USING MESH TOOL IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5

In this tutorial, I will explain you a simple technique to add shading to an object using the Mesh Tool.

1. Draw an ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L) or any other shape. Fill it with any dark color.

2. Choose the mesh tool from the toolbox and click anywhere on the ellipse where you want the shading.

3. Choose a lighter shade for the shading.

4. Now using the Direct Selection Tool (A) move the anchor points to change their position.

5. Similarly you can create multiple and complex meshes to add shadows and depth to the objects.

 

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USING OPACITY MASK IN ILLUSTRATOR CS5

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What is an Opacity Mask?
An Opacity Mask allows you to add transparency above other objects.

Opacity Masks facts:

• Allows an object to fade in transparency.
• You can edit a masking object.
• A white mask will give you a visible object.
• A black mask will hide your object.
• To obtain a varied degree of transparency use shades of gray.
• You can add, edit, invert and remove masks.
• Opacity Mask is displayed inside the Transparency palette.
• Useful to create realistic light effects.

Definitely, opacity mask is a great and essential tool. We can use it to control the appearance of any shape, composition, text, etc… I assure you this tool will expand your creativity!
Let’s get started:

STEP ONE:
Open a New Document in Illustrator (Mac: Command + N, PC: Control + N). In the New Document dialog box name the document “OpacityMask”, enter 400px for its width and height and click OK.

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STEP TWO:Let’s learn how to use the Opacity Mask by creating a mirror effect.
To make things simple we are going to apply the mask to one of our default symbols.
Go to the Symbols palette (Mac: Shift + Command + F11, PC: Shift + Control + F11), open theSymbol Library, and choose one symbol. I chose “Mask” from the CELEBRATIONS palette.

On a side note, remember to be creative. Apply the opacity Mask to your own graphics and don’t forget to experiment.

STEP THREE:Now we are going to create a copy of our symbol, but inverted. Select the symbol and go toObject > Transform > Reflect. In the Reflect dialog box choose Horizontal and click Copy. As you can see, we create a copy of our symbol, but inverted. Select the inverted symbol and move it to the bottom of the original symbol.

STEP FOUR:Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a box over the inverted symbol. Now, let’s fill this box with a gradient. Select the box, open the GRADIENT palette (Mac: Command + F9, PC: Control + F9), and add the following settings:
(Type: Linear, angle: -90°, Location: 15%)

You should get a gradient like this one:

STEP FIVE:
It’s time to add the Layer Mask! Open the TRANSPARENCY palette (Mac: Shift + Command + F10, PC: PC: Shift + Control + F10). Select the box with the gradient and your inverted symbol, from the menu of the TRANSPARENCY palette select Make Opacity Mask.

(Clip gives a balck background to the mask in order to crop the masked graphic to the borders of the masking box).

This is what I get:

That’s all! Easy, huh? 

If you are not satisfied with the final result go back to the TRANSPARENCY palette, click the thumbnail and the mask will become editable.

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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5 BRUSHES

Adobe Illustrator is a pretty powerful tools and it offers some pretty unique features. Worth surfacing is Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool (B). Illustrator brushes can be applied to paths and strokes and as you probably know they are excellent for creating unique stroked designs in seconds. Illustrator’s brushes are all vectors and can be completely modified to suit your needs by changing most of their characteristics like e.g stroke width, weight, colors, and more. the power of Illustrator brushes is often underestimated and Illustrator brushes are a lot less around than Photoshop brushes. I have looked all over the web to collect the best Illustrator brush sets for you.

Free – Illustrator decorative border brushes.

                                                        Certificate Border.

                                   Rope Brushes

                                   Chain Patterns.

                               Wire/Pipe Brushes.

                                 Ornate Brushes.

                          Smoke Illustrator Brushes.

                              Snow Flake Brushes.

                            Thin Abstract Brushes.

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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS6

Illustrator CS6 Pattern Creation Sneak Peak

Adobe has some pretty cool stuff in the works for Illustrator CS6 and one feature I’m excited for is the pattern creation. In the current version of Illustrator, pattern making can be a little cumbersome. In CS6, Adobe has made creating a seamless, repeating vector pattern a lot easier. Check out the video below to see Brenda Sutherland demonstrating the new pattern creation in CS6.

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SHAPE BUILDER TOOL

Shape Builder tool

Intuitively combine, edit, and fill shapes directly on your artboard. Drag your cursor across overlapping shapes and paths to create new objects and add color without accessing multiple tools and panels. Quickly unite, exclude, trim, and more.

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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5 TOOLS

• Rasterizing Images
• Live Trace
• Live Paint
• The Pen Tool’s
• Convert Muli-color Image into Vector Art
• Working with Text Tool’s
• Using Gradients
• Using Strokes
• Using the Knife Tool
• Cleaning up Vector Art
• And a bunch more in just 9 minutes

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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5 NEW FEATURES

Perspective Drawing

Use perspective grids to draw shapes and scenes in accurate 1-, 2-, or 3-point linear perspective. Create the look of realistic depth and distance with snap-to guides to quickly put objects, live text, and symbols into perspective.

Beautiful Strokes

Adjust stroke width interactively using new width handles. Precisely position arrowheads and symmetrically align dashes. Control stretch at any point when scaling art brushes on a path, and see how patterns behave beautifully at corners.

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GETTING STARTED IN ILLUSTRATOR

Create New Document:

Go File New Document to create your first document.
Type in a Name for the document and click Advanced 
to select RGB for Color Mode as we will be working 
for the screen. Click Ok after that.

Illustrator Workspace

Below is the workspace and some common terms for calling it. If you are using the latest Adobe Illustrator CS3, you will notice to new design for Floating Palette.The rest looks about the same.

Toolbox

This is the handy toolbox which we will use most often. By default, it comes in one single column as shown in the screenshot above. To switch it back to the old 2 columns toolbox, you can simply click the top left mini arrow to toggle it into 2 columns. Some of the tools like Rectangle have more tools hidden. To expand, just click and hold the icon to reveal all the similar tools under that group.

Floating Palette

This is the floating palette which contains properties for our shapes. It is commonly used for changing colors and stroke width.

Saving AI Files

Let’s select the type and click on the artboard and type some text. After that go to File>Save. Select Adobe Illustrator(*.AI) for file type and name it “First Drawing”. Click Ok after that. Leave the rest of the settings at default. You have successfully save your first file. To make any more changes you can simply open the Adobe Illustrator file.

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INTRODUCING TO ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Adobe Illustrator is a vector drawing program. It is often used to draw illustrations, cartoons, diagrams, charts and logos. Unlike bitmap images that stores information in a grid of dots, Illustrator uses mathematical equations to draw out the shapes. This makes vector graphics scalable without the loss of resolution.


Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors,CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand.The latest version, Illustrator CS5, is the fifteenth generation in the product line.

Advantages of Vector Graphics

• Scalable without resolution loss
• Lines are crisp and sharp at any sizes
• Print at high resolution
• Smaller file size
• Good for drawing illustrations

Disadvantages of vector graphics

• Drawings tend to look flat and cartoon
• Hard to produce photo realistic drawings

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