eva11 - you mentioned...

[wetclay]

Hi eva,

I'm new to illustrator and you mentioned in this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=999797&page=1

that you are self taught with third party tuts and such. Would you be willing to share those sources with us rookies?

thanks

 

[eva11]

Hello, Wetclay-

absolutely - the two sources I used:

1) the SAMS Teach Yourself in 24 Hours series (book) , and
2) Total Training (

http://www.totaltraining.com)

(interactive DVD)

Once I had some of the basics down, I was able to go back to the Adobe UserGuide as a reference, because by then it made a lot more sense.

What I found is that although all these sources are very informative, each contains some information not found in the others. I think it's like anything else - the more sources you seek out, the better-informed you'll be, and I'm sure there are probably other good tutorials out there as well. I consider myself more or less still a rookie as well, because I only use a narrow segment of Illustrator's amazing capabilities; from what I can tell, it's a phenomenal program which could just about take a lifetime to fully appreciate in its entirety.

Good luck and have fun!

Regards,
Eva

 

[wetclay]

thanks eva,

it is such a huge program and i get lost just using the pen and pencil tools. I would love to sit behind someone who could show me what they do to make an image. that's the best way for me to learn something.

I'll check those out thanks.
Jim

 

[eva11]

Hi again, Jim-

I just noticed another of your posts, the one about the logos; I don't know what your financial situation is, but thought I should mention that the totaltraining dvd can be a bit spendy. If it's not in your budget, don't despair, because the SAMS will give you most of your bang for your (much smaller) buck. In fact, I think that had I not already had the SAMS under my belt, the totaltraining might've seemed a bit overwhelming - it mostly reinforced what I'd already learned, and gave me a few new tips and shortcuts the SAMS didn't offer. I don't know what version of Illy you have (I have 10), but you might try going online and doing a price comparison for the SAMS book; often you can get them used for a fraction of the original cost.
By the way, yes, the pen tool can be a bear to learn, but once you get the hang of it, you will be head-over-heels in love, because it will allow you to do just about anything you want! Equally important will be to learn how to manipulate your anchor points - again, another tough lesson(s), but very essential and well-worth the effort.

-Eva

 

[AShock]

If you're still looking for training, you might want to check out the Prepress Training Solution--online interactive training in lots of graphics and prepress software at one price. Discounts for students too.

I've taken much of the training and have learned a ton so far.

~Amy