Need help with Adobe Illustrator CS3 please!

[ibex333]

Well I got registered late for the spring semester in college, and now I'm 3 weeks behind because of this. Unfortunately, I got a professor which basically told all new students that she really doesn't care how we are going to understand the material or catch up to the rest of the class. (and that's putting it lightly)

She gave us an assignment where we have to create symmetrical designs using basic shapes like circle, ellipse, star, square and triangle. She wants us to use the copy and reflect tools a lot, and the Alt+Shift+Tilde+Ctrl command. She also mentioned that the design has to be colorful, and precise, meaning everything has to be proportional and of equal size. The assignment is due in only two days, but I know absolutely nothing about Illustrator. I just stare at the blank document and I don't know what to do.

I tried finding some tutorials, but I don't see any that deal with what I need to do specifically. I have no time to start from the beginning and learn the basics. I need to do the assignment NOW, and FAST. After I am done, I will hopefully have enough time until the next class during which I can learn the basics and catch up to the class.

Can someone please help me and point me to a good tutorial that deals with the exact topic of symmetrical designs? Maybe someone can even do the assignment for me and mail me the file? (Don't worry, I'm not a cheater, and I will not hand this to my professor. I only want to have some sort of an example, or a template that I can study and understand what I am doing)

Moved to Software for Windows - Markbnj, Programming mod

 

[rivan]

From what I'm hearing, this is just a warmup for you to learn the tools; something you shouldn't be skipping.

If that's the case, here:

? Rectangle tool: Second column, 4th button down. Select tool, then click and drag on the pasteboard to make a rectangle, holding shift while dragging constrains shape to a square. Alternatively, select tool and click once on pasteboard to type in exact sizes.

? Ellipse: Click and hold on the rectangle tool to get a popout menu (same anywhere you see the little triangle on the bottom right on the buttons in that palette). Select tool, then click and drag on the pasteboard to make an ellipse, holding shift while dragging constrains shape to a circle. Alternatively, select tool and click once on pasteboard to type in exact sizes.

? Triangle: use polygon tool, also in the same popout menu. Click once on pasteboard to enter # of sides and size. Click and drag to make additional shapes with the same # of sides.

? Star tool: same popout. Same operation.

With the rectangle & ellipse tools, holding alt (option on OSX) will make the first click the center point of the object, instead of a bounding corner.

With any of those tools, holding ~ (tilde) will draw the shape repeatedly at intervals based on mouse movement. Experiment to get a feel for it.

? Reflect tool: first column, 6th tool down. Select a piece of art using the pointer tools (use the dark one for now; it selects full paths and is more intuitive for beginners) and double click this tool in the palette. Turn on "Preview" and experiment with numbers.


Illustrator is just the tool. It's the ruler, paper, pencils. You have to supply the rest. If you need design guidance, check with your instructor or a classmate.