Don't Go Changing

"Change is not made without inconvenience, even worse to better."
Richard Hooker (1554-1600), British theologian.

I started drawing wtih Adobe Illustrator 6 back in 1996. Since then, I have adjusted to 7, 8, 9, 10, CS1, CS2, and this spring I will try my hand at CS3. Some version changes have been wildly exciting, while others have been mildly annoying. For instance, somewhere between versions 9 and CS2 the Styles palette was renamed the Graphic Styles palette. I know that sound inconsequential, but to this day, it takes me an extra 4 or 5 seconds to find graphic styles in the Windows menu, because I am looking alphabetically between Stroke and Swatches instead of between Gradient and Info. This is not the only naming convention that has thrown me off my game. I still struggle with opening files in the Bridge instead of in the Browser. I sometimes suspect some changes are designed specifically to make me feel old and addlepated.


Some of the finer changes that I have seen over the years include upgrades in the paintbrush and reshape tools (Illustrator 7), Smart Guides (8), Appearance Palette (9), Symbols Palette and tools (10), the ever spectacular 3d (CS) and Live Trace capabilities (CS2). These and other changes have made the suffering that comes with change worthwhile.


So what improvements are we going to see with the advent of CS3 in my classroom? Well, for one, the palettes have been "enhanced." In fact, they have been so enhanced that they are no longer even called palettes. Suddenly, the word palette seems to have become passe and the new, improved name will be panel. It will take me a year to purge the word "palette" out of all my lesson plans, worksheets, PowerPoint slides and projects and then another five years to remember to say "panel" instead of "palette." Of course by then, they will probably have renamed them goober boxes.


The new panels are more flexible and easier to tuck out of the way. Palettes have a tendency to mess up a screen. In a good drawing frenzy you can end up with so many palettes showing that you can't see the drawing board. The best solution for this is two monitors side by side. This is a sweet solution. You can keep all the palettes over on one monitor and work on the other. Sadly, this isn't a practical solution for everyone. When I get frustrated with all the open palettes, I often hit the Shift/Tab, which temporarily hides them, or I choose Window>Workspace>Default. This is like having Mary Poppins clean your room--palettes are magically returned to their proper places spit-spot and painlessly.


The Control panel has been enhanced to give you some anchor selecton control and direct access to other options such as Envelop Distortion. You can also change the size and shape of anchor points. This will be a great advantage for those folks who stubbornly refuse to zoom in on objects.


The opening screen offers new workflow types (create new: print document,Web document, Mobile and Devices Document, etc.) I usually check the little box on this screen that reads "Don't show again," so this innovation is not going to rock my world.


I think I am most excited about the new interactive Eraser tool. Anything that makes it easier to take back my mistakes is a real winner in my book. Ther eraser erases any vector objects but won't inadvertently erase anything outside of a selection.


Other improvements include:

• An Interactive Crop Tool. This was a long time in coming.


• Live Color. This will call for a total overhaul of my current color lessons, but it looks intriguing.


• Symbol. The workflow in the Symbols PANEL (as opposed to palette) will now operate more like the one in Flash.


• Enhancements aimed at improving integration with other Adobe programs. (support for digital video workflows, dynamic and input text.)

Am I excited to start working with CS3? Not really. The older I get, the less patient I am with change. But, I am hopeful that a year from now I will wonder how I ever put up with that "Dinosaur" CS2 and will have all but forgotten those painful months of transition. Fortunately, age destroys memory at about the same rate as it does patience.

A few reviews on CS3

• Creative Pro


• PC Magazine


• PC Pro

Note: I used Live Trace on Newt and applied the Swatch palette "forest" onto the image. Newt recently experienced a change. He moved from Missouri to Chicago, Illinois. We still keep in touch and he is greatly missed (Except by the other two cats.)

With a Trace

Live Trace was introduced wih the release of Adobe Illustrator CS2. There was a tracing tool in earlier versions, but it usually led to disappointment. The tracing results achieved with Live Trace are a vast improvement. (Like upgrading from an abacus to a computer.)

With Live Trace you can automatically trace around the areas of color and shade of any raster image. Since it is "live," you can also adjust the results before converting it to vector points and paths. What kind of raster graphics can you trace? Pretty much whatever strikes your fancy: Photoshop PSD, EPS, TIFF, JPEG, or scanned images.

You can either open a raster image directly into Illustrator, or you can place it within an existing file. (File>Place). I have learned from painful experience that if you choose to Place the image, you should uncheck the "Link" box at the bottom of the Place window. Linked images have a tendency to get separated from the the Illustrator file. Trying to open an Illustrator file after a linked file has been moved or lost opens the dreaded gray box. (This is a warning box with a big exclamation mark that is constantly berating me for trying to do something that can't be done.) The box indicates that Illustrator "could not find the linked file." It gives you three choices: Replace, Ignore, or Cancel. If you haven't totally lost the image, you can choose replace and go browsing for it. If you have already traced the image, you don't need it anymore and can choose ignore. If you decide that you would rather go watch an old Leave it to Beaver episode, choose cancel. I hate the gray box's constant nagging, so I avoid the entire conflict by not linking.

Here are the basic steps for tracing an image:

Open or Place the file in Illustrator.

Select the image. Illustrator is very intuitive and by virtue of you selecting the raster image, it knows that you having a tracing extravaganza in mind and obligingly provides all the tracing buttons in the options bar.

Next you can click Trace, use a preset, set your own tracing options, or find a new picture.

