Intro
Before I began doing Media Design in the second semester of Grade 10, I already had some knowledge of using some of the Adobe software, such as Photoshop, Premiere, and Animate, though I've never really expanded my knowledge of using them other than drawing animations and illustrations. I believe that I've learned a lot in this class during this semester, with most of them being new to me. I had a lot of fun in making my own graphic illustrations, and learning new techniques and features I didn't know of, or couldn't figure out how to master without the help of this class giving me the opportunity to learn and do media design.
Illustrator
When I did the Illustrator unit first, I learned how to use the (bézier) pen tool, something that I found was very difficult when I was experimenting with Illustrator for the first time. I then mastered the pen tool over the course of this semester with the use of modifier keys (CTRL, SHIFT, ALT), the white cursor tool (can be activated by pressing A, or by holding CTRL with the pen tool) to adjust the paths, and my good muscle-memory of the Windows QWERTY keyboard layout. My favorite tools in Illustrator are:
Shape Builder Tool — Combines separate shapes into one.
Similar Alternative: Unite option in Pathfinder window.
Width tool — Edits the width of a selected point of the path. Useful for making organic calligraphic text.
Scissor tool (activated by pressing C) — Cuts a selected point of the path. Convenient for cutting a side path of a shape.
Color Guide (window) — This is useful for choosing shadow or highlight variants for any base color.
My most favorite tool by far in Illustrator is the Clipping tool. This is extremely useful for adding shadow and highlight colors of the base shape without changing it.
Photoshop
Although I had some knowledge with Photoshop before this unit, I only used it for drawing illustrations with the brush tools. I was knowledgeable of using the magic wand, the lasso tool, and the masks. I also learned how to use the path tool after