Our pledge of Adobe Authorised Training excellence
This course is Adobe Authorised and guaranteed to be delivered by an Adobe Certified Instructor from Certitec

Special Offer
Book this course and claim £100 credit for a future course with FlexiCredit

About this course

Understanding how to use Illustrator’s advanced features will revolutionise the way you work. This course will build upon the knowledge from the Illustrator Introduction course by moving from simple illustrations to more complex ones. You’ll go beyond the basics with features like filters and effects, explore more in-depth typographical adjustments and the printing process of your layouts.

Who is this course for?

Graphic designers or people switching into a design job or taking on design responsibilities. You will have some previous experience with Adobe Illustrator.

Assumed knowledge

You should already have taken the Adobe Illustrator Introduction training course or have solid knowledge of the topics covered in that course.

What you will learn

• Further adjust Bézier curves by creating Compound paths
• Create Custom Brushes and various graphic styles
• Work with transparency and other raster effects like drop shadows
• Accurately adjust type in artwork
• Prepare documents for composite and commercial printing
• Enhance the workflow
• Integration of Illustrator with the rest of the Creative Suite

Do you want to become Adobe Certified?

Adobe Certified gives you a clear and focused way to tell the world about your expertise and communicate your proficiency in leading products from Adobe. Download our Adobe Certified Roadmap and think about getting Adobe certified today!

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

Course outline

Selecting and Transforming Objects

• Setting your selection preferences
• Using the Direct Selection and Group Selection tools
• Using the Magic Wand tool
• Using the Lasso tool
• Selecting objects by attribute
• Grouping objects
• Resizing your artwork
• Rotating objects
• Distorting and transforming objects
• Repeating transformations
• Reflecting and skewing objects
• Aligning and distributing objects

The Pen Tool de-mystified

• Understanding paths
• Understanding anchor points
• Drawing straight segments
• Editing a path as you draw it with keyboard shortcuts
• Inserting and removing anchor points
• Adding curvature
• Control handles
• Cusp points
• Drawing perfectly smooth outlines
• Tracing a freeform, curvy path
• Converting an existing anchor point
• Working with open and closed paths
• Joining paths
• Averaging and aligning paths
• Using the Scissors tool

Working with Colour

• RGB vs. CMYK
• Adjusting Illustrator colour settings
• Process or global swatches
• Creating spot colours
• Using the swatch groups
• Working with colour libraries
• Importing swatches
• Using the Colour Guide panel
• The Colour panel
• Defining and using process colours
• Defining and using global process colours
• Defining and using spot colours
• Accessing colour libraries

Working with Fills and Strokes

• Understanding fills and strokes
• Working with fills
• Working with strokes
• Creating dashes and arrows
• Creating variable-width strokes
• Using width profiles
• Outlining strokes
• Creating and editing gradients
• Applying gradients to strokes
• Applying and editing pattern fills
• Creating your own pattern fill

Creating Shapes

• Understanding drawing modes
• Creating compound paths
• Creating compound shapes
• Working with the Shape Builder tool
• Working with the Blob Brush and Eraser tools
• Working with the Paintbrush and Pencil tools
• Smoothing and erasing paths

Adjusting Appearance

• Exploring the Appearance panel
• The stacking order
• Working with multiple fills
• Working with multiple strokes
• Adjusting appearance with live effects
• Saving appearances as graphic styles

Tracing an Image

• Auto-tracing in Illustrator
• Opening an image to embed it
• Placing an image to create a dynamic link
• Auto-tracing and resolution
• Adjusting layer previews
• Cleaning up with the Threshold option
• More clean-up with the Noise option
• Expanding and simplifying traced paths
• Flipping and fusing shapes
• Scaling resolution-independent vectors

Live Paint

• Introducing Live Paint
• Stroking with the Live Paint Bucket tool
• The Live Paint Selection tool
• Adding a path to a Live Paint group
• Constructing the base objects

Working with Images

• Placing images into Illustrator
• Working with the Links panel
• Embedding images into Illustrator
• Cropping images with a mask
• Best file types to use
• Exploring the Image Trace panel
• Tracing photographs
• Tracing line art
• Converting pixels to paths with Image Trace

Drawing in Perspective

• Defining a perspective grid
• Drawing artwork in perspective
• Applying artwork to the grid

Printing, Saving, and Exporting

• Printing your artwork
• Saving your artwork
• Saving in legacy formats
• Saving templates
• Creating PDF files
• Saving for the web
• Creating high-res bitmap images
• Using Illustrator files in Photoshop and InDesign

Graphs

• Importing correcting and editing data
• Swapping between Graph Type
• Changing the Graph Type settings
• Selecting and colouring graph elements
• The problems of making manual adjustments
• Creating graph designs
• Assembling sliding graph designs
• Making last-minute tweaks and edits
• Composing and customizing a graph

