AI tutorial

Ralph Holzenthal

Description

ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects Fall Semester, 2006ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS OR CS2:A TUTORIAL FOR ENTOMOLOGISTSPRELIMINARIESPreparing a drawing for import into IllustratorThe first step is to scan a pencil sketch using Adobe Photoshop (or another application that cancapture an image from a flatbed scanner). A digital photograph can also be used. This scannedimage or photograph will be “placed” into Adobe Illustrator as a “template layer” that will serveas the basis of the Illustrator drawing.Open Adobe PhotoshopFileImport{scanner} TWAIN…Use these scanner settings (may have slightly different names depending on the scanner; I amcurrently using an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner):Flat bedBlack & white photo150 or 300 dpi (max)scale 100%Place image face down on scanner.ScanSave as a Photoshop document (.psd), grayscale (Gray/8) or as a high quality JPEG.If the original sketch has several views on the same page (e.g., dorsal, ventral, and lateral viewsof a specimen), copy and paste each view into separate Photoshop documents. Use the“rectangular marquee” or “lasso tool” to select the view to copy.File > CopyNew. . . (name it)File > PasteSave (save all the different Photoshop documents into a single folder).See the separate handout on how to edit scanned images and photographs using Photoshop.last updated 9 November 20061ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects Fall Semester, 2006ADOBE ILLUSTRATORPREPARING FOR ...

Informations

• Publié par: Vewyir
• Nombre de lectures: 340
• Langue: English

Extrait

ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS OR CS2: A TUTORIAL FOR ENTOMOLOGISTS

PRELIMINARIES Preparing a drawing for import into Illustrator The first step is to scan a pencil sketch using Adobe Photoshop (or another application that can capture an image from a flatbed scanner). A digital photograph can also be used. This scanned image or photograph will be “placed” into Adobe Illustrator as a “template layer” that will serve as the basis of the Illustrator drawing. Open Adobe Photoshop File Import {scanner} TWAIN … Use these scanner settings (may have slightly different names depending on the scanner; I am currently using an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner): Flat bed Black & white photo 150 or 300 dpi (max) scale 100% Place image face down on scanner. Scan Save as a Photoshop document (.psd), grayscale (Gray/8) or as a high quality JPEG. If the original sketch has several views on the same page (e.g., dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of a specimen), copy and paste each view into separate Photoshop documents. Use the “rectangular marquee” or “lasso tool” to select the view to copy. File > Copy File > New . . . (name it) File > Paste Save (save all the different Photoshop documents into a single folder). See the separate handout on how to edit scanned images and photographs using Photoshop.

1 last updated 9 November 2006

ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR PREPARING FOR ILLUSTRATION

Fall Semester, 2006

Open Illustrator Creating a new file: FILE New... Name: name the document. Artboard Size: is determined by the plate size of the journal or other medium you will be publishing in. For example, for a thesis, choose Letter . Notice that you can select the units of the page dimensions (cm, inches, points, etc.) Color Mode: for black and white line drawing doesn’t matter, but for color work that will be printed in a journal select CMYK, for web use or for printing on a desktop color printer use RGB. Saving the file as a page template for repeated use and setting margins: Usually you will have more than one page of illustrations in your thesis or publication. Also, you will have to place your illustrations within the margin limits set by the publisher. For example, thesis requirements usually ask for a 1.5 inch left margin and 1 inch top, bottom, and right margins. You can create a set of guides and save them in a template file for repeated use. VIEW Show page tiling (Printers can’t print to the very edge of a page; page tiling shows the parts of the page that can accept ink by the printer. This isn’t very important, but I find it informative.) On the Tools palette (if the Tools palette is not visible, select it under Window ) select the Rectangle tool then double click anywhere on the artboard. A dialog box will appear allowing you to set the size of the rectangle. To accommodate thesis margins create a box 6 X 9 in. Leave the rectangle “selected.” If it becomes deselected, click on it with the Selection tool (black arrow). WINDOW Align palette (under options - open the little sideways triangle button on the upper right - make sure Align to artboard is selected) Center the rectangle horizontally and vertically using the align tools Then under Window , select Transform and on the rectangle symbol on the left, select the center left square, then for the X coordinate type in 1.5 in and hit the Return key. In fact, you can position and size any shape all within the Transform palette if you prefer.

