Excerpt from Dynamic Learning - Illustrator CS3
 |
What you’ll learn
in this lesson:
- Working with graphic styles
- Warping text
- Adding a symbol to the
Symbols panel
- Using the Color Guide
- Converting artwork
- Erasing paths
- Creating a 3-D object
|
Illustrator CS3
Jumpstart
In this lesson you will run through some fast-paced exercises in which you try out some of the new features introduced in Lesson 1, “What’s New in Adobe Illustrator CS3?” as well as take advantage of some existing tips and tricks that you may have never been exposed to before. Have fun with this lesson—don’t worry about how and why everything works, as these features are covered in more detail in later lessons.
Starting up
Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your workspace. See “Resetting the Illustrator workspace” on page 3.
You will work with several files from the ai02lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the idlessons folder onto your hard drive. See “Loading lesson files” on page 3.
The project
In this lesson you will create artwork for a CD case and map it to a 3-D object.
1 Open Adobe Illustrator CS3.
2 Choose File > Browse or press the Go to Bridge button ( ) in the upper-right corner of the Control panel.
By selecting the Go to Bridge button within Illustrator, you launch a separate application called Adobe Bridge. Bridge is an indispensable tool that is used to easily locate files. With Adobe Bridge, you can see a preview of every file within any given folder.
3 Once Bridge opens, navigate to the ai02lessons folder and double-click ai0201_done.ai to open it. A CD cover appears in Illustrator. The CD artwork contains objects created in Adobe Illustrator CS3 using auto trace, symbols, the Eraser tool and new Live Color feature. In the following exercises, you will create this file. You can keep the file open for reference, or choose File > Close to close it.
|
The completed CD artwork. |
As you learned earlier, the new Illustrator CS3 workspace is consistent with the other applications in the Creative Suite 3, which helps you to find the tools you need faster, no matter which application you are using. Click on the gray bar above the Tools panel to toggle between a one-column and two-column view. This lesson uses two-column Tools panel, but you can choose whichever format you prefer.
4 For this lesson you will want to have multiple panels showing at the same time. To make sure that you can follow the lesson more easily choose Window > Workspace > [Basic].
Creating the background
For this artwork you will create a simple solid colored background and then build additional graphics using the Live Trace, Symbols and Live Color features.
1 Choose File > New. The New Document dialog box appears. Type cdartwork into the Name text field.
2 Choose Print from the New Document Profile drop-down menu. By choosing the Print preset your default colors, patterns, and gradients are built from CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) colors.
|
Choose Print from the New Document Profile drop-down menu. |
3 Make sure that Letter is chosen from the Size drop-down menu, and choose Inches from the Units drop-down menu, then press OK. The new document is created.
The document window contains a blank artboard, which represents the entire region that can contain printable artwork.
4 Select the Rectangle tool ( ) from the Tools panel. You will use this shape tool to create the initial background for your artwork.
5 Click once on the artboard to prompt the Rectangle dialog box.
6 Type 5 in the Width textbox, then click on the word Height; the amount of 5 is automatically entered into the Height textbox. Press OK and a 5-inch square is created.
|
Enter 5 in the Width text field, then click on the word
Height to enter the same value in its text field. |
7 Select the square with the Selection tool, then click the Fill color swatch in the Control panel to reveal the Fill Swatches panel. Select an orange color. This example uses the orange color with values C=0 M=50 Y=100 K=0. To find this exact shade, hover your cursor over the different orange swatches and a pale yellow tool tip containing each color’s respective CMYK values appears.
|
Select orange from using the Control panel. |
8 With the square still selected, click on the Stroke color swatch in the Control panel and choose None.
|
Choose to have no color on the stroke. |
9 Choose Object > Lock > Selection or press Ctrl+2 (Windows) or Command+2
(Mac OS) to keep the orange rectangle visible and lock it in its current position.
|
If you need to reposition a shape, choose Object > Unlock, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+2 (Windows) or Command+Option+2 (Mac OS). |
10 Choose File > Save. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the ai02lessons folder. Since you named the document cdartwork when you created the new file, cdartwork.ai automatically appears in the Save As text field. Press Save.
