Introduction to Adobe Illustrator

Working with the Properties Bar (Top of Screen)

• Make sure you have both a Stroke Color (Blue), and a Fill color (Red).
• Add a Rectangle to the Artboard.
• Zoom in a little to easier see the shape (Not too far though).
• Make sure the Selection Tool is active.
• Select shape with Mouse
• Note the Properties bar has information relating to the shape.
• This Panel gives you quick access to tools it thinks are  related to the shape you are working on. 
• If you were working with Text, this Panel would adjust itself to contain items relating to text formatting.
• Most of the items on this bar can be access via other panels, they are simply repeated here to make it easier for you to find what you need.
• On the left side of the Panel, you will find the color options repeated from the Toolbox Panel
• Along this Panel, you will find Links that drop down other relevant Panels.
• On this Peroperties Panel, you will find links to Stroke, Opacity, and Transform
• After each link, you will find selected properties from that Panel
• If you click the link, the selected Panel will drop down for you to make changes.
• To see that Panel permanently, You can go to the Window Menu, and select the Panel to be displayed.
• The Stroke Panel is accesible from Window/Stroke. It is also one of the Panels kept at the right side of the screen.
• Positioned after the Stroke link, you will find the following properties;
• Stroke Thickness (in Points)
• Variable Width Profile
• Brush Definition (How the Stroke Line is Drawn).
• The Isolation button will lock all the items that are not selected, thus allowing you to edit only the objects you have selected, without affecting anything else on the page.
• The Style options apply pre-designed effects to the object you are working with.
• Opacity changes the ability to see through this object, to others that may be behind it. This will make more sense when we place objects over other objects later.
• The rest of these tools we will look at later. However, this gives you an idea of what some of these tools can do, and you will notice this Panel changes slightly, as we select other objects.

Drawing Basic Shapes

• Rectangle / Square
• Rectangle with rounded corners
• Oval / Circle
• Polygon / Star
• Change number of points for Polygon / Star (click a spot on art-board, without dragging out the object).
• Flare Tool

• Fill Colors
• Stroke Colors
• Stroke Thickness
• Variable Width Profiles
• Opacity
• Note the additional panels down the right side.
• Note the difference between No Color (transparent) vs. a white color on a white background.

Using the Selection Tools

• "You have to select it, to affect it" (Use a star for demonstration)
• If you keep trying to change a color, and nothing happens, make sure what you are affecting is selected.
• Anchor Points
• Every Object has an Anchor point by which you can select, or move the object.
• Bounding Box
• Every object has a box around it that has Handles positioned around it.
• These Handles allow you to stretch, resize, and rotate your object.
• The standard Selection tool
• This tool selects the entire object, and allows you to move, resize, and rotate the object.
• In the case of a rectangle or an oval, you can use the Shift key to restrain these to square or circle.
• Normally, the object stretches from the opposite corner from where you grab. You can use ALT to cause the object to resize from the center.
• Direct Selection tool
• For objects that have more than one anchor point, the Direct Selection tool allows you to move individual anchors around.

Combining Objects

• Arrange Objects (Bring Forward / Send Backward)
• Not to be confused with 'Layers'
• Drawing a Cube
• Draw a Square (remember the Shift Key to keep it a square)
• Set the Fill Color to Transparent
• Change back to the Selection Tool
• Copy the Square (Edit / Copy)
• Paste the Square onto the Artboard (Edit / Paste)
• Paste in Front / Back puts the copy directly in front (back) of the original object.
• Position the second square, so that the Corner of the first is in about the center of the second.
• Note: For fine tuning the position, you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move an object.
• Select the Line Tool, and draw Four lines, to connect the related corners of the squares.
• Switch back to the Selection Tool.
• Select one of the Squares, and Right Click - Arrange - Bring To Front.
• Combining many parts into one object. (Group / Ungroup)
• With the Selection Tool, draw a Bounding Box around your Cube. Make sure no other objects are touched by the bounding box.
• From the Object Menu, Select Group.
• Note that you can no longer move the individual parts of the Cube.
• If you wish to work on separate parts, you can UnGroup the Cube by making sure it is selected, and returning to the Object Menu / Ungroup.

Working with Text

• To see a list of the Fonts available on your computer, go to the Type Menu, and view the Font Menu.
• We can affect text  Character by Character, and we can affect how groups of characters interact (Paragraphs). 
• We can affect the horizontal alignment (Left, center, right), as well as the vertical.
• We can adjust the spacing between the letters, either as a group, or on a character by character basis.
• We can also shift character and words up and down within a line of text.

Week Three Outline