Real World Illustrator

Ten Illustrator power moves you MUST know

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000

In most professions, one goes through intense training—intended to help a person develop the ability to act on instinct—where the body learns to act automatically in response to a situation without the need to mentally go through each required step.

Even in everyday living, we’ve learned to adapt to our environment that allows us to perform basic functions without losing focus on the task at hand. Examples are dialing a familiar phone number, or adjusting the radio in your car. I’ve seen teenagers (like my own for example) who can literally unholster their mobile phone, send a text, and reholster the phone faster than Neo can dodge a bullet (all while holding a conversation).

When using Illustrator, you want to get to a point where basic functions become instinct – you do them without thinking about it. That’s a power move. In the title of this article, I referenced ten such moves, but the truth is, I’ve broken these down into ten specific feature areas, encompassing far more than just ten power moves—well over 30 in fact. I list Mac OS keyboard shortcuts, followed by Windows equivalents in square brackets.

If you’re serious about becoming an Illustrator speed demon, learn these power moves. Don’t just read them—practice them again and again. Force yourself to use them—even if it takes longer the first few times you do it. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. In yet another Matrix reference, “What are you waiting for? You’re faster than this. Don’t think you are… know you are…”.

MASTER THE NUDGE
This has nothing to do with your spouse (or your mouse for that matter). In Illustrator, using the arrow keys on your keyboard (up, down, left, right) to move your objects in small increments is called “nudging”. The default increment amount is 1pt (.0139 inches), but you can choose a value more relevant to your task at hand. For example, if you’re working in scale, use a number that is easily divisible. Or use specific amounts, like .0625 inches, so you can tap the arrow key 4 times in quick succession and know you’ve moved the object exactly .25 inch. I’ll often adjust the increment value several times a day, as needed.

Cmd-K [Ctrl-K]: Opens the preferences panel and highlights the keyboard increment field. Just enter a numeric value and hit the Enter key to change it.
Arrow: Nudges selected artwork the amount specified in the Preferences dialog.
Shift-Arrow: Nudges selected artwork 10x the amount specified in the Preferences dialog.
Option-Arrow [Alt-Arrow]: Nudges a copy of the selected artwork the amount specified in the Preferences dialog.
Shift-Option-Arrow [Shift-Alt-Arrow]: Nudges a copy of the selected artwork 10x the amount specified in the Preferences dialog.

ALIGN WITH INTELLIGENCE
With Illustrator CS4, you can snap an object’s boundaries to other objects or guides (previous versions only allowed you to snap your cursor to other objects or guides, requiring you to grab objects by their edges or anchor points). To get this to work, however, you have to have Smart Guides turned on—a feature that many find annoying or too “in your face”. Rather than get rid of it, learn to control it. First, open the Smart Guides preferences panel and uncheck all boxes except for Alignment Guides, then press OK. Now you can use a keyboard shortcut to turn Smart Guides on and off as you need it.

Cmd-U [Ctrl-U]: Toggles Smart Guide behavior on and off.

SELECT FASTER
We probably make use of the Selection tools in Illustrator more than anything else, so it’s important to get familiar with NOT constantly switching between them. Instead, learn to use the shortcuts to make them all behave as one cohesive unit.

V: Selection tool (Solid arrow) — the inverted “V” looks like an arrow.
A: Direct Selection tool (Hollow arrow) — the “A” looks like an arrow with a hollow center.

Rather than constantly switch between the two arrow tools, most power users use the Direct Selection tool most often and use these shortcuts:

Cmd [Ctrl]: Temporarily toggles to Selection tool.
Option [Alt]: Temporarily toggles to Group Selection tool.

On the subject of making selections it can often be easier to select art without using tools at all:

Cmd-A [Ctrl-A]: Select all.
Shift-Cmd-A [Shift-Ctrl-A]: Deselect all.