Working with Brushes

• Introducing the Brushes panel
• Applying and editing a calligraphic brush
• Applying and scaling art brushes
• Applying and editing a scatter brush
• Formatting and scaling brushed text
• Editing the path outlines of an art brush
• Replacing an existing art brush
• Creating and refining an art brush
• Creating and editing a pattern brush
• Expanding and filling brush outlines
• Brushes meet text
• Adjusting the bristles in a bristle brush
• Creating brushes for a Fashion drawing
• Producing a children’s illustration utilising brushes

Envelope Distortions

• Introducing Envelope Distort
• Editing the contents of an envelope
• Warping an envelope mesh
• Creating and editing an envelope mesh
• Blending an envelope into a background

Gradients and the Gradient Tool

• Creating gradients
• Applying a gradient fill
• Using the gradient annotator
• Editing multiple gradients
• Creating a radial gradient
• Adjusting the midpoint skew
• Mixing gradients with blend modes
• Making a transparent gradient
• Drop shadows and dynamic effects
• Assigning a gradient to editable text
• Assigning a gradient to a stroke

Gradient Mesh

• Introducing the gradient mesh
• Working with the Mesh tool
• Finessing the colours of mesh points
• Adding a gradient mesh to a shape
• Converting a linear gradient to a mesh
• Editing a linear gradient mesh
• Converting a radial gradient to a mesh
• Editing a radial gradient mesh

The Blend tool

• The earliest dynamic functions
• The gradient-intensive illustration
• Creating a multi-colour blend
• Establishing a clipping mask
• Editing blended paths
• Adjusting the number of blended steps
• Using the Blend tool
• Blending between levels of opacity
• Applying a blend to a new path
• Placing one mask inside another
• Blending groups and adjusting the speed
• Rotating objects in 3D space

Warps, Warp brushes and Meshes

• Introducing the warp tools
• Brush size
• Introducing Envelope Distort
• Editing the contents of an envelope
• Warping an envelope mesh
• Working with an envelope mesh

Working with Type

• Creating a grid with guides
• Working with Point Type and Area Type
• Placing and flowing text
• Threading text
• Selecting type and choosing fonts
• Adjusting type size
• Leading
• Tracking and Kerning
• Baseline Shift
• First Line indents
• Paragraph spacing
• Creating paragraph styles
• Redefining paragraph styles
• The Glyphs panel
• Spell-checking
• Creating text on a path
• Converting text into paths

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

Offers

FlexiCredit

FlexiDeal^®

The FlexiCredit - earn rewards on short courses

It's very simple: get rewarded if you book any of our short courses with training credits. Just book any 1-day or 2-day scheduled course at our London Covent Garden or Cardiff training centres and you will receive credit towards any course in the future – that's the FlexiCredit!

If you are self-funding your training then for special pricing click here.

You can use these credits within 6 months of your first qualifying booking, and even accumulate your FlexiCredits.

Collecting FlexiCredits

• Book a 1-day course - get £70 + VAT off a future course
• Book a 2-day course - get £100 + VAT off a future course

This offer does not include private training

How to book

Just email us confirmation of your valid booking(s) that qualified for the FlexiCredit.

Terms and conditions

• The FlexiCredit scheme started on the 22nd August, 2011 and only applies to bookings after this date
• FlexiCredits can only be used as payment or part-payment towards a Certitec training course running at locations mentioned
• You will be emailed your FlexiCredits after payment and completion of your course with Certitec
• FlexiCredit is applicable only if the full RRP is paid for your course(s). Any discounting invalidates the FlexiCredit. If discounting has been applied you can pay back the difference in order to qualify for the offer
• Any booking paid or part-paid by a FlexiCredit does not earn FlexiCredits
• FlexiCredits cannot be used against any 'special deals' - only courses on our main website
• You can 'give' your FlexiCredits to another person/company providing you email us intention of 'hand-over' and the delegate name(s) for the course benefitting from the credits. This will entail an administration charge of either £50 + VAT or the same number of FlexiCredits.
• The FlexiCredit offer lasts for 6 months from the first date of your qualifying booking(s).

The FlexiDeal^® - free training

Our courses come with free training at London Covent Garden and Cardiff!

It's very simple: just book a day of private training or one of our 3-day, 4-day or 5-day scheduled courses (or any combination days) and you'll qualify for additional free scheduled training at our London Covent Garden or Cardiff training centres – that's the FlexiDeal^®.

If you are self-funding your training then for special scheduled training pricing click here.

And as long as you take these additional courses within 6 months of your first qualifying booking, you can even accumulate your FlexiDeal®.

