Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals

This course is the first in a four-part series by industry-pro Deke McClelland on creating elegant, optimized graphics with the tools in Adobe Illustrator CS6 and Deke's special, branded techniques. This installment covers subjects such as working with shapes and closed paths, including painting, grouping, and coloring, and placing and adjusting type. Deke shows you how to select fonts, create hanging indents, and tweak the kerning and leading of your text. Additional chapters cover drawing and editing paths (and their points) and moving and transforming objects in your artwork.

Topics include:
* Rotating and duplicating objects
* Grouping and stacking
* Erasing and painting selected paths
* Using the Shape Builder tool
* Reflecting across an angled axis
* Simulating beveled edges
* Creating a network of interlocking paths
* Placing and flowing text
* Creating page margins
* Adjusting type size
* Creating and applying paragraph styles
* Using the Glyphs panel
* Inserting and removing anchor points

Introduction 2m 16s
Welcome to One-on-One 2m 16s

1. Making a Document 29m 56s
Opening Illustrator from the Windows desktop 2m 40s
Opening Illustrator from the Macintosh Finder 5m 27s
Creating a new document 4m 50s
Exploring advanced document controls 4m 43s
Modifying your document 3m 6s
Saving changes 6m 4s
Closing all open documents 3m 6s

2. Working with Artboards 29m 35s
Pages of any size, at any angle 57s
Moving and modifying artboards 4m 33s
Changing the size and shape of artboards 3m 54s
Creating and copying artboards 5m 2s
Introducing the Artboard panel 7m 10s
Auto-arranging artboards 3m 24s
Working with artboards and rulers 4m 35s

3. Getting Around 31m 19s
Navigating through your artwork 36s
Using the dark vs. the light interface 3m 29s
Zooming a document and its artboards 4m 9s
Honing in on specific details 3m 3s
Scrolling or panning a document 2m 15s
Using the Page Up and Page Down keys 1m 57s
Navigating numerically and from a panel 3m 6s
Working with multiple open documents 3m 55s
Exploring panels and workspaces 5m 17s
Cycling through screen modes 3m 25s

4. Making Line Art 46m 1s
Now, we draw 39s
Meet the line tools 2m 8s
Creating custom guides 4m 13s
Drawing a heart with the Arc tool 4m 6s
Adjusting control handles 4m 35s
Reflecting and completing a shape 3m 13s
Drawing a target with the Polar Grid tool 4m 44s
Pasting one shape inside another 3m 57s
Drawing an arrow with the Line tool 6m 18s
Rotating, filling, and stacking 3m 37s
Using the Spiral tool 3m 29s
Tracing existing spirals 5m 2s

5. Drawing Geometric Shapes 1h 15m
And now, we draw better 53s
Meet the shape tools 2m 8s
Using the Ellipse tool 6m 33s
Creating compound paths 7m 5s
Drawing a multi-point star 7m 28s
Adding and aligning a center point 6m 58s
Drawing rounded rectangles 7m 35s
Aligning to a "split location" 5m 27s
Reflecting across an axis 5m 29s
Modifying the constraint axes 6m 34s
Turning a triangle into an arrowhead 8m 28s
Using the Flare tool 6m 25s
Using the top-secret tilde key trick 4m 11s

6. Tracing an Image 46m 24s
Auto-tracing in Illustrator 47s
Opening an image to embed it 3m 49s
Placing an image to create a dynamic link 3m 45s
Looking at auto-tracing and resolution 5m 48s
Adjusting layer previews 3m 3s
Cleaning up with the Threshold option 6m 43s
Cleaning up with the Noise option 3m 34s
Expanding and simplifying traced paths 7m 51s
Flipping and fusing shapes 5m 54s
Scaling resolution-independent vectors 5m 10s

7. Scaling and Rotating 41m 5s
Exploring the realm of transformations 1m 24s
Creating a tracing template 4m 50s
Drawing a diamond with the Polygon tool 3m 51s
Dragging and duplicating 2m 55s
Using the Scale tool 6m 50s
Scaling along a constraint axis 6m 11s
Using the Rotate tool 5m 6s
Rotating and duplicating 5m 52s
Grouping, stacking, and organizing 4m 6s

8. Painting Freeform Shapes 1h 28m
Understanding the best tools for painting 1m 12s
Painting closed path outlines 5m 49s
Erasing and painting selected paths 7m 8s
Reassigning keyboard shortcuts 4m 24s
Painting in the Outline mode 6m 5s
Using the Shape Builder tool 6m 16s
Subtracting with the Shape Builder 7m 7s
Assigning colors with the Shape Builder 7m 29s
Reflecting across an angled axis 6m 22s
Cleaning up Shape Builder leftovers 8m 34s
Working in the Group Isolation mode 9m 29s
Establishing hierarchy with groups 4m 44s
Simulating beveled edges 7m 34s
Creating a network of interlocking paths 6m 24s

9. Working with Type 1h 16m
Text formatting at its best 47s
Creating page margins 6m 1s
Placing and flowing text 5m 39s
Selecting words and lines of type 5m 46s
Working with point text 4m 53s
Previewing and assigning fonts 6m 4s
Adjusting type size incrementally 4m 8s
Adjusting leading and assigning paragraph indents 5m 2s
Pair kerning and tracking 8m 9s
Exploring hanging indents and paragraph spacing 4m 54s
Creating and applying paragraph styles 5m 11s
Redefining paragraph styles 6m 16s
Using the Glyphs panel 8m 37s
Spell-checking your text 4m 41s

10. Using the Pen Tool 1h 32m
The tool that can drawing anything 1m 26s
Drawing straight-sided paths 5m 5s
Editing a path as you draw it 5m 33s
Inserting and removing anchor points 5m 8s
Faking simple spline curves 6m 49s
Adding curvature with Round Corners 7m 23s
Introducing control handles 6m 5s
Drawing perfectly smooth outlines 8m 41s
Tracing a freeform, curving path 8m 18s
Exploring three ways to make a cusp point 8m 40s
Converting an existing anchor point 5m 24s
Drawing inside or behind other paths 8m 2s
Copying and repurposing segments 8m 14s
Copying and transforming entire layers 7m 35s
Conclusion 46s
See ya 46s