Technical Notes for My Students
These PDF files are not really suited for the beginner user who is randomly exploring Adobe applications. I am providing reviews here for recent trainees/students who have completed a 2-day Fast Track training course with me. They are written as follow-ups to specific exercises I have given in class due to the fact that I can't reasonably allow too much 'stop time' for trainees to take notes. Here are your notes!
Illustrator Refreshers
Making the Eight Basic construction techniques using vector shape tools, path segments, and key use of Pathfinder options. (Note: custom & directional gradients and patterning techniques that may have been covered in class are not included in this review)
Modeling Construction Methods
All the Illustration Construction Methods covered in Day 1 (first 2 hours) of the Advanced Course are in a Review-Refresher set of notes and visuals in this PDF. This is an example of a more complex wire frame foundation for using object blends, pathfinder options, expanding appearances and multiple methods of wrapping/distortion.
InDesign Refreshers
BASIC InDesign Lesson Review (2009) more will be posted soon. Stay tuned. Take notice of the courseware book references. They're lessons/chapters in the books provided in class that take some of the basic things we did in this first day project even further.
Advanced InDesign Review Notes (2009) In this PDF are some quick reviews of a couple of more complicated exercises we did in Day 2 of the Advanced course, involving Inline/Anchored Objects, Editing in Story Editor and Nested Styles. Another review file is coming soon covering what we did with Master Pages, advanced Find/Change, linking versus embeding, etc.
Advanced InDesign Review Notes specific review notes on advanced topics covered during the course. These notes are mainly on all the typographic aspects of InDesign as well as an overview of the complex yet awesome steps to creating a 'Style Loop' (in a way, this is kinda like using 'Actions' in other Adobe apps, only with your Character, Paragraph, and Nested Styles, paying more attention to that "Based On" and "Next Style" feature).
Photoshop Refreshers
Christina HATES poorly cut out fur and hair in amateur image manipulations. It must be stopped! Here's how.
Masking Furry Critters; QuickMask Mode & Brush Dynamics. We used a basic layer mask in class to apply our fancy, furry brush dynamics. This advanced step tutorial is a good review, the only difference being the use of Quick Mask Mode (from the bottom of your toolbox) instead of a layer mask to build the initial furry selection.
Difficult Selections; Using Color Range.
This method was used in class to extract a tree and all its little branches in a very smooth, contiguous way. Color Range is by far the most beautiful selection method when you have good differences in colors in an image.
Extracting Line Art; Extract Filter for the BEST results.
We used the extract filter and its "Force Foreground" option to pull a line drawing off its background. This method is the absolute best for removing backgrounds on things like signatures, handwriting on paper, and b/w line art scans.
***Ok, sadly, CS4 took away my Extract Filter, so the Fishy Line Art PDF above only works if you're using CS3 or earlier. In CS4, using Select > Color Range is your best bet for contiguous selections of line art.