• The Trace button gives you the default settings. This performs well with some images, and poorly with others. If yours falls into that 2nd category, simply choose Edit>Undo and try the next option.


• Click the small black triangle next to the trace button. This gives you a menu with a variety of preset tracing options. Try some out.


• Choose tracing options from the bottom of the menu if you don't like the presets. The tracing options box may give you more options than you want--it's very complex. Check the preview box before you start changing settings. Be warned, it is a slow process, especially with large files. Every time you make an adjustment, Illustrator reworks the tracing.


• Finally, if you still are unhappy with your results, it is time to accept the fact that your image simply isn't a good candidate for tracing. This happens quite often for me. Usually images that have low contrast or too much detail don't get good results.

If you do hit upon that magic combination for an ideal tracing, click Trace. Then click the Expand button on the options bar. Your raster graphic is transformed into a vector image (with about eleventy-million paths and anchors.) You can edit the image to your heart's content, or if you prefer, use Live Paint on it. (We'll save Live Paint for another posting.)

I used the default settings to create the dog logo for my pretend record company. This was the original image. As you see, I didn't use the entire dog for my logo. After I traced and expanded the image, I did a lot of clean-up work. I deleted a ton of anchor points and adjusted and repositioned some points. My final result doesn't look much like the original, but, with my drawing skills, had I drawn him from scratch, he wouldn't look much like a dog.

You might also notice that my dog is black and white. That is because I used the default Trace. You can get some interesting effects, though, by using the color option mode. But, alas, that too is for another day.

Would you like to see LiveTrace in action? Watch the tutorial below from tutvid.com.

Me And My Shadow

As promised, here are some of the 3d vases created by my Monday night class. You may notice that J. Cronin's vase is decorated with bunnies. And if you read my last blog, you might recall that a recent quiz in the class involved drawing animals and turning them into symbols. Mr. Cronin took full advantage of the symbols palette by using the symbol that he had created for the quiz. Looks to me as if the blue bunny is planning an escape. Actually, the falling over aspect of some of the vases is my fault. The assignment specified that one vase should be rotated. Most of the students felt that was offensive to their design and chose to ignore those instructions.

Several students complained bitterly about the drop shadow that I requested also. I was trying to save them time and trouble and asked that they apply a simple drop shadow (Effect>Stylize>Drop Shadow.) They pointed out, rightly, that it didn't look very natural. A few students drew their own shadow. They then lowered its opacity, skewed it, and sent it behind the vase. I love it when students think outside the box (or in this case-outside the vase.) This worked very nicely, but they asked me if there was an easier way.

My first impulse was to use a built-in Graphic Style called Shadow Back that comes with Illustrator CS2. I use it occasionally when I am in a hurry and want an object to throw a quick shadow. You can find this style by opening the options menu in the Graphic Styles palette.(Click the little circle button at the top right of the palette). From the menu choose "Open graphic style library" and from the list choose "Image Effects." The style is on the bottom row of the palette.

I tried using this and, as I feared, it failed to do the trick. I knew that since 3d is an effect, the vase is not really vase-shaped, but actually just a half a vase. Here was the result. The drop shadow worked, but, I lost my pretty 3d effect. Pretty much what I expected--ah, but hope springs eternal! Back to the drawing board. After some thought, I decided that I could Expand my vase so that it was no longer simply an effect. Expanding breaks an effect down to about a kajillion paths and points. Once you Expand an object, there is no going back, so make sure you love your vase before you begin. To expand the vase, select it, and choose Object>Expand Appearance. Your object is now truly vase shaped. Keep it selected and click on the Shadow Back style in the graphic styles palette.

I wasn't totally happy with the graphic style--I thought it was a little too dark and overly-defined. Once you have applied a graphic style, though, you can always fix it up a bit in the Appearance Palette. The 2nd fill in the palette is the shadow. (see palette below.) I selected it, played with the gradient a little bit, added a gaussian blur, and lowered its opacity. I also thought the skewing of the shadow was a bit off, so I double-clicked on Free Distort and adjusted it also. Finally, after all that work, I saved my edited version of the back shadow in the Graphic Styles palette. Who knows, I may want to use it again some day. I am still not in love with the shadow, but I am certainly tired of it.

How would you create a drop shadow for a 3d object in Illustrator? Can anyone give me a new and innovative way that I haven't considered?

If you are new to Illustrator and are interested in learning how to create a drop shadow from scratch, check out this Biorust tutorial.

Let's Get Quizzical

Using Illustrator is not like riding a bicycle. If you learn how to use a new tool and then don't use it for a while, chances are, you will forget all about it. Months later you will want to do something special with an image and may vaguely recall that there is a great technique that would be perfect, but you can't quite dredge it up.

When my Illustrator class meets twice a week in the morning, I provide my students with a daily hands-on quiz. I started this several years ago to combat late arrivals. The quiz begins promptly at 10:00 and if they aren't in their seats, they receive a zero for the day. This isn't as harsh as it sounds. During the quiz, I let students use the help menu, the book, friendly neighbors, and if they ask nicely, I tell them what to do. It's an easy A. The only requirement for a 100% grade is punctuality. This is very effective in getting the class rolling on time, and it helps students retain what they are learning. The quizzes always cover the material from the previous class. Students are always surprised to discover how much they can forget in two day's time.

