Can anyone explain Illustrator to me?

[graywarrior]

I am so lost.

[hobbit709]

1. It's Adobe so it's needlessly complicated.

[graywarrior]

3. I figured that much out today.

[unpossibles]

7. I don't know

I've been using Adobe for well over a decade, and I find them very simple in terms of GUI and that you can find several ways to do whatever you want.

[Deja Q]

14. It's needfully powerful.

I've taken a class on it. Worth every penny, and more.

[Call Me Wesley]

2. Yes:

Illustrator is fun and it's great! You'll love it!

[graywarrior]

5. I can't get which tools to use and when.

[Call Me Wesley]

6. Well, depends on what you try to accomplish.

There's a tool for everything. Nah, I don't think I'd be good in explaining, although I use the thing. There's still some I don't get. InDesign was even worse to work with, and I never got why they made InDesign and Illustrator. Illustartor's the standard, while InDesign was always exotic.

[graywarrior]

8. I need a tutor to get me through this class.

[Call Me Wesley]

10. Can't help you there.

I just clicked around everything and ran around in circles, screaming on top of my lungs. After a while, it came all together ...

You should be able to find good tutorials about certain functions on the web. There's a ton out there.
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/tutorials /
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Illustrator/1

That's only the top; you'll find lots more.

[graywarrior]

23. Thanks.

If I ever have a question, I'll PM you

[gmoney]

4. Bezier curves are tricky, but once you master them, powerful

basically, you click to add a point, then drag to determine the curve coming in and out of the point. You'll see little "handles" coming out of each point -- longer handles means the curve will "stick" to that line more than it will a shorter line. You can adjust the handles to adjust the curve, and I believe you can just drag the curve where you want it. You can also draw non-smooth curves, straight lines, etc. You can also color in the areas with various methods.

Simplicity gives better results. A circle should just be described with 4 points (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees).

A few dozen books on Illustrator available. You could probably order a book for a version or two back to save money, as the basics probably haven't changed much. Or check your library.

Hope that helps a tiny bit...

[graywarrior]

9. Hahaahaha.

I'm still trying to save on my memory stick without screwing that up...lol! Maybe in 6 weeks I'll understand what you just wrote.

[evlbstrd]

11. You're drawing with digital string.

Or spaghetti. The most basic tool is the pen tool. Click to create a point, then drag from that point to determine the direction of the line segment and shape of the curve.
Try this: Use the text tool to type a letter (just one), switch to the black arrow/selection tool and click on the letter. Pull down the Type menu and choose Convert to Outlines. Now, get the white arrow/direct selection tool, click on the edges of the character and you can see the points and curve segments that make up the shape. Just play around with pushing and pulling the curves and points. It takes some getting used to.

[graywarrior]

19. Will you go to class with me?

[evlbstrd]

22. Okay.

I'll carry your flash memory, but I won't do your homework.

[graywarrior]

24. Can we make out behind the library?

[evlbstrd]

27. Absolutely.

Spit out your gum first.

[graywarrior]

28. You mean take out my dentures

(Just kidding. My teeth are real....like my boobs.)

[evlbstrd]

32. Same here.

[graywarrior]

34. Yabut, your boobs are perkier.

[evlbstrd]

35. And smaller.

[graywarrior]

36. With stud piercings.

[evlbstrd]

37. I may be a stud.

But I'm not pierced.

[kentauros]

12. Although you can certainly find tips online (or here)

I highly recommend the Visual Quickstart Guide. I'm not an Illustrator user, but have used the same type of book from Peachpit Press for Photoshop, and they are great books

Also, here's a site that offers inexpensive online courses in many Adobe products and others, like Corel Painter:
Eclectic Academy

[Moondog]

13. The fastest and cheapest

way I have found to pick up a totally new software package is to sign up for a month with these people - http://www.lynda.com / Cost is $25.00 for unlimited usage for a month. You get the whole site, too, not just one software package. There is no long term commitment. You buy a month. If you want another month, you buy another month. If you don't, you're through. Check them out - I have found them to be very useful for this. And then, if I want a reference manual, I buy a book. Which usually costs more than a month with these people. FWIW.

[Deja Q]

15. Do you get to save their tutorials?

At least a book is permanent...

[Moondog]

18. I've never tried.

But I believe they use Flash, so were you able to isolate the file in the cache, I can't see why you couldn't. Truth be told, if I care about the app, I'll get a book too. Particularly for the ones that I don't use very often. Like most of the CS4 suite. I figured out once that I could by the CS suite for the price of Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat Pro. Everything else is free. So that's how I end up with stuff like Illustrator.

[graywarrior]

20. Thank you, I will check it out.

[LeftyFingerPop]

16. Here are several youtube tutorials for Illustrator

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adobe+illut...

[graywarrior]

21. You rule.

No, you rock!

[Auggie]

17. Lynda.com n/t

[kedrys]

25. My current favorite

http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/classes.html&catego...

I've taught Illustrator and Photoshop, and those guys are really good - the kind of classes I'd love to take or teach.

Have fun!

[graywarrior]

29. Thanik you, kedrys!!!!

I can tell my teacher is aware she has a class of dimwits. She keeps putting off moving to the next lesson til we all get the one we're on...lol.

[EFerrari]

26. I'm glad you asked this question because every time I thought about

trying to teach myself Illustrator, I gave up after about 15 minutes.

[graywarrior]

30. I need someone to show me.

Once they show me I get it. I cannot read about it or hear about it. I need to LOOK at how it's done. Then I remember it forever.

[begin_within]

31. It's an object-oriented drawing program,

at its most basic level you are simply drawing objects that are independent of each other and can be manipulated separately. There is a stacking order for them and there are also named layers they can be on. At its most basic, an object is simply a path defined by endpoints, and whether the path is curved or straight depends on the "handles" at the endpoints. A square is just four endpoints with no handles. A circle is also just four enpoints, but they have handles that define the curves between the points. You can manipulate the shape of an object either by moving individual points or by just moving the handles. Or a complete object can be moved or altered using tools such as scale, rotate, shear, distort, etc. You can duplicate and group objects easily. An object can have properties such as fill (filling in the interior of the boundaries with a color, shade, pattern, etc.), stroke (the line itself defined by the object can have thickness, color, shade, pattern, etc.) and transparency. Different combinations of these properties including transparency, working with the stacking order and layering, can produce different effects. The advantage of object-oriented artwork is that it can be easily resized without losing any quality or detail, since the objects are resolution-independent until the moment they are displayed or printed. At that moment the result is resolution-dependent, at whatever the resolution of the device showing it is (72 dpi for a monitor, 300 or 600 dpi for a laser printer, 1200 dpi or more for an imagesetter for printing on a press, etc.) But the objects within the Illustrator file are resolution-independent as far as Illustrator is concerned. This makes Illustrator ideal for logos, which may be used at different sizes in the course of their uses. This is the fundamental concept with Illustrator and was about all there was at the beginning 20 years ago. Since then many bells and whistles have been added to the program and complex operations are possible now. Some of them include masking effects, such as making a photo appear only within the outlines of an object, or type and typography effects, 3-D drawing and more. But the fundamental element of an Illustrator file is an object, which is defined by the points and the handles associated with those points. The actual shape of the object is defined by complex mathematical formulas called Bezier curves, but you don't have to do any math. You just draw with the various tools, and the Bezier curves are created for you automatcially by the program. Just take the pen tool and draw some lines and curves for a while to get a feel for it.

[Forkboy]

33. It's easier to tell someone what you're trying to do and have them do it.

I've been messing with Photoshop and Corel Painter for eons and I still have no clue what the Hell I'm doing. Not that that's anything new of course.