Illustrator Defaults Before we begin, we are going to make sure that all of us are using the same settings within our application. For this class, we will always want to make sure that our application is set to the default settings and that our workspace is set to the Essentials layout. We are even going to make sure that we reset the Essential workspace to ensure yours and mine have not been changed along the way as you ve been experimenting with the applications. To do this I want you to ensure that you have Adobe Illustrator closed. If you currently have the application open on a Macintosh, choose the Illustrator menu and pick Quit. On the PC go to the File menu and choose Quit. Now, we are going to restart the machine and tell Illustrator to reset itself to its defaults. To do this I need you to hold down three keys on your keyboard and while they are held down you will click the Illustrator icon to launch the application. On the PC the three keys are The ALT, CTRL and the Shift key. You will find these on the bottom left hand corner of any windows keyboard. The Control key typically is right under the shift key and is labelled CTRL. To its right is usually a windows flag key and then the ALT key. If you re on a PC, go ahead and find those keys and practice holding them down together with one hand. It won t do anything to your computer until you combine it with the opening of the application. For you Mac users, I want you to look for the Option, Command and Shift keys. The Option key is on the bottom row of keys and the third in from the left. In addition to saying Option it also says Alt in the upper left hand corner of the key. Immediately to the right of the Option key is the Command key which features the word Command as well as the Apple Command Symbol which you will often see in some printed tutorials and reference books. You can hold these three keys down with one hand as well. Alright now that we all know where our reset keys are, I know want you to hold down all three keys and, while they are held down, I want you to use your other hand to move your mouse to the Adobe Illustrator icon and launch Illustrator. 1 of 11
Some Windows users are going to get a Windows Security message asking for permission to launch please continue to keep the keys held down and use your mouse to click the Yes. As you have your three reset keys held down, Adobe Illustrator will begin to launch. When you see the splash screen you can release the keys and wait for Illustrator to finish loading. Illustrator has now reset itself to the default settings for the application. As we move forward this should ensure that everything you see on my screen is what you see on your screen. One final step to ensure consistency between our applications. I would like us all to be using the default workspace which is called Essentials. Please go to the top right hand corner of the application and make sure that this drop down workspace choose says Essentials. Now click on the workspace list again and from the drop down list I want you to choose Reset Essentials. We are now set to begin working through our tutorials. In future exercises we ll always ask you to check that you are on the Essentials menu and to reset it so that it reflects the same layout as our tutorial screen. Please quit Illustrator. 2 of 11
Files From DocShare In this video, we will cover how to use the simple Shape tools and apply Fills and Strokes. In Doc Sharing, click on the Category Week 2. From the files list look for a file named Wk2_Asn1_Assets.zip. Place a checkmark in the toggle box next to the file name and click the Download Documents button from the Doc Sharing menu. Your file will be downloaded to your computer. Using the skills we learning during week 1, unzip the file. It will uncompress to a folder called Wk2_Asn1_Assets. Inside the folder you will find two items that you will need to complete this assignment. The first is a file called AIO_G150_W2_A1_Roadmap.pdf which contains specific written steps for completing the assignment. The second file is called Student_Shape_exercise.ai We will open this file in Adobe Illustrator and use some of the basic drawing tools. 3 of 11
Opening Files Remember, we never open files by double clicking. You don t want your computer deciding which application it wants you to use on a file. We see this is an Adobe Illustrator AI file and so we know we want to work in Illustrator. With this in mind, I want you to open Adobe Illustrator. On the PC you can use the Start Menu and then choose Adobe Illustrator from the Adobe Creative Suite folder under All Programs or, you might have decided to pin the application to your Taskbar or Start Menu. Regardless, click the application name to start the application. On the Macintosh, go to the Applications folder and locate the Adobe Illustrator folder. Then double click the Adobe Illustrator.app icon. If you have placed the program on your Dock you can single click it to launch from there. You can also use Spotlight to quickly type in the name if the application, once it appears, click the icon and Illustrator will launch. From Illustrator choose the File menu and then click Open. Now navigate to your file named Student_Shape_exercise.ai Again, as a professional designer you should get in the habit of working from the File_Open menu. It gives you greater control over where you content is edited. Try and forget that double clicking exists as an option for file opening. 4 of 11