I use the completed quiz here on the day after we learn how to make symbols. In addition to knowing how to use the Symbols Tools, students must also draw on their knowledge of the zoom tool, drawing tools, and applying effects to complete the quiz successfully. Not surprisingly, the most common creatures that students choose to draw for this quiz are snakes and worms. Of course, there are also those wonderful students who are up to the challenge and throw in every Illustrator skill they have to create their symbols.

Once students have completed the course, it is wise for them to keep their text and notes nearby. I would also recommend a good desk reference book to keep on hand--there are lots of great ones available. My favortite book for reference is Illustrator Bible, Wiley Publishing, Inc. Finally, the Illustrator Help menu is easy to use and is great for those times when your brain locks up and you just can remember how to use that darned tool or palette. Adobe offers some excellent tutorials for Illustrator users.

Mixing It Up With The Blend Tool

A fun class project uses the Blend Tool. Blending gives you a series of intermediate objects and colors between two or more objects. You determine how many intermediate objects will be created and the path they will follow. Basically, you have one object morphing into another, and it works in much the same way as tweening does in Flash and other programs.

You can make blends with either the Blend Tool or through the Object>Blend menu. Below is a very simple blend that uses two squares that differ in color. After you draw your objects, double-click on the Blend Tool and set the number of steps you want. (or choose Object>Blend>Blend Options.) After you have set the number of steps, you can click on each object with the Blend Tool to create the blend. The top blend was made using Smooth Color Spacing and the 2nd one uses 3 Specified Steps. It's not much different from using gradients is it?

Actually, it is quite a bit more useful than using regular gradients. Let's say you want to add depth to a line. If you draw your line and apply a gradient to it, the blending of the gradients have to follow linear or radial lines. If instead, you draw your line and then create a smaller, lighter colored line within it and apply a blend between them, you get a nice even gradient that follows the curves of the lines.

You aren't limited to only blending colors. Shapes can also take part in the blending process. Draw any objects that you like (even use cheesy clip art if you insist.) You don't have a lot of control over what the intermediate steps will look like, but you can often inadvertently get some very interesting effects.

A blend is a single object. Once you have created it, the original images are no longer stand-alone independent objects. But, like all married couples, they can get a divorce. If you select the blend and choose Object>Blend>Release you can break up the bonding--no attorneys required. However, in doing this, their offspring (the intermediate objects) disappear. If instead, you choose to Expand the blend, each object and offspring remain, but are no longer members of the blend. If you choose to keep your happy blend together, you can adjust it by using Reverse Spine, Reverse front to back and Replace spine. The spine is the line that runs through the center of your blend. It is by nature a straight line. You have the option, though, of drawing a nice curved line on your page, selecting both the new line and the blend, then choosing Object>Blend>Replace spine. Your blend will then follow the same curves as the line you drew.

After a little practice with the basics, you are ready for our fun little project. The challenge is to create a poster blending two images to make a sequential metamorphosis. Use words (caption) that match the artwork to better illustrate the message. My classes do this project every year and very rarely have I seen a compound word used more than once.

For my examples, I cheated and used built in images from the symbol palette, but you can make much more interesting blends by drawing objects from scratch.

The flowers at the top of this page were also made with the Blend Tool. You can follow a tutorial to create these vector flowers at NDESIGN STUDIO.

Look at Me, I Can Draw in 3D

This semester I am teaching my computer graphics class on Monday nights. We start at 7:00 and usually get out until a bit before 10:00. It makes for a long night of illustrating. Tonight we cover one of my favorite subjects: three dimensional objects. The first part of the semester we spend on the basics--setting preferences, making selections, drawing basic shapes and learning to use the dreaded Pen Tool. That's the meat and potato part of Illustrator, but we're in dessert now! All the fun stuff comes at the end of the semester, and the most fun of all is revolving and extruding objects. With the revolving effect, you can draw very simple lines and turn them into beautifully shadowed 3d objects. You can add the power of the symbols palette to the process and map designs and labels on your objects. Extrude and Bevel works great for creating boxes, tables, and pop-out text. Tonight in class we will be starting out with basic 3d effects: creating a ball, a cylinder and a box .

The half circle and green rectangle were treated to a basic Effect>3d >Revolve, while the blue square got the Effect>3d>Bevel and Extrude treatment. The Bevel and Extrude works quite well with text also. I used the default choices for the text below, except I rotated the one on the right so we could see the text from a different viewpoint.


Once we have covered the basics, the students will be creating 2 vases sitting on a tabletop, Using the steps below. My results are at the top of the page here. I hope to publish their results next week. If you have Illustrator and a little time on your hands (and it really is quick), give it a try.

Making Vases

• Start a New File
• Turn on your rulers (Ctrl R) and show your grid.
• Draw one ½ of a vase. Make it approximately 3 inches tall. Give it a fill color, but no stroke.

• Draw a rectangle that is slightly taller than and about twice as wide as the shape.
• Move the vase object out of the way for the time being.
• Create a design/pattern in the rectangle. You can use basic shapes, draw objects with the pen and pencil, uses brushes on lines, or even add symbols (if you use a symbol, make sure you UNLINK it.) You can also use effects and filters. Fix it up fancy. After the decoration in complete, delete the original rectangle. It was just for limiting the size of your design.
• Select the entire design and drag it to the symbols palette. Double-click on the symbol to name it.
• Delete the design from the page.
• Draw a black (or very dark colored) circle. Make it about 1 inch in diameter. Drag it into the Symbols palette and name it “top.”
• Reselect your vase shape.
• Choose Effect>3d>Revolve
• Click Preview
• If you should happen to see a cylinder instead of a vase, don't sweat it, you just need to change the offset from left edge to right edge.
• Choose Map Art.
• Scroll through the surfaces until you see the circular top.
• Look in the symbols list and choose the circle symbol you created.
• Click Scale to Fit (bottom left side)
• Scroll through surfaces again until you see the one for the side of the vase.
  In the symbols list, find your design.
• Adjust the design so it looks nice on the vase. (as long as you have Preview checked, you can see exactly what you are getting.)
  Click OK.

