Learn the essential tools and techniques to illustrate in Adobe Illustrator; no drawing skills needed! This beginner-friendly class has a focus on illustration for animation–perfect for aspiring motion designers–but everything you’ll learn is also applicable to graphic design and static illustrations.

A huge part of animation is having high quality illustrations to animate. If you can illustrate and animate, you don’t have to rely on others to bring your ideas to life.

You don’t need to be able to draw to be able to illustrate in Adobe Illustrator. Throughout this class, I’ll show you the tools and techniques to illustrate even the most complex visuals by building with simple shapes.

You’ll learn how to:

Set up your workspace for efficiency with all the tools you’ll need.
Work with text, including how to create point vs paragraph type, stylize text, type on a path, and customize text as shapes.
Create basic shapes and transform them into unique shapes with rounded corners, scale, rotation, shear, and reflect.
Work with multiple shapes, including how to duplicate, copy and paste (there are more options than you may think), change layer order, select certain parts of artwork, align layers, create groups, and edit multiple shapes at once.
Combine basic shapes to build illustrations using the Shape Builder Tool and Pathfinder panel.
Create and edit custom paths using the Pen Tools, Anchor Point Tool–which is surprisingly useful–and the Direct Selection Tool. Plus, adjust the width and style of strokes.
Color your illustrations, work with the eyedropper tool, save color palettes to use across files, and recolor artwork.
Use clipping masks, the Draw Inside mode, compound paths, and opacity masks to create more complex illustrations.

Plus, there’s an Illustrator workbook for you to follow along as you watch. It’s full of tips and tricks to work efficiently in Adobe Illustrator. Find it in the Projects & Resources tab.

Philip Peng

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