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

With the rectangle at the correct size and position, keep it selected (or reselect it) and under VIEW select Guides. . . , Make guides . Finally, go to FILE , Save as Template. . . and name the template. Notice that it has the extension .ait (Adobe Illustrator template). Now, whenever you need to create a new plate of illustrations, you can select New from template. . . and use this file for additional plates. You can create different templates for different journals and save them in Illustrator’s Template folder. NOTE:  Older versions of Illustrator (ver. 10 and earlier) did not have the Save as Template function. Placing the scanned pencil sketch into Illustrator: Open a New file or a New from Template file. Under FILE Place. . . Navigate to the folder containing the files of your scanned Photoshop documents. Make sure LINK and TEMPLATE are both checked and then select Place . Go to the Layers palette (under Window menu, Layers ). You will see that a Template Layer was created as well as a Layer 1 . Continue to place one by one all of your scanned Photoshop documents onto the artboard that will serve as the first plate of illustrations in your publication. Each placed pencil sketch will appear as a Template [template layers have the “triangle, box, circle” icon next to them rather than the “eye” icon]. In Layers palette “unlock” each template. In the Toolbox palette, select the Selection arrow (black arrow). By clicking on the image of the pencil sketch or the template “target” button in the layers palette, a red “bounding box” appears (it should have open adjustment squares at the corners and at the midlengths of the 4 sides; if a bounding box does not appear, select “ Show Bounding Box ” from the View menu. If you placed more than one document on your artboard, they will stack one on top of each other. You can drag the images around to uncover them and see them all by selecting or targeting each one. Very likely, your images will be imported in Illustrator larger or smaller than you need to fit them all on the page. You will need to scale them up or down. When you have a template selected, go to the Toolbox and double click on the Scale tool or go to Object , Transform , Scale . You get a pop-up window with scale properties. Select Uniform and the appropriate scale, e.g., 75%, 50%, etc. Also select Preview , then OK . Scale the individual templates as appropriate to the size of the artboard. Don’t crowd them, but on the other hand, don’t leave too much white space between individual views. If you want all your drawings throughout your publication to be scaled at the same size, be sure to record the percent reduction or enlargement used.

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

With the Selection arrow (black arrow) select other templates and scale those. You can select all templates by holding down the shift key while selecting additional template then scale all at once.

In the Layers palette, if you double click on a template, a Layer Options pop-up window appears. You can rename the template and also dim or enhance intensity of template image. I usually leave this alone (the default is dim to 50%), but in the Transparency palette (under Window ), I adjust the opacity of the template background when a part of one template overlaps and obscures a part of another.. I usually set “opacity” to 50%-75% so I can see behind overlapping images.

You can move selected templates (or any object or path) on the art board by dragging into position with the selection arrow or you can move with the arrow keys on the computer’s keyboard after the item is selected. Set the selectivity of the increment of movement as follows: Edit Preferences General... Keyboard Increment:  [I have it set to 0.005 cm; this is your choice, but a small increment is recommended for fine adjustments of position.]

Regardless of the increment you set, if you hold down the shift key while moving with the arrow keys, the object moves by a factor of 10.

With a template selected, you can also scale by dragging with selection arrow on a corner or side. But first, under View , select Show Bounding Box if the bounding box is not active (otherwise a red border solid corner squares shows around the template). The solid squares become open and you can drag them to change the size of the template. However, this scaling will not be proportional. To get proportional scaling, hold down the shift key while dragging. If you scale this way, make sure separate illustrations of the same specimen are scaled the same amount.

To rotate a template, hold selection arrow just to the outside of a corner of the bounding box and drag to rotate to desired position.

Once the templates are scaled, positioned, rotated, etc. lock them as needed. They cannot be modified or moved when they are locked.

Setting preferences:

In addition to setting the keyboard increment settings, there are a number of other settings to be aware of in Preferences, including the following IMPORTANT PREFERENCES SETTING : If you intend to copy and paste Illustrator “paths” into Photoshop for further rendering (i.e., to produce a full habitus color illustration in Photoshop), you must do the following in Adobe Illustrator [In fact, go ahead and set up the preferences as described below whether or not you intend to import paths into Photoshop, it will not affect your Illustrator drawing]:

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

Illustrator Preferences File handling and Clipboard… Then under Clipboard on Quit make sure Copy As : PDF and AICB Preserve Paths are checked. Most of the preferences can be left as the default factory settings, but you may want to changes a few. Setting preferences here becomes universal within the application and thus apply to any new document you create. Under Units & Display Performance , set the General units to Centimeters or Inches, and Stroke and Type to Points. Under Display Performance , Hand Tool , slide the cursor over to the left, Full Quality . Learning and using short-cut key-strokes: IMPORTANT KEY-STROKES! Command-Z  This is a very important key-stroke. It sequentially undoes previous actions. If you do something wrong, you can undo it with this key stroke. By holding down Shift- Command-Z you can redo an action. You can set the number of undos in the Edit menu, Preferences , Units & Undo . Set the minimum level to 50. [Best to also set your units to Centimeters and Stroke and Type to points at this time.]