CHANGE OBJECT ATTRIBUTES
How many times do you apply a color only to realize you adjusted the stroke when you meant the fill? How many times do you just want to get an object back to a white fill and a black stroke? Don’t answer—just learn the power moves:

D: Resets an object’s appearance to white fill, 1pt black stroke.
X: Toggles the focus between Fill and Stroke.
Shift-X: Swaps the colors of an object’s fill and stroke.
/ : Applies the None attribute.
Cmd-/ [Ctrl-/]: Applies a new fill (via the Appearance panel).
Shift-Cmd-/ [Shift-Ctrl-/]: Applies a new stroke (via the Appearance panel).

ADJUST STACKING ORDER
I cringe every time I see someone move their mouse up to the Object menu every time they want to bring an object to the front or send it to the back. Due to the stacking nature of vector graphics, these power moves are essential. While there are four possible settings here, the most important ones to remember are Bring to Front and Send to Back.

Shift-Cmd-] [Shift-Ctrl-]]: Bring to front.
Shift-Cmd-[ [Shift-Ctrl-[]: Send to back.
Cmd-] [Ctrl-]]: Bring forward.
Cmd-[ [Ctrl-[]: Send backward.

LOCK AND LOAD (AND HIDE)
Complex artwork—especially those laden with multiple masks—can make for difficult selections. While the new isolation behavior in Illustrator CS4, which allows you to double click on any object to temporarily lock it and bring it to the top of the stacking order, is brilliant, there are still many times when locking or hiding elements can be useful, especially when spending a lot of time focusing on smaller parts of a larger overall illustration.

Cmd-2 [Ctrl-2]: Lock selected object(s).
Cmd-Option-2 [Ctrl-Alt-2]: Unlock all.
Cmd-3 [Ctrl-3]: Hide selected object(s).
Cmd-Option-3 [Ctrl-Alt-3]: Show all.

Since there’s no way to unlock a specific object, most pros will Unlock all, Shift-click on the object they want unlocked (which deselects it), and then Lock in quick succession. Same applies for Hide/Show.

YUMMY PASTE
Paste was delicious when you were younger, and just because you’ve grown up, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it now. The Paste command in Illustrator places art in the center of your screen, but you can also paste objects in place — either in front or in back. For those who were familiar with FreeHand, Paste in Front is the same as the feature once known as Clone. Paste in Front and Paste in Back are also helpful when you want pasted objects to be placed within groups or masks.

Cmd-V [Ctrl-V]: Paste.
Cmd-F [Ctrl-F]: Paste in front of the copied object.
Cmd-B [Ctrl-B]: Paste behind the copied object.

PAN AND ZOOM
The Zoom tool and the Hand tool should be treated like museum artifacts—they can be looked at, but are not to be touched. Truth be told, those scroll bars along the bottom and right edge of your document are also off-limits. Learn the power moves to quickly navigate within your documents.

Space: Hand tool.
Cmd-Space [Ctrl-Space]: Zoom in.
Cmd-Option-Space [Ctrl-Alt-Space]: Zoom out.

A particular problem one runs into is that when you’re editing text, you can’t press Space to switch to the Hand tool, as doing so will actually add space characters to your text string. In those cases, this secret handshake will give you joy: Press Cmd-Space [Ctrl-Space] to access the Zoom tool, and then release just the Cmd [Ctrl] key, while still holding Space. This will give you the Hand tool. Release to return to editing your text with the Type tool.

Since we’re talking about navigating within documents, these are helpful as well:

Cmd-` [Ctrl-`]: That’s a Tilde, which appears just over your Tab key on US keyboards, and allows you to toggle between open tabbed documents.

EFFECTIVE EFFECTS
You want to quickly add a few drop shadows, but want to make sure they all use the same settings. Sure, you could define a Graphic Style, but that’s too much of a bother, right? Instead, use a quick power move.

Shift-Cmd-E [Shift-Ctrl-E]: Apply last-used effect with the same settings.
Shift-Cmd-Option-E [Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E]: Bring up the dialog box of the last-used effect.

