Adobe Illustrator Introduction Masterclass

This 4-day Masterclass course helps you learn about the tools and features available in Adobe Illustrator. We will help you understand how this industry-leading program takes graphical design to a new level. You will learn how to create and manipulate shapes and curves, combining them with text to produce simple logos ready for the web and for print. Together, we will work with colours, gradients, layers, fonts, and photos to create eye-catching illustrations and text effects. We will then move on to more advanced topics, such as enhanced control of Bézier curves, creating custom brushes, and automating workflows.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Navigate the Illustrator environment
• Create a logo using simple shapes
• Draw and understand Bézier curves, the root of drawing in Illustrator
• Enhance control of Bézier curves by creating compound paths
• Apply gradients and patterns
• Edit paths and anchor points
• Set attributes in the Appearance panel
• Measure objects and place them with precision
• Trace and colour your hand-drawn artwork with Live Trace, Live Paint, and Live Colour
• Define custom brushes and graphic styles
• Add transparencies, drop shadows, and other effects
• Export illustrations for web and for print
• Prepare documents for composite and commercial printing
• Automate your workflow with other Creative Cloud programs

The following is a general outline. The range of topics covered during your training is dependent upon student level, time available and preferences of your course booking.

• Explore the pre built Document Profiles
• Shortcuts to navigate the Artboard effectively
• Work in a Custom Workspace

• Use the Pen tool for straight lines
• Add, delete or adjust points along a path
• Understand how Bezier Curves work, learn to draw and edit these Curves
• Freeform drawing and editing with this powerful tool
• Create Logos using simple Shapes
• Using Live Trace to transform your hand drawn sketches into vector artwork that can be further adjusted

• Lasso select and the other goodies in the Select Menu
• Transform objects with scale, shear, rotate & reflect tool
• Be precise using Smart Guides, Grids & Guidelines
• Align, Group & Duplicate to achieve better results
• Layers palette: Hide & Lock Objects
• Intro to Isolation Mode for effective editing
• Working with Colours in Illustrator

• Applying colour to Stroke and/or Fill
• Adjusting Stroke with the Stroke palette
• Live Colour for perfect Complementary / Analogous colours
• Live Paint as an easy way to colour artwork
• Introducing Gradients & Patterns

• Point, Area and Type on a path
• Import Body Type & fix Spelling Errors
• Find and Replace Text or Insert Typographic Characters
• Create Text Outlines to design your own fancy headlines

• Defining cropping area
• Saving your artwork in vector formats
• Save for Web & Devices

• Make use of Outline Strokes technique
• Explore Shape Modes and Pathfinder palette - create Compound Paths for trendy grunge effects
• Use Expand Appearance to modify individual elements
• Create your own Custom Brushes: Calligraphy Scatter or Art, to place objects along a path
• Keep your paths Simple & Cleaned Up
• Graphs - use your own artwork instead of a simple bar

• Envelope Distort & other forms of Warping objects
• Clipping Mask for advanced design
• Transparency for more polished look
• Create drop shadows, glows and more using the Stylise Live Effects
• Share the appearance attributes with Graphic Styles
• Explore Gradient Mesh & its ability to add realistic 3D shading and highlights to 2D graphics
• Learn the difference between Filters & Live Effects
• Blend shapes or groups for advanced compositions

• Character Palette - adjust the kerning, baseline shift, horizontal & vertical scaling
• Paragraph Palette - Justification and Hyphenation options
• Use the 3D feature to extrude text and other Illustrator objects

• Simulate multiple pages in Illustrator using the artboard and document setup
• Flattening Transparency for raster effects like drop shadows, glows and blurs
• Creating separations with Spot colour vs. Process colour

• Explore Links & Actions palettes
• Export to Flash (SWF)
• Use Symbols to create elements used repeatedly in animations and complex artworks
• Use the Release to Layers command to distribute all of the objects on a layer onto separate, individual layers for quick web animations
• Creating Smart objects, Dragging-and-dropping and exporting layers into Photoshop