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Adobe Illustrator Course

This is a comprehensive two day Adobe authorised introduction to Adobe Illustrator designed to teach new users how to produce professional graphics and illustrations.

The course covers Illustrator’s sophisticated drawing and text controls, creating complex shapes, using painterly effects and the new LiveTrace and LivePaint features, allowing you to dramatically increase levels of productivity and creativity.

Throughout the two days the emphasis is on practical, hands-on learning and at the end of the course there will be a series of practical exercises designed to consolidate new skills and build confidence. If you wish to tailor this outline to your exact requirements, please call or email. 
 

Course Content


DAY ONE

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO ILLUSTRATOR

Creating new illustrations
Opening illustrations
Artboard components
The Illustrator interface
Navigating your illustrations

About vectors and bitmaps
When to use Adobe Illustrator

GETTING STARTED IN ILLUSTRATOR

Saving illustrations

ILLUSTRATOR ARTWORK COMPONENTS

Outline vs. Preview mode
Rulers, guides and grids
Paths, point and handles
Grouping objects
Introduction to layers

CREATING SHAPES

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

WORKING WITH COLOUR

Colour models
Applying colour to objects
Spot vs. process colour
Process and global process colours
Adding, duplicating, deleting and editing swatches
Introduction to gradients
Using the Eyedropper tool
Loading swatches
Sharing colour swatches across applications

DRAWING IN ILLUSTRATOR

Working with paths, points and direction handles
About bezier curves
Using the Pen tool
Creating simple bezier shapes
Drawing curves with the Pen tool
Drawing mixed paths
Tips for drawing curves
Editing, manipulating and modifying paths
Adding and deleting anchor points
Converting anchor points
Using the cutting tools
Using the Average and Join commands

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


DAY TWO

INTRODUCTION

USING LIVETRACE

Automatically tracing artwork
Adjusting LiveTrace results
Controlling LiveTrace colours
Setting LiveTrace options
Creating LiveTrace presets
Converting LiveTrace objects

PAINTING IN ILLUSTRATOR

Manipulating stroke options
Stroke placement options
Painting with the Paintbrush
Introducing blends
Introducing the Gradient mesh
Creating multiple fills and strokes on a single object
Creating LivePaint groups
Painting LivePaint objects
Introducing symbols

ORGANISING YOUR ARTWORK

Editing the artboard size
Using guides and smart guides
Positioning elements using the Control and Transform palette
Using the Align palette
Using layers
Creating complex shapes
Creating compound shapes
Creating compound paths
Expanding compound shapes

TRANSFORMING OBJECTS

Using the Transform tool
The Reshape tool
Control and Transform palette
Introducing the Liquify tools
Envelope distortions

PLACING IMPORTED GRAPHICS

Photoshop import options
Displaying layer comps
Applying Spots to Grayscales

WORKING WITH TYPE

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

SAVING AND EXPORTING

Saving vs. exporting
Saving Illustrator files
Creating Adobe PDF files
Exporting files from Illustrator

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


Course Fee: £435 + VAT
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