Thanks to the great response on my last couple of "process" posts, I have uploaded the tutorial videos, and here they are:
#1 - Setting Up and Importing Images 
Click on image - video will open in new window
#2 - Palette Options and settings 
Click on image - video will open in new window
These are Large Videos intended for Fast Internet Connections. If you have trouble viewing them, or if your connection is slow, there are smaller versions of these videos at the end of the post.
These two videos cover the basic steps of opening an illustrator file, saving and renaming a file, and importing a pencil drawing into the Illustrator document for tracing.
Since Adobe Illustrator can be a pretty scary program to newcomers, the first couple of videos start from the very beginning and show exactly how I set up the new document and which options I use whenever I create a cartoon illustration.
If you already have experience using Adobe Illustrator, then today's videos may be a bit basic. I can promise you that in the next couple of days, the videos will be heading into much more advanced territory. I've been struggling with the question of how to pace these tutorials... I'd like to cover everything thoroughly, but I don't want it to be too slow.
I recorded all of these videos in real time while I was creating the SpongeBob cover illustration for this month's Nick Magazine. In the editing process, I have trimmed down all the downtime moments and most of the "um"s and "ah"s (but not all of them). I also used some fancy technology to zoom in closely on anything that's really important to see.
So in a time when "speed painting" videos proliferate on the Internet, I have chosen the slow and steady approach instead. It's the kind of thing I wish I had when I was starting to use Adobe Illustrator, especially since the books on that topic don't even begin to cover how to use Adobe Illustrator for freehand inking or cartooning.
I created a special template that I use for all my Adobe Illustrator projects. I used this template in the video demonstration, and I'm giving it to you for downloading so that you can follow along if you'd like. The way Illustrator templates work, all of the custom brushes and graphic styles are embedded into the template...so you will get to use all of the custom inking brushes I have created and used over the years. You can find and download the free Inking Template at:
http://cartoonsnap.com/template/
You don't need to follow along in Adobe Illustrator to get a lot out of these videos -- sometimes just looking at somebody else's process can give you a lot of tips.
The next video in the series will be about how to use the freehand brush tool to create real hand-drawn inking in Adobe Illustrator. I will also show you how to create new custom brushes, and how to use the custom brushes that are already included in the downloadable template.
As promised, here are smaller videos for slower bandwidth. Please let me know how the videos are playing on your end...it'll help me prepare better videos in the future!
Here are smaller versions of the videos if you're having trouble viewing the larger videos:
Next video: BRUSHES!
Cartoon Inking tutorial videos:
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