Illustrator CS3 One-On-One: Beyond The Basics is the second part of a three part review that encompasses the total Illustrator CS3 One-On-One. training series. If you purchase it online, it is broken down into three segments. If you get the DVD, you get all three segments on one disk. The first part of this review, "Illustrator CS3 One-On-One: The Essentials" was published in January.
Your trainer for this library is Deke McClelland. Deke McClelland is a well-known expert and lecturer on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the broader realm of computer graphics and design. To date, he has written 85 books that have been translated into 24 languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. The total running length is 29 hours and to give a fair treatment, I will divide them up as they appear online. This second segment is 10.5 hours in length and is contained in eight lessons (Lessons 9-16).
Lesson 9, "Pathfinder Operations" shows how you can combine simple objects to create more complex ones. By combining two circles next to each other with a triangle underneath can become a valentine. Here you will learn to edit a compound shape, assemble your primitives, divided and unite, and exclude, intersect and learn other techniques to create new objects.
Lesson 10, "Liquify and Envelope" are the more powerful distortion functions in Illustrator. Liquify is the name for a group of painting tools. You paint a selected object that you want to stretch, swell, or otherwise change. The Envelope commands allow you to apply predefined warp shapes to an object. In this lesson you will learn about how to use these two tools to create amazing effects.
Lesson 11, "Creating and Formatting Type" shows that while in most programs type is just a simple object for adding words to a document. In Illustrator type is another shape or ornament that is used to decorate the page. Here you will learn about the next generation in text handling, how to place text into a document, scaling and positioning text, flowing text from one block to another and other techniques for working with text.
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