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Adobe Illustrator How To Guide
Creating a film poster
ü Open up Adobe Illustrator and click File > New.
ü Ensure that you have given your document a title in
the Name box. The Profile should be set to Custom
and the Size should be A4. Once you have checked
these are set correctly, click OK.
ü Your document should open up like so…
ü In Illustrator (same as in Photoshop), you must create
Layers to work from. Each time you add a new
object/image/text etc., a new layer should be created.
Your layers can be monitored in the Layers Panel.
We create layers so that if you need to edit anything
at a later date, you can do so without having to start
the poster again.
ü As you can see in my Layers Panel, the Layer 2 is my background colour of
orange.
ü To create a new layer, click the small New Layer icon at the bottom of the
panel. Do this EVERY time you add something new to your poster.
In this guide, I will
be replicating the
Clockwork
Orange image.
1. Setting up your Film Poster Document in
Illustrator
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Whether you are importing a new image or simply just changing the
background colour, here are the steps to do so:
ü To import a new background image, simply
click File > Place and then select the image
from your folder. Once this has been
imported you can position it accordingly on to
your document.
ü To change the background colour, create a
New Layer and then select the Rectangle
Tool.
ü Select the background colour from the colour
picker at the bottom of the toolbar.
ü Now draw out the rectangle to cover the
background. This will leave you with your
colour choice.
ü Once you have drawn out the background, click back on to the Arrow
Tool at the tope of the toolbar otherwise you will continue to draw
rectangles!
2. Changing your background
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ü After selecting a New Layer, I will now start to draw my objects; I
want to create the hat of the character from the poster so I will do
this by combining shapes.
ü First, I will select the Ellipse Tool (hold down the shape button to
select your shape choice) and will change this to black using the
Colour Pallette.
ü As you can see below, I have used the Ellipse tool and the Rounded
Rectangle Tool on top of one another to replicate the hat, however, these
are two separate shapes, which we need to group/merge.
ü To merge the shapes, click on to the Arrow Tool at the
top of the toolbar and select both shapes whilst holding
down the Shift key.
ü Then, on the Pathfinder Panel, click the icon that says Unite. Your shapes
will now be made in to one.
3. Creating shapes
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ü Play around with different shapes and layer them to create new objects. Use
the Pathfinder Panel to Unite, Disect and Intersect, different parts of the
shapes.
ü Having used different tools, I have finally created my version of the
Clockwork Orange poster.
ü In order to add text to your film poster, you will need to again create
a New Layer in the Layers Panel and then click on the Text Tool in
the toolbar.
4. Adding Text
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ü Draw a text box in the area that you would like your text and then
begin typing. You can change the sizing, colour and font of the text on
the horizontal top toolbar.
ü To add an effect to the text, click back on to the Arrow Tool and
then click the text box, the go to Effect. There is a range of different
effects to pick from so have a play around and see which one you like
the look of.
I went for the Drop Shadow effect so that my text now has a subtle
shadow and helps it stand out.
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If you have not yet finished your film poster and would like to edit
it at a later date, then it is very important to follow these steps
otherwise you may accidently create a file that cannot later be
edited:
.
5. Saving your image
Saving a final version of your
poster
Alternatively, if you have
completely finished, and
would like to save you
image to be printed or
emailed, then go to File >
Export and then save it in
the format PNG.
Saving the document to
go back and edit at a
later date
Go to File > Save As
Find the correct location
you would like to save the
document in.
Give it a valid name and
then where it says Format,
you must save it as an
Illustrator EPS file.