2nd Vase

• Select the first vase and Alt-drag a copy of it.

Change the fill color of the copy and adjust its size.

Double-click on its 3d effect in the Appearance palette. Change the angle of the new vase.

Table top

• Draw a rectangle approximately 5 inches wide/1 in height.
• Choose Effect>3d>Extrude and Bevel
• Click the Preview box.
• Increase the Extrude depth.

Finishing Touches

• Arrange the vases on the table.
• Try applying a drop shadow on the objects.
• Stand back and give yourself a few oohs and ahhs.
  

Doing 3d is so easy and very addictive. Have fun with it. Here is a site with lots of tutorial specifically for 3d. Tutorials

You've Got Style

Now that we fully appreciate the incredible power and unlimited flexibility of effects, let's learn how to apply and edit them.

We will begin by creating a 2 inch circle. The Elipse tool is packed with the rectangle tool in the toolbar. You can hold down the Alt key and click on the rectangle tool until the elipse appears, or just hit the letter "l" on the keyboard to access it. Click the elipse tool on the page and enter 2 inches for both height and weight. (Make sure you are in inches and not points.) Click OK.

A circle is now on the page and is selected. Keep it selected. Now matter how tempting it is to start clicking around on the page, don't do it. The circle must remain selected. Now you get to start applying some effects.

• Choose Effect>Distort and Transform>Pucker and Bloat. Click the preview button and, if necessary, move the box out of the way so you can see your circle. You get to choose whether you want your circle to pucker or bloat. I try not to be too bossy when it comes to personal taste. You can enter positive or negative numbers in the box, or just slide the little triangle up and down the line until you see something you like. When you are done, click OK.
• Choose Effect>Stylize>Drop Shadow. Again, click preview, play around with the adjustments and click OK. If at any point the preview box is grayed out and unavailable, you have been naughty and have deselected your circle.
• Lets do one more effect. Effect>Distort and Transform>Twist. Enter a number that you like for the twist.

You should have an new shape that looks nothing like a circle. You can assure yourself that it is still a circle though, by choosing View>Outline. All you will see is the circle, everything else is just appearance. Make sure you return to the Preview view and that the object is still selected.

Next we are going to really jazz things up using the Appearance palette. If it is not on your screen already, choose Window>Appearance. The Appearance palette should have the word "path" at the top next to a teeny picture of your circle. Pucker and bloat, twist, stroke, fill, drop shadow and default transparency should all be listed in the palette also. (If, not, you have accidentally deselected that circle again!)

Let's say that you have decided you aren't happy with your pucker and bloat choice. Instead of having to do a bunch of of undoing, you can edit it right in the Appearance palette. Double-click on Pucker and Bloat in the palette. The decision box for that effect will reappear on the screen. Make the changes you want and click OK. It's that easy.

What about some color? Right now, your object should have just a black stroke and a white fill. Click on Fill in the Appearance palette and select a color from the Swatches palette. Next, click on Stroke and choose a color for it also. If you want to make your stroke a bit thicker, adjust the stroke weight up in the options bar. (The default is just 1 pt.)

Now, we are going to get really fancy. Stay on Stroke in the Appearance palette. Choose Effect>Arc>Arc lower. Since you had only stroke selected in the palette, only the stroke of your object received that effect.

Next, let's do an effect on only the Fill. Click on Fill in the Appearance palette. Choose Effect>3D>Extrude and Bevel. Accept the defaults. 3D is one of the more awesomenest parts of Illustrator that I will be carrying on about in a later blog.

Not only can you apply effects to a stroke or fill individually, but you can also use the Appearance palette to create duplicate strokes and fills on the same object.

• Click on Stroke again in the palette then pull down the options menu. (This menu is accessed in the upper right corner of the palette by clicking on the little circle/triangle.) Choose Duplicate Item. Now, you have two strokes on one object. But since they are both exactly the same size, and color, it still looks like you just have only one. We are going to take care of that next.
• Click on one of the two strokes in the palette. Change its color. Still only see one, right? Well, that's because they are on top of each other.
• Staying on that same stroke, choose Effect>Distort and Transform>Transform. Change the Angle (at the bottom of the box.) I used 45 degrees.
• See the little triangles next to the strokes and fill in the Appearance palette? They are expanded, which means that all the effects that you have done to them are showing. That can get a bit confusing, so you might one to collapse them. You do this by clicking on the triangles. (Reopen them by clicking on the triangles again.)

Just for a little added zest. Try rearranging some of the objects in the Appearance palette. Drag the Fill between the two Strokes. (You just click/drag the Fill and release it between the strokes.) Play around with it some, it won't hurt anything if you mess it up. Remember, you can keep choosing Edit>Undo until you get back to a pre-messed state.

I figure that you are now thinking, "Gee, this is an extraordinarily beautiful effect! I wish I could save it and apply it to ALL my artwork." With a little help from the Graphic Styles Palette, you can!

