Real World Illustrator

Adobe posts free public beta of Flash Catalyst

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:00:46 PDT

In late 2007, I posted about a new application that Adobe was developing, code-named Thermo, which they previewed at the Adobe MAX conference (in Chicago) that year. At the 2008 Adobe MAX conference (in San Francisco), Adobe revealed the name of this exciting application – Adobe Flash Catalyst – and even released a preview version of the application to Adobe MAX attendees.

Now, you can give Adobe Flash Catalyst a try yourself – it’s available as a free public at Adobe Labs.

What is Flash Catalyst? In short, it’s a design interaction tool built to help designers create interactive Flash content and rich internet applications without having to learn to write computer code. There’s a whole lot more, which I’ll cover in more detail in future posts, but for now, you can do the following:

- Download the free public beta of Adobe Flash Catalyst from Adobe Labs.
- Head to Lynda.com for my newest title, Adobe Flash Catalyst Beta Preview. The entire video title (15 movies comprising of over an hour of video training). The entire training title is FREE to all – no lynda.com subscription is required.

Learn to recolor your artwork

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:24:56 PDT

With Illustrator CS3, Adobe added a TON of functionality around the use of color. Initially referred to as "Live Color", these features included the ability to get inspired around the use of color (the Color Guide panel, Adobe Kuler integration, etc.), and the ability to change or edit colors (Recolor Artwork, etc.).

With Illustrator CS4, Adobe enhanced some of these features to make them a bit easier to use and understand (more consistent terminology, contextual menu support, etc.). Most importantly, in my opinion anyway, Adobe dropped the "Live Color" marketing term and clearly identifies features in the program (for example, the Recolor Artwork feature opens a dialog called Recolor Artwork instead of Live Color).

Admittedly, the Recolor Artwork dialog features a plethora of settings - which gives you an idea of just how powerful the feature actually is - but it can be hard to figure out how to use it to do just what you want (or need) it to do. Hopefully, I can help you out with that...

I wrote an article for iStockPhoto called Recoloring Artwork, where I take you step-by-step through the process of changing specific colors in a piece of artwork. The article shows how to change the color of a woman's hair and eyes -- even though the colors are employed inside of gradients. Along the way, you'll learn how to better organize the colors in your document, as well as learn how to take advantage of the power found in the Recolor Artwork dialog. An added bonus is a quick way to instantly convert color artwork to grayscale in Illustrator. Enjoy!

You've Been Sliced! (sorry, multiple artboards)

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:34:16 PDT

One of the headlining features added to Illustrator CS4 is multiple artboards. After years and years of waiting, users can finally create a single document with true multiple artboards - which can be of any size or orientation, which automatically become true multiple-page PDF files, and which can be easily printed - pure bliss...

...unless you're a web designer, that is.

Here's the deal. When I first saw the multiple artboards feature, I immediately thought about how wonderful it would be to create all of my ad banners and assorted web graphics for a particular campaign in a single file. Being each element is a different size, it would be easy to create a variety of different-sized artboards in the same document. Which works fine. Until I am ready to export my art.

When you're in the world of print, you can choose to print a range of pages (or artboards). Same for saving a PDF file. But when exporting web graphics, you're usually using Illustrator's Save for Web feature. And there's where things start to break down. Because while Illustrator can contain up to 99 artboards within a single document, only one artboard can be "active" at any one time. And only the active artboard is loaded into Save for Web when you use that feature. In other words, there's no way to get multiple artboards into Save for Web -- you can only bring them in one at a time.

But there's another issue at hand. More so than in the world of print, we are usually very careful about how we name our files when creating web graphics. In a print workflow, where a PDF might be our final delivery method, we can have 30 images in our layout, but we have a single PDF that contains all of those files. As such, the names of those files aren't important. But on the web, where graphics are constantly swapped out for others, and more importantly, where we are working with code and referencing file names all the time, we rely on using careful naming conventions in web workflows.

Artboards, as wonderful as they are, don't have names. So that means each time I load an active artboard into Save for Web, and I save that graphic, I have to give it a name. That may not sound so crazy at first, but if you have 20 assorted graphics in a single document, and you are constantly saving and updating your art (who isn't), then you are selecting an artboard to make it active, then you're launching Save for Web, then you're choosing optimization settings (JPG, GIF, etc), then you're saving your art and giving it a name -- all manually -- and if that weren't enough, you're doing it again and again for each of the 20 graphics in your file - EVERY time you save your art.

Which is why I find myself relying on a feature that few focus on these days: SLICING.

I know - I can envision Jeffrey Zeldman raising his hand in the air Darth Vader-like as if that would make my throat constrict because I have spoken against the Empire - but don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting that folks use slicing for layout. I'm talking about cranking out multiple-sized individual web graphics from a single file quickly and efficiently.

So let's begin.

1. Create a new document using the Web profile, but use a larger (single) artboard if you will have lots of different graphics you'll be working with.

2. Use the Rectangle tool to draw a rectangle for each graphic that you'll need to create. Instead of drawing them out visually, click once with the tool on the artboard and enter precise numerical values. Give each of these rectangles a black fill with NO STROKE (important). Position the rectangles all over your document, however you'd like.

3. Press Cmd-A (Ctrl-A) to select all of your lovely rectangles and press Cmd-C (Ctrl-C) to copy them, and then Cmd-F (Ctrl-F) to paste in front. Then press Cmd-5 (Ctrl-5) to turn them all into Guides. This will allow you to see the boundaries of each of your individual graphics.

