Working through this book will provide you with experience in accessing, customizing, and applying the wide variety of Illustrator's sophisticated toolset. The new processing engine underlying Illustrator CS6 will improve your work speed, even with multiple processing-intensive effects applied to the images you create. By completing these eight projects, which were designed to represent realistic assignments in a professional workflow, you will learn to: Combine, edit, and transform primitive shapes to create complex illustrations. Define and manipulate curve points and handles to control every detail in your illustration. Apply custom colors, gradients, and visual effects to achieve the perfect effect for your job; in CS6, you now have the ability to add finely controlled gradients to strokes as well as object fills. Arrange elements of complex artwork on multiple layers and artboards. Use time-saving symbols and libraries of brushes, patterns, and other assets to streamline your workflow. Format text entirely within the Illustrator workspace to develop complete, print-ready documents. Add interactive elements to your designs, including hyperlinks, rollover definitions, and image slices for Web presentation. Save files with appropriate settings and formats for a variety of print and digital distribution methods.
