Published on
May 15, 2009 in
tips and video.
Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, artist, Bezier, cartoonist, Illustration, illustrator, productivity, screencast, technique, tip, tutorial, vector, video.
In this video, I am sharing with you a vector path creation technique to speed up the process of creating curved paths by adding intermediate anchor points after your corners have been created. I used to create my anchor points as I was following the curve of the shape I was tracing. Instead, with this technique the anchor points are added to your vector path after your corners have been created, allowing Illustrator to approximate the length of the curve handles for you with much greater accuracy the first time around.
Continue reading 'Adobe Illustrator Video Tip: Quickly Add Smooth Transition Anchor Points'
Published on
April 17, 2009 in
tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, CS3, CS4, Illustration, illustrator, software, troubleshooting, vector.
For longer than I can remember, I have been flustered with the Flatten Transparency feature in Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4. Very often I use the excellent Layer Targeting feature introduced into recent versions of Adobe Illustrator, however I found that when using the Flatten Transparency feature, it seemed to ignore the attributes of the Targeting, which forced me to find lengthy workarounds to solve this. Turns out there was an approach to solving this that I had overlooked…
Continue reading 'Flattening Transparency Properly When Using Layer Appearances in Adobe Illustrator'
Published on
January 16, 2009 in
productivity, software and tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Creative Suite, illustrator, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, OS X, Photoshop, productivity, tip.
Here are a few handy keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop for those of you out there like me who spend an inordinate amount of time in the Creative Suite primarily using Illustrator. These are not keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Illustrator, but rather are keyboard shortcuts providing methods of doing things in Photoshop that you are used to doing in Illustrator that at first it might seem isn’t possible, like click directly on an object to select it, drag to a new layer, etc.
Continue reading '6 Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts For Illustrator Users'
Published on
January 15, 2009 in
software and tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, backup, Creative Suite, how-to, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, PC, productivity, tips, troubleshooting, tutorial, Windows, Windows XP, workflow.
It’s happened to all of us digital creatives. The dreaded day when you just cannot get one of your Adobe applications to launch. Usually there’s a deadline looming (of course). You’ve restarted your computer (three times) and still you cannot get Photoshop to launch. You’ve tried a few tips from some Google searches, but still nothing. Your geek cred is showing it’s limitations. And your deadline isn’t getting any further away.
What if I told you this could be avoided, virtually forever? And also, that you can get back to work with all your settings just the way you like them?
Continue reading 'Adobe Apps: Backup Your Prefs'
Cartoonist and regular MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond just posted some insider tips on working for MAD Magazine over at his excellent blog.
Sorry to say, there’s no secret handshake or magic words, but the good news is that it’s at least easier nowadays to get your work in the mag than it was back in the 70′s & 80′s — MAD has opened up to a wider range of styles as well as a wider pool of freelancers that they work with.
And to quote Tom on the likelihood of your artwork getting seen:
Trust me when I say that anyone who sends work into MAD will get the proper attention paid to it, usually by art director Sam Viviano himself.
That’s good to hear, although Vivano’s artwork is phenomenal—it’s gotta be nerve-wracking to submit to him. I remember his work way back in my Scholastic Book Club days, in Dynamite Magazine. Now that’s going waaaay back!
Continue reading 'Working For MAD Magazine: Insider Tips'
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