4. Press Cmd-A (Ctrl-A) to select all the rectangles (the original ones you created) and choose Object > Slice > Make. This will turn each rectangle into a user slice. The document will also fill up with auto slices -- those created automatically in the areas between all the rectangles -- but forget about those.

5. We don't need to see all of these slices, so let's do two things: first, since your rectangles are still selected, change their opacity values to 0%. Alternatively, you can just set their fill attributes to none; second, choose View > Hide Slices.

6. We don't want our slices to move around, so let's employ some layers. Rename Layer 1 to "SLICES" and lock that layer. Then create a new layer called "ART". All of your graphics will be drawn on this art layer, and the slices are just where we need them.

7. Now you can start creating the art for all of your elements. But at some point, let's go and set up the next step in our workflow. Choose File > Save for Web. The dialog opens and you'll see all of your individual graphics are there in their own little slices. Choose the Slice Select tool and double-click on the first piece of art. From the Slice Options dialog box, enter the designer name for that graphic in the Name field. Don't worry about any other settings -- those are moot for our purposes here. Click OK and do the same for every single piece of art in your file. Additionally, if you already know what file format you want to save your art in (JPG, GIF PNG, etc.), you can do so while each slice is selected as well. Remember you only have to do this for the slices you created, not the empty ones that were created automatically. When you've given names and optimization settings to all of your art, click the Done button in the Save for Web dialog. This returns you to Illustrator, but all of your settings are saved in the slices. So you'll never have to rename or adjust the optimization settings again.

8. OK, after some more work on your art ("always tweaking, we are" says Designer Yoda), you're ready to export your art. Choose File > Save for Web and click on the Save button. For Format, choose Images Only and for Slices, choose All User Slices. For Settings, choose Other and switch to the Saving Files section -- where it says Optimized Files, uncheck the option marked "Put Images in Folder" (unless you want AI to always save your images into a single folder). Click OK and then click Save. You'll see that ALL of your web graphics will be saved at once, all with the right optimization settings and all named correctly. Naturally, once you've applied these settings, they are "sticky" and you can just choose Save for Web, click Save and then Save again, and you're done. If you're overwriting files (which happens often as you update your graphics), you'll be alerted to the fact (and you'll just press OK). In reality, you could even record an Action to just perform the Save for Web export with a single keystroke.

So there you have it. For most web design tasks where you're creating a variety of art - slices are far more efficient than multiple artboards. However, if you're mocking up full web pages with Illustrator, multiple pages would work just fine - especially if your goal is to use CSS to actually implement those designs in DW or elsewhere.

Got other web design tips or ideas to share? Don't be shy! There's a comment button below that begs for your attention! :)

FREE!! - The Joys of Live Paint

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:46:55 PDT

Illustrator is filled with powerful features that many people overlook. Since its introduction in Illustrator CS2, I've preached about how wonderful the Live Paint feature is. However, the feature itself still is misunderstood at best, and that may be due to the fact that the words "live paint" don't necessarily describe the functionality found within the feature itself. Trust me -- if you took a look at Live Paint once before and didn't think much of it, you may be missing a lot of what the feature has to offer.

At a basic level, Live Paint allows you to draw and edit art in Illustrator without having to think about anchor points, bezier curves, or even vector objects as we know it. I like to refer to this as being able to draw "visually" -- meaning drawing by what you see on screen rather than understanding how the overlapping vector objects are built. I've been known to say that since I've started using Live Paint, Pathfinder is dead to me (ok, maybe not dead, but it's writing a will, and I don't think I'm in it).

For this reason, when I set out to record my Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics video training title for Lynda.com, the first topic I chose to tackle was Live Paint -- I dedicated an entire chapter to the feature, which tops out at over 30 minutes of video training -- just on the Live Paint feature alone.

Being that Lynda.com always offers the first few videos of every title as a free viewing sample, you can view the entire chapter on The Joys of Live Paint for FREE (most of the following chapter, Converting Pixels to Paths, which covers the Live Trace feature, is also free). That's right - even if you don't have a Lynda.com subscription, you'll still be able to view these movies.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics title now to learn all about using this incredibly powerful feature in Illustrator. As a note, for the most part, the feature is the same across Illustrator CS2, CS3, and CS4 -- so the video will help you if you have any of those versions.

Oh, and a favor, if you will... if you are already using Live Paint today, I'd love to hear feedback on the feature itself. How are you using it? Can you share examples? And if you're just learning about the feature now (from the video training), please come back here when you're done and post a comment on your thoughts about the feature and how you might see yourself using it.

Clipping Drop Shadows in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:59:09 PDT

On my Mordy.com blog, I made note of my quest to create an iPhone skin entirely in Illustrator. In the process, one of the elements I had to create – the alert dialog – presented an interesting “problem” in that the dialog had an opaque stroke and a transparent fill. OK, so we know that in Illustrator, you can easily apply an opacity setting to fills and strokes independently, but the dialog also has a drop shadow. And if the fill of the object is transparent, you can see the drop shadow through the fill, which isn’t called for in the design.

Before we learn how to make this work in Illustrator, let’s take a look at two other Adobe applications – Photoshop and InDesign. Why? Because interestingly enough, they both have something that Illustrator doesn’t have.

Photoshop has two opacity settings: Layer Opacity, which applies to the entire layer, including its layer effects; and Fill Opacity, which applies only to the pixels that are drawn in the layer, and not its layer effects.

In our example, if we wanted to create an object that had a transparent fill and a drop shadow, we’d first apply a drop shadow layer effect. But we wouldn’t want to reduce the Layer Opacity, because that would lower the opacity of the drop shadow along with the art itself. Instead, we’d adjust the Fill Opacity, which will allow the just the art to be transparent, leaving the drop shadow at full strength.

