How do you use the magic wand tool in Adobe Illustrator?

[xarzu]

Hello Forum!

I am trying to use Adobe Illustrator and I am just about ready to give up. This is my first time, so I have some patience but it is running thin.

I am trying to use the magic wand tool to select an area. As this video I made shows, it does nothing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rFvPREmALU

On Adobe's web site, there is an idiot with a radio announcer's voice walking through the steps but I do not have any of the results that he has and I do not know why:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-ill...ol-to-select-colors-patterns-shapes-and-more/

He throws out "Adobe Illustrator is an Object Oriented software...." as if this is something new. Who is he trying to impress. Not me. The guy does not seem to be a real user of Adobe Illustrator and is only making the video to satisfy Adobe's desire to have a few tutorials in existence. It is disappointing. I think there are steps that this guy leaves off that clearly I need if you look at my video first.

Can you help?

 

[xarzu]

nothing?

not a peep of help?

Well, I tried something a little different and it did not work as well.

How do you make the background of an object transparent in Adobe Illustrator?

I have been having issues with using the Magic Wand tool in Adobe Illustrator as well as the lasso tool.

Basically, I am trying to put a small graphic into a new Illustrator file.

The first thing I tried to do is to use the magic wand tool. But I found out that this did not work on a jpeg image since it did not have any individual objects to select.

So I tried something new. I opened the file in Adobe Photoshop and used the lasso tool to select an area. Then I coped this area. Then I tried to paste it into Adobe Illustrator. But the background was not transparent for the pasted image.

How do I make the background transparent.

I made this small video to show what I am talking about:

http://youtu.be/KQrovAq59zk

I noticed that the background is a layer in the image I made in photoshop. I tried turning it off or making it invisible, but that did not help.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/Athono/hidebackground_zps0338ed4b.png

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/Athono/backgroundinphotoshop_zps04ea33fd.png

 

[spamjim]

First of all, I would recommend using Adobe forums instead of Tek-Tips for Adobe software. There are many more eyes there. However, Adobe forums is running updates now (shut down for the holidays) so Tek-Tips may be as good as you get.

There is relevance to the narrator's comment about object based editing. You are trying to make a selection in a PNG file, which has no objects. (I see you discovered this in the second YouTube video)

To utilize the art in the PNG or JPG file in Illustrator, you will need to turn it to vector elements. Try selecting the PNG snowman with the selection tool (black arrow). Then go to the Object menu, choose Image Trace...

There's no need to use Photoshop in this project. The careful selection you made in Photoshop with the lasso tool could be replicated in Illustrator by just using the pen tool to draw a path around that button. But you only need to worry about drawing paths if the Image Trace function is not accurate enough for you.