Hello, gang. I hope Memorial Day treated you well and you are now back in the saddle and riding high on this Tuesday, the 1st day of the 1st month of Summer.
Just a quick note to let you know: My insanely in-depth, comprehensive-as-all-get-out Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals course has gone live on the lynda.com Online Training Library. It spans roughly 250 movies lasting 23 hours, meaning that it offers more than enough to satisfy both the lightest and the darkest of your vector-based cravings. Iit even includes the well-worn and infinitely flexible ghost robot, rendered here inside a surfboard. In all seriousness, who among us could resist riding the waves with one foot below his empty heart and another on his pitifully screaming mouth?
Not that I’ve ever actually surfed or anything. But I have rode the high seas of vector-based adventure for nigh on 23 years. And I’ve poured much of my experience into these videos. (After all, I have to save something back for the Advanced and Mastery courses.)
And did I mention? Despite the appearance of the familiar ghost robot, it’s all new information. With gobs of real-world, hands-on drawing experience throughout. If you’ve ever wanted to wrestle Illustrator to the ground—and know the inner workings of this deep program with the kind of certainty some of you know Photoshop—this is your chance. Check it out today by clicking this link: Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals. The ghost robot himself might offer this mournful, eerily distant endorsement: “You’ll be glad you did!” If only you weren’t standing on his face.
I now return to several other CS5 books and videos, too numerous to mention.
Did someone say Illustrator?
I’ll admit that I thought it was a typo when I saw that this title was over 23 hours. But then I saw the content that Deke covered in this first of three—and it’s no typo. And it’s 23 hours of GOOD stuff - I’ve taken the time to watch a few of the chapters (yes, I do still consider myself a student). Kudos on a great job, Deke!
Mordy Golding
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com
Healing brush tool problems
Hi Deke,I bought your CS4 one-on-one video package a few months ago and I’m nearing completion. Cheers for that.:) .However I have hit upon a roadblock in the very last segment on healing brush tools. In the video,you edit the photo of the ancient looking Asian guy called Bluebeard using the healing brush tool. But when I do the same on the photo, the results are different as the blackness of the mole doesn’t go away and stays there inspite of repeated brush swipes. I have tried all the blend modes, normal,lighten etc but to no avail. The black is there to stay. Can you tell me what should I do because I’m getting really frustrated and starting to bang my head in frustration every now and then.
By the way, thanks for bringing out the package. I had tried a lot of CS 4 tutorials but yours is by far the best.
Excellence in digital format
I just finished Deke’s 1on1 with Photoshop CS5, and am salivating for the Advanced and Mastery parts. I was overwhelmed and pleased when I found out that the Illustrator 1on1 went live and it TOO will have an Advanced and Mastery volume.
With Deke’s training, I feel confident to take on the Adobe Photoshop CS5 Expert certification. I’ve never known AI half as well as I know PS, but with your training, I hope to change all that. I really like AI, and would love to know that tool inside and out, so I force myself to watch the videos at work (work-based training) even though our copy of CS5 hasn’t come in yet.
I really wish Deke did training for Premiere and After Effects as well. :)
The Visitors
I am going through the Photoshop CS4 OoO videos (amongst others) and have come to the “Crop without cropping” lesson where you talk about your favourite photo that you called “The visitors”. Since I am new to this site and CS4 is old-school by now, I would guess you’ve long ago been told this (or knew it yourself), but in case not, I wanted to let you know that the “visitors”, especially in light of their “slanted” orientation in the image, are clearly Eldilla (pl. of Eldil), the angelic beings described by C.S.Lewis in his Space Trilogy books, especially as described in detail near the beginning of the second book, Perelandra.
Just thought I would let you know, since seeing that image is what suddenly inspired me to look up and find your deke.com site just now to post this (my signature line is also, appropriately, a quote from that same book, and seems somehow very fitting for Photoshop and Illustrator activities, given that each always seems to have “more features” than one looked for, no matter how much one knows about them. :-)
Am loving all your videos—I already know a good deal about Ps and Ai, but find that even going through the fundamentals videos gives me insight into things I didn’t realize, even if the main points are familiar to me. Great stuff!
——————————
“All that is made seems planless to the darkened mind, because there are more plans than it looked for”, from Perelandra by C.S. Lewis,
—Stanley
Don’t forget, my friend
That I called you at the tail end of this very series to ask you how to apply a stroke to an imported photo. Seemingly, such as easy thing to do. And yet it required the Mind Of Mordy to get me over that particular hump. (This with all them years of experience under my paunchy belt.)
