Tuesday 27 Mar 2007 - 05:11
After Photoshop, Illustrator is the most widely-used application within the Creative Suite, utilized for the creation of artwork before layout for print in InDesign, or animation in After Effects or Flash. The new version includes innovative colour scheme creation tools, new drawing tools and better integration with Flash for Web animation design.
As well as the large performance boost on Intel Macs, expect to see Illustrator CS3 working faster on multi-processor and multi-core computers, and with complex artwork.
Colour like no other
Last year, Adobe launched the Kuler online colour tool on its Labs Web site, which allowed users to create colour schemes based on artistic conventions such as complementary, analogous and monochromatic colours. This tool was one part of what Adobe calls Live Color, a larger set of functions that is fully introduced in Illustrator CS3 as the Color Guide palette, a Kuler palette to connect to the online tool, and as a module in its own right.
Working from a base colour, you define your scheme – and then can rotate and move them around colour wheel to experiment with different combinations, based on the relationships between those hues and shades. This technique can also be used recolour a piece of artwork, allowing you to quickly create differently coloured version of your work based on the same colour relationships as the original.
The Assign tab (above) prepares artwork for final print output, allowing you to turn a full colour work into a one-, two-, or three-colour job based on colour libraries such as Pantone’s – with a live preview of how it will look when output in that form.
Illustrator CS3 ships with a large library of thematic swatches based on Live Color.
Top Drawer
Illustrator CS3’s drawing tool have been bolstered by some simple but effective additions. Anchor points on shapes expand to a larger box when you move the mouse over them in Direct Selection mode, making selection of points easier, especially on intricate artwork.
Also, when in Direct Selection mode, the Control strip below the Menu bar includes buttons to add and remove points, cut and join paths, and smooth/corner anchors. If more than one point is selected, standard alignment and distribution tools also appear in the Control strip.
Cutting Edge
While Illustrator has many ways of adding to elements on a page, removing parts of objects can be trickier. To help with this, Illustrator CS3 gains the Eraser tool , which paints areas on shapes that are removed. Multiple shapes can be erased through using the new Isolation mode.
The Eraser works like any other brush, with controls over diameter, angle and roundness – which can be controlled by the pressure or tilt of a Wacom pen.
If you want to output your work to a fixed resolution format such as video or Web formats, the Crop Area tool allows you to overlay an area with the correct size and aspect ratio. To assist alignment, the tool’s options include helpful guides such as centre marks, crosshairs and video safe areas.
Gone in a Flash
It’s easier to move elements from Illustrator to Flash in Creative Suite 3. As well as sharing similar interfaces, any shape in Illustrator can be saved as a symbol and copy/pasted into Flash. When you bring an .ai file into Flash, an Import window is opening, giving you a huge amount of control over how individual elements are used. You can choose which layers to bring in, whether they become individual movie clips, what they’ll be called and whether any text is editable.
Neil Bennett
For more information see the Adobe Web site.
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Neil Bennett
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