INTRODUCTION
Duration
1 day
Requirements
Good Mac or PC skills
Overview
This course gives delegates the experience needed to produce professional graphics and illustrations, with numerous practical exercises and examples of how to put text, graphics and images together.
Exploring the illustrator environment
The interface, General preferences, The toolbox, The palettes, Using views, Using the navigation tools, Using the Navigator palette, Creating, saving, and closing files.
Drawing and painting tools
Drawing a rectangle and an ellipse, Line tool, Arc tool, Grid, Polar Grid, Drawing a polygon, Drawing a star, Drawing a spiral
Introducing paths
Introducing Bezier paths, Creating and editing paths created with the Pencil tool, Creating and editing paths created with the Pen tool, Using the cutting tools, Editing paths by using the, Average and Join commands
Working with text
Using the text tools, Using the Type and Vertical Type tools, Using the Path Type tool, Using the Area Type tool, Using the Type palettes, Using the Character palette, Using the Paragraph palette, Altering text, Changing text to outline, Modifying outlined text
Working with layers
Working with grouped objects, Grouping objects, Restacking objects in a group, Using the Layers palette, Creating a layer, Positioning layers, Moving objects through layers, Deleting a layer, Locking and hiding layers, Merging layers
Adding colours
Changing Fill and Stroke colours, Using the Swatches palette, Using the Colour palette, Applying gradients, Setting transparency, Manipulating stroke options, Altering the Cap and Join options, Creating a dashed line, Using the Eyedropper tool, Using the Paint Bucket tool
Live effects
Using Live Paint to colour overlapping shapes, adding paths to live paint objects. Using Live Trace to create paths from illustrations and photographs, live trace options.
Editing objects
Compound shapes, Using rulers, Moving objects, Arranging objects, Rotating objects, Scaling objects
Using the brushes palette
Creating a new brush, applying brushes to paths
Distortion
Using Distort filters, Warp effects, Creating envelopes, Envelope mesh, Liquefy tools
Working with symbols
Creating symbols, Defining symbols, Symbol instances, Using symbol tools
Printing illustrations
Adjusting the print Specifications, Making crop marks, Troubleshooting printing problems, Setting the printer properties

ADVANCED
Duration
1 day
Requirements
A good basic knowledge of the application or to have completed the Adobe Illustrator Foundation course.
Overview
A One day course designed to give more experienced users an insight into the more advanced features of the application and to explore some graphic effects and techniques
Working with raster images
Live Trace of scanned bitmap images, , Viewing an artwork in Pixel Preview view, Rasterizing an artwork, Colourising greyscales, Applying the Blur filter, Using the Colour Halftone filter, Using the Crystallize filter, Using the Object Mosaic filter, Using the Photo Crosshatch filter
Working with layers
Targeting layers, Using layer effects, Importing Photoshop Layer Comps
Envelope distortion
Warp, Mesh, Top Object, Deleting unused colours in a document
Painting & drawing
The Paintbrush Tool; using and defining options, Freehand drawing tool, The Measurements tool, Live Paint
Working with text
Type attributes, Paragraph and Character Styles, Columns and Rows, Every-line Composer, Custom Tab Leaders, Hyphenations and Justifications, Text Linking and Text reflow
Guides & grids
Creating and using guides, Locking and Releasing Guides, Using Rulers and Zero Lock, Smart Guides, Creating perspective grids
The filters menu
Colour adjustment filters, Shape Creation Filters, Distortion Filters, Object Movements, Adobe Pathfinder Filters and Special Effects, Using clean up filters
Automating tasks
Creating and recording an action, Playing an action, Modifying actions, Inserting a non-recordable command, Inserting a stop, Setting a modal control, Excluding a command, Deleting an action
3-D options
Surface Appearance and Lighting, Mapping Artwork onto 3D Shapes
Advanced colour
Using Gradient Meshes, Creating custom patterns, Managing swatches, Creating custom brushes, Saving documents in different formats for exporting to other applications.
Printing
Adjusting the print Specifications, Making crop marks, Setting the printer properties, Proof Setup, Pixel and Overprint Preview, Exporting multi PDF pages