SDSC and the UCSD College Explorations Program Presents: Making Vectors Into Art: An Introduction to Adobe Illustrator

The San Diego Supercomputer Center and UCSD Extension's College Explorations program, at the University of California, San Diego, presents an exciting new workshop for  high school students in grades 9 - 12 as part of our focus on digital art and media.

Making Vectors into Art: An Introduction to Adobe Illustrator 

Two Consecutive Saturdays, October 16 and 23, 2010

9:00am - 3:00pm

San Diego Supercomputer Center, Room 279

University of California, San Diego

Course Description 

This is a two-day introductory workshop intended to provide students with a general understanding of Adobe Illustrator and its uses. Techniques taught in this workshop are geared towards the fields of illustration, character design, animation, and graphic design.

Illustrator is a program that uses vectors to create digital art. A program like Photoshop does a similar thing with pixels, but vectors are different because they can be enlarged to any size (even the size of a billboard) without losing quality.

Vectors are incredibly helpful with design and layout, since logos and other objects will often be used repeatedly in different sizes. Vectors have also earned a reputation from their clean look, making their way into the hands of character designers and illustrators. Even animators who use Flash (a program that animates using vectors) use Illustrator to create their characters and scenes before they animate.

Students will get a first look into the world of vector art by learning the program and converting a drawing into a vector illustration.

Course Overview

Saturday, October 16, 2010

• Discover how Illustrator relates to the fields of illustration, animation, character design, toy design, graphic design, and marketing.
• Learn the program. Get a feel for how Illustrator works and how to work with it. Find out exactly what this program allows you to do.
• Learn the essential tools, including the pen tool (the backbone of Illustrator)
• Learn how to use Illustrator to turn a hand drawn sketch into vector art.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

• Take a hand drawn image into illustrator and recreate it as a vector illustration or character design.
• Finalize your image with color and line weight.
• Learn how to prepare files for web and print.
• Print final illustration or character design to bring home with you.

Prerequisites

1. Students should have at least a minimal level of art/drawing experience.
2. Students should be comfortable using a computer.
3. Students should be interested in one of the following areas of study:

• Vector illustration
• Character design for animation
• Toy design
• Graphic design and marketing  

Familiarity with Adobe Photoshop or Flash will be helpful.

Course Instructor:  Scott Flanders, Scott Flanders Art 

Course Instructor: James Nuanez, Graphic Designer and Freelance Illustrator. 

Course fee: $175.00.

Registration deadline: October 10, 2010.

Registration assistance is available upon request. 

All correspondence for this workshop will be conducted vie email. 

Participants will receive 3-quarter units (2/3 semester unit) of transferrable credit. 

CLICK HERE for online registration.  For course information and to register, please click on Course at the top of the page.