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Tolerance controls selection
Select by
Fill color
Stroke color
Stroke weight
Opacity
Blending mode
The menu for the panel lets you reset everything
Locked layers aren’t used in the selection process
Magic Want came from Photoshop
Lasso Tool Q
Draw around multiple objects to select them all
Shift-Click is often easier
Easily select an object by drawing a circle in/through it
Will cover
Selection Tool
Group Selection Tool
Magic Wand Tool
Lasso Tool
Select multiple objects with the Selection Tool
Object → Group
Make them into a group
Can un-group them
Group Selection Tool
Get into a group and select a piece of the group without un-grouping it
Key cap configure perhaps is made of groups?
How to deal with each logical keycap layer having it’s own font?
Lets you move individual objects keeping them in their group
A group of groups of objects is a nest
Select one group, shift-click another group, now you can group those two groups
This seems to be one way to keep everything positioned correctly
Each time you click a nest it cycles through selecting all of the groups
Group logically related features as their own groups so that you can dig deeper and deeper as you would expect
Double-clicking objects in a nest access isolation groups which cycles through the nested groups
Either way when you are in a particular group, the edit menu operates on the objects in that group. So Edit → Select All selects everything in that group. Obvious but news to me.
Just noticed in the top area that it also shows the groups including the one that you are in right now
How long do groups live?
A whole chapter on selection, got my attention!
Andy says that it is one of most important skills
Vector programs are called object-oriented
This lesson is all about the Selection Tool (V)
You can hide the bounding box of an object
How do you reshape the object?
Use the tools from the toolbar
Preferences → Selection & Anchor Display
Tolerance
How close you are to an anchor point before AI informs you that you are there
Nice to set it to one so that you are operating precisely
Shift-Click to select multiple objects
Command-Drag on an object to move all of them
Selection is configurable!
How are groups defined?
Select on attributes
Select all objects with one pixel stroke!
Work on an individual piece in a group
Smart guides
“Liquid Creativity”
Easily create your own custom panel
When you set the origin point you are setting that position on the ruler to 0,0
When you snap the origin to an object you can use the ruler to position a guide exactly N units away from that object
Double click the genesis point to reset it to the default position
You are left with a guide so you know where to place the new object
When you hold shift to work with a guide it always snaps to the whole location
Command-rag from origin brings two guides
Guides are indispensable
You can automatically resize an artboard by centering it and shrinking it on an object
You can also manually do it by
Selecting the object on which to center
Selecting the dropdown of the align tool to choose Align To Artboard
Manually selecting center vertical and horizontal
Shift-Option and resize on the corner of the artboard keeps the object centered
This will take some examples
Author is an illustrator by trade
Did everything by hand before AI
Now does it all in AI
For Techne or Tekne or Texni
Use for Keycap layout
Use for shield lettering
Use for keyboard printing
Use for website
Use for business cards
Use for logo
Artboards are artboards, not pages, InDesign is for that
Teacher
Great sound
Uses examples and repetition
Combination of casual conversation light-heartedness and serious philosophy about workflow and cognitive space
Goal: Only work on the butterfly
Accidentally select something else, move the wrong thing, undo it
Instead lock the background to avoid the accident
Approaches
Background is in a group, so select it, and lock it
You can manipulate every other object
Unlock when done
Easier way
Everything is in one layer right now, wrong approach, should use separate layers
In this example you open the layer and lock the individual groups
Can also hide them
Show and hide layers and groups
Even though you have everything in one layer, you can still do what you want in your workflow