But notice that the drop shadow isn’t visible through the art of the object itself. It’s as if the artwork “knocks out” the drop shadow beneath it. How did that happen? The answer lies within the Drop Shadow section of the Layer Styles dialog box. There you’ll find a checkbox marked “Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow”, which is turned on by default.

If you head over to InDesign, you’ll find a similar option in the Drop Shadow section of the Effects dialog box as well. There, a setting called “Object Knocks Out Shadow”, also on by default, helps designers keep drop shadows from being seen through objects with transparency settings such as opacity or blend modes.

Now let’s come full circle back to Illustrator, where the Drop Shadow dialog box (found in the Effects > Stylize menu) has no setting to instruct Illustrator to knock out the effect, and we’ll create the iPhone dialog step by step.*

1. Use the Rectangle tool to draw a shape. If you’d like, choose Effect > Stylize > Round Corners to round the corners of the rectangle.

2. Fill the rectangle with a dark blue color and choose a light blue color for the stroke.

3. Choose Window > Appearance to open the Appearance panel (and shame on you if the panel wasn’t already open). Target the dark blue fill and change its opacity to 80%.

4. Click on the word “Path” at the top of the Appearance panel to target the entire object.

5. Choose Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow, and apply your desired drop shadow settings. At this point, you’ll be able to see the drop shadow through the fill of the object. But we’ll fix that next.

6. With the object still selected, open the Transparency panel and expand it so that all of its options are visible. Check the box marked Knockout Group (you may need to click twice to get a check mark in the box).

If you want to know WHY the Knockout Group setting effectively clipped the drop shadow, you can read my explanation in this post, where I used a similar technique to simulate stitched lines for apparel designers.

I should point out that when I asked Adobe why Illustrator didn't have a check box in the Drop Shadow dialog box that would clip an object's shadow, I got an interesting response: "the real world doesn't really work that way". I can't argue with that logic. If you think about it, if an object were semi transparent, it would likely still be dense enough to cast a shadow beneath it. I'll have to pose the question to the folks over at Apple who designed the interface I guess.

One final note: the Object Knocks Out Shadow found in InDesign will only work when your entire object has an opacity setting applied to it. However, if you try to simulate this exact effect in InDesign, where you apply an opacity value just to the fill of an object, you’ll have to use the same technique as we used in Illustrator – you’ll have to turn on the Knockout Group option for that object.

*OK, so in the final version of the iPhone alert dialog, I had to do a little adjusting. Turns out that the opaque stroke that appears around the perimeter of the dialog is actually filled with a gradient. Alas, gradients can’t be applied to a stroke in Illustrator. I had to create a separate compound path in order to apply the gradient.

My Vector iPhone

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:59:26 PDT

I decided I couldn't wait for Flash to come to the iPhone, and so I brought the iPhone to Flash.

Head over to my Mordy.com blog for more information on how I created the iPhone in Illustrator (you can download the file) and see some cool examples of how I actually made the iPhone into a functional SWF.

Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics now live at Lynda.com

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:37:27 PDT

I'm thrilled to announce that my latest video training title, Illustrator CS Beyond the Basics is now live at Lynda.com! I've always wanted to share the "deeper" side of Illustrator, and in this video title, I've tried to provide a range of content that would appeal to just about any intermediate and advanced Illustrator user.

This title, nearly 10 hours in length, features in-depth analysis of a variety of topics:

- The Joy of Live Paint
- Converting Pixels to Paths
- Adding Dimension with 3D
- Advanced Transformations and Effects
- Using Graphic Styles
- Advanced Masking Techniques
- Working with Color
- Understanding Transparency
- Prepress and Output
- Distorting Reality
- Working with Blends
- Creating Charts and Graphs
- Making Sense of Gradient Mesh
- Adding Flair with the Flare Tool (yes, you read that correctly)

Feedback, as always, is welcome - if I can offer more information about how to use Illustrator, please let me know!

Great tutorial on recoloring art

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:25:42 PDT

Ian Giblin, one of the awesome dudes on the Illustrator team posted a nice tutorial on using the Recolor Artwork feature in Illustrator (CS3 and CS4). Brenda Sutherland, one of the awesome dudettes on the Illustrator also recently posted some great information on the feature as well over at Infinite Resolution, which is the Illustrator team's new blog. Take a look! Hopefully we'll see lots of great stuff there.

Just as an FYI, I recently completed an in-depth article on how to use the Recolor Artwork feature for iStockPhoto. Once the article is live, I'll post a link to it.

New Site, New Learning Group

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:12:48 PDT

I have two "announcements" to make.

First, I've mentioned several times in the past that while Illustrator is my first love, there are plenty of other areas in the technology arena that I play in. I usually keep those things to myself, mainly because I want to keep this blog focused on Illustrator. I've attempted to keep a variety of blogs open on different topics, but until I can find a way to clone myself, that simply isn't realistic. So I've taken my own personal site, Mordy.com, and have relaunched it. The site, under the mantra "Technology for Designers" also has a blog, which will become my main public voice. The Real World Illustrator blog will continue, but will be focused on Illustrator-related content only.

Many thanks a million times over are owed to my friend Von Glitschka, who designed the logo and the brand for the new Mordy.com.

Second, A short while ago, I proposed a call to action. A call for people to expand their skillset and to learn something new. To take it upon themselves to stray outside of their comfort zone to learn and share in their experiences. I was thrilled with the response! So many people commented on how they'd love to participate, and I also got many private emails from folks expressing their willingness to help.

