Illustrator 2020 Essential Training

Learn the essentials of Adobe Illustrator. Find out how to use the 2020 version of Illustrator to create amazing artwork—from minimalistic logos to full-blown illustrations.

Introduction

• Welcome to the essentials of Illustrator 2020
• How to send feedback
• Installing Illustrator

1. Quick Start Exercise

• Walkthrough setup
• Walkthrough

2. The Illustrator Environment

• Touring the interface
• Scaling the interface
• The Toolbox
• Panels
• The Properties panel
• Panning and zooming
• Using the Navigator

3. Selection

• The Selection tool
• The Direct Selection tool

4. Shape and Line Drawing Tools

• Drawing basic shapes
• Drawing polygons and stars
• Drawing with the Line tools
• Drawing with the Grid tools

5. Color

• Color models in Illustrator
• The Swatches panel
• Global swatches
• Spot colors
• Using tints
• Color groups
• The Color Guide panel

6. Strokes

• Stroke attributes
• Creating dashed lines
• Creating dotted lines
• Creating arrowheads
• Variable width strokes

7. More on Selections

• The Lasso tool
• The Magic Wand
• Saving selections

8. Alignment, Distribution, and Stacking

• Aligning objects
• Aligning points
• Distributing objects
• Using key objects
• Changing the stacking order
• Using the draw modes

9. Groups

• Working with groups
• The Group Selection tool
• Using Isolation Mode

10. Layers

• Using layers
• Targeting objects using layers

11. Transforms

• Using the specific Transform tools
• Using the Free Transform tool
• Using Transform Again
• The Transform Each command
• Transforms as an effect

12. Drawing by Construction

• Compound Paths and Shapes
• The Pathfinder panel
• The Shape Builder
• Clipping masks

13. Drawing Tools

• The Pen tool
• The Curvature Pen tool
• The Shaper tool
• The Pencil tool
• Drawing with the Eraser tool
• Improving paths

14. Using Guides and Grids

• Creating and removing guides
• Making guides from objects

15. Gradients

• Linear gradients
• Radial gradients
• Freeform gradients
• Gradients on strokes

16. Patterns

• Creating a pattern
• Pattern strokes
• Transforming patterns

17. Symbols

• Static symbols
• Dynamic symbols

18. Blends, Blending, and Transparency

• Using blends
• Replacing a blend spine
• Using blending modes
• Using opacity masks

19. Appearances

• The power of appearances
• The Appearance panel
• Illustrator effects
• Photoshop effects
• Editing or removing effects
• Graphic styles
• The Brush tool
• The Eyedropper tool

20. Type

• Using point type
• Using area type
• Character options
• Paragraph options
• The Touch Type tool
• Using Type on a Path
• Outlining type

21. Images in Illustrator

• Placing images
• Embedding images
• Cropping images

22. Pixels to Vectors

• Using Image Trace
• Using Photoshop with Image Trace

23. Modifying Artwork

• Recolor artwork
• The Puppet Warp tool

24. Artboards

• Working with artboards
• Arranging artboards

25. Output

• Packaging Illustrator files
• Export as other file types
• Asset Export
• Legacy Save for Web
• PDF files and Illustrator

26. Efficiency in Illustrator

• Creating your own workspaces
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Custom views
• Custom toolboxes

27. Beyond Illustrator

• Using Creative Cloud libraries
• Exporting an ASE
• Mobile tools and Illustrator

Conclusion

• Next steps