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Welcome to the second part of MMST11003 Workshop Page for Week 3.

NOTE: Because this week's workshop notes are large and graphically intensive, they have been broken into two pages. This is the second page.

Adobe Illustrator (PART B)

In these workshop notes we will be making a Sameboy Pokenet illustration, similar to the one we made in Photoshop last week, but using shapes created with the Bezier Pen.

In this lesson you will:

• Get greater control over the Bezier pen through practise
• Make new layers and edit their characteristics
• Set stroke and fill colours
• Use the Pathfinder to compound paths
• Use the text tool

The first step is to open a new file, and place the Gameboy image (gameboy.jpg) into Illustrator. This is done by choosing file -> Place. (In Freehand you select "Import".)

After renaming the layer and resizing the Gameboy image to make it slighter larger, you may want to zoom in to 200% so you can see the edges of the placed image more clearly, because we are going to "trace" around the shape of the Gameboy. You can use the magnifying tool, or go to "View > Zoom In".

The next step is to add a new layer for us to draw on with the Bezier Pen.

It will help us to see what we are drawing in our new layer if we adjust the opacity of the "tracing image" layer. To do this double click on the "tracing image" layer in the Layers palette. The Layer Options box will appear again. You need to click on the tick box to "Dim Image to 50%.

You can now see how the Gameboy image has been faded. Now we can begin to "trace" around it.

BEGIN DRAWING THE OUTLINE

I have selected a starting point that looks like it would be a good place for a corner point.

The numbers in the illustration below indicate the order in which the anchor points have been placed. I've indicated the mouse operations carried out at these points below.

1. Place a corner anchor point (click)
2. Place a smooth anchor point (click)
3. Place a smooth anchor point (click and drag). Note that the red direction line shown is approximate. You should move the direction point until the curved path segment created follows the outline of the tracing image.
4. Place a corner anchor point (click).
5. Place a smooth anchor point (click and drag).
6. Place a smooth anchor point (click and drag).
7. Place a corner anchor point (click).
8. Place a smooth anchor point (click and drag).
9. Place a corner anchor point (click).
10. Close the path by clicking on the first point. A little "o" will appear next to the anchor point. Hold the mouse button down and drag to make this a smooth anchor point.

To tidy up the shape you have just drawn you can use the Direct Selection Tool . Use it to click on anchor points and move them into position. You can also click on the direction point handles and move them to change the curvature of the path.

You may need to use the Convert Direction (Anchor) Point tool. Hold the mouse down on the pen tool to bring up the other tools available, the convert anchor tool is on the end, it looks like this . Now click on the anchor point you want to convert and drag the direction point until the curve is smooth and neatly lies over the tracing image. Remember from Part A of this week's workshop, this tool can work either way, to convert a corner point into a smooth point, or vica versa.

The goal is to get the path as smooth as possible, and as close to the outline of the Gameboy as possible. Keep trying until you get it right. You need to get your path to look like this ....

Now that the shape is smoother, we need to give it a fill. Click on the fill colour icon at the bottom of the toolbar and select purple in the colour swatches. If you do not have a suitable colour, click in the colour spectrum down the bottom of the Colour palette to mix one yourself.

The first stage is now complete!

Although we could easily place a white rectangle over this image, let's punch a hole in the outline of the Sameboy. Draw a rectangle to represent the screen:

Now, using the selection tool, select the rectangle and holding down the shift key also select the Sameboy outline. Choose "Object -> Compound Path -> Make", as shown below.

NOTE: This is one area where the terminology used in Illustrator and Freehand differs significantly. In Freehand, you select both paths, and select Modify -> Combine -> Punch.
It is important to come to grips with the different ways in which you can combine paths. The operations are common to all professional quality packages, but are presented very differently depending on package and version. Now would be a good time to draw some overlapping paths and experiment with the different ways in which they can be combined. Open up your help file and search for combining paths for instructions specific to your package.
You should be consulting the help files at every point as you work through these exercises.

This is what your image should look like now, with the screen punched out. The Sameboy is beginning to take shape!

Now things are going to get a little more complicated. We are going to make the Sameboy look like it has some 3D depth. We are going to draw bevels on the sides and shade them.

To do this, first make a new layer. On this layer I draw the left-hand side bevel. The shape has to be a closed path, set the fill colour to the same purple as the Sameboy. Your shape should look similiar to this ....

Now things get tricky. Pay close attention to these next instructions.

You need to select the Sameboy shape and Edit> Copy it to put a copy of the object in the clipboard. You will understand why in a moment.

We are going to create a new path to represent the area where the Sameboy and the left-hand bevel intersect. To do this we have to select the bevel, and hold Shift down and select the Sameboy. You should have both shapes selected. Go up to Window> Show Pathfinder.

This is what the Pathfinder looks like. We will be using the "Intersect" command. This command traces the outline of all overlapping shapes in the selected objects, ignoring any nonoverlapping areas. This command works on two objects at a time. In many other packages, the same task is achieved by something like "Combine Path > Intersect".

Before you do this command, make sure you have put a copy of the Sameboy shape in the clipboard as mentioned above. When you press "Intersect" and make a compound path, it will "destroy" the Sameboy path. You will need to go to Edit > Paste in Back to bring back the Sameboy path. (Remember this step as you will have to do it each time you make a path for each bevel.)

Press INTERSECT on the Pathfinder palette now. Below is what you should see.

Now when we go to Edit > Paste in Back, the Sameboy will be placed back "behind" the intersected bevel. If you select just "Paste", you might have to arrange the objects by selecting Object > Arrange > Bring to Front etc. If you have pasted the Sameboy image back in properly, your image should look like this ...

So now you should duplicate the above process to make the three other bevels. Below is an illustration of what the bevels should look like. Remember to copy the Sameboy path EACH TIME before you Intersect paths!!


Viola!

In order to make these new shapes look like bevels, I need to be careful about how I colour them. Imagine that there is a light source to the top left of the Sameboy. The bevels on the top and left will be more strongly illuminated. This can be represented by using a lighter shade of the same colour, as shown.

Conversely, the bevels on the right and bottom will be less well illuminated, so a darker shade is needed, as shown below.

I also add black lines to the left and top of the Sameboy screen to add a shadow effect. This is done with the pen tool, holding down the shift key to ensure the lines are perfectly horizontal and vertical. Try out different colours for these lines to see what has the best effect.

Also, turn off the visibility of the "tracing image" layer by clicking on the little eye icon in the Layers palette on the "tracing image" layer.

Nearly finished! I just need to add some text, using the text tool, it looks like this .
I duplicated both pieces of text and offset the copy form the original slightly, to make the text look like it was raised.

Now all that needs to be done is the creation of a nice screen image and blurb for the Pokenet cartridge, as was done in last week's workshop. Why don't you download the Sameboy file from this week's resource page and keep working on it. It would also be a good idea to pull it apart and see how it works. The font used for the above example will probably not be installed in the uni labs. Try changing the font yourself.