[music] [Adrianne Walujo] Hi. My name is Adrianne Walujo. I'm an illustrator and designer, and I've been working professionally in the creative space for over seven years now. A big part of what I do is sharing about my work and also sharing about my services so that the right people can find them. I also know that from talking to people and also from my own personal experience, creating content for marketing can take a lot of time and a lot of energy. And as a first-time mom, it's really important for me to keep my business sustainable so that I can juggle with everything else in my life. Today in my session, I'll be sharing to you about how I use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Express to add animation to my illustration and then use them in my content marketing.
I really hope that these time-saving tips can also help other creative out there who may be time-poor just like me. So yeah, let's dive into it.
And now we're just going to be opening our Adobe Illustrator. I'm going to create a series of posts, where there's going to be multiple slides, and I'll be choosing a square format. Here, by pressing Shift+O, you'll be able to see the artboard. And then this is the size that I'm going to be using, which is a 1,000 pixel, 2,000 pixel. Remember that when you create content, it's so important that it's high quality. So 1,000 pixel should be a safe dimension.
Now I've also added my sketches here. So I will be talking about the things that I usually do when a client reaches out to me. And I thought, having this illustration here, which I'm going to animate later, will be a really fun way of telling about my process. Usually, I sketch them on my tablet. I also sometimes I sketch them on paper, take a picture, and then just send it over to my computer. I'll just put them in the layer here and then turn the opacity down to 40%, just enough so that you can see them. Lock that layer, and then on a new layer, I'll be, yeah, tracing them, basically, and using them as a reference. I'll be using a Pen Tool. And, usually, I like to work just with the outline first because it's just easier. And I like using, actually, color that are quite bright so that it's easy for me to keep track about how far I've come. Let's use stroke tool thickness two point.
And just, yeah, start working. And as you are tracing this...
When you use Pen Tool, it's so important that you-- For me, personally, at least, to not use too many anchor point. I think it's similar to drawing where a big stroke, a big confidence stroke is better than a smaller stroke because it makes the illusion looks choppy. And, similarly, I think even when using Pen Tool, think about the places where there's going to be a turning point. So that's why I start here, then, where there's the curve, and then just follow through.
And feel free to also use my sketch here if you want to create your own illustration or to practice. But if you are thinking of doing content marketing, I would also encourage you to think about the kind of illustration that resonate well with your personal brand. In a time where there's so much content out there, it's so important to be able to stand out, because when people see them online, they'll think about you. Oh, I remember seeing this style before.
So think about the simple visual style that can reflect your personal brand and also reflect the kind of work that you can do. And in my case, this minimalist outline style is something that...
I'm known. So I'll be also incorporating that on my content creating.
And this can be quite relaxing. Like, usually, what I do, is I listen to podcasts or I listen to-- I watch series on the other screen, because it is quite...
Relaxing for me at least.
And no worries, with anchor point, the good thing is you can always fix them.
Or if you think that's not too good, you can always continue.
You can delete the one that you don't really particularly like and just start over.
I use Shift+C...
To adjust the anchor point.
Sometimes it's easier to start over rather than...
Fixing something that is not working. Now it's like a better curve, so just doing that.
For the ear, let's use a circle.
The circle tool. So...
press L, or here it is, for ellipse. And then I'll add an anchor point over here.
Add an anchor point, and then I delete the one here. So I delete that so that I want to take just like this part.
And I think-- Why I think it's really important as a professional creative in today's age for us to think about the illustration style that works well for content creating is because you'll have to create a lot of them. So think about how you can optimize, what you have and...
Create lots of them in a short amount of time. It's not about compromising on quality, but also it's about being efficient. And the most important thing is the message, in which I'll be sharing soon. So this is just like an earring that I'm like-- The one I'm wearing. I really like this earring. It's like a flower and-- So here it is. I'm creating...
A flower from four circles.
Actually, let's do five petals. So there's five circles, and then I select them all. Just drag select. And then using Pathfinder, I click on Unite. So what this do, it's going to create into one big shape, erasing all the overlap. I undo that because I want to adjust something.
So let's move it over here to-- So there is like an empty space there. So I am going to just add one more circle. And then now, we have like a flower petal that I am going to be using as my earring.
This is a square. And then pressing A-- Clicking on the two dots here...
I'm going to...
Pull the bottom part to make my glasses.
All right. So that's my glasses here.
And then this is my body. It's going to be more abstract looking. So let's just quickly create something.
I don't know why I made that sound effect, but it's okay.
Adjust them once you get the correct...
Proportion. So I'll use the anchor point. I'll choose the two anchor points at the bottom after creating a rectangle. And then...
I'll pull the corner, and then I'll choose the one here again because as you can see, they are not equal.
And using the Pen Tool to create the bottom part.
And, well, holding shift to ensure that it's on the same height.
Okay. Another tool that I really like using is the Pencil Tool. So I press N, or you can find it here, the Pencil Tool. So it allows me to create a free form of shape there. If you have pen tablet, that's going to be much easier.
But I'm using mouse, so I prefer using the pencil, actually, because there's just...
More control over each curve.
So this is just like an abstract...
representation of the finger.
Here, we have a bubble speech. So I mentioned that earlier. This is tips on how to create so I'm going to be using Polygon Tool, three sides to create triangle. Rotate them while pressing Shift so that it rotates in a 90 degree-- 90 degree increment. Similarly, unite them again. And then, now let's add a circle where the notification goes.
