Day 2: Intro to Adobe Illustrator
Today we will be going over the basics of Adobe Illustrator! Some of you may already have experience using Illustrator but I encourage you to still read through today's curriculum and watch the video. Allison has been using Illustrator as a freelance designer for over 4 years and you will still probably learn a lot.
What is Adobe Illustrator?
It's a software application for creating vector drawings, illustrations, and artwork. Illustrator is widely used by graphic designers, web designers, visual artists, and professional illustrators throughout the world.
Adobe Illustrator is used to create a variety of digital and printed images, including cartoons, charts, diagrams, graphs, logos, and illustrations. Illustrator allows a user to import a photograph and use it as a guide to trace an object in the photograph. This can be used to re-color or create a sketch-like appearance of a photograph. Illustrator also makes it possible to manipulate text in many ways, making Illustrator a useful tool for creating postcards, posters, and other visual designs which use text and images together. Illustrator’s ability to place text around a curve is especially useful for artists creating logos. Illustrator is also used in designing mock-ups which show what the website will look like when it’s completed, and creating icons used within apps or websites.
What's so great about it?
One of Adobe Illustrator’s most important features is that the quality of artwork created using Illustrator is independent of the resolution at which it is displayed. This means that an image created in Illustrator can be enlarged or reduced without sacrificing image quality. This is an attribute of vector artwork, which uses mathematical relationships in describing lines, arcs, and other parts of an illustrator. By comparison, photographs edited using tools such as Adobe Photoshop are resolution-dependent, and image quality decreases when an image is enlarged. A vector graphic is a set of polygons that make up the image, which are in turn composed of vectors. Each vector passes through a location known as a node or control point, which has a defined location on the x and y axes on a plane. This node determines the vector’s path, which has various attributes such as color, curve, fill, shape and thickness. The position of vectors can be related to each other by mathematical formulas, which precisely recalculate their position when an image is resized.
Getting set up
If you don't already have it installed, download Illustrator. As a student, you can get the whole Creative Cloud for 60% off with their student discount.
Once you have everything set up, watch the video walkthrough and follow along on your own computer.