• Keep the circle selected.
• Open the Graphic Styles palette. (Windows>Graphic Styles)
• At the bottom of this palette is a New Graphic Style button (right next to the little trash can.) Click on this button to create a new graphic style. There will be a new style showing in the palette. Double-click on it and give it a name. I named mine "Frank," but you might want to try something more descriptive like "3d warp bloat shadow."

Try drawing a new shape. I drew a curved line. While your new shape is selected, click on the graphic style you created. All of those effects that you so carefully created, will be applied to this new object.

Best of all, when you save this file, your wonderful graphic style will be saved also!

To be honest, this is really ugly. But, that's okay. We overdid it because we were playing around. With practice and a modicum of talent, you can come up with very lovely and distinctive effects. Give it a try!

Am I Wearing Too Many Effects?

My subject today is the differences between Effects and Filters. If you look at the Illustrator menus for effects and filters, you will notice that there is a lot of duplication. First, within each menu there are duplicate stylize and distort choices. Of course, we already know that's because the top half of the menu is for vector graphics and the bottom half for raster graphics, right? But why do distort and stylize appear in both effects and filters? Just how much stylizing and distorting are we supposed to do anyway? What exactly is the difference between filters and effects?

Surgery vs. Cosmetics
Let's say you get up in the morning and take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. Your looks just aren't that exciting anymore and you are decide to glam yourself up a bit. You call a plastic surgeon. Get a nose job. Have those saggy eyes lifted up a few inches. Get some eye liner and rosy cheeks tattooed on. A few thousand dollars later, you look in the mirror and realize you look atrocious. Too bad. It can't be undone. You instituted permanent changes. That's how filters are.

Now, let's say that you had decided to keep your options open. So, instead, you bought some new eye shadow, rouge, lipstick, hair color, powder, and mascara and you went into a makeup putting-on frenzy. Again, you look in the mirror and realize you look atrocious. Ah, but this time you can grab a washcloth and wash it all off. Behold the magic of effects. Effects are always under your control and can be altered, adjusted and undone anytime you want.

Undo for you
If you apply three filters to an object and decide you only like the last two but not the first, you have to undo everything. (And you can't even do that if you have already saved your file.) But, if you use effects instead, you can undo the first effect without undoing the last two. Even after you have saved and closed the file, you still have the option to reselect your object and edit its effects.

My, How you've changed

Filters change the structure of an object and effects merely change their appearance. I drew two star on my page. The one on the left was treated to two filters: a drop shadow (stylize) and a 68% bloat (distort). The right got the same treatment, except instead of using filters, I used effects.

They look exactly the same don't they? When I look at the stars in outline view, though, I get a different picture.

The effect star was only "made-up" to look pretty, it's still just a star. The filter star, though, will never be the same.

So, the question for today is:

"Why would anyone ever use filters instead of effects?"

Fun at Play

One of my favorite Christmas presents as a child was a spirograph. The spirograph kit included a drawing board, a handful of plastic disks and some round paper. If I remember correctly, you put a pencil point through holes in the disks and then spun it around on the paper. The result was a "way cool," totally useless piece of paper with spirals drawn all over it. The downside of the kit was that it came with a very limited number of precut papers. Once the paper supply was depleted (after the first 3 minutes of play,) you had a bunch of useless plastic disks. These would eventually be strategically scattered around the house--attracting and slicing bare feet late at night. They made good ninja stars too.

There is a little trick you can do in Illustrator that lets you draw designs that remind me of those old spirographs. And, since it is done in Illustrator--you never run out of paper!

You can use any of the basic drawing tools, but my favorite is the Star Tool.

• Choose a Stroke color
• Choose No Fill
• Click on the drawing tool you want to use.
• As you begin drawing your shape, hold down the ~ key. (This should be at the top left of your keyboard, directly under the Esc key. I have never had any call to use this key for anything other than this. Do you suppose it was created for this one purpose?)
• Slowly move the drawing tool around on the page while you continue holding down the ~.
• This will create some 22 billion shapes in about 2 seconds, so unless you want your computer to explode, don't get carried away with it.

If you want to get fancy, use more than one color.

• Open the Layers Palette (Windows>Layers).
• Expand the layer by clicking on the little triangle to the of the layer.
• You should see a ton of separate sublayers. Select some of the sublayers by clicking on the small targets to the right of the sublayers. Hold down the Ctrl. key if you want to select more than one at a time.
• Use the swatches palette to change the stroke color for the select sublayer objects.

If this just seems like too much trouble, but you would kind of like to play around with a spirograph, try playing with the digital spirograph here.

Can anyone tell me how I applied the gradient to the spiro at the top of the page? There is a trick to it!

You Say Raster, I Say Vector

There are two kinds of computer graphics--raster (lots of pretty pixels), and vector (paths and points).

Raster Graphics

Raster graphic images are made up of a grid of colored pixels and each pixel can be edited individually (although that would be a tiresome thing to do.) This is the best choice when photo editing and Photoshop relies primarily on this process. Raster graphics are commonly called bitmap images. In class, I always compare raster graphics to the old toy Lite Brite. Try playing with Lite Brite but don't forget to come back.

Vector Graphics

Now, Illustrator is mostly a vector graphics program. Vector graphics use mathematical relationships between points and the paths that are connecting them to describe your image. Vector images are generally found in drawing programs. I compare these graphics to a learning tool sometimes used in math classes called a Geoboards. (Try playing with a geoboard.)

