Illustrator - Introduction

This is an introductory course for designers and budding developers new to the Illustrator CS4 environment, or those that have not had formal training.

What You'll Learn

You will learn use Adobe Illustrator C4 to create illustrations such as logos and advertisements that include type and graphics.

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

• Draw and understand Bezier curves, the root of drawing in Illustrator
• Create a logo using simple shapes
• Accurately place and measure objects in the Illustration window
• Trace and Color your hand drawn artwork with Live Trace, Live Paint and Live Color
• Save illustrations for both print and web purposes

Course Content

• Explore the prebuilt Document Profiles
• Shortcuts to navigate the Artboard effectively
• Create custom Workspaces

• Draw Paths with the Pen tool
• Add, delete or adjust points along a path
• Understand how Bézier Curves work
• Freeform Drawing tools
• Live Trace to transform images or hand drawn sketches
• into vector artworks that can be further adjusted
• Create Logo using simple Shapes
• Discovering basic Blends
• Symbols in Illustrator & Symbol Sprayer options

• Lasso select and the other goodies in the Select Menu
• Be precise using Smart Guides, Grids & Guidelines
• Align, Group & Duplicate to achieve better results
• Transform objects with Twirl, Bloat & other Warp tools
• Layers palette: Hide & Lock Objects
• Intro to Isolation Mode for effective editing

• Difference between Swatches and Colour palette
• Applying colour to Stroke and/or Fill
• Adjusting Stroke attributes with Stroke panel
• 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

Our goal is to make sure your class meets your objectives, not ours. Therefore, all of our outlines are treated as guides to help steer the workshop. We may change or alter course topics to best suit the classroom situation. A certificate will be given on completion of the course and you may also have the opportunity to sit for an accredited exam. Courses may also be customized to fit your exact requirements.