Overall, there were two topics that rose to the top. Two topics that are very much in the heads of designers these days, both of which involve code (few designers express delight in that word). These topics are:

- CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, a standard used in designing web content
- ActionScript, the code behind all the goodness that we know of as Flash.

The original goal was to take a year to learn something, but I'm confident that CSS could be tackled in less than an entire year. As such, I think it would be best to start with CSS, and once we experience success (which we surely will), we will go on to tackle ActionScript as well.

Being I'm hoping this will be a true learning experience for all (including myself), I wanted to ensure that we had a way to easily communicate, share, post samples and ideas, and to track progress. I'm happy to announce that we can accomplish all of that through the free Adobe Groups feature on Adobe.com.

I'm thrilled to announce the formation of The CSS Learning Group. Unlike a user group where like-minded individuals come to see what's new in technology, the Learning Group will allow all members to share and exchange ideas towards a single goal: Learning CSS. If you aren't already a member of Adobe Groups, membership is free (it's just your Adobe ID).

Here's the link to The CSS Learning Group. Sign up and join me today!

A call to action - join me!

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:11:24 PST

Like many people across the USA and the world, I watched President Obama address Congress. I was particularly inspired by a statement on the subject of education that the President made:

It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American.

As a trainer myself, I certainly do understand the value of furthering one's knowledge and capabilities. At the same time, I'm just like everyone else in that I have things that I know I've told myself I wanted to learn, but just haven't gotten around to. I think John Lennon, in his song Beautiful Boy, said it best: "Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

But after the President's speech last night, I've decided to take action - I am going to commit to at least one year of advancing my knowledge. And I'd like you to join me in that commitment. We certainly have a better chance of accomplishing our goals if we work together than if we all try going it alone. This project, if you will, is intended to be a two-way street, where I can share what I've learned with you, and where you can all share your own experiences with me and the others who decide to join. There's no pre-requisite other than a commitment to learn, and to share that what you learn. I also encourage users of all experience levels to join. We are all equals here, on the same level, all moving towards a single goal.

I'll have more details on how I plan on organizing and running this project, but the first and most important question is, what will we learn? I know that I've had a few things on my list for some time. At the same time, we'll want to choose something that has some relevance to the work we do today (so we can apply our knowledge and so that we are interested enough in the topic), but that significantly enhances our skills and gets us doing something more than just what we're doing today. We'll also want to choose a topic that we can realistically reach within a year.

Once we choose a topic, we'll set an overall learning goal, and milestones so that we can check our progress as we go along.

So are you with me?

Here are some of the general topics that have been on my own personal list (in no particular order): ActionScript, Scripting/Automation, Flex, and CSS/Web Standards. But of course, this is a community effort and so I'd like to hear from YOU. If you're interested in joining this project, please add a comment noting what specific topic interests you most. Then we can begin to take the next big step together - learning something together. I can't wait!

I'm not one to beat my own chest, but...

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:52:49 PST

I have just completed recording all the movies for my next Lynda.com title - Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics. I've always wanted to go beyond what I normally cover in my Essentials Training video title, where the goal is simply to give people the knowledge to get up to speed with using Illustrator. But as we all know, there's so much more that Illustrator has to offer, and likewise, I have so much more to share.

This title will contain over 120 individual movies and there are entire chapters devoted to Live Paint, Live Trace, and 3D just to name a few. I also go into extreme detail on transparency, prepress issues, and also an entire chapter on color (including the elusive Recolor Artwork feature). And yes, I even cover Gradient Mesh :)

I don't know how long editing and the like will take, but I imagine the title will be online and available at Lynda.com within 4-6 weeks. Naturally, I'll post here when it goes live.

So now my next question is, what's next? I have a few other things I'm working on (I'm preparing a title on the new Gridiron Flow, and also on Adobe's new Flash Catalyst), but what I'd really like to know is, what do YOU need? I know there's lots of training out there. I know there's always a thirst to learn more. But if there's a specific topic you would like my input on, I can't guess that kind of stuff. And by the way, it doesn't necessarily have to be a Lynda.com title either. What kind of content would you like to see from me here on this blog? Or elsewhere (books, etc)? Let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Are you a "Font" or a "Typeface"?

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:29:01 PST

My buddy Thomas Phinney has posted an interesting survey on his blog about the use of the word font and typeface. The question is, are they synonymous? Are they two different things? Thomas also has several other interesting questions on his survey, and he promises to share his findings after his analysis is complete. I look forward to seeing the results.

In Thomas' own words:

I’ve noticed over the years that there isn’t a perfect consensus on the use of certain terms, such as “font” and “typeface.” I am of the opinion that there is a strong majority usage, and historical precedent, but I’m curious to understand better current usage, and how it differs by degree of font expertise (a.k.a “geekiness”) and/or geographic location.

- Thomas' blog post.
- Direct link to the survey.

Public beta for Gridiron Flow now available

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:28:23 PST

Gridiron Software has released a public beta of their revolutionary new workflow software called Flow. Their website contains lots of information about the product, some videos, and the like, but most importantly, you can now download a beta version and see the thing firsthand for yourself.

Today, only the Mac version is available, but the company claims a Windows version is on the way shortly (probably within a week or so).

Aviary's Raven "flexes" vector muscles

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:41:34 PST

Cloud computing is all the rage in today's world. Whether it's Gmail, Acrobat.com, Kuler, Basecamp, or any of the other thousands of online hosted services and applications out there, the concept is simple. Instead of tying your work directly to the desktop, your information lives on the internet (a.k.a., the cloud), easily accessible from any computer, no matter where you are.