Advantages/Disadvantages

There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of graphics and the choice you make should depend on what you are up to. Raster graphics are best with photographs and other images that require subtle shading. But to look good, bitmaps need higher resoltuion and anti-aliasing to in order to look smooth. When you resize a bitmap image you are likely to get some distortion and if you enlarge it too much, it will start looking pixelated and come down with a bad case of the jaggies. (see image below.)

If you are creating type, drawing line art, or simply needing some nice crisp edges to an image, vector graphics is the way to go. You can draw an itty-bitty teeny tiny image in a vector program and then scale it to 1000% and it will still as clear and crisp as the original. You don't get the same distortion with vectors as you do with bitmaps. I created the flower in Illustrator. The original was less than 1/2 inch. I then copied it and rasterized the copy. Next, I scaled them way up. Notice the jaggies on the raster image.

Raster Graphics in Illustrator

Although Illustrator is predominantly a vector program although there is nothing preventing you from rasterizing objects or placing a photograph in your design. Also, there are several Photoshop filters available in Illustrator. These filters are in the bottom half of the Filter menu. They will be grayed out unless you rasterize your object first. (Object>Rasterize) As a further challenge, you must also remember that the file's color mode must be RGB to rasterize the object. You can change color mode by choosing: File>Document Color Mode.

About Filter Menus

For a long time I didn't know about this rule and attributed the randomness of my ability to use filters to current atmospheric pressure. Notice that there are some filters in both the top half and the bottom half of the menu (style/distort). Normally, unless you are working with raster graphics, you will be using the filters on the top half of the menu.

So, those of you who have dabbled in both Illustrator and Photoshop, which do you prefer to work with--raster or vector graphics?

How Do I View Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

Look closely at your monitor. Is there a round oily spot in the center of it? Is that spot the same size as the tip of your nose? If you answer yes to these questions, you are sitting too close to your screen. (And you should consider buying a face cleanser for oily type skin.)

I am frequently reminding students that squinting and pressing up to the screen to see every path and anchor point is unnecessary. Illustrator affords us many techniques for zooming into the objects for painless editing. In fact, there are a plethora of zoom options. Let just look at some of them.

View Menu

• Zoom In
• Zoom Out
• Fit in Window
• Actual Size

These work perfectly well, but if you are zooming in and out a bunch, it gets tiresome having to keep reaching up and pulling the menu down. There are, of course, short cuts for these--Ctrl ++(in) Ctrl -- (out), Ctrl +0 (fit) and Ctrl+1 (actual size). Many students use these all the time. Normally, I am a big fan of shortcuts, but I don't use these because I always miss the mark on that back row of the keyboard and end up hitting backspace or Insert.

Status bar

This is at the bottom left of your screen. You can type in a percent magnification or pick one from the pop-up list. This works just fine, but it doesn't give you any control as to what part of the image you are zooming into.

Navigator Palette

This is a wonderful way to zoom in to objects and the only reason I don't use it is that I forget that it's there. When it is not showing on your screen, you can open it by choosing Window>Navigator.

You can type in your zoom percentage at the bottom left of the palette. Click on the little mountains to zoom out and the big mountains to zoom in. You can stay zoomed in and move to different parts of your image by dragging the red rectangle around. Best of all, if you ever get lost on the scratch board and can't even find your page, you can click on the image in navigator and the page pops right back to the center of the screen.

Zoom Tool

This is the magnifying glass in the toolbar. Clicking on the page with the Zoom Tool enlarges the magnification. Every time you click, the closer you get. If there is a particular area you want to zoom into, click right on it. The place you click will be centered on the page. If you want to zoom out, hold down the Alt key as you click with the tool. I have only one problem with the Zoom Tool. I forget to change tools when I am done with it and do a lot of unintentional zooming.

My favorite ways to zoom

Marquee Zoom: I do this when I want to work closely on an object. To do a marquee zoom, take the zoom tool, and drag an imaginary box around the area that you want to magnify. The area that is within the box is what fills the screen. This is quick and easy.

Hand Tool/Zoom Tool: This is a handy way to recover from high-intensity zooming. Double-clicking the Hand tool returns the view to "fits in window,' and double-clicking the Zoom tool gives you 100%.

All right, who can tell me? What have I missed? Does anybody have a favorite way of viewing that I have not considered?

I am going to wipe down my monitor now and go wash my face.

Behavior Modifcation

Unlike children, Illustrator's behavior is easy to control. You can choose Edit/Preferences from the menu and dictate how you want Illustrator to behave. Your preferences are retained until you either experience a change of heart or someone sneaks onto your computer and messes them all up.

Some of the preferences are way too techy for me and I avert my eyes when I see them. I trust that the programmers who determine the defaults know tons more about that stuff than I do. Far be it from me to argue with the folks at Adobe.

Some of the prefs that I won't mess with include:

Plug-ins and scratch disks (my cat and I know all about scratched disks) and plug-ins make my bathroom smell clean and fresh. Every once in a while I try to better myself by reading up on scratch disks and such, but I always drift off mid-paragraph and start dreaming about warm cookies and milk.

Version cue and files: "Use Low Resolution proxy for linked EPS" is the default, and that's okay with me. There's nothing worse than having those high resolution proxies thinking they can link stuff all over the place.

There's a whole decision box dedicated to determining the Appearance of Black in the type. Inasmuch as I have trouble telling the difference between black and navy blue socks, I don't lose much sleep worrying about how black the black text is. Adobe offers both 100% black and Rich black. Decisions, decisions.

There's also a check box where you can turn Japanese crop marks on and off. Just imagine the hijinks that would ensue if we accidentally had those Japanese crop marks activated!