11 When the Illustrator Options dialog box appears, press OK. Keep the file open for the rest of the lesson.
Taking advantage of graphic styles
Adobe Illustrator CS3 gives you the ability to save combinations of attributes such as fills, strokes, and special effects as a graphic style. Graphic styles save you time and help keep your styles and colors consistent across a document or series of documents. When using a graphic style, you can apply interesting effects to multiple objects at once. In this example, you will create a graphic style using the Effects menu and the Appearance panel.
1 Press the letter D on your keyboard. This reverts you back to the default colors—a white fill and a black stroke.
2 Click and hold on the Rectangle tool () in the Tools panel and select the hidden Ellipse tool ( ).
|
Select the hidden Ellipse tool. |
3 Hold down the Shift key while you click and drag on the artboard. This creates a perfect circle. Release the mouse before releasing the Shift key; don’t worry about the circle’s size.
4 Choose Window > Transform or use the keyboard shortcut Shift+F8. When the Transform Panel appears, click on the Constrain Width and Height Proportions button ( ) and type .25 in the W text field, then press the Tab key. The width and height are changed to a quarter of an inch.
|
Change the size of your shape after creating it. |
5 Press the Appearance button ( ) in the dock on the right side of the workspace to reveal the Appearance panel. The Appearance panel displays the attributes that have been applied to the selected object. In this example, the only color attributes that are visible are a fill and a stroke, but you will see more attributes added to the list as you work in this lesson.
|
The Appearance panel. |
6 Choose File > Save. Keep this file open for the next part of this lesson.
One object, multiple fills and strokes
Illustrator objects can have more than one fill and stroke. In this part of the lesson you will use this feature to add multiple strokes and make one object appear as though it’s made of multiple shapes.
1 With the circle selected, select the Stroke listing in the Appearance panel, then press the Duplicate Selected Item button at the bottom of the Appearance panel. You now have two strokes. You can’t see the second stroke around the image, since it was created on top of the initial stroke.
2 Now you will duplicate the stroke (creating a total of three strokes) using a different method. Select the topmost stroke, then drag it to the Duplicate Selected Item button at the bottom of the Appearance panel. You now have three identical strokes listed in the Appearance panel.
|
Duplicate a stroke by clicking or dragging
to the Duplicate Selected Item button. |
3 Select the second stroke in the Appearance panel and choose Effect > Path > Offset Path. The Offset Path dialog box appears. Check the Preview checkbox and see that this effect offsets your path from its original location.
4 Type .1 into the Offset text field and press OK. The stroke is offset by .1 inches.
|
Change the offset path to .1 inches. |
5 Select the second stroke again in the Appearance panel, and click the Stroke color swatch in the Control panel to reveal the Stroke Swatches panel. Choose CMYK Yellow. The offset stroke is now a different color from the original black stroke.
6 With the second stroke still selected, choose 4 pt from the Stroke Weight drop-down menu in the Control panel; the second strokes’ width changes to 4 points. Notice that the attributes of the stroke are now listed in the Appearance panel.
|
The Appearance panel lists the stroke’s The 4-point, CMYK Yellow offset path.
adjusted attributes. |
7 Now select the topmost stroke in the Appearance panel and choose Effect > Path > Offset Path. In the resulting Offset Path dialog box, type .15 into the Offset Path text field and press OK.
8 Click on the topmost stroke in the Appearance panel again to make sure that it is selected, then choose 2 pt from the Stroke drop-down menu in the Control panel. The outside stroke changes to 2 points.
9 With the topmost stroke still selected, click the Stroke box in the Control panel and choose the blue color that displays the combination of C=85 M=50 Y=0 K=0. The outer stroke is now blue.
|
The object with multiple strokes. |
Saving a graphic style
You will save the combination of effects that you’ve implemented as a graphic style, allowing you to easily apply these collective effects to other objects. Using a graphic style makes it easier to convey any changes you make to the graphic style to all objects to whom that style is applied.