Most of you are probably familiar with Adobe's Kuler application - what Adobe likes to refer to as an RIA or a Rich Internet Application. You can access kuler through your web browser from just about any computer and see the colors that you've created. You can also create your own colors, and search through colors that others have created. But Kuler is really a "small" application - can you imagine if Adobe Illustrator itself was a hosted service - where you could actually use powerful vector drawing tools in your browser from any computer, share your art, and view art from others as well? On some level, Adobe has actually taken parts of Photoshop and made it available online via Photoshop Express. And while Illustrator isn't there today, no one knows what the future holds.

But some people have decided they weren't interested in waiting for the future. So they developed their own tools. I actually bumped into these guys at Adobe MAX in 2007 (in Chicago), and it's really funny how small the world is - considering they live about 5 minutes from my home. Their company is called Aviary and they have built their own suite of creative tools -- including an image editor (Phoenix) and a vector graphics drawing application (Raven). These rich internet applications are actually built on the Flex framework (same as Kuler), and they live in the cloud. At first glance, they look just like a regular desktop graphics application, but they run in your web browser.

Aviary's Phoenix - a Photoshop-like image editor

Aviary's Raven - an Illustrator-like vector drawing program

But don't take my word - try it out for yourself! Aviary has released these applications as public betas, and you can sign up and give it a whirl yourself. You can access the Raven beta here. What I really love about these tools is the sense of community. Focus less on the toolset (naturally, Raven can't compete with the powerful toolset of Illustrator - even though Raven does have a rubberband effect for the Pen tool), and focus more on the fact that you can browse through hundreds of other illustrations that others have created, and open them.

Overall, I find the experience of the Aviary suite of tools somewhat surreal. It certainly gives you a taste of what working in the future might feel like. It's pretty cool to have this kind of functionality that is cloud-based, and that is integrated so well. The vector art that you create with Raven is SVG-based, so you can certainly save files out of Illustrator as SVG and open them in Raven, and vice versa. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Art Files and Sneak Peek Pro updated for CS4

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:06:38 PST

If you use Art Files to collect your files for output or archiving, or if you use SneakPeek Pro, a QuickLook plugin that allows you to preview native AI, EPS, and INDD files from just about anywhere on a Mac running Leopard, you'll be happy to know that both have been updated to support CS4. More information can be found on Code-Line Software's website.

Deke McClelland's Illustrator One-on-One movies released

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:51:39 PST

Lynda.com just released Deke McClelland's first of three Illustrator One-on-One video training titles, Fundamentals. As always, Deke presents Illustrator's features thoroughly, and methodically, in his trademark style.

One my favorite parts of this particular title is when Deke compares Illustrator's anchor points to boys and control handles to girls. Deke must have had Valentines Day in mind when he recorded that.

As always, if you're a Lynda.com subscriber, you already have access to this title. If not, you can get a free 7 day trial to Lynda.com here.

Gridiron Flow Public Beta coming February 18!

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:33:13 PST

You're DEFINITELY going to want to check this one out. There's a new product on the horizon - one that has gotten much attention - and for good reason. Gridiron Flow is a product that you install on your computer, which then provides the kind of stuff you've always wanted from your computer. Its main feature is something called a Workflow Map, which visually shows you how all of your files are connected. It's quite incredible, considering that you don't have to actually DO anything.

Here are just a few of the things that Flow does:

- Select any asset on your system - for example, an InDesign file. It builds a visual map that identifies all of the files that are placed into that InDesign file (and likewise, all files that were created FROM that InDesign file, such as PDF documents, etc.).

- If you try to delete a file from your system, and that file is currently placed into another document, Flow will alert to that fact, so you don't accidentally delete files you need.

- If you need to identify all places where a certain asset is used, Flow can do that as well. For example, you have an Illustrator file and need to know every place that Illustrator file was used (in Photoshop files, InDesign, After Effects, etc.). With one click, Flow provides a list of documents.

- Flow also does real packaging (for ANY type of project or application), file versioning, visual searches, and one of my favorites: time tracking.

When Gridiron first went out to talk about Flow, they used the following short video to introduce their presentation, to set the tone for what they are trying to do.

That was a year ago. Now, Gridiron is on the verge of releasing their product as a free public beta. They've also created a newer version of the video.

As I mentioned earlier, what is truly revolutionary about Flow is that it requires NOTHING on your part to make it work. In my experience, I've tried many different asset management systems and workflow systems, that often cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I've also worked with Adobe's Version Cue. But they all require a lot of setup, and they require you to work differently. They require manual steps, or force you to "check things in" of databases. Many also have their own obscure user interfaces that are often web-browser based, forcing designers to change their habits and behaviors. Flow just works. It's the first "plug and play" application I've ever seen.

Here's a video from Steve Forde, the creator of Flow, who discusses a few of the application's features:

I've had the opportunity to play with Flow, and it doesn't disappoint. And the user interface is stunning, it feels "iPhone-like" and is incredibly easy to use. If you are the kind of person that the videos above describe, you might want to check out the beta for yourself. You can sign up here.

Border Patrol: Framing your artwork

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:02:05 PST

My buddy David Blatner recently blogged about creating interesting frames and mattes in InDesign (mainly using the Custom Stroke Style feature). Naturally, someone also pointed out that Illustrator, with its ability to add multiple strokes, can also create some interesting frames as well. In reality though, when it comes to frames or borders, there's something even more powerful in Illustrator: Pattern Brushes.

