Adobe Illustrator - Fundamentals

Getting to Know the Work Area   

• Workspace
• Adjusting the user interface brightness
• Tools panel
• Control panel
• Panels
• Resetting and saving your workspace
• Panel menus
• Changing the view of artwork
• Zoom tool
• Scrolling through a document
• Viewing artwork
• Navigating multiple artboards
• Navigator panel
• Rulers
• Arranging multiple documents
• Document groups

Selecting and Aligning   

• Selecting objects
• Selection tool
• Direct selection tool
• Creating selections with a marquee
• Creating selections with the Magic Wand tool
• Selecting similar objects
• Aligning objects
• Aligning objects to each other
• Aligning to a key object
• Aligning points
• Distributing objects
• Aligning to the artboard
• Groups
• Grouping items
• Working in isolation mode
• Adding to a group
• Object arrangement
• Arranging objects
• Selecting objects behind
• Hiding objects
• Applying selection techniques

Creating and Editing Shapes   

• Creating a new document
• Basic shapes
• Creating rectangles
• Creating rounded rectangles
• Creating ellipses
• Creating polygons
• Drawing modes
• Draw behind mode
• Creating stars
• Changing stroke width and alignment
• Line segments
• Joining paths
• Using the width tool
• Outlining strokes
• Combining and editing shapes
• Shape builder tool
• Pathfinder effects
• Shape modes
• Using draw inside mode
• Editing content drawn inside
• Using the eraser tool
• Using image trace to create shapes
• Cleaning up traced artwork

Transforming Objects   

• Artboards
• Adding artboards to the document
• Editing artboards
• Reordering artboards
• Transforming content
• Rulers and guides
• Scaling objects
• Reflecting objects
• Rotating objects
• Distorting objects
• Shearing objects
• Positioning objects precisely
• Changing perspective
• Applying multiple transformations
• Using the free distort effect

Drawing with the Pen and Pencil Tools   

• Starting with the pen tool
• Creating straight lines
• Creating curved paths
• Building a curve
• Converting smooth points to corner points
• Creating the violin illustration
• Drawing curves
• Selecting a curved path
• Drawing a curved path
• Drawing a closed path with curves
• Drawing the violin shape
• Creating the strings
• Splitting a path
• Adding arrowheads
• Creating a dashed line
• Editing curves
• Deleting and adding anchor points
• Converting between smooth points and corner points
• Drawing with the Pencil tool
• Editing with the Pencil tool
• Finishing the violin illustrationAssembling the parts
• Assembling the parts
• Painting the artwork

Color and Painting   

• Color
• Color modes
• Color controls
• Creating color
• Building and saving a custom color
• Editing a swatch
• Using Illustrator swatch libraries
• Creating a spot color
• Color picker
• Creating and saving a tint of a color
• Copying appearance attributes
• Creating color groups
• Color guide panel
• Editing a color group
• Editing colors in artwork
• Kuler panel
• Assigning colors to your artwork
• Adjusting colors
• Painting with patterns
• Applying existing patterns
• Creating your own pattern
• Applying a pattern
• Editing a pattern
• Live Paint
• Creating a Live Paint group
• Editing Live Paint regions
• Working with gap options

Working with Type  

• Type
• Creating point type
• Creating area type
• Importing a plain text file
• Overflow text and text reflow
• Threading text
• Creating columns of text
• Formatting type
• Changing the font size
• Changing the font color
• Changing additional text attributes
• Glyphs
• Resizing type objects
• Changing paragraph attributes
• Creating and applying text styles
• Creating and applying a paragraph style
• Editing a paragraph style
• Sampling text formatting
• Creating and applying a character style
• Editing a character style
• Reshaping text with a preset envelope warp
• Reshaping text with an object
• Creating text on an open path
• Creating text on closed paths
• Creating text outlines

Layers   

• Creating layers
• Selecting and moving objects and layers
• Duplicating layer content
• Moving layers
• Locking layers
• Viewing layers
• Pasting layers
• Creating a clipping mask
• Merging layers
• Locating layers
• Applying appearance attributes to layers
• Isolating layers

Blending Colors and Shapes   

• Gradients
• Creating and applying a linear gradient to a fill
• Adjusting the direction and angle of a gradient fill
• Applying a gradient to a stroke
• Editing a gradient on a stroke
• Creating and applying a radial gradient
• Editing the radial gradient color
• Adjusting the radial gradient
• Applying gradients to multiple objects
• Exploring other methods for editing gradient colors
• Adding transparency to gradients
• Working with blended objects
• Creating a blend with specific steps
• Modifying a blend
• Creating and editing smooth color blends

Brushes   

• Calligraphic brushes
• Editing a brush
• Fill color with brushes
• Removing a brush stroke
• Art brushes
• Drawing with the paintbrush tool
• Editing paths with the paintbrush tool
• Creating an art brush
• Editing an art brush
• Using bristle brushes
• Changing bristle brush options
• Painting with a bristle brush
• Using pattern brushes
• Creating a pattern brush
• Applying a pattern brush
• Changing the color attributes of brushes
• Changing a brush color using tints colorization
• Changing the brush color using hue shift colorization
• Blob brush tool
• Drawing with the blob brush tool
• Merging paths with the blob brush tool
• Editing with the eraser tool