Fortunately for me and the series, you set me straight and the tip found its way into movie 11.05, “Stroking a placed image,” of this very series.
Students of Illustrator will want to watch Mordy’s Illustrator videos on the lynda.com Online Training Library as well. I learned everything I once knew about about Illustrator CS5 from his New Features videos.
Just love festin’, dontcha know.
Stroking a placed image…
man, there is something so wrong with that phrase (and yet, it feels so right). I couldn’t have fully understood Opacity masks in Illustrator if not for your awesome Photoshop Channels and Masks videos—so we’re even. Until the NEXT time….
Mordy Golding
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com
missing Illustrator CS5 dekeKeys
Maybe it’s because of all time I’ve spent eating microwavable foods (and the effects of invisible light on my digestive tract), but I can’t seem to find your dekeKeys for Illustrator CS5. Please don’t make me upgrade my Lynda.com subscription, because I don’t want any exercise files (I go to the gym 4 times a week); all I want is your dekeKeys (and maybe an autographed b&w headshot). Nonetheless, you rock, Deke!
Quinn G. Carlson
Ceres, CA
Check the exercise file tab for the missing dekeKeys
I’m not a premium member for Lynda.com either, but I checked the exercise file tab and found there was a folder available to download the shortcut keys. Happy happy day!
Simple editing in artboard mode
In the hidden artboard techniques chapter on Lynda.com - Illustrator CS5 One-on-One Fundamentals (which I recommend highly to anyone reading this…terrific tutorial) you indicate one has to leave outline mode and return to edit mode to delete an object. Not sure if its a bug, but I seem to be able to make simple tranformations or delete an object while still in artboard mode by holding down ctl + alt. You need to continue to hold down ctl and alt while manipulating the transform outline on the selected object and if you hold down ctl and drag you duplicate the object. When you let go of the ctl+alt keys there is a blue underline under the object and you can use ctl + x to delete the object if you want to remove it.
Great Stuff
Profit Instruments
This sound like great stuff I will go check out Illustrator CS5 One-on-One right now
Thank’s
Illustrator CS5 dekeKeys and best Workflow files…
Mr. Deke,
I noticed you have provided these exercise files for setup only for Photoshop—free to deke.com members. Do you intend to offer the CS5 Illustrator files to we poor struggling design proletarians as well? It certainly would be appreciated.
Mr. Bru
Problem with exercise files on lynda
I could not find all your exercise files that you refer to in your CS5 One-on One Fundamentals. I am new to lynda and joined it primarily to watch your videos. The exercise files I found only have shortcut keys in them. I am a basic user, do I have to upgrade?
The exercise files
Come only with the Premium subscription.
We can’t wait for the Advanced and Mastery courses
I just watched all of the Fundamentals course in 1 week. First of all, let me thank you for adding the word “dinky” to my everyday vocabulary. Secondly, as the titles says, we can’t wait for the advanced and mastery courses. I even think about watching your courses on Illustrator CS4! To my dismay, now that I checked deke.com, I realized that you spend more time and effort on Photoshop related tutorials.
So, is there a chance that you have set a release date for the other courses on Illustrator? Also will they be released at the same time? (After all, you recorded 23 hours of pure awesomeness as one course)
P.S.: We definitely want more jokes on the next course!
dekeKeys Errata
Not sure if this is the right place to comment, but while i was in chapter 2 of the course I got tripped up over switching from tab to tab using cmd + ~ on Mac. That is what you said to do, but after looking at the keyboard shortcuts preferences, I found that it was actually set to cmd + F6. Now, I loaded your dekeKeys in chapter 0 so either something is wrong in there, or you just didn’t set it up and cmd+f6 was assigned for some other reason. Either way I thought it might be nice for you to know and possibly correct.
Thanks for the excellent training so far!
Yeah, I messed that one up
It was a leftover from Illustrator CS4.
Here’s how to fix it: In Illustrator, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Switch to Menu Commands at the top of the dialog box (below Set). Scroll down to Other Misc at the bottom of the list and twirl it open. Then change the item Navigate to Next Document to Cmd-~ (which will show up as Cmd-`). Navigate to Previous Document should be Cmd-Shift-~, and so on.