But before we get there, let's first explore a few ways to easily add some interesting border effects to placed images in Illustrator. Yes, we'll use the Appearance panel to do so, and naturally, we'll save our appearances as Graphic Styles, so that we can easily apply them to photos and artwork at will.

As you may know, Illustrator can apply fill and stroke attributes to vector paths, but an image in Illustrator isn't a vector path at all. As such, we'll need to employ a few "tricks" to allow us to accomplish our goal. I've actually covered parts of this concept in a previous post, but in this technique, we'll take things a step further. To make this tutorial even better, I'm going to use images of David Blatner that somehow ended up in my iPhoto library :)

1. Place an image into your document.

2. First, we'll add the inner glow that appears within the border. With the image selected, click the Add New Fill button in the Appearance panel. Specify a fill of White.

3. At this point, we don't see anything happening because we've applied a fill to an image object. We need to generate a path so that Illustrator has somewhere to apply the fill. With the white fill highlighted in the Appearance panel, click on the Add New Effect button at the bottom of the Appearance panel and choose Path > Outline Object. Now, the white fill, which appears above the pixels in the object's stacking order, should be visible.

4. Obviously, the white fill hides the photo, so in this step, we'll fix that. With the white fill still targeted, click once again on the Add New Effect button and choose Stylize > Inner Glow. Specify Multiply for the Mode, change the color to Black, set the Opacity to 50% and the Blur to 3 pt. Use the Edge method and click OK to apply the effect. You should now see the lovely inner glow, but the white fill still obscures the view of the image. Click on the word Opacity that is listed in the white fill and change its Blend Mode to Multiply. At this point, the white disappears, leaving the photo and the inner glow intact.

5. Add a new fill to the image, once again specifying a color of white. This will be the white matte that appears between the frame and the photograph. With the new fill targeted, click on the Add New Effect button and choose Convert To Shape > Rectangle. Use the Relative option and specify both Extra Width and Height to 12 pt. At this point, the fill appears ABOVE the image pixels, so drag the fill down so that it appears beneath the Image Pixels in the Appearance panel.

6. With the bottom fill targeted (the one we just created in step 5), click on the Duplicate Selected Item button at the bottom of the Appearance panel. You now have two white fills that have a Convert To Shape effect applied to them. Target the bottom-most fill and change its color to a gradient. I loaded Illustrator's Metals collection of gradients and chose Polished Brass, but you're free to choose whatever works best for you. With the fill still targeted, click on the word Rectangle to edit the Convert to Shape effect. Change the Extra Width and Height values both to 24 pt and click OK.

7. Because I wanted a beveled edge to my frame, I added a 3D effect as well. With the bottom-most fill still targeted, click the Add New Effect button and choose 3D > Extrude & Bevel. From the Position popup menu, choose Front to view your fill head on. Specify Rounded for the Bevel and click OK. Your Appearance panel should match the screenshot above.

8. With the image selected, click the New Graphic Style button in the Graphic Styles panel. You've now defined a complex border that you can apply to any artwork, and any placed image. Joy!

EXPLORING THE PATTERN BRUSH

OK, adding fills and strokes and changing their appearances may be great, but they are obviously limited. Customized borders are certainly more complex and have to incorporate intricate artwork. This process is usually a tedious one and requires a lot of work, especially considering that each time you change the size of your frame, you need to adjust your artwork. That is, if you don't use Pattern Brushes. And don't get caught up in the name "brush" -- because you can apply a pattern brush to any path.

Admittedly, defining a pattern brush isn't a piece of cake. A pattern brush is made up of anywhere from 1 to 5 different pattern swatches. But if built right, you can end up with a border or a frame that can be scaled or adjusted to any size or shape instantly. If you need some help, Illustrator does its part by providing you with a few you can use. NINETY of them, actually. You can access these directly from the Brushes panel -- just click on the Brush Libraries Menu button at the bottom of the Brushes panel and choose Borders.

Using a few of the sample pattern brushes that Illustrator ships with, I was able to create a few interesting frames for my collection of David Blatner photos.

Of course, the reason why Illustrator ships with so many sample brushes is so that you can reverse engineer them, learn how they were created, and make your own. It's easy to reverse engineer a pattern brush. Once you've added a pattern brush to your Brushes panel, drag the brush out to a blank area on your artboard. Illustrator will create all of the pattern tiles that were used to define that brush. You can then see the pattern tiles, mess with them on your own, and create your own.

To modify the settings of a pattern brush, simply double click on the brush in the Brushes panel to open the Pattern Brush Options dialog box. What makes a pattern brush special is the fact that it can be made up of up to 5 different pattern tiles, which are used automatically, depending on the geometry of the path (inside corners, start, end, etc), and that it can automatically adjust itself to fit your path. You'll even find that pattern brushes automatically bend to fit the contours of curved paths (try them on circles and ovals!).

I've personally used pattern brushes to help apparel designers create lace trimmings, zippers, and other elements. Remember that you can use pattern brushes on both open and closed paths.

There is one thing to note. It isn't easy to apply pattern brushes to images. You can technically apply them by adding a stroke and then choosing the Outline Object effect for that stroke, but the borders don't "clip" to the image. An apparent bug in Illustrator also make it impossible to add a pattern brush to a mask, so if your image is masked, that won't work either (as you soon as you apply the brush, the mask contents are revealed). In my examples above, I actually created a separate rectangle shape and applied the pattern brush to the rectangle, not to the image itself.

CMYK + RGB: Can't We All Just Get Along?

