Tutorials
Well, since so many people were coming just for the Tutorials, and to make them easier to find and to review, I decided to put this page up… I know it’s ugly right now, I’ll fix that later!
Illustrator CS4 Tutorials:
Illustrator 1- Basics
Entering Text | Point text and Area Text | Basic Font Settings | Leading | Kerning and Tracking | Extra Character Settings | Paragraph Settings | Warp Tools | Modify Warp | Outlines | Direct Selecting Tips | Tweaking Paths | Line Segments and Stroke | Arcs | Swirls | Grids | Fill and Stroke | Rectangle| Round rectangles and Circles | Ninja shapes | Arranging Objects | The Power of Pathfinders | Tweaking Tools | Eye Guy Example | Cheesy Cartoon Guy Example
Illustrator 2- Robotguy
Roughen | Expand strokes | Line ideas | Transform trick | Warps | More line tricks | Tweaking objects | Pathfinder & liquify | Basic color | Hilight |Shadow | Transparent hilights | Grid tool | Wrap-up scene
Illustrator 3- Trendy Design
3d and kuler | color tips | Advanced 3D | Make Symbol | Cool Brush Lines | Custom Brushes | Pattern Brush | Gradient background | New shapes| Black glow | Blends |
Illustrator 4- Spooky Scene
Skull | Pathfinder for custom shapes | Tweaking wings | Creepy clouds | More clouds | Gradient Mesh | Symbol Sprayer | Smoke
Illustrator 5- Intro to the Pen Tool – (download work files here!)
Intro | Using the Worksheets | Straight Lines | Wax On, Wax Off | Use Save As | Constraining Lines | Creating Shapes | How the Pen Tool Works | CMYK WARS!!! (get the file here- Right-click and “Save target As…”) | Curved Paths | Bouncing Paths | Luck and Love | The Maze | Mangaman Intro | Mangaman Face and layers
Illustrator 6- Vector Self Portrait
intro | create and setup document | trace your head | neck_and_layers | ears | shadow_trick | mouth | teeth |layer tips | eyes | eyelashes (girly eyelashes) | nose | short hair/goatee | medium_hair_with_strands | new hair trick |eyebrows | shirt wrinkles | face shadows and wrapup |
Dreamweaver Tutorials
Dreamweaver1- Basic Portfolio Site
Create Your First Page | Define your site | Format with Headings | page properties |maintain consistancy | finish pages | creating links | format links |css intro | external css
Dreamweaver 2- Adding Images
fireworks intro | fill options | stroke options | exporting graphics | save original | place images in page | save all
DREAMWEAVER ACA VIDEOS
The new tutorials for Dreamweaver prepare students for certification in the Adobe Certified Associate Exams. They are available by subscription only, but soon I’ll place a couple teasers up here for you guys to sample. The delivery and style has had excellent feedback and passing rates for the ACA is higher for these videos than any other so far. Contact Me if you’d like more information on how to obtain access to the videos!!!
CLICK HERE for the videos… password available from me if you’re in my classes!!!
Hi Rob,
I would like to subscribe to the videos. I was watching and showing your videos before President’s weekend. My Web II class was able to see them. But now I’m wanting my Web 1 class to see them. Please tel me what I need to do to be able to access these tutorials again. Thanks.
Cassandra
Cassandra- Broward has a full paid subscription to the tutorials, they bought a license for the whole county! I’ll email you separately with your access info- and your county rep Brian King was instrumental in getting them to see the light of day, as well as into all your schools! Thanks Broward for your support!!!
Cassandra- I emailed you… Broward has a full district site license for all of their 32 High Schools!!
I am in Alachua County, Gainesville, Florida, and would like to have the video tutorials available for my students, how can I help make that possible?
I should have been more specific…tutorials for InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
Right now, everything I have on those apps is here- check under “tutorials” and also “students>comm tech 1″
Thanks for making these tutorials available…it has made a big difference for my students.
Hi Rob.
What tutorials on your site are good for dreamweaver. Do you have any videos we can use?
Thanks
Barbara
Hi Mr. Schwartz,
I too am a teacher in Broward County at Hallandale High School. Could you share the Dreamweaver Password and username with me?
Email me using the contact form, I’ll send the info on over!
I’m a photo teacher in Pa, and came upon your website. You seem like such a great inspiration to your students, and I’m in my 2nd year of building a digital Photo class. I’m interested in seeing/hearing about your Photoshop tutorials, I”m only seeing Illustrator on here….is there a way to see what you do? Budget time is approaching, and I”m looking for all the resources I can find, especially to help my advanced Photo students really expand their Photoshop abilities. Thanks for any help!
Thanks for the props!! There are additional resources under Students/CommTech1- They’re kind of buried in the assignments. They’re a little out dated, but general concepts still work. If you want the most complete and up to date stuff, email me via the contact form and I can tell you more about the training DVD’s- I can almost guarantee they’re the most affordable way to get proven curriculum into the hands of all your students! Also check my blogroll here on Brainbuffet for other awesome teacher sites and resources! (front page, on the bottom of the right sidebar!) Oh- and I LOVE PA!!!
