Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom Book with video training

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom is like having a personal instructor guiding you through each lesson, while you work at your own pace. This Illustrator book with DVD includes 13 self-paced lessons helping you learn essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe Illustrator.

Full color lessons with easy to follow step-by-step instructions
Video tutorials highlight key topics in each lesson
Covers all essential Illustrator skills
Gets you up-and-running quickly with included Illustrator lesson files on DVD
Written by expert instructors who regularly teach Illustrator training courses – it's like having your own personal tutor
Used by hundreds of schools and more than 100,000 readers

Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom Book with video training Contents

Starting Up

About Digital Classroom
Prerequisites
System requirements
Starting Adobe Illustrator CS5
Fonts used in this book
Resetting Adobe Illustrator CS5
Loading lesson files
Working with the video tutorials
Setting up for viewing the
video tutorials
Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player
Additional resources

Lesson 1: Adobe Illustrator CS5 Jumpstart

Starting up
Setting up the artboard
Creating the background
Access additional Swatch Libraries
Using the new Shape Builder tool
Creating the smaller combined shape
Applying color and effects
Cloning the small shape
Aligning and distributing the shapes
Adding Text
Applying the Warp effect
Adding text to the small shape areas
Distorting a shape
Importing an image
Creating the pseudo horizontal image scroll
Adding symbols
Adding lines of text
Creating the Zip code textbox

Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workspace

Starting up
Opening Illustrator
Choosing a workspace
Opening a file
The document window
Using Artboards
Navigating multiple artboards
Using the new Artboards panel
Creating New Artboards
Switching screen modes
Changing your view
Preview versus Outlines
Zooming and scrolling
Scrolling with the Hand tool
Changing views with the Navigator panel
The Tools panel
Using tools and panels
The Control panel
Moving the Control panel
Panel groups and the dock
Custom workspaces
Saving workspaces
Using the Manage Workspaces dialog box
Customizing keyboard shortcuts
Custom shortcuts
Saving shortcut sets
Deleting shortcut sets
Self study
Review

Lesson 3: Illustrator CS5 Essentials

Starting up
Using the shape tools
Repositioning and visually resizing the rectangle
Finding or changing the shape’s dimensions using the Transform panel
Rotating and shearing using the
Transform panel
Constraining a shape
Entering exact dimensions
Selecting artwork
Helpful keyboard shortcuts for selections
The selection tools
Using shape and transform tools to create artwork
Using the transform tools
Adding a fill color
Entering a shape size in the Transform panel
Viewing in Outline view
Rotating the shape
Changing the color of the triangles
Using layers when building an illustration
Creating a new blank layer
Cutting and pasting objects
Creating bubbles
Cloning the bubble group
Repeating a resize transform
Moving objects from one layer to another
Self study
Review

Lesson 4: Adding Color

Starting up
Basics of the Appearance panel
Changing colors
Adding Effects
Creating a colorful illustration
Using Live Paint
Converting the artwork to a Live Paint group
Applying Live Paint to the group
Adding a symbol to your artwork
Expanding the symbol
Saving swatches
What is a Global Color?
Selecting the Same color
Saving a set of colors as a group
Creating a color group from selected colors
Using the Color panel
Adding Pantone (Spot) Colors
Adding Pantone colors
Self study
Review

Lesson 5: Working with the Drawing Tools

Starting up
Working with the Pen tool
Drawing straight lines
Drawing curved lines
Drawing hinged curves
Drawing curved lines to straight lines
Drawing straight lines to curved lines
Manually tracing images
Placing an image as a template
Other drawing tools
Using the Line Segment and Arc tools
Using the Pencil, Smooth, and Path Eraser tools
Using the Eraser tool
Editing existing paths
Adding and removing points
Refining a curve
Cutting and joining paths
Working with Live Trace
Using the tracing presets
Understanding tracing options
Expanding Live Traced artwork
Working with Live Paint
Creating a Live Paint group
Setting Gap Detection options
Using the Live Paint Bucket tool
Using the Live Paint Selection tool
Combining shapes using the new Shape Builder tool
Combining the shapes
Subtracting with the Shape Builder tool
Creating the Fish Eyes
Self study
Review

Lesson 6: Exploring Additional Color Options

Starting up
Taking a look at the finished illustration
Adding tonal values with gradients
Customizing an existing gradient
Saving the Gradient
Applying a second instance of the gradient
Using the Gradient panel
Updating a gradient
Creating and using patterns
Creating a bounding box
Applying the pattern
Editing a pattern fill
Locating existing patterns
Finishing up the illustration
Creating a Color Group
Using the Color Guide
Self study
Review

Lesson 7: Working with and Formatting Text

Starting up
Formatting type
Paragraph formatting
Formatting imported type
Paragraph and character styles
Advanced techniques with text
Text on a path
Warping text
Text in a shape
Creating outlines
Check spelling
Find and Replace
Self study
Review

Lesson 8: Organizing your Illustrations with Layers

Starting up
Getting to know the Layers panel
Using layers to organize your illustrations
Using the Layers panel to make selections
Creating new layers and moving items between layers
Template Layers
Self study
Review

Lesson 9: Working with Symbols

Starting up
Cleaning out the symbol library
Creating symbols
Editing symbols
Importing a symbol library
Using the symbolism tools
Editing nested symbols
Replacing symbols
Self study
Review

Lesson 10: Using Effects and Transparency

Starting up
Working with the Appearance panel and effects
Applying effects
Editing effects
Using graphic styles
Creating and saving graphic styles
Applying and modifying graphic styles
Working with object transparency
Working with multiple opacity
Working with blending modes
Saving and importing graphic styles
Applying graphic styles to layers and symbols
Self study
Review

Lesson 11: Exporting and Saving Files

Starting up
Saving using the AI file format
Saving an illustration with layers
Make a template layer
Using the Transform Effect
Duplicating a Stroke
Saving different versions of the logo onto separate layers
Expanding appearance
Save the first version
Using Live Paint
Using the Color Guide panel
Saving the third version
Using Recolor Artwork
Saving a layered PDF
Integration with other applications
Exporting for Photoshop
Integrating with InDesign
Integrating with Flash
Integrating with Premiere and After Effects
Saving as EPS
Save for Web & Devices
Making a Flash animation
Exporting a Flash animation
Self study
Review

Lesson 12: Advanced Blending Techniques

Starting up
Using the Blend Tool
Applying a gradient
Applying Radial Gradients
Applying gradients using Illustrator’s Gradient Mesh options
Adjusting the Mesh
Revisiting Blend Options
More mesh work
Overlapping images
Applying a gradient mesh using the Mesh tool
Finishing up with the Mesh tool and automatically adding a Highlight
Using the Symbol Tools
Creating a symbol
Modifying a Symbol’s appearance
Self study
Review

Lesson 13: Adobe Illustrator CS5 New Features

Starting up
Getting into perspective
Defining the grid
Changing the plane
Using the Perspective Selection tool
Creating shapes with the
Shape Builder tool
To combine shapes
To delete shapes
To divide overlapping shapes
New Brush Controls
Advanced drawing controls
Artboard panel
Pixel grid alignment