PATHFINDER, RINSE, REPEAT
The Pathfinder functions—specifically Unite (Add), Minus Front (Subtract), and Divide—are used constantly when creating artwork in Illustrator. True, I’m a big fan of the newer Live Paint functionality in Illustrator, but for quick fixes here and there, Pathfinder proves valuable. While there aren’t keyboard shortcuts for the Pathfinder functions (in theory, you could always define an Action for them and apply a shortcut to the Action), there is a power move to re-apply a Pathfinder function—helpful for when you’re performing lots of shape editing—especially since you don’t have to shuttle your cursor between your art and a floating panel.

Cmd-4 [Ctrl-4]: Repeat last-applied Pathfinder function.

WANT MORE?
Want power shortcuts for Photoshop or InDesign? Check out these great titles from Michael Ninness over at Lynda.com: Photoshop CS4 Power Shortcuts, and InDesign CS4 Power Shortcuts.

Got your own favorite power moves to share? Post them in the comments!

Illustrator and Dreamweaver Integration - TAKE 2

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:37:00 +0000

A while back, I blogged about using Illustrator for web design. Specifically, I wrote about using Illustrator and Dreamweaver together, lamenting about the lack of integration between the two applications. I've even had numerous discussions with the product managers for Dreamweaver over at Adobe about the topic.

To summarize, I questioned the apparent lack of support for moving art quickly from Illustrator into Dreamweaver via Smart Objects. The team kept asking me why I would care to bring vector art into Dreamweaver, and whatever would I do with it once it got there? My response was that I didn't want the vectors - I wanted Dreamweaver to generate pixels a la Smart Objects from the GoLive days.

Boy was I shortsighted. What was I thinking?

Each year, Adobe has their MAX conference. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, I was not able to attend this year's conference in LA. One of the best sessions is something called "MAX SNEAKS" where Adobe shows tasty nuggets of technology from their labs. I'll mention that these aren't usually sneaks like features from the upcoming releases. Rather, the demonstrations are from Adobe's engineering scientists and generally cover things they are "messing with" that are often a while out, if at all. These are rarely polished demos and as I stated, the presenters aren't professional demo masters (of the likes of Greg Rewis or the incredible Jason Levine).

So take a look at this video that someone captured from this year's Adobe MAX Sneaks session -- a demo of technology showing integration between Illustrator and Dreamweaver. If it isn't clear in the video clip below what is happening, I'll spell it out for you: He starts by taking art drawn in Illustrator and copies it to the clipboard. Then he goes into Dreamweaver, selects a DIV and chooses a function called Smart Paste. Dreamweaver then pastes an FXG conversion of the Illustrator art directly into the page. If you aren't familiar with FXG, it's basically a better SVG (you can get more information on the open source FXG spec here). In other words, you draw in Illustrator, copy and paste into Dreamweaver (which converts it to code), and the art displays as vector art in a web browser. What's more, the engineer proceed to actually bind XML data to the chart.

As I mentioned, I think this is probably something that is way way off in the future, but it's still quite incredible. Maybe there's some hope for us all, after all :)

Thanks for the tasty treats Adobe! Can't wait to see the day when features like this come to life!

TECHNIQUE: Distribute Art Around a Path

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:04:00 +0000

A reader from Poland wrote in that he was trying to recreate the European Union flag - where 12 stars are distributed in a circular pattern. This reader tried several techniques including a blend, but wasn't getting the result he was looking for.

In reality, there are many designs that call for distributing art along a path. And while Illustrator has some nice Align and Distribution tools, and even Smart Guides, they won't help when you're trying to align your objects to something other than a straight line.

Enter the Blend feature - yes - the very same Blend feature that has been in Illustrator since the beginning of time. When the main purpose for blends was to create shading or blends between colors (something we all use Gradients for these days). But blends are more powerful than people think. And more importantly, when you understand what makes a blend tick, you can use it for a variety of purposes -- including distributing art along any path -- even if that path isn't straight.

Distributing art around a circle in Illustrator from Mordy Golding on Vimeo.

Enjoy the video tutorial. You can find additional tutorials on my Vimeo page here. For complete training titles on Illustrator and Flash Catalyst, head on over to Lynda.com.

Summer's over - ready for Spring?