The preferences that I do take more than a passing interest in:

• Use Precise Cursors. Most students prefer not to have precise cursors. Regardless of whether you are using the paint brush, pen tool, or pencil, your precise cursor is just a boring X. (but in its defense--it is nicely precise). If you have precise cursors turned off, depending on what tool you are using, your cursor may look like a brush, a pen or a pencil, Students seem to find these life-like icons more comforting. Warning: if you have precise cursors turned off, but you have the Caps Lock on, the evil precise cursors take over. So if your beloved pen looks suspiciously like a giant X, look to your Caps Lock.


• Scale strokes and effects. If you draw an object that is 3 inches in diameter and then shrink it down to 10% of its original size, you need to have this preference checked. Otherwise, the object will be tiny, but the stroke will be humongo (same thing with effects like drop shadows.) If you have it checked, the strokes and effects shrink proportionally with the object.


• Units and Display: Change general Units to inches to points to pixels and back again as much as you want. But, don't change the Stroke or Type from points to inches. It's simply an unreasonable thing to do.


• Guides and Grids: I used to make the mistake of thinking that I was changing the preferences for my guides, only to accidentally change the grid prefs instead. If you take the time to read, these preferences are very easy to control.
  
• Smart Guides: I love smart guides, but some people find two aspects of them distracting--object highlighting and construction guides. You can turn these off in Preferences. They are actually very useful for drawing lines at perfect angles, but it's like watching a laser light showing when there are a lot of lines involved.

Play around with the preferences until you get Illustrator in sync with your personal rhythm--it doesn't hurt anything to experiment around a bit. It's fun and not nearly as dangerous as experimenting with drugs. If you get things totally out of kilter and can't remember how they were before you started messing with the preferences, no problem.


Unlike the rest of us, Adobe Illustrator can always revert to back its virgin state. You can delete the preferences.

To delete the preferences:

First, you must close Illustrator. Then, click Start on your desktop and choose Search. Click "All files and folders" and if it is your first time, click "more advanced options," and check "search hidden files and folders." Type aiprefs in the search box and when it shows up, hit the Stop button and click the Delete button to delete the file. When you reopen Illustrator it will be fresh and dewy as a spring morning. (You don't even need a plug-in.) The program will have the same defaults as it had the day it emerged from the factory.

When Good Illustrators Goes Bad

My first semester teaching Illustrator was rough going. I knew the program well enough to convince the tools, menus and palettes to do my bidding, but when it came to identifying the mistakes my students were making, I was a total loss. Within 2 seconds after they began working on an assignment, there would be a frenzy of frantic hand waving and gasps of dismay as a multitude of students experienced Illustrator breakdown.

"There is something wrong with my computer," a student would cry out.

"Oh, dear," I would respond, "Whatever is the matter?" (Nice,natural flow to my dialog, huh?)

Then the litany of complaints would begin:

"The menus disappeared!"

"The drawing tools are broken. I have drawn the star 47 times and it is STILL NOT THERE!" ( obsessive, older student)

"I have picked a color from the Swatches palette, but it's not working, the square is still white."

"My screen is all white--everything is gone."

I would stare dumbly and their screens and ask "What did you do?"

Their responses would range from "I don't know," to "I followed the steps exactly--The directions are wrong," to my personal favorite "Nothing."

At this point, I would nod sagely and say "hmmmm, I see."

But, I didn't see. I simply didn't know Illustrator well enough to determine where they had gone wrong. As a result, I would tell them to shut the program down and start over again. "Well," I would say, "there must be a bug in the system." (*see below)

After a few years of watching students repeat the same mistakes, I began to recognize their errors and, after a moments glance, could set them straight. After a few more years of watching students make the same mistakes over and over again, I began telling the them what they were going to do wrong before they even started. Once duly warned, they go gleefully on their way to making said mistakes and then expressing surprise at the subsequent outcome. Hmmmm.

Here are some of the more common mistakes students make:

• They don't select the object they want to work on. This is the most common mistake I see. It's a great program, but Illustrator can't read our minds. Just staring at an object and wishing hard isn't going to make it happen.


• They work in outline view without realizing it. Outline view is handy if you want to work with points and paths without the distraction of colors, but otherwise, stay in preview mode (View>Preview). If you are in Outline mode, you are applying the colors, you're just not seeing them.


• They have accidentally clicked the Full Screen Mode button. This one is fun--the entire menu bar at the top disappears. There are three buttons across the bottom of the Toolbar: Standard Screen, Full Screen with Menu Bar and Full Screen. Save yourself some grief, stay on the Standard Screen Mode.


• Those 47 invisible stars were drawn with No Stroke and No Fill. Switch the view from Preview to Outline and tra da...there 47 stars are in all their glory!


• They try to make a pattern out of another pattern. The close cousin to this mistake is accidentally applying a pattern to the stroke instead of the fill of an object. If the stroke has a heavy weight, this works out nicely, but if it is 1 pt weight, the stroke just looks like a lousy try at making dots and dashes.


• They type in the dimensions of a shape and are using the wrong unit of measure. For instance, they think they are creating a square that is 1 inches by 1.5 inches, but in reality they have made world's tiniest square--1 pt by 1.5 pts.


• Some students accidentally scroll totally away from the page and end up lost in a world of scratchboard white. A quick solution to this is to double-click the Hand Tool in the Toolbox. The Navigator palette is also useful for finding your way back to the page.

