Title: Apply Effects Assignments Outline
Course: WILSON MC - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER GRAPHICS HYBRID > Section: Week 6 - Refine Strokes and Apply Effects

- INTRODUCTION TO APPLY EFFECTS

We tend to think of effects as “special effects,” as in CGI (computer generated imagery in movies). But a more specific and helpful way to think of effects in Illustrator is as appearance elements that are applied to anchors and paths. In other words, when you apply an effect, whether it’s a blend (merging two or more objects), transparency, or more “wild and crazy” effects, you do not alter the underlying path.

Often effects are, indeed, used to create rather spectacular changes in the appearance of a path, like warps, pucker-and-bloat, and other fun options available from the Effect menu. Other effects, like drop shadows, might not be thought of as special effects, but also have the property of being applied to, but not changing, underlying paths.

Effects are defined, and then applied to, artwork. Both vector-based Illustrator effects and bitmap-based Photoshop effects are available in Illustrator. Effects can be previewed and adjusted before being applied. And there is always a “trial and error” element to “working” (that is, playing) with effects.

Transparency is a particularly useful and powerful effect, allowing an object to only partially obscure objects “below” it. Transparency can be combined with other effects and patterns for particularly intriguing impact.

Live Paint puts into effect (no pun intended) an alternative set of rules for what constitutes an object in Illustrator, and may sometimes provide a more intuitive way to select objects. Live Paint automatically generates objects formed by the intersection of Illustrator paths.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- DEFINE and apply effects
- MANAGE effects in the Appearance panel
- CREATE graphic styles
- EXPAND effects
- APPLY transparency
- COLOR with Live Paint

ELEMENTS OF THIS LESSON INCLUDE:

- CHAPTERS
ILLUSTRATOR CS6: VISUAL QUICKSTART GUIDE
Using the book Illustrator CS6: Visual QuickStart Guide refer to the following chapters for Apply Effects:
Chapter 14: Appearances
Chapter 15: Effects
Chapter 16: Graphic Styles
Chapter 18: Live Paint
Chapter 27: Transparency

- PRESENTATION
  - View 23-slide presentation on Apply Effects in MGLab to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and the terminology.
- VIDEOS
  - Watch the following lesson videos in MGLab. As with the slide presentation, use the video content to expose you to the techniques demonstrated. You may need to re-watch portions - or all-  of a video for complex techniques.
    - 1 The Appearance Panel
    - 2 Distort and Transform Effects
    - 3 Working with Transparency