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Illustrator Course Outline

"Command-Z is your best friend"

Lesson 1
Exploration of palettes, tools and basic conceptsviewing and rearranging palettes (use tab key to hide palettes)
drawing ,selecting, deleting, and moving objects
formatting the fill and stroke of objects
using the color palette
selection tools, select tool vs. direct select tool
(hold down Command key to select)
working with objects
(shift key to constrain aspect ratio)
(option key to draw from center outward)
multiple selections ( hold shift key or use a marquee drag)
paint brush and fill tools
the zoom tool (zoom in=spacebar-Command) (zoom out=spacebar-Command-option)
auto scrolling (spacebar)
filling with gradients and patterns
setting preferences and restoring defaults for all preferences
(throw preference file in the trash)
Illustrator Class Room in a Book Lessons

Lesson 1
using the pen tool to draw complex paths
selecting, modifying, and deleting lines and points on a path
closed paths vs. open paths
corner points vs. smooth points
creating and modify smooth points using anchors
using curves and straight lines together (option key down)
lesson 2
using the auto trace tool with a template (greyscale pict format)
grouping objects
stacking order of objects
copying objects (option key down and drag -let go of the mouse first!)
creating and formatting text
custom colors and process colors
creating and saving colors

Lesson 3
creating a postcard
complex stacking of objects
(Command-F=paste in front, Command-B= paste in back)
creating a drop shadow for text
other tricks and techniques
intro to using layers
fun with filters
duplicating (Command-D)
blending shapes and colors

Lesson 4
complex groups and advanced selecting
scaling and shearing objects
rotating objects and groups
choosing specific colors for a gradient
creating type on a path

Lesson 5
setting the ruler origin and units
using guides
creating type outlines
creating and using masks
masking pictures
Review excersize and wrap up questions

Lesson 6

animated gifs for the web
rasterizing postscript files
advanced tequniques

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