OTHER USEFUL SHORT-CUT KEY-STROKES Z magnifying lens to zoom up (hold down the Option key to zoom down) or select the magnifying lens and drag across the page to zoom in on that section V selection (black) arrow A direct selection (white) arrow P pen N pencil \ line segment tool B paint brush + add anchor point -delete anchor point X toggles the fill and stroke colors Shift C convert anchor point Command Z undo (the second most important key-stroke!) Shift Command Z redo Command S Save (the most important key-stroke!) Command + zooms in Command – zooms out Command 0 (zero) scales view of art board to window (double click the hand icon for the same effect)

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

Command 1 scales view to 100% (double click the magnifying glass icon for the same effect) Tab hides palettes and toolbox Shift+tab hides palettes only H or   hold Space bar hand tool Caps loc k turns any drawing tool into crosshairs Shift+Command B shows or hides the bounding box Command C copy Command V paste Command F paste in front Command B paste in back Command G group Shift+Command G  ungroup Shift+Command ] bring to front (all the way, relative to the other objects in its layer) Shift+Command [ send to back (all the way, ditto) Command ] bring forward (one level, ditto) Command [ send backward (one level, ditto) Command J join NOTE:  all of the keyboard shortcuts for Tools and Menu Commands can be seen from Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts or Shift+Option+Command+K Learn as many as you can, it will really speed up your work!!! And from any tool or selection, if you hold down the Command key, the Selection (black) arrow appears or the Direct-selection (white) arrow appears depending on which of these was selected previously. If you pause the selection arrow over any of the tools in the Toolbox palette, a “tooltip” appears with the tool name and its key-stroke short cut (in parentheses). Some tools or functions do not have short-cut keys. CAUTION:  Do not inadvertently press Command H or select Hide Edges from the View menu. You will not be able to see or select the path lines or anchor points on your paths or objects (see below). Also, make sure Snap to Grid and Snap to Point in the View menu are not selected.

BEGINING THE ILLUSTRATION

Creating layers: Return to the Layers palette. Select the options button in the upper right of the palette and choose New Layer. . . Name: typically we name the layer for the view and/or structure, i.e. dorsal Xth, ventral, lateral, phallus, etc.

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

Color:  choose a color you can see easily, not too dark, not too bright, so you can distinguish it against the line you are drawing and whether the anchor points are open or filled (red, green, blue, magenta, cyan, orange, and teal work well on black stroked lines). Leave the other settings as is (default) For each different template, make a New layer via the same procedure and choose a different color. LAYER MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT! Before and during stroking with the pen tool, be sure the proper layer is selected, i.e., if you are stroking paths for the dorsal view, make sure that that layer is selected. All of the paths for a particular view, should be in the layer you established for that view. Turning on the Ruler and Grid and Adding Guides: You may find it useful to show rulers and the grid to help orient yourself on the page and to place paths and objects on the page. Under View , select Show Rulers and Show Grid . The ruler units will be those you set under Preferences > Units and Display Performance . You can change the color, style, and number of grid squares in Preferences > Guides and Grid . You can turn any path or line segment into a Guide by selecting it and under View , choose Guides , Make Guides . Once set, guides can’t be moved and will not print. You may find guides useful for orienting lines and objects on your artboard. You can also drag horizontal and vertical guides off the ruler when it is showing. With the selection tool drag horizontal guides off the horizontal ruler down to any position you want to have them. Drag vertical guides off the vertical ruler. It is a good idea to create all you guides in their own separate layer (name it “Guides”). If you want to get rid of the guides you simply delete that layer. Creating paths: Under View in the menu bar, you can choose either Outline or Preview . The former will show you the outline of the path, the latter shows you the actual stroke (I work in preview 99.99% of the time). Use the Pen tool to begin laying down “ anchor points ” along the path you want to stroke . Hold and drag the first anchor point slightly as you establish it, as you do a set of direction lines will appear. Continue to establish additional anchor points along the path. If you hold and drag the anchor points as you lay them down, you can change the curvature of the path to fit the line you want to trace via direction lines. Pulling on the direction lines changes the length and direction of the curve on either side of the anchor point.

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

As you lay down a path, the bounding box will appear or not depending on whether you select Show Bounding Box or Hide Bounding Box under the View menu. I prefer to have it hidden and show it only when I want to resize a path or object.

