Learning Adobe Illustrator

J

jacostilllives

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Hey, im having a tough time jumping into Adobe Illustrator. I know its a complicated program but im looking for good tutorials or books that explain the program well and can teach me how to use it. Anyone have good experience with illustrator ie graphic designers that can give some good insight on this. Thanks for the help.
 
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I also would be interested in knowing...
 
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I just learned Adobe Illustrator at school this year, im doing graphic design. Its very difficult to use at first, but once you get the hang of it its wonderful. I use it more than I ever used Photoshop in the past. Im going to go try to find some good tutorial sites and ill edit my post with the links if I find any.

:edit:

This looks to be a pretty decent video tutorial on how to use the pathfinder:

http://www.freetutorial.net/videotutorials/pathfinder/pathfinder.php
 
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i use illustrator for a living. The best books i've seen for beginners is the Adobe Illustrator classroom in a book series. It can be bought at barnes and noble. this is the same book you would get if you took a illustrator coarse at your local technical college. It will give you a very good basic understanding of the tools, how they work and what they do. Once you have that you have to use the program alot. Grab adds, layouts, labels, etc... and try to recreate them, before you know it you will be very efficient. Remember to learn your shortcut keys to make your self even more efficient.
 
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I, too use Illustrator for a living, but not a lot, my vector-based layout program of choice is Freehand. Anyway, my advice, if you really want to learn to use Illustrator, is to find someone who already knows how to use it, and ask them to teach you. Being shown first-hand how to get things done is the best way to learn the basics. The books and tutorials (for me), are just the way to polish and refine your skills.
 
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I three ;) use Illustrator for a living and my $.02 will be:

Get the app.
Mess with it.
Try to make a complicated piece with one of the aforementioned books at your side.

This is the way I learned. Just jump in.
 

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