I’ll update the dekeKeys file when I record the “Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced” series.
Illustrator & photos when working in scale
I have a question, and since I think it might be of general interest I’ll make an attempt and kindly ask you to include it in your upcoming lynda tutorial.
In your wonderful “Illustrator CS4 one-on-one Advanced” chapter 20 and 21 you talk about the best way of integrating photos into Illustrator and how to print your artwork.
Now assume that you have to work for a billboard and you work on a 1:10 scale in Illustrator (or whatever scale you like).
When it comes to linking your photos what resolution should you use? Say that the 1:1 final artwork should be 60 dpi, working at 1:10 will make sense that the linked photo should be 600 dpi.
Now to exporting. My guesses are:
1) Pdf? Make sure the “compression settings” will be set to “Do not downsample”.
2) Photoshop and Tiff? Printers usually ask for pdf and cropmarks. You don’t have them in Photoshop. What do you do? Re-import your raster into Illustrator or InDesign?
Thanks for your attentions and your great tutorials.
GP
Full list of keyboard shortcuts
Hi Deke.
I am currently going through your Illustrator CS5 One-on-One tutorials on Lynda and I have to say they are excellent.
I was wondering if you had a full list of all the keyboard short cuts for illustrator (Including the custom dekekeys)?
This would really help as I could print them off and stick them on the walls in front of me for reference?
Any help on this would be fantastic.
Thanks Deke.
Dave
remapping OS shortcuts
This is probably a dumb question, but: I was following along with the lynda.com “Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals” loading the dekeKeys. I got to the part for remapping OS shortcuts and I highlight the items to change the shortcut, push the keys you are telling me to use and then it totally ignores and remains what is has there.
What am I doing wrong? I have just started using a Mac this summer and I can’t find anything. PC use has left a deep hold on my thought process, so I don’t have a clue where to look for things. My mouse won’t even right click. What am I doing wrong? Help
Love the videos. Saw the pirate flag when I registered for your site and looking forward to learning more about that.
Thanks
me too, me too
Yes, It would be very helpful for a “list” of your keyboard short cuts to refer to during the early training phase.
Any possibilities?
Thanks
:D
I used to be a member of lynda.com
and now I’ve lost my DekeKeys for illustrator CS5.
Is there another way I can get the DekeKeys back without having to become a member again?
Thanks in advance,
Julian
Remapping MAC OS keys
I’m having this issue as well. My shortcut keys simply will not change. I get to the part for remapping the system shortcuts by highlighting, starting with dashboard & dock, I press control and D together but nothing happens - no change at all (for neither D or F12) - the system shortcuts simply remain. Is it that I have a Bluetooth keyboard? (shouldn’t matter). I’ve tried deleting what is there and adding the prescribed shortcuts only to have the system return to the default settings. Man, this is troublesome. Awesome tutorials, by the way!
Thanks for whatever help you can give me with this.
beli
I tripped up on this too - here is the fix
Go into Keyboard (the Tab next to where you are trying to change the Shortcuts) and click the box “Use all F1 F2 etc keys as Std function keys” and all works as intended.
Keyboard shortcuts
I’m gonna have to agree with a couple of other posters. I like to have a page or two to print out and post in the can for when I have time to “study”. Can you help us out?
dekeKey’s \“List\” Printout, How-To
givethedrummersome:
I registered on this site just to answer your question, as I had the same one. In Illustrator on PC, press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+K (“Mash”+SHIFT+ALT+K on Mac) to open the short keys menu once you have Dekekeys installed. There is an option at the bottom right of the menu that says “export text.” This will create a notepad .txt file.
The result will be without icons, and a little messy. However, you can take that text into Word and creat a two-column table with the Tool or Menu on the first column, and the shortkey/dekekey on the right, and change fonts and colors if you like. Print that out and you have a very handy list.
Your other option, if you really want those neat icons in the list, is to use the “snip tool” and draw a box around the window of the commands that are showing on the shortkeys. This will create a JPG, which you can put into Word. Then scroll down and capture a picture of the next set of tools. Do this for all the tools, then select menu. This will take more time as you have to capture a picture for every ten tools and menus or so, but it will look really nice when you are done. It all just depends on whether you need those icons to know what the tool is, or if a text description of the tool is enough for you… Hope this helps, and sorry I could not just attach the file!
Nathaniel Wildstone