The longer I work with Illustrator, the more convinced I become that there are logical reasons for all the problems we meet. I certainly know enough now to state absolutely that there are no such thing as "bugs in the system." It is well known that they were wiped out years ago by the little purple computer gremlins.

*Yes the bugs in the system is a lame cop-out and makes absolutely no sense. But I grew up listening to my grandmother's excuses. Example: When asked to do something she didn't want to do, her pat response was "I'd like to help, but I am an old woman and I have a bone in my leg." People would take that as a viable excuse and apologize profusely for having taken up her time.

Little late for Halloween, but here is a fun tutorial from n. design studio

Bookmarking the Old-Fashioned Way

On the first day of the semester I hand out the class syllabus. This is a paper that is meticulously, painstakingly rewritten every semester only to be unceremoniously jammed into the back of a pocket folder that will never be opened again.

When a student does something particularly annoying during the semester I add a new blurb to the syllabus. For instance, one year Jim sauntered into class 7 to 10 minutes late every day. He always did nice work and turned everything in on time, but his constant tardiness was both disruptive and disrespectful. Since I had never officially specified that my expectation was that students would come to class on time, I had no recourse but to give him a good grade. The following semester, though, my syllabus included strict admonishments regarding tardiness. (1st time you are derided unmercifully, 2nd time your grade drops significantly, and 3rd time you might as well drop the class because you're not passing.) Any complaints about the severity of my tardy rules I gladly refer to Jim. My syllabus is now approximately 20 pages long and is periodically reviewed by a team of lawyers that I keep on retainer.

Just kidding, actually, I am not meticulous at all. Every semester our office assistant checks our syllabi for errors. This fall I had the wrong room number, forgot to put the name of the scool in the header and had the year as 2004. Ah, that was a very good year.

We also delve a bit into Illustrator on Day 1. I bring in nice, heavy paper (that has been known to jam up the printer) and we create bookmarks. It gives the students a quick look-see at all the exciting things that can be accomplished in Illustrator. They end up with a nice sturdy bookmark to lose for the semester. I mean use. Actually, the obsessive older students laminate and beribbon theirs and eventually bequeath them to grandchildren as family heirlooms. So, lets get busy with those bookmarks.

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Create a Bookmark

• Open Adobe Illustrator (preferably a CS something)


• Choose File>New from the menu.


• Set the Units to inches, choose CYMK Color mode and name the file "Bookmark."

Rectangle 1

• Select the Rectangle tool in the Toolbox


• Click on the page with the tool and make the rectangle 2" width and 6" height. (Note: a rectangle is created and is automatically selected. An object must be selected in order to change its color, size, and other attributes.)


• Click Fill in the Control Panel (top of screen) to open the Swatch Palette.


• Select a light color to apply to the rectangle.


• Hold the Shift key down and click on the Fill box in the Control Palette again. (Holding the Shift key magically transforms the Swatch Palette into the Color Palette.)


• Adjust the color using the sliders if you so desire.


• Click on the Stroke box in the Control Panel and choose No Stroke. (that would be the one with the red diagonal line.)


• Keep the rectangle selected.


• Let me repeat that...keep the rectangle selected. Illustrator is very adamant about refusing to do things when there are no objects selected.

Rectangle 2

• Choose from the menu: Object>Path>Offset Path.


• Type in -0.25 (negative number) and click OK.


• You have created a duplicate rectangle that is slightly smaller than the original. This new rectangle is the one that is selected now.

Decorative Border

• If it's not showing, open the Brushes Palette by choosing Window>Brushes.


• Click on the options menu button. (this is the little circle with an arrow that is on the top right side of the palette.)


• From the Open menu: choose Brush Library and select any brush library that strikes your fancy.


• Select a border from the library palette. (The rectangle is outlined with the border you chose. Now is a good time to change your mind if you are unhappy with your first choice. Illustrator specializes in accomodating indecisive people.)


• Close the Library palette to get it out of the way. Your border is most likely overwhelmingly big, so you will edit it. The brush you chose from the library is now showing in the Brushes palette.


• Double-click on the brush you used to open a dialog box. (towards the right side of the dialog box is a place to change the scale of the border.)


• Click the preview box and adjust the size if necessary.


• Click OK


• When a warning box comes up, choose Apply to Strokes.


• Choose Select>Deselect All from the menu.

Adding Text

• Hold the Alt key and click on the Type Tool in the Toolbox until you see the Vertical Text Tool.


• Click on the Fill Color box in the Control Palette and select a text color.


• Set the keyboard for all caps.


• Choose a font, font style and point size from the Control panel.


• Type a word or two on the bookmark.


• If you are dissatisfied with any of the attributes of the text, click on the black arrow at the top right of the toolbar (selection tool) to select the text and make your changes. You can also adjust the position of the text using the up and down arrows on the keyboard.

Drop Shadow

• Make sure the text is still selected.


• Choose Effect>Stylize>Drop Shadow


• Click the Preview button in the dialog and adjust the shadow any way you like.

Add a Symbol

This part is great for all us folks who can't draw.

• Choose Window>Symbols to open the Symbols palette.


• Click on the Options Menu button in the Symbols palette (top right of palette.)


• Choose Open Symbol Library and choose any of the libraries.


• Click on a picture and drag it to your bookmark. (If the symbol needs to be resized or rotated: choose View>View Bounding Box. select the symbol and adjust it using the bounding box.)

Finish it up

• Choose File>Save As and save it wherever you like to save things.


• Choose File>Print and click OK.

Pat yourself on the shoulder and go read a good book. How about Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques.