Title Details

The AGI Creative Team develops and delivers training programs through the American Graphics Institute. They have created official training guides for Adobe Systems and Microsoft, and deliver professional development training workshops to clients internationally.

Starting up

About Digital Classroom 1

Prerequisites 1

System requirements 1

Starting Adobe Illustrator CS6 2

Resetting Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences 3

Loading lesson files 4

Working with the video tutorials 5

Setting up for viewing the video tutorials 6

Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player 6

Additional resources 7

Lesson 1: Adobe Illustrator CS6 Jumpstart

Starting up 9

The project 10

Setting up the artboard 12

Creating the background shape 13

Combining shapes 14

Sampling a color 15

Applying a fill and stroke 16

Creating the smaller combined shape 17

Applying color and effects 18

Cloning the small shape 19

Aligning and distributing the shapes 21

Adding Text 22

Applying the Warp effect 24

Adding text to the small shape areas 25

Distorting a shape 28

Importing an image 29

Adding lines of text 30

Self study 35

Review 35

Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workspace

Starting up 37

Opening Illustrator 38

Exploring the new interface 39

Choosing a workspace 40

Opening a file 41

The document window 42

Using Artboards 43

Navigating multiple artboards 43

Using the Artboards panel 44

Creating New Artboards 46

Switching screen modes 47

Changing your view 48

Preview versus Outlines 48

Zooming and scrolling 49

Scrolling with the Hand tool 53

Changing views with the Navigator panel 54

The Tools panel 55

Using tools and panels 56

The Control panel 60

Moving the Control panel 61

Panel groups and the dock 62

Custom workspaces 65

Saving workspaces 65

Using the Manage Workspaces dialog box 66

Customizing keyboard shortcuts 67

Default shortcuts 67

Custom shortcuts 68

Saving shortcut sets 70

Deleting shortcut sets 71

Self study 71

Review 72

Lesson 3: Illustrator CS6 Essentials

Starting up 73

Using the shape tools 74

Repositioning and visually resizing the rectangle 76

Finding or changing the shape’s dimensions using the Transform panel 77

Rotating and shearing using the Transform panel 78

Constraining a shape 79

Entering exact dimensions 80

Selecting artwork 82

Helpful keyboard shortcuts for selections 82

The selection tools 82

Using shape and transform tools to create artwork 87

Using the transform tools 87

Adding a fill color 89

Entering a shape size in the Transform panel 90

Viewing in Outline view 91

Rotating the shape 91

Changing the color of the triangles 93

Using layers when building an illustration 94

Creating a new blank layer 95

Cutting and pasting objects 95

Creating bubbles 97

Cloning the bubble group 98

Repeating a resize transform 99

Moving objects from one layer to another 101

Self study 102

Review 102

Lesson 4: Adding Color

Starting up 103

Basics of the Appearance panel 104

Changing colors 105

Adding Effects 106

Creating a colorful illustration 108

Using Live Paint 108

Converting the artwork to a Live Paint group 111

Applying Live Paint to the group 112

Adding a symbol to your artwork 113

Expanding the symbol 115

Saving swatches 115

What is a Global Color? 117

Selecting the Same color 117

Saving a set of colors as a group 119

Creating a color group from selected colors 119

Using the Color panel 120

Adding Pantone (Spot) Colors 122

Adding Pantone colors 123

Self study 125

Review 125

Lesson 5: Working with the Drawing Tools

Starting up 127

Working with the Pen tool 128

Drawing straight lines 129

Drawing curved lines 131

Drawing hinged curves 133

Drawing curved lines to straight lines 134

Drawing straight lines to curved lines 135

Tracing images 136

Placing an image as a template 137

Placing an image using Image Trace 140

Working with the new Image trace option 144

Other drawing tools 146

Using the Line Segment and Arc tools 146

Using the Pencil, Smooth, and Path Eraser tools 148