And I like having a space in between, so I'll add an anchor point here, another one here. If I click this, press Command-Y, and press the anchor here, just delete it. And then we have that left. So the Command-Y will turn on the wireframe mode. So you can really see them clearly, especially when you're choosing an anchor point. That'd be really useful. So this is the envelope.
Okay. So let's turn off the sketch.
All right. And then let's make sure that all the stroke is the same width. And, also, I would like to have this rounded corner.
The rounded corner, give it a soft look...
To the piece.
Pressing that, Command-Shift, and then send it or you can arrange. Send it to back. So that means it will be under all the other existing shapes.
Similarly, I want this to be filled rather than an outline to give that nice balance.
And then you're done.
We have our illustration now.
Another favorite font that I like using is the Gelica. You can also find this in Adobe Font. A lot of free font that you can use...
For work, for personal use, which is really awesome...
Because finding the right font is really important as a designer.
Okay.
And now I will pull in the one that I've created before. So what I do is that I create text. So this is like the series name. This is a title, like big and clear what it's about. "My Must-Do's When a New Client Reaches Out." So I'll be saving this Social_Media.ai. And then let's move to Adobe Express now.
Okay. Now we are going to move to Adobe Express, and this is our dashboard and our home page. Let's click the button over here, and then we'll choose Upload Media. And then let's choose the AI file that we saved earlier, which is the Social_Media.ai. Let's open that. And then you'll be asked to-- Like two options. The first one is to add AI file as a linked image. This means that you are able to use it as an asset. And then whatever you do in Adobe Illustrator is going to be connected to Adobe Express. But the one that we want to use today is the second one, which is to edit the AI file in a new express file.
So they will convert them, and then they'll separate all the different elements. And we need this because we're going to animate some of the items inside the file. So let's create a new express file.
And I just love how seamless it is rather than just saving all the different SVG and then exporting them and then importing them again into a new editing platform. I can just upload the whole file. And then let's open our new express file that has been converted.
And let's see. Yep. This is the same file that we were creating much earlier in Adobe Illustrator. As you can tell, you are able to click and move things around.
We also have our hidden layer, which is the sketch, and we are going to delete that because it's no longer relevant.
Let's fix the number one over here so that it is centered. And there are two parts that I want to animate that I mentioned today is that this email icon over here, which we are going to group together, and also the Read More and the arrow that we are going to group together. So this is going to be the primary animation, and this is going to be a secondary animation that just encourages I want them to move just slightly to signal to the viewer that, "Hey, I have more slides that you can just swipe and take a look at." So let's click on the first element that we want to animate.
On your left hand side, you'll be able to see that there's an animation icon over here. So you click on that. It says none because we haven't applied anything. So there are three parts of the animation. The first one is the in, so it's how it comes into the scene. And once it comes to the scene, how is it going to loop, and then lastly, how it goes out of the scene. So first, let's think about how we would like to animate this. And I want it to animate up similar to how a notification appears on your phone. Let's click on Rise.
Okay. That's the right movement, but it's a bit too slow. So let's click on the Settings button, and then change the duration to one second, so you can slide them around, or you can just type it in. For the personality, I would like something strong.
Okay. Because it feels more-- And then once it's inside the scene, let's have it bob. I like that.
Let's make the intensity lower. It was nine, so let's do an eight. I think it's sufficient. And then the speed, I think, it's at a good speed. And then how do we want it to go out? So let's make it similar to the first one, which is rise in, rise out. But then let's change the direction to downwards, and then make the duration also one second, and then personality strong. So let's preview our first animation by clicking Play here. Yep. And then it's going to go out. Perfect. If you feel it's too long, you can always shorten it to three seconds here, or you can just drag it longer. So let's do three seconds. Now let's animate the second part, which is Read More.
To the left hand side, we have in. I want it to appear like this.
Actually, I like this, it's softer. Let's make the duration much shorter.
So the shorter the duration, the faster the animation.
Okay. So I think 1.2 would hit the right spot. The personality is soft because I want it to not distract the original primary animation. And then let's try Breathe...
Or Pulse. Pulse feels a bit more intense. Also, let's decrease the speed and also decrease the intensity.
Maybe the speed can be still fast, but then-- Yep.
Okay.
And in this case, maybe to see the whole animation, it's better if it's longer. So we'll just going to drag that and then preview it again.
At the moment, there are two animation happening at the same time. What you can do is...
Let's show layer timing.
So if we press this, you'll be able to-- I want to tell the element to only appear after a few seconds after that. So that one first, and then Read More afterwards. So what I click is I show the layer timing. So you have to click on this toggle to be able to see and adjust the timing. So you'll have-- If I click the first one, it's going to use the whole timeline. But for the second one, it's just going to be-- It's going to start after the first animation start. So this way, it's not too distracting.
All right. And then there you have it. You can share this. You can post it straight away to social media that you have linked, or you can download this as an MP4, however you like. But if you can share straight away, it's going to save one more step. And, yeah, using these tips, I have created a few different content creation marketing. I hope these tips and tricks have been helpful, and I can inspire you to create your own kind of visual, your own kind of content in your own personal brand. Thank you for watching, and see you again next time.
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