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Every professions has its seasons -- and I've always enjoyed the paradox that exists in the world of apparel design and fashion -- when it's cold and snowy out, you're designing the summer fashions, and vice versa. So now that Summer has officially ended, it's only normal to start thinking about spring...

Today, Pantone published their Fashion Color Report for Spring 2010. Click on the image below to download a copy of it.

I was particularly pleased to see that this year, Aurora (a derivative of my favorite color, yellow) made the top 10 list. Here are the words right from Pantone: "Reminiscent of the first glimpse of yellow as the sun begins to rise over the horizon, this shimmering, slightly greenish yellow adds a bold infusion."
Also making the list were Pink Champagne, Tomato Puree, and Eucalyptus. Now it's time to throw a few of these colors at Kuler and see what you can come up with!

Say what? You don't have an Illustrator swatch library for the Pantone Textile Library? You mean you actually look for a color in your Textile book and then try to manually create a new swatch and match it on screen? Are you mad? Run -- don't walk -- to the Adobe Illustrator Exchange and download the Pantone Textile Library today!

Illustrator, the forgotten one

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:13:00 +0000

Ask people about the key to their successes and they'll often reply with quips like "I never forgot where I came from" or "I remember what it was like when I grew up", or "I owe those who helped me get started". At the same time, we all know how sometimes, things are seemingly overlooked - where credit is given to one person when maybe someone else was really the driving force behind the success.

Illustrator was Adobe's first shrinkwrap software, and along with PostScript, helped Adobe be a part of what would become an industry-changing event with the advent of Desktop Publishing. Yet as someone who has pretty much spent a lifetime standing by Illustrator, I've always felt that Illustrator somehow was always overshadowed by applications like Photoshop, Flash, or Acrobat. There are obvious reasons for this, and as I get older myself, it's easy to see that the younger kids are "cool" and get all the attention.

However, I always thought that Adobe, as a company, would always recognize the fact that Illustrator played a large part in the success of the company - and that Illustrator still plays a large part of that success today. Well, I was in for a shock when I happened upon a document on Adobe's website today. The document is entitled "Adobe Fast Facts" and can be found on the About Adobe part of the company's website. The document, two pages in length, gives a quick synopsis of the company. In a section labeled "Flagship Products", Illustrator is a no-show. In fact, the Illustrator product isn't mentioned anywhere in the document at all.

Don't get me wrong - if Adobe's intention was to list a few "flagship" products, I'd be fine with that. But included in this list of "flagship" products are Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash, and Dreamweaver. Do you really mean to tell me that Illustrator isn't "flagship" enough to be included in that list? Especially when you consider that Illustrator was influential in those applications being on that list at all? Illustrator is practically in every suite that Adobe sells. That isn't flagship?

I'm just sayin'.

Where's the respect? SIGH.

ASK MORDY: Threaded Type on a Path

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:48:00 +0000

Today's question comes in from Donna Tracy:

Is there a way to create text in a circular shape with a text flow like in InDesign text boxes?

This is a great question (and kudos to Donna for also including an image in her email which made it easy to understand what she was asking for), as it exploits one of the strengths of Type on a Path in Illustrator -- which is that Path Text objects can be threaded. If you're unfamiliar with the differences between Point Type and Area Type in Illustrator, refer to this post. Since Illustrator CS, when the newer text engine was introduced, Type on a Path in Illustrator acts like Area Type - and can be threaded just like text frames can be threaded in InDesign.

Rather than try to explain to Donna how to perform the technique she was after, I recorded a quick video, which you can view below. You can also download a full-res version of the video here.

Illustrator Type on Path Tutorial from Mordy Golding on Vimeo.

Learn to make Illustrator go FASTER

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:09:00 +0000

One of the most common questions I get about Illustrator revolve around performance. Everyone wants to find any shortcut to make Illustrator run faster. It always reminds me of that famous line from the movie Top Gun, when Maverick and Goose exclaim “I feel the need… the need for speed!”

Of course, there are always things that you can do to speed up your Illustrator experience, and they generally fall into two categories: you can improve speed by using better equipment, and you can improve speed by learning to take advantage of features and techniques. One disclaimer: The information I present here applies specifically to Illustrator, so if you regularly use other applications, they should be taken into account as well when configuring your system.

