NCPD 209 Introduction to Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign

NCPD 209 is a non-credit MICA introductory seminar, exposing students to Adobe® Photoshop® CC, Adobe Illustrator® CC and Adobe InDesign® CC – the three applications widely used by professionals today in photography, illustration, graphic design, technical drawing, animation and motion graphics. Various kinds of artists can take this seminar to better understand the best practices for: basic preferences, color settings, printing, digital output and simple helpful tips in using the Adobe Creative Suite. This seminar is an overview of the capabilities of the software and requires no prior use :)

Prerequisite: basic knowledge of computers is required for all computer classes.

Bonus: experience with drawing, painting, color theory, design, sculpture, photography, light & shadow, psychology of art & human emotions, art therapy, and how the Universe works will be to your benefit :)

Recommended materials/supplies: students should bring a notebook and pen/pencils, as well as a USB Flash drive to transfer digital files to & from class.

Food & Drink: students are encouraged to bring food and drink to class. We'll have a short break during our sessions.

Adobe Trivia: Illustrator and Photoshop are siblings, with Illustrator being the big sister and Photoshop the little brother (Illustrator was a 1987 Adobe creation/release with Botticelli's Venus as it's icon (female) and Photoshop as an acquisition by the Knoll brothers (males) in the late 1980s). Adobe thought Photoshop would be second to Illustrator – they were mistaken – Photoshop took off and proved to be the more popular of the two applications due to it's unique capabilities in manipulating photographs (bitmap images). Both applications work extremely well together in being able to produce vector graphics & raster images (bitmaps) for artists, designers, photographers and other creatives around the world.

InDesign was the late comer into the Adobe family in 1999, an acquisition from Aldus in 1994 (formerly Aldus PageMaker, then Adobe PageMaker, aka RageMaker among designers and pre-press technicians due to the multiple work-arounds needed in order to corectly print the PageMaker digital files) and is viewed as a baby sister to the two older siblings. Adobe released InDesign 2 in 2002 and in an interview with an Adobe representative I was asked what I thought of the new version (since version 1 had numerous bugs and issues). I excitedly answered, "It's Adobe Illustrator on page layout steroids!" InDesign has many of the same capabilities Illustrator does, with it's strength in being able to layout multi-page documents and effortlessly process type (lots of type!).

Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign?

Time Matters – InDesign has a rich feature set of tools, menu commands and panels that are identical to Illustrator – draw shapes and lines, gradients, convert text to outlines, Pathfinder panel and more. At times, it's simply easier to create art and illustrations directly within InDesign since you're already working with it. You can always export your work to PDF format to make additional edits in Illustrator. Drag & drop objects from InDesign to Illustrator and vice versa. That old 20th Century technique of copy & paste between apps works too, even in Photoshop!

Schedule at a glance (subject to revision)

July

The Adobe Illustrator Story

When Adobe Illustrator first shipped in 1987, the new product not only altered Adobe's course, it changed drawing and graphic design forever. See how Adobe Co-Founder John Warnock first conceived of Illustrator as a PostScript drawing tool and how PostScript's Bézier curves could be applied to the shapes illustrators painstakingly created by hand. – May 2014, video, 19:01

Learn more about the history of Adobe Illustrator

Knock Knock – Multi-screen Animation

Brunettes Shoot Blondes: Knock Knock – Slick animation using Apple devices and a whole lot o' creativity. Looks like a whole lot o' Illustrator too!

The X-Files 2016 Promotional Animation – Ask Yourself

The X-Files – Miniseries Premiered on Fox, January 24, 2016 : From Adobe Illustrator to Adobe Photoshop – graphics for animations like this can begin in Illustrator and be processed in Photoshop to create animated GIFs that can be emailed or posted on the Web.

Digital Paintings: Exploration & Exploitation of Adobe Photoshop

Due: open

Photoshop CC
Create stunning photos and illustrations, designs for web and print, 3D imagery, video, and more with Adobe Photoshop.
– 2017 Adobe marketing copy

Project Brief: What will you create using Adobe Photoshop?

Starting with new files, explore Photoshop's tools, commands, panels, filters, layers and more. Feel free to step outside your comfort zone – be daring, exciting, delve deep into your creative mind. Keep in mind all of your previous training while creating new images in Photoshop; composition, design principles, color theory and aesthetics. This project is about warming up to creative thinking, software & hardware, and conquering the blank canvas syndrome. Have fun and be exceptionally creative.

