Adobe Illustrator CS5: Learn by Video

I had a pretty basic familiarity with Illustrator going into this, so I wasn't sure it would be all that helpful - I just wanted a quick refresher and was prepared to be a bit bored. It turns out, this is not at all boring - it's an excellent overview, full of great advice and cool tricks for getting started and working with and making the most of the power of Illustrator. Advanced Illustrators may not need it, but it is very thorough and I expect that almost anyone would pick up valuable insights after working through these many tutorials. Certainly casual and intermediate users, and especially those in need of a refresher, are likely to learn a lot from this guide. Not only is it easy to follow and covers a wide range of helpful tips and tricks - but the design examples they lead you through are excellent models of achieving elegant designs employing simple principles. One of my favorite aspects of the various lessons was just seeing what kinds of design examples they came up... Read more

"Adobe Illustrator CS5: Learn by Video" is very well organized, instructions are clear, examples are excellent, and it demonstrates creative uses of the unique capabilities of Illustrator. I gained more knowledge about using Illustrator in a few viewings of various segments of this video than I had in 3 years of struggling with the Classroom in a Book. The interactive tool panel segment is just excellent. It also includes lesson files so that the viewer can work right along with the presenters! The presenters (Chad Chellus and Russell Viers) are pleasant to listen to, and use language and descriptions that are easy to understand for any level of user. I am very pleased with the product and very happy that I purchased it.

This software is a great overview of the tools in illustrator. When I was done I felt like I really knew what I was doing, so I opened up illustrator to start trying out what I learned, and I realized that while I knew how to use most of the tools, I didn't know how to use them together to actually make something. The tools break things up into tiny snippets and outside of a few super simple designs they do not really show you how to "put it all together". With that said, I have been muddling through it and slowly figuring out how to use the stuff together, and if you already know the basics and want to learn in-depth how to use each tool, this is a great way to learn. For what this covers, it does so in a very easy to understand way, I just wish there was a volume 2 that showed real world projects from beginning to end. I have not seen anything so far that does this outside of a few tutorials on the web so I will say that this isn't too much of a downside. I do want to be clear... Read more