Adobe Illustrator

Overview

What you will learn

• The Adobe Illustrator course offered by City, University of London will provide a comprehensive overview of computerised design, using the industry's most flexible and exciting vector-based packages. You will learn to produce professional quality computer graphics, using a range of tools, create unique clip-art, Illustrations and logos, prepare graphics for the web; and discover how Illustrator can be used in conjunction with other industry standard packages, such as Photoshop and QuarkXPress/InDesign

• Basic concepts, bitmap images, vector graphics. Setting up a page. Using basic tools, pen, pencil, paintbrush.

• Selecting and grouping objects with magic wand, selection and direct selection tools. Working with objects, anchor points, lines and bezier curves. Geometric objects both manual and with numeric input. Additional tools, smooth, erase, scissor, knife.

• Joining and averaging endpoints. Working with palettes. Groups of objects and layers. Applying appearances and graphic styles to groups and layers.

• Bounding boxes and free transformations. Moving objects. Transformation palette and individual transformation tools. Reshaping and shearing.

• Saving work for print, archiving and for the web. Image formats and their strengths and weaknesses.

• Graphs and charts, building, customizing, transforming Illustrator views, preview and outlines. Illustrator windows and window controls. Zoom functions, context sensitive menus and navigator palette. Show and hide choices, rulers, guides, smart guides, grids and edges. Colour in Illustrator, RGB, CMYK colour systems and libraries.

• Generating ideas on the use of Illustrations in a design process.

• Articulating the messages behind existing illustrations and how that message may be manipulated.

• Creating basic illustrations with the student's own simple message.

• How Illustrator can be used with Photoshop, InDesign, QuarkXPress and other programs.