The meetup was fantastic! I met the founder of Coder Vox and the Co-Founders and discussed coding with them. One of the questions I asked was what skills they may recommend for an aspiring programmer that would like to have the capability to work remotely, and they stated that GIT was essential, because coding work involves working as a team, and GIT is used to do so. Treehouse has a class on GIT, so now I'm really looking forward to that class!
So, back to Adobe Illustrator. I learned about bleed, which is the area outside of the artboard, used for print jobs which need to be cut, and so the client wants the color to extend out. Under the advanced section, when creating a file, in regards to the color mode, CMYK is used for print jobs, while RGB is used for non-print jobs. I learned how to set rulers on the side of my illustrator screen, how to adjust the units of measurement for these rulers, and how to make guidelines by clicking on the rulers and dragging down or sideways. The tab key will completely hide the toolbar and the UI. The canvas is the area outside the artboard. The artboard is the area our designs appear in.
I went over shapes. The M key is the shortcut for the rectangle shape. The fill is the area inside a shape, while the stroke is the area outside the points (the border of the fill). Holding down shift while using the rectangle/ellipse tool allows for the creation of a square. H and V allow you to toggle between the hand tool and the direct selection tool. When using the polygon tool, selecting the up or down key will add or subtract points from the polygon. When using the star tool, selecting the up and down arrows will add or subtract points from the star. If you want to modify a shape you have created, you can select it, then go to Window, Transform, and the window that pops up will allow you to make modifications.
The free transform tool allows us to modify shapes that do not have a hidden bounding box. Object, Clipping Mask, Make, creates a clipping mask, which is an object whose shape masks over other artwork so that the areas that lie within the shape are visible. Ctrl 7 will create a clipping mask (we will see the area of the top shape only, while viewing the back object). The compound path is the opposite, it contains two or more paths that are paints, so that holes appear where paths overlie (it "knocks out" the path). Ctrl H will do this.
Holding down the alt key when selecting a shape will allow you to place a copy of the shape elsewhere. Right clicking on a shape, selecting arrange, and then any of the options there will allow us to move the shape forward and backward, relative to other shapes/layers. The direct selection tool (white arrow), as opposed to the selection tool (black arrow), allows you to select objects within a group.
As a side note, "Ctrl shift I" gets rid of the perspective grid. When modifying a shape with the direct select tool, if more than one bezier curve is moving, and you only want one to move, hold down alt and only the one you select will move. Object, Path, Outline Stroke allows the stroke to be set so that it scales proportionately whenever the artwork is re-sized. I drew a moon icon in illustrator today to learn about stroke, fill, layers, shapes, and groups. Ctrl A selects everything.
Window, Align opens up a panel that allows you to align your artwork against the artboard, with many alignment options to choose from. Next I went over the Pathfinder. The first shape mode (unite) in pathfinder joins two shapes, with the color of the last shape being given to the entire new shape. The second shape mode is the subtract mode, which subtracts the newest (topmost) shape. The third is the intersect, which removes everything except for the intersection. The fourth is the exclude shape mode which deletes where shapes intersect.
The shape builder tool does the same thing as the first shape more in pathfinder. Shift N activates the shape builder tool. Trim does not merge objects of the same color, but merge merges any adjoining or overlapping objects filled with the same color. Crop deletes all the artwork that falls outside of the topmost object.
This stack exchange question has a wonderful example in the answers of the results of the various pathfinder and shape mode options:
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/28128/in-pathfinder-window-what-is-the-difference-between-a-shape-mode-and-a-pathfind
SUMMARY OF CODING SKILLS
Total Treehouse Points: 3,327
Treehouse Points by Subject Matter: HTML 663, CSS 1,599, Design 1,035, and Miscellaneous
Treehouse Ranking (%): "You have more total points than 84% of all students."
Badge(s) Earned Today:
Creating an Icon
Courses Completed:
How to Make a Website
HTML
CSS Foundations
CSS Layout Techniques
Aesthetic Foundations
Design Foundations
Photoshop Foundations
Design Foundations
Photoshop Foundations
Books Read or in Progress:"Head First HTML and CSS," by E. Robson & E. Freeman (In progress, I've read the 37 pg. preface and the first 255 pgs. of actual content, which is the HTML section of the book)
Hours Spent Coding Today: 9
Total Hours Coding: 186
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