Navigating the AI File Once you open the file you will see the following contents: Let s quickly look over here at the Layers menu. Since we are all working in the default view of the Essentials menu, let s expand the panels that are currently docked to the right side of the application frame by clicking the arrow at the top right corner of the minimized panels dock. The layer s panel is at the bottom of the docked set to the right of the application area. 5 of 11
Your exercise file has 3 layers. The bottom layer is called Shapes and it contains the image of elements that we are going to ask you to draw. This layer can be seen by you while you are working on the file, but it does not print or export. We did this so that you can use each shape as a guide. We want you to draw your shape right on top of the image! It will give you a path to follow kind of like a paint by numbers assignment. Once you finish the assignment and save the work though, the only shapes we will see will be your newly drawn shapes. This layer is locked and if you select it and try to draw on it you will get an error message. Above the Shapes layer is the Directions layer. This is simply the text that tells you what tools and point sizes to use on each shape. This layer is also locked. You cannot draw on it. Now we get to the top the top layer the Student Drawing layer. This is the layer that you will be working on. To make sure it is active, go to the Layers panel and click the layer. Notice how the layer is now highlighted? This means it is the active layer. You are now ready to start creating your shapes. The written roadmap will walk you through each of the shapes, but I would like to take just a few minutes to demonstrate the basic tools for you in this video. I would suggest that you just watch what I do for the next 5 minutes. Once the video is done, you can use the roadmap and the tool and try creating your shapes. If you run into a problem, feel free to come back to this video to reference some of the ways we introduced the tools. Shape Tools All the primary Shape tools are located within the Tools panel. Some tools are grouped together because they have similar functionality. These are often referred to as nested or Hidden tools. As we discussed in the lecture, anytime you see a small arrow in the lower right hand corner of a toolbar icon you know there are additional tools stacked below it. 6 of 11
By clicking and holding a nested tool icon, it will open the menu to showcase all the Tools: the Rectangle tool, Rounded Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, Polygon tool, Star tool, and Flare tool. Select the appropriate tool, and then click and drag the object onto the art board, dragging it into the appropriate sized object. Or, if you need to create objects at a specific size, simply click onto the art board and a dialog box will open allowing you to specify the appropriate height and width of the Shape. When you choose the Rounded Rectangle tool and place a single click onto the stage, you'll see that you have the additional option of choosing the size for the Rounded Corners. You can also change the Corner Radius visually by tapping the Up and Down arrow keys as you click & drag to draw the shape. The Star tool dialog allows you to indicate the appropriate number of sides for the star, or you can click onto the Up and Down arrow keys while drawing the shape to change the number of sides for the star. Fills In order to change the colors for these objects, you can assign the colors within the Control Panel. Since we are all working in the default workspace, the Control Panel is docked at the top of the application. It is context sensitive and changes its options based on the objects and tools in use. This first box allows you to apply the Fill color for a Shape, which you can change by clicking it to pop up the Swatches panel. You can then choose your color. This second box changes the color of the Stroke, which is the line around the Shape. When you make changes to the Stroke and Fill when no objects are selected, you are setting your default Fill and Stroke values for all new objects. You can always select an existing object as well and change these color values for each shape. 7 of 11
Lines & Strokes There are a number of tools associated with Lines here. Clicking and holding this icon provides us with the Line Segment tool, Arc tool, Spiral tool, Rectangular Grid tool, and Polar Grid tool. The Line Segment tool is great for drawing lines and you can change the color of the Stroke on the line here on the Control Panel. If you would like to change the thickness of the Stroke, open the Stroke panel under Window > Stroke. The weight of the Stroke is the thickness of the line. You can chose a Stroke size from the drop down list or enter a precise value directly in the entry box. These are options to change the appearance of the stroke line and selecting this option will allow you create a dotted line Stroke. Adobe provides easy access to the entire Strokes panel right from the Control Panel. Notice how we have some basic settings for the Stroke like its weight and color? Sometimes you need the full set of adjustments available to you through the panel. To make your workflow more efficient, you will often see the name of a panel written in orange right on the Control Panel. If you click that word look at what happens the entire panel magically pops out from the Control Panel allowing you to quickly access those additional settings. Click on the panel name again and it will disappear. Let s go back to the various Line tools. Keep in mind that some of these Line tools, like the Spiral tool provides options like the Shapes when you click and continue to hold the mouse in. You can use the Up and Down arrow to change the length of the spiral. The Pen Tool The Pen tool is one of the most important tools to use for illustration within Illustrator. It is also the tool that takes the most amount of practice to master. The Pen tool is unique as it allows 8 of 11
