Illustrator is based on the very fundamental concept that every contour or shape in an image will be reduced to a curve or angle. There is a fundamental tool for creating these lines (called Paths) and shapes: the Pen Tool. You may hate it at first, but you can learn to love it.
The basic idea behind the pen tool is that you have curves, segments, and anchor points between them. One line segment can have a basic curve to it. Two line segments could have two different, but still basic curves. When joined at an anchor point, these two segments become one line with a much more complicated curve. The pen tool allows you to create a string of segments, joined by anchors, that you can manipulate.
You can move anchors around in an existing line, or object, you can add or subtract anchors to a line, and you can also manipulate the shape of their curves. This is done by moving their handles - these appear as small boxes attached to each anchor by a straight line. We'll see all of this in class.
Today - your two best friends will be the hotkeys 'A' and 'P'. P selects the Pen tool, and A selects the Direct Selection tool.
Finally, you have control over the visual appearance of each vector object you create (line or shape) - you can change the color of its stroke (the line itself or outline of an object) and its fill (the interior color) or add other stylistic devices to them.
In many respects, Illustrator will feel similar to Photoshop in terms of its layout. A little exploring will reveal the differences and similarities, but for today I'll try to give you a tour of things that will be useful when beginning. The layer tool is one important tool that you still have available to you - use it!!!
TODAY:
Here is a link for some great line art (old drawings) we can use to trace:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Line_art
No comments:
Post a Comment