>> Envelope Distort

1. Import a Picture
Find a beautiful photo that you would like to use for your artwork.
Place it in Illustrator by File > Place. Then lock the layer.



2. Base Paths Make a new layer, ‘base paths’.
Use the Pen tool, cover the clothes with white paths.



3. Envelope Text Distortion Copy all white paths from ‘base paths’ layer and paste it in a new layer. If you want, you can just duplicate the ‘base paths’ layer. Now use the Type tool to type in your text message and send it to back (note: your text must be sit below the shape). Then select the text object and the shirt path, go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Top Object or press Ctrl+Alt+C. This will distort the text with the selected shape.



Skirt

For the skirt text objects, rotate it to 90 degree.


Don’t forget to use the short cut keys. It will save you a lot of time. Just select the shape and text, and press Ctrl+Alt+C.

Final

Now you can add some design elements in the background to spice up the artwork.
[Thank you for downloading this tutorial source file from N.Design Studio.]

>> New Workspace Features - Adobe Illustrator CS4

Multiple Artboards Replacing the Crop Area tool, multiple artboards can create documents that contain up to 100 artboards of varying sizes. The artboards can overlap, appear side-by-side, and even stack on top of one another. You can also print, save, and export these artboards independently or together.

I have to say that I rarely used the Crop tool. So I am happy with the Multiple Artboard replacement. Having multiple artboards makes it much easier to work with multiple documents compared to previous versions of Illustrator. I usually need multiple documents for a project or illustration series. Being able to have these documents on one artboard is great. It is easy to create new artboards with the Artboard tool, adjust the size and placement and quickly crop the artboards with the Control Panel.

The only problem I ran into with the multiple artboards (I just might be missing the solution), is that you can’t change the numbering on the artboards. If I wanted to make the first artboard the third one, I can’t. Granted, you can drag the artwork from one board to another, but it would be easier if I could just number them differently.

Practical Smart Guides In the new CS4, the smart guides are more practical. The appearance and behaviors are more unobtrusive and pop-ups will appear with alignment and measurement information.

The updates to the Smart Guides are great. Before the CS4 version the smart guides could sometimes get confusing and diminish my focus, but the new guides help in this respect.

Key Object Alignment The new CS4 provides you with quick access to the key alignment option. A key object is the object you want the other object to align with. To specify and key object, select all objects and select the desired key object again.

Alignment is important for me when working in Illustrator. I’m glad Illustrator makes it easier to designate a key object to align the other object with. Ultimately, this has sped up aligning objects in Illustrator for me.

New Drawing and Color Tools

Blob Brush With the new Blob Brush you can draw paths that merge with existing artwork and draw paths that are fill only.

I was very excited when I learned about the Blob Brush after Adobe announced CS4. It has lived up to my expectations except in a couple regards.

First off, the ability to draw filled paths has sped up my work flow. Before I would create a Calligraphic Brush, draw the path, expand the appearance, and clean up the paths. With the Blob Brush, I only have to draw the path. Used in conjunction with a pen tablet, you can create some great fluid elements.

The only part of the Blob Brush the sometimes creates problems for me is the merging feature. With a Calligraphic brush, I can draw a bunch of overlapping paths and still be able to rotate, size and edit the path. With the Blob Brush, the paths are merged so I can’t change the size, orientation, and so on. I can still use the Calligraphic Brush in CS4, but it would nice to have the option of no merging with the Blob Brush.