BETTER HARDWARE

There was a time when Windows outperformed Macintosh when it came to Illustrator. However, the improvements to Mac OS X changed a lot of that over the years, and from my own experience, both platforms perform identically. From an overall perspective however (not related specifically to Illustrator), I still prefer Mac for my own personal work. For those that are interested, I currently use a 15” MacBook Pro with an 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB of 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM.

CPU - Illustrator’s rendering engine is multi-threaded, allowing it to draw to the screen while performing other calculations. However, that’s the extent of Illustrator’s multi-threaded support. As such, a CPU that features multiple cores won’t offer any significant advantage over a 2-core processor. However, you will see the most significant performance increases with Illustrator when you use a CPU with a faster clock speed (a faster bus speed helps too). In other words, if you’re wondering if you should spend money on a faster chip with fewer cores or a slower chip with more cores, go with the faster chip.

Video Cards/GPU - Unlike Photoshop CS4, Illustrator does not specifically access or use the GPU processor on a video card. Hence, a GPU will not have any significant impact on drawing or display performance in Illustrator (although if you use Photoshop enough, you’ll want a GPU and a fast video card anyway).

RAM - Illustrator CS3 and CS4 can leverage a maximum of 2GB of RAM. So loading a computer with 8GB of RAM won’t make Illustrator go any faster. Although keep in mind that RAM is shared, and so having more memory will allow you run more applications simultaneously, but even still, Illustrator itself won’t utilize anything above 2GB of RAM. To get the most performance out of your system, you’ll want to ensure that Illustrator can get its full 2GB, so if you regularly use other apps at the same time of Illustrator, you’ll want a minimum of 4GB of RAM on your system. You’ll also want to get the fastest RAM your system will support. For more information on what kind of RAM your computer supports, refer to your computer manufacturer’s specifications and recommendations.

Hard Drive - The faster of a hard drive you get, the better your performance will be when reading and writing (opening, saving, etc). So going with a 7200 rpm or even a 10,000 rpm drive will make you much happier than a 5400 rpm drive will. On the note of hard drives, disk fragmentation also takes a toll on overall performance. Getting a utility to keep your hard drive in tip-top shape will also ensure a smooth ride when using Illustrator (and any other application for that matter).

Turn off Thumbnail Previews - Those little thumbnails that display a preview of your art in the Appearance and Layers panels take time to render (sometimes significantly). If those thumbnails aren’t important to you, you can turn them off to get better performance. From the Layers panel flyout menu, choose Panel Options, and uncheck all of the options in the Thumbnails section of the dialog. From the Appearance panel flyout menu, choose Hide Thumbnail.

Speed up the Hand tool - If you use the Hand tool a lot to pan around your art, you may experience significant pauses as Illustrator tries to catch up as you move quickly across the screen. For the most control over your screen redraw performance, Launch Illustrator (CS3 or CS4) and open the Units & Display Performance pane of the Preferences Dialog Box and adjust the Hand Tool slider. This specifically addresses how quickly your screen will redraw when you’re panning with the Hand tool. The default setting, Full Quality, will keep your art in high quality display when you’re panning. As you move the slider towards the Faster Updates setting, Illustrator will produce a lower resolution screen display while dragging with the Hand tool, to speed up panning. When you stop dragging and release the mouse, Illustrator will display your art in the usual high-quality setting.

BETTER TECHNIQUE

When I first got into playing golf, I was excited and motivated. I bought a set of golf clubs (at Costco) and I also subscribed to a few golf magazines. However, after a few rounds of golf, I was getting frustrated at how lousy I was playing. I was convinced that my inability to play consistently was simply due to the fact that I was using inferior equipment. Especially after reading all the advertisements and articles in all of my golf magazines, I was convinced that getting a new set of fancy clubs was going to solve all of my problems. Then a friend told me I’d be better off spending my money on a few golf lessons than buying new clubs. It was the best advice I’d ever gotten on the golf course.

