Intermediate/Advanced Illustrator CS4

Objectives

Recommended as a follow up to two day Fundamentals of Illustrator course or can be taken in its own right by those with equivalent experience.


Pre-requisites:

Existing competence in Illustrator or at least to the level of Transmedia Fundamentals course


Course Includes:

A comprehensive set of reference notes covering course topics, follow-up telephone support and, for training on Transmedia premises, lunch and refreshments.


Course Outline


Bridge


· Working more efficiently using Bridge to find/sort and manage files



Drawing


· Getting full control of the pen tool
· Amending, splitting, joining and manipulating paths
· Using templates, pencil and smooth



Brush effects


· Choosing calligraphic, art, scatter and pattern brushes
· Using the brush libraries
· Editing existing and creating new brushes


Working with patterns


· Creating simple patterns
· Defining artwork as a pattern


Modifications and special effects


· Transformations including blending shapes and the Gradient Mesh tool to create realistic artwork
· Pathfinder panel and compound paths including the new live compound tool
· Using the appearance panel for live editing
· Clipping Masks - viewing only the clipped area of your objects during editing.
· Using Isolation Mode, and Edit Clipping Path for more control










Tools


· Flare tool
· Distort tool including the warp and liquify tools
· Envelope distort and envelope mesh
· Using effects and graphic styles
· Working with masks and transparency
· Grids including the polar and arc grids
· New selection tools
· 3D tools indepth


Trace and Paint


· Using Live Trace to vectorise a Bitmap
· Manipulate objects using Live Paint


Web work


· Slicing to create entire web pages
· Exporting to SWF with Flash symbol support


Symbols


· Converting logos to symbols for reuse
· Using the symbol spray to instance symbols around page
· Update symbols, manipulate symbols


The Actions panel
·

Using existing actions
· Using Custom actions for automation and Batching


Image Output


· Saving, exporting and printing artboards independently or together
· Separations Preview - identifying unexpected spot colours, overprinting issues, and CMYK blacks in text and placed files