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layers in Illustrator
work quite a bit differently than the layers your used to working within
in Photoshop
let's go over how to work with layers in Illustrator what the differences are
and why you might want to use um because in Photoshop it's almost mandatory that you
use layers
in fact every time we create a new text object or you draw a new object
or even place new photos in a project they'll automatically be separated
on to their own layers
in illustrator you don't have to work with layers at all
most of your items can be all together on one layer
but you might want to use it because it makes it easier to work more efficiently
to select certain objects to lock certain layers so y9u don't
alter um so let's talk about how the layers in illustrator work
first make sure you can see the Layers panel if you can't go up to the Window menu
and choose layers
and I've just moved mine over so I can see the whole column
now in Illustrator the layers are kinda hard to see what's on those layers
so let's go to the panel menu go to panel options
choose other and I usually type in 50 pixels
and that allows me to see get a better idea of what's on these layers
so let's go ahead and renew this layer double click on the name
and I'll call this flower layer and actually I shouldn't
have to call it layer I don't know why I did that so
the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator layers
is that illustrator will put everything on one layer
unless you tell it not to unless you tell it to put something else on a different
layer
in addition in Photoshop when you're creating a layer
let's say you have an eight and a half by eleven document
that layer is exactly eight and a half by
eleven and even if your little object in the bottom
is maybe one inch by one inch it's still gonna make that whole layer cuz it's
like a transparent sheet that you put on the top of your project
illustrators different right now you can see my whole layers fill up with my flower
but let's say if I create a new layer and I just do a tiny
itty-bitty green rounded rectangle watch what happens
so tiny tiny all of a sudden it looks like that's huge but in proportion to the
flower actually on the art board
it doesn't look huge because that layer it only contains
whatever was in here so if I create another one now all of a sudden you see two
and if I create one far away now all of the sudden you see two tiny little dots and
then one down in the bottom
so if I create another one now you can see that its sort of taking up more space
so that's one way in in which layers differ so let me go ahead and delete
that layer
and it says it contains artwork are you sure yes
okay so one way that they're similar is you can
poke the idle to turn artwork on and off so you can hide and show certain parts
of certain layers
but another way that they're different is that right now
my top layer includes the entire flower however
if I hit this toggle button you can see that there are a lot of sub layers and
that's what they're called
there are a lot of sub-layers in here each my flower petals
and my centerpiece right here I don't know what that's called
am those are all there own sub later
these you top kinda don't want to get into you and miss you really sure that's
where you need to go to edits to
so normally you wanna have your layers hobbled up
now if you wanna lock you can hit the so
empty square right here in this a lock in this means that I can't come here and
move anything
but wear layers might come in handy in
is let's say I wanna make this this lower a little bit more unique
my problem is is I wanna make a copy of all these panels make them smaller and
then add a blue ring
pedals inside appear by its gonna be really hard for me because
as I go to move unlit cigar move them its gonna move the whole thing because I
selected that centerpiece as well
so how do I select solemn I could
do marquee selection here whole shift in new marquee selection here
and then another in here and copy
MP stay an okay that's random
some pedals and come in there and then all of a sudden that senator
I really should know what the man acting as but thats in there and I didn't want
it to be
so how do we do this let's go ahead and put these on their own layers in its
gonna make it a lot easier for us
so in order to put things on new layers I'm recruiting new
where in this phenomena call Center
the heck is that and what it is okay knees earn
peak pedals United not so elaborate
really messing up the situation video anyway
so how do I get the center to its own layer
mom I couldn't go out to end it cut
and then click on my layerend do edit P simply sit in the exact same place
but here's the easier way when I've selected object on the stage
you see this tiny little blue in it it'll be different than yours it's
whatever man where colors
this tiny little color boxer here indicator selected artwork
if you click and drag that box it'll take whatever was selected
and put it on this layer now the center and the flower
is on its own layer and I can lock it the cool thing about that
is now I can cite all those peeps panels and I can do command see
command VT to peace M auricular just help Alt key and then dragged in
and now I have to different people panels
these actually I wanna be blue and I want to be smaller so let's go ahead
move those
to their own layer so these on the Monaco blue petals
and again on the ground that little selector
and moving up and now you can see the pink petals down here on their own mayor
second locked those and i won edit these blue petals
so me go ahead and change the color and I want to change the size I'm gonna hold
the shift key
to maintain proportions and where order just like it does in Photoshop matters
so because my blue panels on a need-to-know Center
they look underneath here and the panels are at the very bottom so that's why
there underneath everything
so again why this is cool is key I can walk each one in these
and let's see unlock the center I don't like the black stroke so
I'm gonna do I'm gonna do different color stroke but one that sorta similar
to it outside color
so that one is yellow with on orange kinda stroke
and then let's say I wanna lock that and unlock
the blue petals even if I mark you select it's not gonna slept anything
that's locked
so now I can change this your color maybe I wanna make
to and then I can go
lock that an unlock the PM panel where
and this one again I can change let's change it to
time purple make a little bit bigger
and there's my farm so it's a lie easier to work
when using these layers just remember that when you select something
like this center in order to move it
you gotta grab the selected artwork icon and drag you down to layer that you want
so last but not least I'm you can make a release a clipping mask organist
I'm do that in a later tutorial video
you can create new some players if you want to and you can create new layers
or delete leaders themselves