placing imported graphics

• Photoshop import options

Creating complex shapes

• Creating compound shapes
• Creating compound paths
• Expanding compound shapes

Working with type

• The type tools
• Using the Character panel
• Using the Paragraph panel
• Creating outlines from text
• Type on a path

Saving and exporting

• Saving Illustrator files
• Creating Adobe PDF files
• Exporting files from Illustrator

Questions and answers