Hi Rob,
I wanted to let you know something. When you speaking and demonstrating steps in your videos, whenever you are doing something in the Property Inspector, that is not showing in your videos. It was in the old ones, but now in your new ones. Also, can you help me with something. I watched the image map lesson. My question is, do we have to create a picture in Photoshop the way that you did in order for our image map to work, or can we just use any image from our images folder, use the polygon tool to create each hot spot. If so, when we put the alternate text on each hot spot that we created on the image map, how do we make the alternate text show up when we are viewing it in the browser. My students are using the polygon tool to create their hot spots, and they do link properly. The only problem is the alternate text is not showing up when they mouse-over the hot spots. Can you help me with that. Thanks.
What resolution are you viewing the tutorials at? They’re designed to be viewed on a 1280×1024 screen. That may be the problem with the bottoms getting cut off- they’re just off screen. Also, what videos (specifically) are they getting cropped on? Let me check the originals… Alt text behavior is controlled by the browser, so if it’s not showing on your hot spots, prob just browser settings! feel free to write back with any more questions!
I just want to thank you for the wonderful videos, tutorials, and information for the past two years. Our students were very successful in passing the ACA tests in Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
That’s great Carol!! Props and respect to you and the kids for just following the program and making it happen! I’m re-writing the Photoshop tutorials this summer to add a little more fun to the projects!
I saw bits and pieces of your “Dynamic Duo” presentation with Mike Skocko and my connection was poor. I loved what little that I saw. Adobe stated they would provide the link, but don’t know where to find it. Will you also post on Brainbuffet? It was today, July 27, 2011. Would love to see it in it’s entirety. Thank you and keep up such GREAt work!! -Lisa
Hey Lisa, the videos for Illustrator I mentioned are here at brainbuffet.com under tutorials. I’ll be adding more very soon!
I’m in Miami-Dade County, FL and would like some info on subscribing to your tutorials. I’ve heard only positive feedback on the videos and how students enjoy working with them. Thanks.
So have we! Broward county now has the top 2 schools in the world for certifying students in the ACA. One school certified over 500 students LAST YEAR ALONE!!! And guess what curriculum is the basis of their programs?
Brainbuffet.com tutorials! Broward has 5 schools in the top 10 worldwide. They were the first district to purchase a district-wide license. I’m so stoked and can’t wait for the CAPE funds to start rolling in! That #1 school will receive over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS according to current funding. And their school grade would be bumped 200 points for that same thing.
As for your school… I suggest calling your county coordinator and having them contact me. It will be MUCH less expensive per school with a county license, and it will pay for itself with just half of your schools having one student pass the ACA in a CAPE academy!
I found your site after hearing you present at the Adobe Education Exchange Live Event back in July. I love the Illustrator videos on your site! This is my first year teaching a graphics class and I’m finding your strategy of waiting to teach the pen tool very useful. The students really can do so much in Illustrator without even touching the pen tool. It’s definitely a great alternative to the way I learned Illustrator.
My students and I have really enjoyed working through your tutorials in class.
Thanks again!
Thanks Rosemary!! I’m trying hard to make it so that in every new application, there’s some success before we have to hit the wall. Get a little love for vectors under your belt before you have to tangle with the Pen. To think in terms of Game theory again, It’s the simple little tasks and quests that get you hooked before you have to fight a “boss” character.
Thanks for the props! Say hey to your students for me!
Your Video Tutorials are very useful. The Dreamweaver CS4 Tutorials are very informative and they help clarify material vs reading
textbook. Using them with high school students in Miami Dade County.
Hope you continue to post more videos as the school year progresses.
Thanks,
Berg
Hey Bergman! Glad they’re helpful! Thought M/D county was getting a district license, but they didn’t have it in the budget as we thought. School licenses are available for the Dreamweaver and Photoshop tutorials that prepare for the ACA exams! Contact me if you’re interested!
I too am a Miami Dade teacher hearing a lot of good things about your Dreamweaver and Photoshop tutorials that prepare you for the ACA. I am interested in getting a school license, perhaps we could purchase it with our TV club monies.
Hey Louis- Great news! Tom Cummings at the District office made a district wide purchase for Miami Dade! You can contact him for a link to the ACA tutorials, along with the username and password for access! Thanks Tom, and Thanks Miami-Dade!
Hi Rob,
I’m the SLC (Small Learning Communities) coordinator at Miami Jackson Sr. High. I’m sold on your tutorials and would like to order licenses for our school. Please let me know how we could go about getting this done. Thank you.
Hey Michael! Thanks for the props! Just use the contact form or email me! I was hoping Dade would get a district license like Broward, but didn’t happen yet! I can send you a quote for your school to get a site license!
The videos for the vector self portrait are really cool! i’m doing one of me at school and it honestly looks nuthing like me but i’m watching the videos over and over at home, so i think all do alot better at school now. Thanks!
Hi Rob,
I have used your material in the past in my Web Design class when we cover PHOTOSHOP and would like to continue doing it. I understand I need a school license for that. Could you send me a quote for the product?
Email is fine.
