Illustrator CS4 Fundamentals and Essentials

Description

Illustrator CS4 Fundamentals and Essentials training course contains 15 lessons. The class covers the basics of learning Illustrator and provides countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. Learn how to create artwork for illustrations, logos, stationery, page layouts, posters, and integrate with Adobe Flash® movies, Adobe InDesign® layouts, and more! This course has everything you need to master the software: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.

Audience

This is an introductory course.  To gain the most from this class, students should:

  • Be familiar with Windows or Mac OS X.
  • Bring samples of your work to class.

Course Length

2 Days

Course Outline

Unit 1: Getting to Know the Work Area

  • Understanding the workspace
  • Working with the tools panel
  • The control panel
  • Working with panels
  • Using panel menus
  • Resetting and saving your workspace
  • Changing the view of artwork
  • Viewing artwork
  • Using the view commands
  • Using the zoom tool
  • Scrolling through a document
  • Navigating multiple artboards
  • Arranging documents
  • Document groups
  • Using the navigator panel
  • Finding resources for using Illustrator
  • Searching for a topic in Help
  • Checking for updates

Unit 2: Selecting and Aligning

  • Using the Selection tool
  • Using the Direct Selection tool
  • Creating selections with a marquee
  • Creating selections with a magic wand tool
  • Grouping items
  • Adding to a group
  • Working in isolation mode
  • Selecting similar objects
  • Applying selection techniques
  • Aligning objects
  • Aligning to a key object
  • Aligning points
  • Distributing objects
  • Aligning to the artboard

Unit 3: Creating and Editing Shapes

  • Creating a document with multiple artboards
  • Working with basic shapes
  • Accessing the basic shape tools
  • Creating with shapes
  • Outlining strokes
  • Working with line segments
  • Joining paths
  • Using the eraser tool
  • Combining objects
  • Working with pathfinder effects
  • Working with shape modes
  • Using Live Trace to create shapes

Unit 4: Transforming Objects

  • Working with Artboards
  • Adding artboards to the document
  • Editing artboards 
  • Transforming content
  • Working with rulers and guides
  • Scaling objects
  • Distorting objects
  • Shearing objects
  • Positioning objects precisely
  • Changing the perspective
  • Using the free distort effect
  • Making multiple transformations

Unit 5: Drawing with the Pen and Pencil Tools

  • Creating straight lines
  • Creating curved paths
  • Building a curve
  • Converting curved points to corner points
  • Creating the apple illustration
  • Creating the arrow
  • Splitting a path
  • Adding arrowheads
  • Drawing curves
  • Selecting a curve
  • Drawing a leaf
  • Drawing different kinds of curves
  • Convert between smooth points and corner points
  • Drawing the apple shape
  • Editing curves
  • Deleting and adding anchor points
  • Drawing with the pencil tool
  • Editing with the Pencil tool
  • Finishing the apple illustration
  • Assembling the parts
  • Painting the artwork

Unit 6: Color and Painting

  • Understanding color
  • Color modes
  • Building and saving a custom color
  • Editing a swatch
  • Using Illustrator swatch libraries
  • Creating a spot color
  • Using the Color Picker
  • Creating and saving a tint of a color
  • Copying color attributes
  • Creating color groups
  • Working with the color guide panel
  • Editing a color group
  • Editing colors in artwork
  • Working with the Kuler panel
  • Assigning colors to your artwork
  • Adjusting colors
  • Painting with gradients and patterns
  • Using patterns
  • Creating your own pattern
  • Applying a pattern
  • Editing a pattern
  • Working with Live Paint
  • Editing Live Paint regions

Unit 7: Working with type

  • Working with type
  • Creating point type
  • Crating area type
  • Importing a plain text file
  • Creating columns of text
  • Understanding text flow
  • Working with overflow text and text reflow
  • Threading text
  • Resizing type objects
  • Formatting type
  • Changing the font size
  • Changing the font color
  • Changing additional text attributes
  • Changing paragraph attributes
  • Saving and using styles
  • Creating and using a paragraph style
  • Creating and using a character style
  • Sampling text
  • Reshaping text with an envelope warp
  • Wrapping text around an object
  • Creating text on paths and shapes
  • Creating text outlines

Unit 8: Working with Layers

  • Creating layers
  • Moving objects and layers
  • Locking layers
  • Viewing layers
  • Pasting layers
  • Creating clipping masks
  • Merging layers
  • Applying appearance attributes to layers
  • Isolating layers

Unit 9: Blending Shapes and Colors

  • Working with gradients
  • Creating and applying a linear gradient
  • Adjusting the direction and angle of a gradient blend
  • Creating a radial gradient
  • Changing colors and adjusting the gradient
  • Applying transparency to gradients
  • Working with blended objects
  • Creating a blend with specified steps
  • Modifying the blend
  • Creating smooth color blends

...There are additional chapters that can be studied on your own