Using the Eraser tool 150

Editing existing paths 150

Adding and removing points 150

Refining a curve 152

Cutting and joining paths 153

Combining shapes using the Shape Builder tool 155

Combining the shapes 158

Subtracting with the Shape Builder tool 158

Creating the fish eyes 160

Self study 162

Review 162

Lesson 6: Exploring Additional Color Options

Starting up 163

Taking a look at the finished illustration 164

Adding tonal values with gradients 166

Customizing an existing gradient 168

Saving the Gradient 169

Applying a second instance of the gradient 170

Using the Gradient panel 171

Updating a gradient 174

Creating and using patterns 175

Creating a bounding box 176

Applying the pattern 177

Editing a pattern fill 178

Locating existing patterns 181

Finishing up the illustration 184

Creating a Color Group 186

Using the Color Guide 187

Self study 191

Review 191

Lesson 7: Working with and Formatting Text

Starting up 193

Formatting type 194

Paragraph formatting 197

Formatting imported type 199

Paragraph and character styles 202

Editing styles 205

Advanced techniques with text 208

Text on a path 208

Warping text 209

Text in a shape 211

Creating outlines 212

Check spelling 214

Find and Replace 215

Self study 216

Review 216

Lesson 8: Organizing your Illustrations with Layers

Starting up 217

Getting to know the Layers panel 218

Using layers to organize your illustrations 220

Using the Layers panel to make selections 221

Creating new layers and moving items between layers 222

Paste Remembers Layers 225

Template layers 226

Self study 228

Review 228

Lesson 9: Working with Symbols

Starting up 229

Cleaning out the symbol library 230

Creating symbols 231

Editing symbols 232

Importing a symbol library 235

Using the symbolism tools 236

Editing nested symbols 243

Replacing symbols 244

Saving symbol libraries 245

Self study 246

Review 246

Lesson 10: Using Effects and Transparency

Starting up 247

Working with the Appearance panel and effects 248

Applying effects 249

Editing effects 251

Using graphic styles 253

Creating and saving graphic styles 254

Applying and modifying graphic styles 256

Working with object transparency 256

Working with multiple opacities 257

Working with blending modes 258

Saving and importing graphic styles 260

Applying graphic styles to layers and symbols 261

Self study 263

Review 263

Lesson 11: Exporting and Saving Files

Starting up 265

Saving using the AI file format 266

Saving an illustration with layers 267

Make a template layer 267

Using the Transform Effect 268

Duplicating a Stroke 269

Saving different versions of the logo onto separate layers 271

Expanding appearance 271

Save the first version 272

Using Live Paint 272

Using the Color Guide panel 273

Saving the third version 273

Using Recolor Artwork 274

Saving a layered PDF 276

Integration with other applications 278

Exporting for Photoshop 278

Integrating with InDesign 278

Integrating with Flash 278

Integrating with Microsoft Expression Blend (XAML) 278

Integrating with Premiere and After Effects 278

Saving as EPS 278

Save for Web 280

Making a Flash animation 282

Exporting a Flash animation 285

Self study 288

Review 288

Lesson 12: Advanced Blending Techniques

Starting up 289

Using the Blend Tool 290

Applying a gradient 294

Applying Radial Gradients 296

Applying gradients using Illustrator’s

Gradient Mesh options 298

Adjusting the Mesh 301

Revisiting Blend Options 302

More mesh work 305

Overlapping images 307

Applying a gradient mesh using the Mesh tool 310

Finishing up with the Mesh tool and automatically adding a Highlight 314

Using the Symbol Tools 316

Creating a symbol 320

Modifying a Symbol’s appearance 322

Self study 326

Review 326

Lesson 13: Adobe Illustrator CS6 New Features

Starting up 327

64-bit support 328

New Look and Feel 328

Changing the User Interface brightness 329

Image Trace 330

Using the new Pattern Options panel 332

Applying gradients to strokes 333

Reviewing new panel enhancements 334

Appendix

Adobe Illustrator Tools 335

Keyboard shortcuts 337