As you lay down additional anchor points, you adjust the curvature of the path by dragging a bit. However, occasionally a weird curve will appear, especially if the former curve you laid down was long, and you follow it with a short curve. To adjust for this, Command-Z the path segment away, select the selection arrow, click away form the line to deselect, get the pen tool again, go back to the last anchor point, click on it then lay down the next anchor point. The curve should be more “normal.” If you keep the direction line short and along the same line as the path, you can usually avoid this problem. Try not to make the direction lines very long (longer than the previous line segment) to change the curvature; if you need a more curved line, lay down additional anchor points. On the other hand, don’t make a curve by laying down many, closely spaced anchor points. This defeats the POWER OF THE PEN . Experiment and practice and you’ll learn the right technique. The power of Illustrator lies in the pen tool , but it is the most difficult tool to master. However, you must master it as 80% of Illustrator’s function lies in the creation and editing of paths.

You can add an anchor point along any part of a path by first selecting the path then using the Add-anchor-point tool (under the pen tool). Similarly you can delete an anchor point with Delete-anchor-point tool. + and – are short-cut key-strokes, respectively. Remember, P is the shortcut key for the pen tool. In the Preferences under General , there is the option to Disable Auto Add/Delete . By default, Illustrator lets you add anchor point anywhere along the path by moving the pen tool to where you want it and clicking in a new anchor point. Likewise, if you place the pen tool over an existing anchor point and click you can delete it. You may choose to turn off the Auto Add/Delete setting (I work with it turned off) and add or delete anchor point using the add and delete tools.

The Convert-anchor-point tool (open, tailless arrow; shortcut Shift-C ) changes a smooth anchor point to a corner point. This is useful for making sharp turns or corners (duh!). To convert it back to a smooth point, hold down the option key and click and drag with the convert anchor point tool.

Once a path is drawn, use the Selection (V) arrow to select it. Notice that all of the anchor points are dark (filled). You can then drag and move the entire path to another place. What if you want to move the position of just one anchor point? Select the path using the Direct- selection (A) arrow (white arrow). Notice that the anchor points are white (open). Now you can select any individual anchor point and move it. By holding down the shift key, you can select several anchor points and move them together. Or you can use the Direct Select Lasso tool to loop around several anchor points to select them, then go back to Direct-selection arrow to move selected points.

Stroking lines:

Select the Stoke tab in the Stroke palette (choose Stroke from the Window menu if it’s not already visible). Turn off the fill on the Tools palette! Select the path with the direct selection

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

tool and then stroke the path at the desired line weight. I commonly use .25 pt for alveoli, membrane, or other fine lines. 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.5 are for other lines. I generally do not use above 1.5. You will need to print your drawing a few times to gauge the proper line stroke. Indicate on a sample drawing the line stoke used for different lines and effects and use these strokes uniformly throughout your different plates. You can change the color and opacity of the stroke, but for line drawings, make sure they are 100% opacity and 100% black. Under the Stroke tab, select the middle Round Cap of the cap selections and Round Join below it. This makes your endpoints and corner points appear more like they were made with an ink pen. In order to change the endpoints, remember that the path has to be selected. You can also draw lines with the Pencil tool, but these are much more “freehand” in appearance and not as controllable as the pen tool. However, in certain cases the pencil tool is essential. Set the “tolerance” of the pencil tool by double clicking on the tool icon and adjusting the settings. Setting the tolerance at 0.5 lets you make much more squiggly lines that with it set at 20. Experiment to get the effect you want.

Drawing “free-hand” lines: Pencil tool —the pencil tool is used for drawing free hand lines. You can smooth, average, simplify, or outline stroke a pencil drawn path, but the anchor points do not have direction lines for changing angles. The pencil tool is very useful for drawing irregular lines, such as membrane. The use of a digital palette and electronic stylus make this a more accurate tool. Eraser tool —the eraser tool, grouped with the pencil tool in the toolbox, lets you erase parts of paths , but it does not work on shapes or objects. Select the path you want to erase and drag the eraser tool over the part you want to erase. You can also use the eraser tool to cut a path (just like the scissors tool, see below) by simply clicking on that part of the select path you want to cut.

Modifying lines: You can smooth , roughen , or simplify lines as well as average or join anchor points or cut segments of a path.

Smooth —use the Smooth tool under the Pencil tool. Select the path and trace along the anchor points using the Smooth tool to smoothen the path (you are actually just eliminating anchor points).

Simplify —Select the path. Go to Object on the menu bar, then to Path , then to the pop-up window Simplify. . .  Select Preview , then move the Curve Precision slide to see how the path behaves. The closer to 100%, the closer to the original path shape.

Roughen —Select the path. Use the Pencil tool along the path to roughen.