Turns out that the equipment you use can only do so much – but if you don’t know the right way to use it, you won’t get very far. More importantly, the gains you can make by learning how to use the equipment properly can far exceed the gains you’d ever see from simply buying new equipment.

Illustrator (and any Adobe application) is no different. Learn how to use the features efficiently, and you’ll see far more performance enhancements. More importantly, when you learn to take advantage of the application itself, any hardware upgrades you make moving forward will be amplified.

Keyboard Shortcuts - The advice is simple, and you already know this, but learning keyboard shortcuts will have the largest impact on how fast you can work in Illustrator. Unfortunately, such a skill comes only with experience. When I’m learning a new application, I “force” myself to learn the shortcuts by doing the following. If I don’t know the keyboard shortcut for something, I go to the menu or tool and see what the shortcut is, but I don’t apply the feature. I then use the keyboard shortcut to apply the function. Sure, it takes me longer to apply the function the first few times, but then I have it committed to memory and at that point, my fingers to the walking while my brain focuses on the creative task at hand.

If the feature you use often doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and assign one for it. To learn a few cool shortcuts from that dialog, choose Menu Commands and scroll down to the “Other” listings. You can also click the Export Text button to save and print out a laundry list of every keyboard shortcut.

Workspaces - How much time do you waste searching for a panel only to find it’s hidden underneath some other panel, or buried grouped with many other panels? Or how many times do you choose a panel from the Window menu only to realize you just closed it and have to repeat the same command to bring it back? While the newer Adobe user interface was created to help avoid these kinds of things from happening (docked panels don’t overlap each other), many are still used to using floating panels that continue to get in the way.

When your screen gets too messy, reset your workspace. For a speedier experience, take a few moments to set up your screen with the panels you use most often and position them to your liking. Then save a custom workspace, which you can always return too when your screen gets too messy (in my case, that’s usually several times a day).

Symbols - If your artwork contains repeating elements, Symbols are the ultimate timesaver. Not only does it save file size space (resulting in faster open and save times), it allows you to make changes across your entire document in a snap. Keep in mind that symbols can contain anything except linked images, and that symbols can also be nested.

Appearance Panel - Sometimes I feel like a broken record (as a side note, I once made that comment to my kids who gave me blank stares and said "what's a broken record?" and so I had to modify my statement by telling them I feel like a scratched DVD...). The Appearance panel was added in Illustrator 9 and finally got a much-needed facelift and upgrade in CS4. Use it. When you use the Appearance panel, you can add multiple fills and strokes to single objects – allowing you to create effects that would otherwise require the creation of multiple objects. More importantly, the Appearance panel gives you complete control over live effects, which enable you to make changes quickly and easily.

Styles, Styles, Styles - Illustrator features Graphic Styles, Paragraph Styles, and Character Styles. While it certainly takes an extra few seconds to define a style, there are certain types of jobs that can really benefit from them. Especially when you expect to make a lot of changes.

Actions/Scripts - If you find yourself repeating the same steps or techniques often, you should think about recording an action to automate the process. But keep in mind that while Actions are nice, they are somewhat limited in that they don’t support logic (things like if/then statements), and more importantly, not every feature or function in Illustrator is actionable. Scripts are far more powerful, but no one expects you to learn how to write them. Instead, use Google to search for scripts, or you can find a few resources here. Illustrator also ships with a few handy sample scripts, which you can find in your Illustrator application folder.

Adobe posts free public beta of Flash Catalyst

rwillustrator@gmail.com (Mordy Golding) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000

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 18:08:00 +0000

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 13:48:00 +0000

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 15:00:00 +0000

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) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:24:00 +0000

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 19:37:00 +0000

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 17:27:00 +0000

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) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:17:00 +0000

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) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:00:00 +0000

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 17:27:00 +0000

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 15:40:00 +0000

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) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:23:00 +0000

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 14:21:00 +0000

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 19:42:00 +0000

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 19:04:00 +0000

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 18:38:00 +0000

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 14:04:00 +0000

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 02:44:00 +0000

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.