Collecting FlexiDeals^®

• Book a 1-day private course – get 1 day free
• Book a 3-day scheduled course – get 1 day free
• Book a 4-day scheduled course – get 1 day free
• Book a 5-day scheduled course – get 2 days free
  
  

See below for courses you can claim for free in the FlexiDeal^®

Acrobat

• Acrobat Essentials (1 day)
• Acrobat Introduction (2 day)
  
• Acrobat Forms (1 day)

After Effects

• After Effects Introduction (2 day)
• After Effects Advanced (3 day)
• After Effects Masterclass (5 day)

Digital Publishing Suite (InDesign to Tablet)

• DPS Essentials (1 day) £70 + VAT extra charge
• DPS Full Solution (2 days) £100 + VAT extra charge

Dreamweaver

• Dreamweaver Web Building Introduction (3 day)
• Dreamweaver Web Building Masterclass + Certification (5 day)
• Dreamweaver ACA Prep + Exam (1 day)

Edge

• Edge Essentials (1 day)

Illustrator

• Illustrator Introduction (1 day)
• Illustrator Introduction (2 day)
• Illustrator Advanced (2 day)
• Illustrator Advanced Power User
• Illustrator Masterclass (4 day)

InDesign

• InDesign Introduction (1 day)
• InDesign Introduction (2 day)
• InDesign Advanced (2 day)
• InDesign Advanced PowerUser (2 day)
• InDesign Masterclass (4 day)
• InDesign Interactive (1 day)
• InDesign Print Production (1 day)
• InDesign ePub (1 day)
• InDesign iPad+Android (1 day)
• InDesign ACE (2 day)

MUSE

• MUSE Essentials (1 day)

Photoshop

• Photoshop Introduction (2 day)
• Photoshop Advanced (2 day)
• Photoshop Advanced Power User (2 day)
• Photoshop Masterclass (4 days)
• Photoshop Masterclass + Certification (5 day)
• Photoshop ACE (2 day)

Premiere Pro

• Premiere Pro Introduction (3 day)

• Premiere Pro Intermediate + Certification (2 day)
• Premiere Pro Masterclass + Certification (5 day)

How to book

Just email us confirmation of your valid booking(s) that qualified for the FlexiDeal^®.

FlexiDeal+ (plus)

If you wish to keep onto your FlexiDeal credits for longer than 6 months (no expiry) then it's only £50 + VAT for this option - please mention when booking.

Terms and conditions

• FlexiDeal^® is applicable only if the full RRP is paid for your course(s). Any discounting invalidates the FlexiDeal^®. If discounting has been applied you can pay back the difference in order to qualify for the offer
• The FlexiDeal^® offer lasts for 6 months from the first date of your qualifying bookings
• The FlexiDeal^® is not available to funded individuals although we might apply at our descretion depending upon the number of training days booked under the particular scheme

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

Training dates

London Covent Garden Add dates to your calendar

22 - 23 May 2013

17 - 18 July 2013

11 - 12 September 2013

6 - 7 November 2013

Cardiff Add dates to your calendar

30 - 31 May 2013

8 - 9 August 2013

30 - 31 October 2013

Bristol Add dates to your calendar

30 - 31 May 2013

8 - 9 August 2013

30 - 31 October 2013

If you don't see any suitable dates here, it might be more economical to deliver a private training course for you

Play movie

Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

Further information

Our guarantee of training satisfaction

No questions, no quibbles, no problem! Should you ever need to take your course again, just let us know. Find out more…

Requirements

• Basic knowledge of Windows or Macintosh.
• Understand how to launch an application and save files.
• For web courses you will need to have knowledge of web browsers.

General information

• Courses start at 10am and finish at 5pm. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the start of the course on the first day.
• We operate a casual dress code.
• We supply all computers, software and courseware, pads, pens, lunch and refreshments.
• We have both Apple OSX Lion and Windows 7 systems.
• Bring along a USB/Flash drive so you can take away your course files.
• Following your course, we will email you an Adobe Authorised Course Completion Certificate.
• Each course comes with either on-line assets (electronic book/PDF or movies) to download or a high-quality Visual Quickstart 500-page training book. We are migrating most course assets to on-line downloads during 2012.
• Access to a secure section of our site that offers useful tips and tricks.

Lunch

We provide flexible lunch vouchers which can be redeemed at outlets nearby such as Bella Italia, Burger King, Boots, Co-operative, Eat, Greggs, McDonalds, Nandos, Pizza Express, Pret A Manger, Starbucks, Sainsbury's and Tesco to name but a few.

Support

We supply 6-months rock-solid support via email on the subject matter covered during the course. Find out more…

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

Course booking form

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course

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Training Book

Quality 500 page training book supplied with this Illustrator training course