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:18:25 PST

There are plenty of articles out there that discuss CMYK and RGB in general. At this point, I'm assuming you already know what the differences are between them, and you also know when to use each one. The point of this article though, is what happens when you end up working with both in Illustrator.

In the days of Illustrator 8, one was able to combine both RGB and CMYK artwork within the same document. Many printers took issue with this as they would often receive RGB artwork (containing bright and vibrant colors), but when they delivered the print job, the client would complain that the colors shifted, as we know happens with the lower-gamut CMYK colorspace. The bigger issue was that it was possible to have colors within a single document across the two colorspaces, causing odd shifts of color on the same page.

When Illustrator 9 came out, Adobe implemented a new behavior, that matched Photoshop's model: all documents can be EITHER defined in the CMYK or the RGB colorspace, but a single document couldn't contain artwork from BOTH colorspaces. The one exception to this rule is obviously placed-linked content. One could still place an RGB image into a CMYK document, as the image is just a link. However, as soon as you would embed the image, the image would be converted to CMYK to match the document.

In fact, Illustrator does that across the board. If you have two files open on your screen - one RGB and one CMYK - and you copy some art from the RGB file and paste it into the CMYK file, as soon as you paste the art into the CMYK document, Illustrator converts the RGB colors to CMYK colors.

Just about everyone knows that when you create a new document, you can choose RGB or CMYK at the start. Most also know that at any time, you can choose File > Document Color Mode and CHANGE your document from one color space to another (this is akin to choosing Image > Mode in Photoshop). And you might do so when you get an RGB file (for example, from a client, from a file that you've used to create some web graphic, or from a stock photo house, like iStockPhoto for example). You might think that you need the art for print and so changing the document color mode to CMYK will make everything peachy. Well, maybe not. As we always do here at the Real World Illustrator blog, let's take a closer look...

When you launch Illustrator, and no documents are open, you'll notice that the panels are empty. There are no colors in the Swatches panel, no symbols, no brushes, etc.

When you create a new document - in this case, an RGB document, as I'll use the Web profile - the panels are suddenly populated with content. Lovely color, symbols, etc. Where does all of that content come from? The answer is: from the NDP (New Document Profile) that you chose when you created the file. So in this case, it all came from the RGB-based Web NDP.

It's essential to understand this because of this all important fact: In Illustrator, the DOCUMENT is limited to a single color space, but the PANELS are not. A single panel in Illustrator can contain both CMYK and RGB content. For example, there's nothing preventing you from opening a new CMYK document, but then defining a new RGB swatch in that document. Each time you apply that swatch to an object on your artboard, Illustrator will automatically convert that object to CMYK. In other words, you'll get an RGB to CMYK color conversion.

It's easy to see this for yourself: just create a new CMYK document, and then create a new swatch. Set its color mode to RGB and set its value to 0,0,0 (black) and then apply that color to any object in your document. If you take a look at the color panel, you'll see that object's CMYK values aren't 100k -- they are a mix of CMYK percentages that would make any printer go mad (the exact values will differ depending on your color management settings).

In addition, color swatches themselves can only define a swatch using ONE color mode. You can't have a single swatch that contains 2 definitions (for example, 100k in CMYK and 0,0,0 in RGB). In fact, there's only one kind of swatch that exists in Illustrator today that can contain 2 color definitions, and that's a Book Color. Book Colors contain both CMYK and LAB color definitions and serve up the one you need based on your settings (see this article for more details).

So now let's put these two all-important facts together: New documents get their default swatches from a specific NDP, which you choose when you first create your file. In addition, while documents are restricted to a single colorspace, panels (and the content within them) are not restricted at all. So what happens when you start with an RGB document and you then choose File > Document Color Mode to change it to CMYK? The ARTBOARD changes to CMYK, but all of the CONTENT in your document's panels (Swatches, Symbols, Brushes, etc.) are still RGB. Those haven't changed at all. Which means as you continue working, each time you apply a color from a swatch, you're getting an RGB to CMYK conversion with all those messy values.

So what do you do? Well, there's the hard way, and the easy way. Naturally, I prefer the easy way - which is to simply avoid converting the document color space entirely. If you have artwork that was created in an RGB document and you need to repurpose it for print, copy and paste the content into a new CMYK file. In that way, all the content in your new CMYK document will be CMYK. Alternatively, there's the hard way - which is to delete all of your swatches and symbols in your existing RGB file, and to load the CMYK ones. You can do this by choosing Window > Swatch Libraries > Default Swatches, and opening your CMYK library of choice.

At the end of the day, I'm hoping that at some point, Illustrator will allow us to create "smart swatches" like Book Color swatches, which would allow us to define a single color both in CMYK and RGB breakdowns. Then, depending on what color mode we choose, Illustrator just serves up the right one. In this way, colors would never go through color conversions, and we'd have much more control over how our art can be repurposed for different needs. In theory, such a capability would allow us to create artwork that would internally know how to adjust itself for both print and web workflows. Until then, we have to struggle with these nagging issues.

Illustrator CS4 for the Web now available at Lynda.com

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:34:16 PST

...And the hits just keep on coming...

Today, Lynda.com released my latest video training title: Illustrator CS4 for the Web. I'm particularly excited about this title because in the past, I've done separate web titles for using Illustrator and Flash together as well as using Illustrator to create pixel-based web content. In this new title, I've decided to cover ALL web topics together. So the video covers using Illustrator as it is used for general web content.

If you're already a Lynda.com subscriber, you can view the video title here. If you aren't a subscriber, you can get a free 7-day trial by clicking here.

