Lynda - Illustrator CS6 one-on-one Mastery

The fourth in a series by industry-pro Deke McClelland on the premiere graphics creation application, Adobe Illustrator, this course shows you how to become a more efficient, exact, and creative designer with the advanced tools in Illustrator. Maximize your productivity with tools such as Smart Guides to precisely align your artwork, symbols that help you reuse it, and pattern brushes that allow you to tile it across the screen. Plus, learn how to add special creative touches to designs with the Gradient Mesh feature, great for creating photorealistic airbrushing effects; the Liquify and Envelope tools; the layered transparency you can achieve with opacity masks; and 3D effects like live, editable 3D type.

Topics include:

Setting up angular construction guides

Kerning and clipping hand-drawn type

Creating and naming symbols

Using symbols to simulate master pages

Creating a gradient mesh

Using gradients to cast shadows

Fading artwork with a gradient opacity mask

Warping and distorting artwork with Liquify and Envelope

Assembling a seamless pattern brush

Creating charts and pictographs

Working in 3D space