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

Join —You can only Join “ endpoints ,” either on the same path (which then closes the path) or to join two separate paths. Use the Direct selection tool (white arrow) to select the path(s) then by holding down the shift key, select the endpoints to be joined. Then Object > Path > Join. Cut —Use the Scissors tool to cut a path into two or more segments. Making weighted lines: Outline stroke — This is a very useful tool to make tapered lines or to vary the thickness of a line along its length ( weighted lines! ). Select the stroked path. Then Object > Path > Outline Stoke . Once the path is outlined, use the Direct-selection tool to select it again. Then by selecting individual open anchor points (thus filling them) and dragging them, you can change the thickness of the stroke or taper the ends. Holding down shift allows you to select several anchor points to drag all at once. Once a path is stroked, it becomes a filled shape and cannot be converted back to a path! Remember : if you return to the pen tool after outlining a stroke, be sure to turn off the fill again and reset the caps. Knife tool —This tool, docked with the scissors tool, is used to cut filled shapes. Select the shape and drag the knife tool across the part you want to cut, then select that part and remove it by hitting the delete key. Or, you can move the cut off part to another location. Be sure to select the shape you want to cut; if not, everything that the knife passes will be cut. Other very useful functions: Dashed Lines —Select the stroked path. On the Stroke palette, select Dashed Line . Select the Dash and Gap point size to best balance with the stroke weight. Hit the Return key to set the point sizes selected. Record these so you use them uniformly in your plates. Decent, well balanced dashes and gaps for line strokes are: L ine weight dash gap 0.25 pt 0.50 0.75 0.50 0.75 1.0 0.75 1.00 1.5 1.00 1.50 2.0 Creating exact copies of paths, shapes, or other objects —Select the path with the Selection tool (black arrow), hold down the Option key, and click and drag an exact copy of the object. Or , select the path, then Edit, Copy (Command C), Paste in Front (Command F), and drag the copy off the top of the original with the selection tool or move it off with the key board arrows. Or , select the path, drag a copy with the selection tool with Option down and position the copy in relation to the original where you want it. Then by repeatedly hitting Command D , you Duplicate the path in the same position relative position. Blend —Another useful tool in certain situations to insert a series of paths (or objects) between a pair of paths (or objects) either of the same or different shapes. The blend tool “morphs” the shapes together through a series of transitions (fixed steps or fixed distances). Select the

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ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects

Fall Semester, 2006

paths for “blending.” Then Object > Blend . Under Blend Options select the Specified Steps or Specified Distance for Spacing. Then back under Blend , select Make (or Option+Command+B). You will have to experiment a bit to get the desired effect.

You can Expand the blend, Ungroup , and then move or edit individual parts with the selection arrows.

The objects in the blend will be laid out in a straight line between the two original endpoint oblects. If you want to fit them to a curved line, draw a curved line with the pen tool, make sure it is on over and on top of the blend (Bring to front), select both the blend and the curve, then Object > Blend > Replace Spine . Notice the different Orientation options.

You can also blend the color between two or more objects. For example to get a highlight on a sphere, draw a circle with the ellipse tool. Fill it with a color. Draw a small while circle on top of it. Fill it with white. Select both. Under Object > Blend > Blend Options , select Smooth Color .

Clipping mask —A clipping mask is an object whose shape masks another object or artwork so that the latter fits within the borders of the mask. It is very useful for “filling” complex objects, including text, with complex fills. See below for using clipping mask to create a cross hatched fill.

What is nice about clipping masks is that each of the objects is fully editable. By using the direct selection tool (white arrow) you can select individual parts of the mask and change the color, stroke, fill etc. On the other hand, the full original objects are still present, only masked, so the size of the illustration is the same as the unmasked objects (look at the file in Outline format).

Illustrating bilaterally symmetrical structures:

For bilaterally symmetrical structures you only need to draw half of the image, then reflect the other half using Illustrator.

In the layer you want to reflect, Select  All (Command A) of the individual paths you want to duplicate. You can unlock the template and select it also, if necessary. Then Object > Group (Command G). Go to Object again, Transform > Reflect. . .  Select the Axis (usually Vertical ) and the Angle (usually 90°). You can check Preview if you wish. Then Copy . Now use the arrow keys to move the reflected image so that it aligns in the position you want or you can drag with the selection tool and fine tune the position with the arrow keys. It might be useful to Show Bounding Box to help you align or you can use the Align palette (under Window menu) to help you align the two images. You can then Ungroup (Shift+Command G) both sets of paths for additional editing of individual paths.

You can run into the problem of having your reflected composite image appear too symmetrical and hence look unnatural. To avoid this, just very slightly change the position or shape of a few

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