In this article, we will go over briefly how to be use ONTHEBIAS vector design assets. Specifically, our flat templates. This may serve as a quick start guide to help you get designing as soon as possible with our design assets.
For this demonstration, we will be using the standard t-shirt template which you can download FREE by joining our email newsletter.
Note: this a fairly brief quick start guide. For more in depth help with using our design assets, enroll in one of our FREE twice weekly Adobe Illustrator workshops / classes. Video tutorials are also available and posted often on our YouTube.
Please also not, this quick tutorial will only cover Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is the fashion industry standard for creating and manipulating flats as it is one of the best equipped programs for doing so. That being said, our assets have been used successfully in many different design programs.
When you download your vector t-shirt template - or any template from OTB - it will be in a zip file format. You can double click on the file or unzip it. However you do it, we want to access the Adobe Illustrator file. Find the Adobe Illustrator file - it will be labeled - and double click on it. For this demonstration, we will create the t-shirt design shown at the beginning.
The first thing we will want to do is change the color of the garment. If you have an image or swatch of the color you want, you can go ahead and paste that into the document. Once you have copied - with right-clicking -your color from Google Images or wherever, you may right click and find "Paste" at the top of the menu.
Pro tip: learning shortcuts with Adobe Illustrator will quicken your design process tremendously.
The earlier you start learning shortcuts, the better.
Our shortcuts here are:
Ctrl+C = copy
Ctrl+V = paste
Our swatch is now in the document. Now, it is time to select the white garment color so we may change it. To do this, we will need to select with the "Direct Selection Tool" "A" on your keyboard. Your mouse will become will when you select this tool. With the direct selection tool, select a white portion of the garment.
The garment portion is now selected. Notice the line around it? That means it is our active selection. With this still selected, we will go to "Select" > "Same" > "Fill color"
This will select in the document all the same instances of the color which is selected - white, in our case.
Without deselecting - clicking off - anything, we will click "i" on our keyboard to bring up our eyedropper tool. With the white STILL selected, click on your color swatch.
And when we click on our swatch...
Voila, we have just changed the color. Now, let's add our logo to the design. Remember how to copy and paste an element into Adobe Illustrator? We will be doing that again.
In this example, we are copying a design element from another Illustrator file. We are pressing "V" on our keyboard and then selecting the desired element. We then click "Ctrl" and "C" at the same time to copy it.
Back in our shirt file, we will click "Ctrl" and "V" at the same time to paste our element. Here we will manipulate it until it has a placement which we find satisfactory. To change the size of an element, use shortcut "V" which will bring up the "Selection" tool. When you select the element, you will see lines with dots around the outside. These dots are how you will be able to manipulate the size. Drag these points to change the size. You can rotate using the corners of the box.
Pro tip: hold shift while changing the size to maintain the proportions.
This is something that will take a little bit of playing around to get used to, but it is very intuitive.
In our case, we wish to create a nice chest logo. We have a size and angle that looks good, so we will move on. In our example, will create a more cropped fit for the shirt. Before we crop, we want to make sure no elements are in the way so the shape is easier to manipulate. We will select our crease elements - holding "Shift" during the whole time so it selects them all. Then - without clicking off - we will hold "Shift" again to drag it down in a straight line, out of the way of our garment.
With the direct selection tool "A", we will Marquee select - by drawing a box with our mouse - the bottom portions of our shirt.
This will select the portion we need to move up. You may either click the up arrow many times OR you can click - without deselecting anything and still using the direct selection tool - click on a point on the bottom portion of the shirt - while holding "Shift" and move it upwards.
We will finally group those so they are much easier to move.
pro tip: group elements so they are easier to move. If we don't group elements, and we select a piece of something because we want to move the whole thing, we will only be able to move the piece we selected.
What happens if we don't group...
You may now reselect the creases that are below and move them back up while holding "Shift" so they move up in a straight line.
After you select all elements of the shirt, group them.
Congratulations, you have made a fashion design with Adobe Illustrator. It may seem very intimidating, but with time, you will become more comfortable with the program.
Again, we offer a FREE twice weekly Adobe Illustrator class / workshop so if you have any specific questions, write us before and we may just answer your question in the next class.
For video tutorials, see our YouTube.
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