Adobe Illustrator, Course G401 Syllabus

Week 1 - Overview of illustration basics

• Graphics Overview
  • Raster graphics
  • Vector graphics
  • Printing graphics
• Creating new drawings & opening old ones
• Page set up
  • Rulers, grids and guidelines
  • Smart Guides
  • Smart guide preferences
  • One last guide to set
• Selecting an object
• Templates
• Viewing your work
  • Document info
  • Annotating an object
• Illustrator's Design Tools
  • Grid
  • Artboard/Workspace
• Bounding Box
• Setting preferences/customizing
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
• Saving your work
• Exporting your work as a bitmap
• Adobe Bridge
• Special Focus Lecture
  • Navigation or "Where the heck did that drawing go?"
• Tutorial
  • Offsetting an object

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Week 2 - Tools

• Toolbars
  • Default toolbar
• Let's Play
  • Drawing, selecting/deselecting, moving objects & manipulating object center points
  • Shapes
  • Drawing lines, curves, arcs
• Pen Tool Paths
  • Straight segments
  • Smooth points
  • Non-continuous curve
• Working with Anchor Points
  • Adjusting as you draw
• Setting Line Measurements & Validating for Errors
  • Setting line measurements
  • Attributes Palette
• Manipulating lines - Direct Select Tool
• Manipulating lines - Width Tool
• Filling & outlining
• The Pencil Tool Set
  • Pencil Tool
  • Smooth Tool
  • Erase Tool
• The Brush Tool
  • Brush options
  • Brush types - art, calligraphic, pattern, scatter, blob bristle
• Working with symbol libraries
• Undo the deed
  • Get me outta this!
• Special Focus Lectures
  • Pen Tool
  • Symbols
• Tutorial
  • Playing around with the Pathfinder Tool

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Week 3 - Transforming Objects

• Copying objects
• Transforming objects
  • Scaling & stretching
  • Rotating & reflecting
  • Shearing
• Pathfinder Palette
  • Combining shapes
    • Add
    • Subtract
    • Intersect
    • Exclude
    • Live Paint to Color Paths
    • Divide
    • Trim
    • Merge
    • Crop
    • Outline
    • Minus Back
• Positioning objects
  • Aligning & distributing
  • Stacking objects
  • Nudging
• Tyin' 'em Together & Breakin' 'em apart
  • Grouping & ungrouping
  • Locking & unlocking objects & layers
  • Compounding & breaking apart objects
  • Hiding and showing objects & layers
• Hackin' & A 'Hewin'
  • Scissors
  • Knife
• Tutorial
  • Let's Build A Snowman!

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Week 4 - Layers, Color, Type & Appearance

• Layers
  • Sub-layers
  • Template layers
  • Layer options
• Isolation mode
• Working with color
  • A word about color
  • Color aspects
  • Gradients
  • Transparency
• Color options
• Special painting and drawing tools
• Spot & process color
• One last word
• Text/Type
  • Adding, selecting & manipulating text
  • Editing
  • Formatting
  • Fitting text to a curve or line
  • Fitting text to a shape
  • Wrapping text
  • Symbols & special characters
  • Spacing, kerning & leading
  • Spell checking
  • Anti-alias
• Styles
• Tutorial
  • Some text special effects
• Exercise
  • Fun Pathfinder Exercise

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Week 5 - Live Paint & Live Trace (Available in CS2 Only)

• Live Paint
  • Live Paint Paths
  • Live Paint Groups
  • Limits
  • Back to Paths
• Live Paint Selection Tool
• Live Trace

Week 6 - ClipArt, 3D, Special Effects, and Working with Images

• Clipart
• 3D Tips & Tricks
  • Perspective
• Effects
• Special effects
• 3D modeling
• Adding art to your extrusion
• Liquify tools
• Object creation tools
• Envelopes
• Appearance palette
• Special Focus Lecture
  • Shadows
• Exercises
  • 3D modeled waterdrop
  • Creating a Bottle (using an envelope)

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Week 7 - Blends, Meshes, Masks & Libraries

• Blends
• Meshes and Masks - More fun stuff!
• Libraries
• Actions
• Scripting
• Working with image maps
• Slicing
• Tutorial
  • Using the Flare tool

Week 8 – Illustrator & The Web

• Input
• A Word on Output Types
• Color Gamut
• Sharing files with PhotoShop
• Illustrator and the web
• SVG - A Closer Look
• Final Words

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For additional information on classes, please contact us via an email to eclasses@canion-niwlog.com.