In my last blog, I listed the top ten applications everyone who wants to get into a creative arts career or do digital arts as a hob needs to learn first. I’m going to continue with this one. This is a blog series meant to introduce beginners to applications that will set them in the right direction at an early stage of their career life. Click here, to jump to the first part of this blog.
The next application I’ll be introducing you to is Adobe Illustrator.
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR
Adobe Illustrator is an application for graphic art. It’s used for drawing objects, creating designs and logos, etc. Adobe Illustrator is an industry-standard vector graphics software used many large companies and individuals for graphics design in general, which includes drawing illustrations or creating designs for animation, advert posters, concept art, web banners, storyboards, videos, books, etc.
It is a formidable rival to Photoshop, its sibling, for drawing and making art designs. Adobe Illustrator is used across the creative industry in general and being able to use it well is a priceless skill that can land you a well-paying job within or outside the industry. Illustrator is highly essential for motion graphics artists, who often first create their designs in Illustrator, and then animate them in Adobe After Effects. Illustrator, being a vector graphics application, has an edge over Photoshop, a raster graphics application, in terms of the scalability of images without loss in quality. You can scale vector graphics images almost infinitely, depending on the power of your computer, without having to worry about pixelation, like in raster graphics images. As a vector application, Illustrator is very welcoming of raster graphics images that can be Imported into Illustrator projects without hassle, but with some limitations. These limitations are unlikely to give you a headache since Illustrator can partner well with Photoshop. Illustrator can import Photoshop PSD files directly for use within its environment. Illustrator also integrates seamlessly with many other Adobe applications such as After Effects, Premiere Pro, Indesign, etc.
Vector art created in Illustrator can also be exported in formats that most 3d applications can understand. That makes creating elements in Illustrator part of the workflow of many 3d Artists. A 3D artist can simply create a 2d logo or art elements in Illustrator and then take it into their preferred 3D graphics application, where it is extruded into a 3D object for 3d visualization or motion graphics.
Illustrator also supports the use of drawing tablets such as Wacom, which makes it easy for people to imitate the traditional way of drawing things with a pen on paper, using an electronic pen and a drawing surface. Objects drawn using the partnership of the drawing pad and pen, are represented as vector objects in Illustrator. This simply makes drawing very easy and a fun experience for artists who love the traditional way of drawing and coloring.
In terms of documentation, illustrator enjoys a lot, because there are lots of free and paid materials on the internet that can educate you on how to use Illustrator. Illustrator has a huge following among graphic artists across various art industries. There are lots of tutorials on the internet that can help you learn Illustrator and arrive at the intermediate level in little time. The learning curve for Illustrator is averagely steep for anyone who wants to earn money with his/her illustrator skills, but you can get up and running with Illustrator within a month of watching tutorials and practicing all you learned diligently. The best way to learn arts is doing it, so you have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
Whether you want to become a freelance graphics artist, work with a big art company, or just want to create art for fun, Illustrator is a good application for you to start with, to express your ideas.
Click here to see the next part of this blog series.