1 Make sure that the circle with the offset strokes is still selected and click on the Graphic Styles tab in the Appearance panel to open the Graphic Styles panel. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click on the New Graphic Style button ( ) at the bottom of the Graphic Styles panel. The Graphic Styles Options dialog box appears.
2 Type circle in the Style Name text field, then press OK.
|
Name the new graphic style . |
The strokes become a style to the Graphic Styles panel.
|
The circle style is added to the Graphic Styles panel. |
3 Choose File > Save. Keep this file open.
Creating a symbol from the circle art
By creating a symbol you can add multiple occurrences of an object to your artwork. A symbol can be created from vector art and raster art that is embedded in an Illustrator file. In this lesson you will use a symbol to create artwork directly in Illustrator, which you will learn more about in Lesson 9, “Creating and Using Illustrator Symbols.” You can also create movie clip symbols right in Adobe Illustrator CS3 that can be imported directly into Flash CS3.
1 Choose Window > Symbols or press the Symbols button ( ) in the dock to open the Symbols panel.
2 Using the Selection tool ( ), select the circle with the offset strokes on the artboard and drag it into the Symbols panel. When a black border appears around the symbols in the panel, release the mouse to drop the circle.
3 In the resulting Symbols Options dialog box, type circle into the Name text field and select the Graphic radio button. Press OK. The circle is added to the Symbols panel.
|
Add your circle to the Symbols panel. |
4 Using the Selection tool, select the original circle and choose Edit > Clear. Now that you created a symbol, you no longer need the original.
5 Select the Symbol Sprayer tool ( ) from the Tools panel. Your cursor becomes a small spray paint can with a circle around it, indicating the size of the spray area. Adjust its size by pressing the Left bracket key on your keyboard to make it smaller or the Right bracket key to make it larger.
6 Click and drag with the mouse in a quick, steady motion throughout the orange square that you created earlier. The circle symbols are sprayed over the square. Stop when you have between 10 and 20 circles on your artboard. If you want to redo the spray of the circles press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac OS) and start spraying again. The circles that you sprayed onto your artwork are symbol instances.
|
Use the Symbol Sprayer tool to add the
circles to your artwork. |
Now you will apply transparency to the symbol instances using the Symbol Screener tool.
7 Press the Swatches button ( ) in the dock and choose a yellow color from the color options. In this example CMYK Yellow is used.
8 Click and hold on the Symbol Sprayer () in the Tools panel to select the hidden Symbol Screener Tool ( ).
|
Use the Symbol Screener tool to change opacity. |
9 Double-click on the Symbol Screener tool in the Tools panel; the Symbolism Tools Options dialog box appears. Using the Symbolism Tools Options dialog box you can change attributes of each of the Symbolism tools. The Symbol Screener tool controls a symbol instance’s opacity. You will adjust a setting in the Symbolism Tools Options dialog box so that the opacity change more subtle.
10 In the Symbolism Tools Options dialog box, type 3 into the Intensity text field, or drag the Intensity slider to 3, then press OK.
|
Reduce the intensity to 3. |
11 Position your cursor over one of circle symbol instances on the artboard and click on it. All of the symbol instances covered by the radius around the Symbol Sprayer tool fade slightly. The longer you hold down the mouse, the more drastic the change in opacity.
12 Now hold down the Alt (Window) or Option (Mac OS) key and click on one of the symbol instances that you used the Symbol Screener tool on. By holding down the Alt/Option key, you can undo the Symbols Screen effects and bring the opacity back up to 100%.
|
The symbols after using the Symbol Screener tool. |
There is no exact effect you are trying to achieve with this tool, so experiment with the Symbol Screener tool until you have the effect that you like.
13 Choose File > Save. Keep this file open for the next part of this lesson.
Now you will use the symbol feature to populate your background with the circle artwork.
1 2 | Next |
