Monday, October 24, 2011

Booklets

How to save as a file - exporting illustrations as jpgs - do this for all illustrations - high resolution.

Saving our files with printing marks - make sure all artboards are the right size - file --> save as.
research - 6 pages - technique 1 - up to 12 - tcnique 2 - up to 12 - save as pdf. If there are extras you don't want, make sure to delete them before you save
press quality - marks and bleeds - select all printer marks. use document bleed settings. Then hit create.
At the end, we combine all the pdfs into adobe acrobat pro - file --> create --> combine files into a single pdf.

Monday, October 17, 2011

if areas of detail are destroyed by the smudging, return detail - details like remembering to paint within lines - showing different opacities of brushes - show a demo on editing your brushes

Changing A3 image to A5

Keep A3 document - file --> export - then save as jpg - this is because it compresses all of the layers into one. This is also recognised easily by photoshop. Remember, when you export, it takes from the edge of the image. Remember to have a background.
Remember that this picks up everything - even those outside the artboard - so delete everything from background.
Import into photoshop, edit image size, save as A5 148 x 210 with 3 mm bleed, then when we place into illustrator, it fits perfectly onto page.
This keeps the size small.

Photoshop brushes

Moving between photoshop and illustrator. Brusheezy - good for pattern brushes
Using a photoshop pattern nto fill a shape in illustrator - place in image from photoshop, send to back, select figure and background, and make clipping mask. This keepsw background image in the shape. PRoblem - if I hover over, you see the size of the original image - is often going to make the file very big.
Or - can do the other way around, and bring the opbject into photoshop - select vecto outline, give a low stroke weight, copy and move into photoshop - keep as smart object - this keeps the vector qualities - can scale.
Hit inverse, delete backgroun - now I can move this smart object layer without the pattern being a problem.
Photoshop brushes - can combine 2 together to add depth - more flexible than illustrator - put in booklet how to make brushes! Go into window brushes - can go and manipulate any that you like, take into brush and give it more bristles? etc change shape, change flow etc
Tips - soft brushes, fill in light first, then move to darker areas.
Use dodge and burn tool - dodge can lighten areas -can choose midtones, highlights etc - can alter strength. Burn tool does the opposite.
Can change brightness in the image with curves - this effects the whole image

Monday, October 10, 2011

Need start of document by next week

Gradient mesh






Gradient mesh - framework that we move gradient on top ofd
Decide how many mesh points you want - use mesh tool - jusat above gradient -
apply mesh tool in several areas, doesn't look like much until we apply colour. Can change shape of mesh with white arrow.

Select anchor point and apply colour, gives a gradation of colour - should blend smoothly.
Mesh tool can also be applied to a line, but you don't have as much control - hover mesh tool over line and then pull it, and play with colours etc.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Rendering skin - tutorials

http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754332606896693/tutorial.pdf

Patterns in illustrator




Select swatches - top left drop down menu - open default illustrator swatch menus - each one that you use is automatically put into your swatches palate, at the end.


If we download any patterns, you can apply in the same way.
Remember that as you move the shape around, the pattern changes.
If you want the pattern to stay the same within the shape, this is under transform.
If I want to rotate a pattern within a shape, deselect object. If you want the pattern to not move, deselect object. Can also change scale - as it's vector, this can change to any size.


Other way to edit pattern, click on swatch, drag onto artboard. Ungroup (object ungroup) - from here can change colour, positioning etc. Invisible box around keeps the pattern working. Select everything and drag back in, or go edit --> define pattern - name it, then apply however you want.

You can download shapes and turn these into patterns - first take image into photoshop, turn to CMYK - go to image size, check off resample image. Then save as jpeg, and place as normal.
To turn this pixel based image to symbol, rasterize - go for transparent background - then we can edit-->define pattern. This uses boundary box of your image for the boundaries of the repeat. If you want more space around the edge of your image, you would need to draw a clear box around your symbol. The box doesn't have to be transparent, but you would need to make sure that you have gotten rid of the background in photoshop - and it would then need to be placed in illustrator as a png or tiff file.

Remember that when you're doing patterns in illustrator, it just does a grid repeat - often leads to lines around your pattern. This can be fixed by special repeating patterns.
If your shapes are unevenly distributed it has a bit of a strange repeat. Doesn't give a consistent band - remember that the shapes aren't repeating, the bounding box is. The furthest thing is the one repeating. When you have the pattern you want, make a box WITHOUT stroke or fill around it, then use divide, then ungroup.
Go to window -->pathfinder - bottom left - called divide - What this does, if you have overlapping shapes, it will divide them where they intersect, need to ungroup to see the effects of this. This divides up the circles that are out of the bounds, you can then place them so that they repeat nicely. However, doing this by eye often gives white lines where repeat is. Can use the align thing to align to left or right.

Book

Remember not to go too text heavy - use different colours?
With symbol tool examples, use hue and saturation first, to make it different?
Basic ideas of how to use first, then how it applies to your illustration.
Think about putting inspiration pictures in, of other illustrators who have used this technique. Put in references of good websites