Ted
Thanks so much for your great tutorials. Who said you can’t teach an old Graphic Artist new tricks. I lean far too heavily on Photoshop and the young guys at work keep forcing this old bird to keep learning. God bless their little pea pickens
Your tutorials are making it so easy to brush up.
You’re stellar and easy to listen to (funny) too.
Dona
Thank you so much Schwartz for your tutorials. Am not a teacher, am a student and I the way that I found your site is I was searching for a self portrait tutorials and not much people helped me, but I found your site in Google search. And the tutorials are perfect. So I just want to thank you about everything that you do. And by the way am a 15 years old student from Iraq. I go to Westerville North High School in Columbus, Ohio. unfortunately my school doesn’t teach any of adobe products / graphic design and I just love graphic design. I worked and still working on Photoshop and here is my latest work in Photoshop .
http://b2rhom.deviantart.com/gallery/25979793#/d4k7odf
again thank you so much for your Illustrator tutorials, it helped me a lot !
Ibrahim Basree
You’re welcome!!! Keep up the design love and I’m glad you found the Tutorials! Send me a self=portrait when you get done!
Thank you and am sure I will. My self=portrait isn’t perfect because am kind of new to Illustrator and as people say you have to keep practicing to get it 100%. Another thing is I didn’t get the shadows (last tutorial.)
here is the original : http://i41.tinypic.com/et9ush.png
and I made two versions for the vector self portrait
1) http://i41.tinypic.com/et9ush.png
2) http://i42.tinypic.com/zk0kkj.png
About the hair, a friend told try Live tracing. What do you think about live tracing ? which one is better ?
[...] http://brainbuffet.com/cs-tutorials/#aisp [...]
Rob,
Might you send me a quote for a school license? I sent you an email but it is probably buried under all of your winter break emails. Thanks!
Dale
On it’s way! Specials this month for FETC!!
I would like information about your tutorials. I may have gone about this in the wrong manner when I tried before.
I am so impressed with the self-portraits. I want to do that with my classes.
Great tutorials. I have been wanting to do this but have serious restrictions by the district as to software, website access and storage.
I really want my students to create the tutorials. I will keep trying to get around roadblocks.
Hey Rebecca!!! Not sure what information you’re asking for- Do you want access to the paid tutorials for Dreamweaver and Photoshop for passing the ACA exams or information on how I create them?
acatestprep.com has information on signing up for the paid tutorials, and http://brainbuffet.com/about/brainbuffet/creating-brainbuffet/ will explain how to create your own!!
Just wanted to say thank you for sharing such awesome tutorials. Your funny too which makes it even more fun to learn.
Thank you
Dona Mondragon
Thanks! Planning on adding a lot more after I get the new secret mega-awesome feature working! Lots going on behind the scenes here… Stay Tuned!
Hi Rob. I like your Dreamweaver & Photoshop series. I’m using them with my web 2 & digital 2 classes in mdcps. I noticed that the Dreamweaver videos don’t automatically move on to the next video like Photoshop does.
Also…do you have a series on Flash ACA. I’m doing that with my web 3.
Thanks…Tim.
Thanks! Yeah- Dreamweaver doesn’t run in the “theater” mode like Photoshop. I’m trying to figure out which is better- you have any input? Seems to me with DW, since they have to go back and launch the next video, they’re more likely to actually do the hands on than if it played straight through. They don’t watch DW like a movie, which is how it happens with PS sometimes.
And for Flash- no, sorry!!! I’m not a flash guy and nobody has ever asked for Flash ACA workshops from me, so I didn’t think there was so much draw. Premiere will be next from me! Along with the updates for CS6 This summer. (hopefully)
Not having the video play in theater mode is probably a better option.
You might want to consider creating an ACA prep series for Flash. The FLDOE have been making a lot of changes to its CTE programs and associating all of them w/industry certifications. The new web program (“Web Development”) will be based on the CIW certs, not Adobe. Web teachers like myself and being pushed to switch to a program called Multimedia, which includes Photoshop for the first year, Dreamweaver for the second and Flash for the third. Also, I believe Flash has been assigned to the Video Gaming program as well as others. Our district has been purchasing the Certiport license for Photo-Dream-Flash. Anyway, you might drum up more business if you offered it. I plan to try making my own video tutorial for Flash. The Flash ACA is a bear. I passed it last summer, but found it so much harder than Photo or Dream.
Hi Rob,
My name is Chris Coleman I teach graphic design at CHS in lake city fl. I have heard great things about your tutorials and was wondering how I could gain access to view them?
Hey Chris!!! Info on the way! I’m working REALLY hard to make it easier to get this info, but for now I’ll have to mail you by hand!
Your videos are great! They always make me get an A! Thanks!
I am a fan of your tutorials and wondered if you would be willing to tell me what software program you use to create your tutorials. I am the web developer at the Clark College Bookstore in Vancouver Washington and am hoping to create some tutorials to make it easier for students to find their way around ordering books. Wasn’t sure if you would be willing to share but was hopeful. Your tutorials are so easy to follow and that is what we need as folks to like to read instructions. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
Best to you and thanks for what you do.
Dona Mondragon
Web Services
Clark College
Vancouver, WA