Project Parameters:

• Anything goes – be creative
• File Properties – work at 300 ppi resolution and in RGB color mode

Getting Started:

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop and create a new file, using the menu, File > New… or ⌘N
2. Select Default Photoshop Size from the Document Type menu –  this will create a 7 x 5", 300 ppi, RGB file for you to play with – press OK to create your new file,
3. Explore & exploit Photoshop's tools, commands, panels, filters, layers and more,
4. Save your file in the Photoshop format,
5. Repeat steps 1–4, for your next creations.

Bring your master PSD files to our next class for additional processing and critique :)

Ready for more? Try retouching family photos, compositing imagery, playing with filters, exploring type & imagery – the possibilities are endless when creating with Adobe Photoshop :)

• Photoshop Help / Save and export
• Photoshop Help / File formats
• Photoshop Help / Workspace
• Photoshop Help / Workspace basics
• Photoshop Help / Tool galleries
• Photoshop Help / Use tools
• Photoshop Help / Default keyboard shortcuts
• Photoshop Help / Preferences

Specifications: ? files, RGB color, Adobe Photoshop format

Adobe Illustrator CC Practice

Digital Drawings: Exploration & Exploitation of Adobe Illustrator

Due: open

Illustrator CC
Get to know the industry-standard vector graphics app that lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and complex illustrations for any medium.
– 2017 Adobe marketing copy

Concept: Exploring Adobe Illustrator.

Project Brief: Explore Adobe Illustrator's shape and drawing tools and create vector illustrations. Anything goes – be creative and have fun! Use the menu, File > New… or ⌘N to create your new files.

• Getting Started – Don't let the blank canvas syndrome interfere with this project. Just do it. This project is simply about playing with Illustrator's tools and features, it's not about creating masterpieces. Make new documents, cut loose and make a lot of marks, it's all good! Be sure to save your files to bring in for our next class.
• Create by Adobe – Adobe Create Magazine brings you profiles of some of the world’s most innovative artists—shining a spotlight on amazing work in photography, graphic design, film, type, illustration, architecture, and more.
• Illustrator Help / Workspace basics
• Illustrator Help / Tool galleries
• Illustrator Help / Drawing simple lines and shapes
• Illustrator Help / Editing paths
• Illustrator Help / About color
• Illustrator Help / Selecting objects
• Illustrator Help / Painting with fills and strokes
• Illustrator’s Pen Tool: The Comprehensive Guide – envatotuts+
• Guides to Illustrator's Tools – comprehensive guides to working with Illustrator by envatotuts+
• Play the Pen Tool Game by Adobe
• Draw smooth lines and shapes with the Pencil tool by Adobe

For those who need to know more…

• Vector Graphics – Wikipedia
• Bézier Curve – Wikipedia
• Pierre Bézier – Wikipedia – French engineer, popularized Bézier curves for computer graphics

Specifications: ? files, RGB color, Adobe Illustrator format

Adobe InDesign CC Practice

Layouts: Exploration & Exploitation of Adobe InDesign

Due: open

InDesign CC
The industry-standard publishing app lets you design and publish high-quality documents across a full spectrum of digital and print media.
– 2017 Adobe marketing copy

Concept: Exploring Adobe InDesign.

Project Brief: Explore Adobe InDesign's text & graphic frame tools and drawing tools to create layouts. Anything goes – be creative and have fun! Use the menu, File > New > Document… or ⌘N to create your new files.

• Getting Started – Don't let the blank canvas syndrome interfere with this project. Just do it. This project is simply about playing with InDesign's tools and features, it's not about creating masterpieces. Make new documents, cut loose and make a lot of marks, it's all good!
• InDesign Tutorials by Adobe
• InDesign Help / Workspace basics
• InDesign Help / Toolbox
• InDesign Help / Create documents
• InDesign Help / Create text and text frames
• InDesign Help / Placing graphics (art & photographs)
• InDesign Help / Select objects
• InDesign Help / Work with frames and objects
• InDesign Help / Apply Color (using color in Adobe InDesign)
• CreativePro.com – design resource
• InDesignSecrets.com – InDesign resource

Specifications: ? files, Adobe InDesign format