See how a Course Works: Intro to Online Learning
Description
Illustrator training from Gatlin International combines the convenience of online learning with high quality courseware and expert instructon.
Adobe Illustrator is one of the most powerful and versatile tools available for creating illustrations, logos, and graphics for print and the Web.
The power of Illustrator's vector software allows you to produce detailed and scalable art for almost any application.
In this 6-lesson Illustrator training course, you'll build a firm foundation as you learn from a master teacher and recognized Illustrator expert.
You'll start your training with a tour of important menus, tools, and panels. Once you're comfortable with Illustrator's layout, you'll explore selection tools, drawing tools, layers, the Pen tool as well as transformations/distortions, type tools, and modifying paths and shapes.
Our Illustrator training course includes hands-on class projects in which you will create a robot, a CD cover, photo tracing, a postcard, a bus ad, and a visual identity.
Get the training you need to create stunning visuals with this amazing software application.
Our Illustrator training is 100% online so you can advance at your own pace as your schedule allows.
Outline
LESSON 1 Getting to Know Illustrator
Lesson One unpacks all the goodies in the Illustrator toolkit. You'll learn how to create and save files, access basic palettes and drawing tools, manage your workspace, and select colors with CS3's new Live Color feature. An overview of selecting shapes, creating fill colors and stroke outlines, and working with different views and magnification sets up for your first project, in which you design your own robot.
LESSON 2 Selecting, Organizing, and Painting
True Illustrator mastery comes from the ability to quickly select and manipulate any detail in your artwork. Lesson Two equips you for this task with a focus on direct selection, anchor points, pasting, and grouping. You'll learn how to use drawing aids such as the ruler, guides, and smart guides. Drawing tools including the paintbrush, pencil, smooth, and eraser tools are explored along with the handy Live Paint feature. The lesson culminates with tips on how to organize your work in layers and create templates. A CD cover project gives you the chance to apply this knowledge.
LESSON 3 Of Path and Pen Tools
Lesson Three tackles the mighty Pen tool, a daunting learning curve for most Illustrator users (no pun intended). You'll learn how to draw all types of paths, straight or curved, open or closed, adding and manipulating anchor points to create specific effects. You'll learn tips and techniques for smooth curves, including using the Convert Anchor Point tool. Cutting and carving tools such as scissors and knife tools are also explored to give you in flexibility in editing and creating detail in your designs. In the exercise, you'll create an illustration based on a photographic image.
LESSON 4 Transformations and Distortions Transformation tools give you the ability to rotate, reflect, and twist your artwork, reconfiguring or expanding a motif and moving elements around the artboard at will. Lesson Four explores a variety of tools for transforming and distorting your designs. We'll discuss how to transform, scale, shear, and reshape your artwork or even liquify it! The class project is a promotion for a petting zoo.
LESSON 5 Type Tools
Sooner or later, most of your designs will incorporate the written word. Lesson Five gives you a grounding in the tools that make Illustrator a great text layout application. You'll explore the Type tool, learning how to create text boxes, resize type, wrap text around images, create vertical columns or fill shapes with text, adjust leading and kerning, and make your type follow paths. Just watch it go! You'll also learn to use styles to help automate your text formatting in large documents. In the exercise, you'll design the type for a bus ad.
LESSON 6 Modifying and Combining Paths/Shapes
How's your alignment? In Illustrator, alignment tools are key to adding a final gloss and polish to your compositions. Lesson Six kicks off with an exploration of how to arrange objects and anchor points on your artboard, grouping and spacing elements. Different options in the all-powerful Pathfinder palette are discussed as a means of creating new shapes out of existing lines and objects. And a final discussion of modifying and combining paths and shapes leaves you with options to edit and shape any aspect of your artwork. The final project is a visual identity design that integrates everything you've learned in the course.
Additional Info
- Languages
- English
- Course Length
- 60.00 hours
- Duration of Access
Enrolled students have access to the class for six months. During this period, questions or assignments may be submitted at any time to the instructor. Each course lesson requires an average of 10 hours of study time.
- Instructor
Michael Hamm is a freelance designer and Web developer with over a decade of experience in the creative field. Based in Washington state, Michael provides design solutions for clients across the country through his company ClayEdward Design. Prior to working on his own, Michael worked for JPMorgan Chase in Houston, Texas as an interactive designer. His work has been published in various Web design books and magazines and he is a regular contributor to Layers Magazine. In addition, he has served as technical editor on several design books published by Friends of Ed. Michael recently co-authored Introduction to Web Design Using Dreamweaver published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. Michael is an Adobe Certified Instructor in Adobe Illustrator and has a Diploma in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Houston. Michael is the founder, designer, programmer, and writer of PointsandPaths.com, a Web site that grew from his passion for illustration software and all things vector.
- Prerequisites/Audience
Courses are designed for adult learners interested in building skills and portfolio for a design career. To take the course, students simply require a computer (PC or Mac), an Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster), and any required software. For courses with software requirements, computers must meet software manufacturers' system requirements.
- Requirements/Materials Included
To take this course you'll need Adobe Illustrator CS4 or CS5.
- Certification
3 CEU
Sessions College is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Certificate programs are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools.
