Illustrator 8 F/X and Design with Cdrom, 1st edition
Authors: Sherry London, T. Michael Clark
Venue:  (1999)

From the Book: Introduction Introduction Im so glad that youre reading this page. Whether youve just purchased this volume or youre thinking about it, I want to tell you why Michael and I have written this book and what you can expect from it. There are many Illustrator books on the market, and each one does something slightly differentor does it in a different way. Almost all are good books, how do you begin to select which one or ones to buy? Illustrator books seem to fall into several categories. There are the "manual replacements." These books are usually of mid-length and repeat the commands in the manual, restating them in case you couldnt understand Adobes directions. These books are for total beginners or for infrequent users of Illustrator who need to be reminded of how to do a specific thing. Then there are exhaustive reference volumes such as Ted Alspachs Illustrator 8 Bible and Deke McClellands Real World Illustrator. These wonderful books belong on everyones book shelf. You can learn something new from either of these books each time you look at them. Finally, there are books that showcase the design tricks of a variety of artists. These books are like wonderful eye candy, and just looking at them can inspire you. They are sometimes a bit short on guidance, but they are fantastic sources of creative ideas. About This Book So what approach does this book take? It takes a bit of them all and a lot of none-of-the-above. In your hands, you hold a book written by two opinionated artists. We picked a wide (but by no means exhaustive) range of techniques and gave you a tutorial to follow. Although this book is really not for the rank beginnerwe assume that you already know the basics of Illustratorwe go to extreme lengths to ensure that you can follow the instructions for the projects. Every step is clearly stated, so even if youre not an expert when you start this book, youll be much closer to that status when you finish it. If you work your way through it at the computer (it isnt a novelyou really need a computer sitting in front of you as you read), youll find that you learn things about Illustrator that you never knew. Weve tried to give you a range of start-to-finish projects that go from basic idea to completed artwork. Weve tried very hard to find a balance in the amount of work needed to complete each project. Sometimes you start from a blank document; at other times, we give you the critical pieces. To make it easier to work through each chapter, weve included a CD-ROM with the book. For each Illustration (really an exercise or a project, but this is a book on Illustrator, so I came up with this catchy title for these elements), youll find two figure areas on the CD-ROM. One area contains all the images that you need to start and build the project. The other folder contains the finished projects so that you can learn by looking at the completed work and see what objects were defined and how. Illustrator is much better than Photoshop in this regard. Many things that you do in Illustrator leave "tracks" so that its easier to reconstruct the way that the project was worked. In Illustrator, for example, if I applied a gradient to an object on this books CD-ROM, you will see by clicking on the object exactly what gradient was applied (and if you like it, you can reuse it in your own images). In Photoshop, there is no reasonable way to figure out the colors in a gradient. The raster format of Photoshop simply applies and moves on. You also get the benefit of multiple authors in this book. Though I wrote 2/3 of the book, Michaels unique perspective adds value and is a good complement. Its always good to get multiple opinions, and in this book, you do. As you read each chapter, our bylines tell you which one of us is speaking. Because Michael and I are quite different, our approach to the program is different as well. You can never have too many teachers. Teacher. Thats what Ive been for many years, and thats what I consider myself to be as I write this book. Teacher. Guide. Friend. The best part of this is seeing the "student" surpass me. Many of you willand that makes this book worth writing (for me) and worth reading (for you). Enjoy! I had a great time writing this book, and I hope that you enjoy it. Keep in touch. My email address is slondon@earthlink.net. Michaels is tmc@grafx-design.com. Sherry London About Third-Party Filter Sets Although this book is in the f/x and design series, weve chosen not to provide extensive coverage of most of the available third-party filter sets. Most third-party filters are Macintosh-only, and we really dont want to receive email flames from the Windows-only readers who may misunderstand our appearing to give preferential treatment to the Mac. The other (major) consideration is that Adobe changed the plug-in interface with Illustrator 8 so that many of the currently available third-party plug-ins are no longer 100-percent compatible (and few of them are even being sold). Here is the status of Illustrator 6 and 7 filter sets that are considered incompatible with Illustrator 8. These sets are Macintosh-only. Table I Illustrator filter set status. Company Filter Set Name Retail Status Alien Skin Stylist Not Being Sold BeInfinite InfinteF/X Not Being Sold Cytopia Software CSI Not Being Sold Extensis Vector Tools 2.0 Available Letraset Envelopes Not Being Sold MetaCreations KPT Vector Effects Not Being Sold This leaves you with little choice. However, you can use some of these filters, after a fashion. The Extensis Vector Tools still work if you remove everything to do with Vector Bars and Vector Tips. VectorTools also tries to install a menubar at the top of the screen to allow you to access the filters. This bar doesnt install properly, but seems to "find" itself after you access the menus a bit. It eventually pushes the Help menu over one spot to the right. The color and the shapes filters that remain all seem to work properly, and it is lovely to be able to randomize colors and adjust them. The KPT Vector Effects filters all seem to work without problems, but this set was withdrawn from the marketplace. So, if you have them, try them on your system. I dont think that some of the previews work as well as they previously did, but the effects seem fully usable. The CSI filters are also no longer for sale. They work if you remove anything that says Start-up or Plug-in from the set. The CSI filters gave you good control over 3D manipulations of vector objects (although you can do the same thing with the KPT Vector Effects filters). The Letraset and BeInfinite filters have not been available for a number of years (although you can try them if you already own them). Alien Skin Stylist will not work at all.