Design Decisions: Design: Projects: Cityscape

Let's build a city! And in the process, get more solidly grounded in our vector drawing skills with Adobe Illustrator.

• How do I use Gradients and Patterns?

• How do I manage Objects and Layers?

What am I making?

• A visualization of a city with a sky, foreground water or street or park, buildings, vehicles, and other elements -- at least 10 elements!

  • Example Cityscape page like you would make for this assignment -- only has 4 of 10 elements so far!

• Google Image search: video game cityscape yielded:

  • A purple-ish example from culture trip

  • "City Skyline Game" at iStock by Getty images

  • "8-bit Synthwave" at Wallpapers

  • Incredible Urban Skyline Illustratrions on Pinterest

How do I make it?

• Illustrator Tutorial videos - there are a few like these out there!

  • Urban Flat Design City Landscape

  • Metropolitan City Skyline | Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop | Graphic Design

Steps

1. Sketch some cityscape ideas on paper

2. New Illustrator document: Web, Web-Large 1920 x 1080px, or similar document size & shape

   • Can use a photograph as a template, turn down the opacity and use Object menu: Lock menu: Selection

3. Create a sky by making a Rectangle and filling it with a Gradient or Pattern or Solid Color

4. Create a foreground under the sky by making another rectangle and filling it

5. File menu: Save into your Period folder, and do this frequently!

6. Can make a New Layer from time to time to separate objects, and hiding the layer will let you focus on other things

7. Add buildings, vehicles, clouds, bridges, piers, and other features

   • Draw shapes with the Shape tools, Pen tools, Paintbrush or Blob Brush

   • Use the Black arrow to resize, rotate, or move objects

   • Use the White arrow to reshape objects by moving points or edge

   • Use the Object menu: Arrange menu to raise or lower objects so they fit into the scene at the right level or depth

     • can also right-click or control-click on the object to do this

   • Use the Object menu: Group command to combine selected objects into one object

   • Use the Object menu: Lock menu: Selection to fix something in place and avoid messing it up or selecting it

   • Use the Edit menu: commands such as Copy and Paste to duplicate objects, which you can then modify for variety

8. Show classmate or teacher for feedback - reflect on Grading standards below

9. File menu: Save in your Period folder

10. File menu: Export menu: Export As... and use the PNG format, High resolution

11. On Google Sites, under Pages, create a new page called Cityscape.

12. Add your downloaded Cityscape image.

13. Write about a skill you learned with Adobe Illustrator

14. When done, push the Publish button, review the settings, and publish.

15. Then click the chain-link button, Copy the link for your page, and turn in the link.

Grading

• 10 elements in addition to sky and ground - buildings, vehicles, bridges, piers, clouds, etc.

• Elements have interesting details

• Fill the composition so it looks whole, populated

• Show Unity or Variety

Career Connections

• Having fluency in Adobe Illustrator or similar vector drawing tools will help you draw things more quickly and effectively in career or artist applications

Resources

• Adobe Illustrator tool reference at Eye Savvy Design