Kuler Essential Training now live at Lynda.com

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:14:11 PST

Many of you are already familiar with Kuler - Adobe's online color community. Over the past few months, Adobe has added more and more functionality to Kuler, including the ability to extract color themes from photographs (your own or even from Flickr). In fact, there's a whole lot going on in Kuler, which prompted me to sit down and record a video title that covers its functionality both within the website as well as other ways you can access it (like from within Adobe applications or even with Widgets and AIR applications).

If you're already a Lynda.com subscriber, you can view the video title here. If you aren't a subscriber, you can get a free 7-day trial by clicking here.

Enjoy!

TUTORIAL: Recoloring Artwork

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:31:35 PST

One of the more powerful features to have been introduced to Illustrator as of late is the Recolor Artwork feature. When it was introduced in CS3, it was called "Live Color" but thankfully, Adobe dropped that name and now officially refer to it by its more descriptive name: Recolor Artwork. Granted, the feature itself is incredibly complex, but that's because it just does so much, You can't really demo it unless you have a specific task you're looking to accomplish.

On the User to User Forum, someone asked specifically how to accomplish a task, which was really a perfect example for showing one specific part of the Recolor Artwork feature. So I recorded a quick little movie, which I think can help people get a better idea of what the feature does and how to use it -- at least for this one specific task.

Because the Recolor Artwork feature works only on selected artwork, I also added a bit on defining a custom action to help automate the process of unlocking and selecting the art.

Recoloring Artwork in Illustrator CS4 from Mordy Golding on Vimeo.

What the video doesn't show is how to re-lock all of the art once the color edits have been made. To address that you'd actually choose View > New View when you first open the document. Then, after you've completed the color edit, simply choose View > New View 1 (or whatever you've named your view).

As an aside, this tutorial will work in CS3 as well.

Enjoy!

InDesign "hiding" in Mac OS X fixed!

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:13:25 PST

Adobe has confirmed that the frustrating issue of InDesign not being able to be hidden (or not being able to come back after it was hidden successfully without a painful Force Quit) no longer exists when running under the latest release of Apple’s OS, Leopard 10.5.6.

Read the full report here (via InDesign Secrets)

Crop This: More Useful Trim Marks in Illustrator

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:24:57 PST

A while back, I posted a few scripts from Shane Stanley, which added some important functionality to the multiple artboards feature in Illustrator.

Most folks are also familiar with the fact that multiple artboards were once called "crop areas" back in Illustrator CS3. But there's also another feature in Illustrator that helps you define cropping areas, with drawn objects. In previous versions of Illustrator, this command, Create Trim Marks, was found in the Filter menu.

But alas, in Illustrator CS4, the Filter menu has been removed altogether, and the Trim Marks function was moved into the Effect menu. As such, the command is now a live effect, and must be expanded if you want to edit the marks that are drawn.

But let's be honest here -- the trim marks that Illustrator have always created aren't very useful. They are large, and they are offset quite a ways off from the selected artwork that is used to define them. Chances are, if you've used the Create Trim Marks feature before, you've also manually adjusted them afterwards.

I asked Shane if he thought it would be difficult to add some functionality to his already-wonderful Artboard Coordinates script to also have it create custom trim marks. His response came in the form of an email that read: "you mean like this?" and there was a script attached :)

And so now, I pass on the golden prize to you -- a script that not only takes multiple artboards to a new level, but that also creates customized trim marks. All you need to do is select an object and click on the Trim Marks button and a dialog box appears asking you for the desired length, offset, and weight of the strokes, and even offers an option to create dashed lines to indicate folds. You can also choose to place the marks on a specific layer.

Download the script here, and don't forget to thank Shane. Please note: This is an AppleScript, and as such, is a Mac-only application.

P.S. I wrote this post using some new blogging software that I was introduced to, called blogo. I've tried a few editors in the past and haven't come across one that I've really liked, but this one seems pretty cool so far. Hopefully it will mean I'll be blogging more often without the hassle. If you do blog on your own, you should check it out.

Finger on the Pulse: Color Analysis comes to Adobe Kuler

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:27:40 PST

I've always said that one of the most exciting things about Adobe's online color community, Kuler, was that it was built as an RIA -- a Rich Internet Application. Sure, if you look at kuler as simply a way to generate a quick color theme here or there, it works great. But that doesn't tap into the power that the internet brings to the table.

A while back, Adobe update kuler to enable you to extract color themes from photographs. You could either upload your own, or you could extract inspiration from images from Flickr. That stuff was nice, but now, Adobe has started to add the "real stuff" -- a new feature called "Community Pulse" has now been added to kuler, in Beta form. If you log into kuler, you'll find Pulse between the Community and Links buttons along the left side of the screen.

So what is Community Pulse? It's a visual analysis tool that allows you to view color usage. You can almost think of it as Google Analytics for Color. Community Pulse can tell you what colors are popular, where they are popular, and when they are popular. It can also be used to compare color usage across the globe. For example, in the screenshot above, I've asked Community Pulse to display the differences in color usage between the USA and Japan. Specifically, I asked it to show me results of colors tagged with the word "hot", and from the looks of it, it's seems apparent that designers in the US consider blue to be hot.

As Community Pulse is in beta, there aren't as many options available to search on yet, but I'm hoping that eventually, we'll be able to search with our own custom tags and date ranges, etc. I'll be honest, when I first started playing with this cool feature, I was expecting to see a whole lot more green being used, what with the whole global environmental and "green" mindset thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I wonder what other people will be able to extract from this incredibly helpful tool -- play around with Community Pulse yourself and let me know what your own data analysis reveals!