you to bend the lines as you draw them. Once you select the Pen tool, click onto the Art Board. Then after you click your second line, continue to hold in the mouse. When you do this, you can see that you have control over the bend and shape of the line. Drawing the Heart Drawing a heart with the Pen tool takes a little more finesse, so don't worry if this seems a little difficult at first. Start by selecting the Pen tool and clicking onto the Art Board and hold your mouse down. This will allow you to drag the handle up a little it helps to hold in the Shift Key while you drag up so that your Handle snaps in perfect vertical alignment. This will help set up the line properly for our first bump in the heart. Then, click over to the left a little and hold in the Shift key again as you drag down and release the mouse once you have a good arc. Then below our first point, click again and drag down. You can see that this creates half of our heart, which looks quite good already. Then draw a line for this last point over to the right. This is harder to curve at first. Just use the Shift Key and drag upward a little. Then we can use a new tool called Convert Anchor Point tool. Here, you can drag this bottom point's handle upward, and this will give us the proper curve in this line. Then we can switch back to the Pen tool, and using the same technique we used on the first heart bump, we can click and drag this handle upward, then click over and using the Shift key, we can create a matching bump. Of course, now this changes our first bump, so we need to use the Convert Anchor Point tool again and then you can drag this lower handle all the way above the heart to create the matching bump. If you need to, use the Direct Selection tool to make additional adjustments. 9 of 11
Creating the Wave You can also create simple shapes like a Wave with the Pen tool. If you want a thicker Stroke with the Pen tool, we can change the stroke size right here on the control panel. Notice how I'm holding in the Shift key to help me align the waveforms perfectly. We can continue making these shapes with minor adjustments along the way. If you want to fill in the color of this wave, with the wave selected, find the Fill box on the Tool Bar, double click it, and choose an appropriate blue color within the Color Picker. Now you have a completed Wave. Brush Tools The Paintbrush and Pencil tools allow you to freehand draw onto the Art Board. These are useful to create a more organic style of illustration within Illustrator. You can draw your shapes and you still have the same control over the Stroke style and the object's Fill, which you can change at any time. The Blob brush is a handy tool for creating organic shapes. It is kind of like using a paintbrush. As you draw, each overlapping Stroke is combined with the other to make a single vector object. In your sample exercise you will use the Blob brush and the Pencil tool to create a pumpkin. Let me show you how I quickly do that. Since the Blob brush can let me quickly paint up a shape, I can just select the brush and choose an orange fill. Now let s just quickly paint up a rough shape of a pumpkin. Now that I have an orange filled shape I can go to my Control Panel and perhaps choose to give him a black Stroke. Since this is a solid shape, I will want to create some additional solid shapes for his eyes and mouth to sit on top of the shape. If I used the Blob brush it would just add my Strokes to the existing object that s not what we want. So let s use the Brush tool and just paint in a quick pair of eyes and a mouth. 10 of 11
Choose the Brush tool and let s pick a fill of white and a Stroke of 1 with the color black. Now let s draw the eyes and mouth. And there you go you created a very organic shape using vector Brush tools. Now it s time for you to try using the tools. Return to your Illustrator Student Shape Exercise file and try your hand at creating the shapes on the roadmap. Once you have completed the drawing, make sure you save this file. Under the File menu, choose Save As. Make sure that the format is an AI file. Name the file as indicated in the class assignment. You should also save this image for the web by creating a JPEG image to share with others. From the File menu, choose Save for Web In the Save for Web dialog box, choose the Presets dropdown menu and select JPEG High. The dialog box will populate with the settings for this pre set. Now go to the bottom of the dialog box and choose Save Save your file into the appropriate location. Take some time to practice all these techniques as the more you practice, the easier these will become. 11 of 11
Creating Vector Shapes- Week 2 Assignment 1