Unit 04Introduction & Overview

You Mean There're No Pixels?

Our next unit in ART 1280 covers type, vector art, and some fun stuff like layer effects and layer styles. It is important to understand the difference between images with pixels and images without pixels. Everything we have done so far has involved images constructed from pixels. Type and vector art are two types of artwork made from vectors. Photoshop is unique in its ability to work with both pixel images and non-pixels images at the same time. However, you will need to be careful. It is very easy to rasterize vector images. When vector images are rasterized they are converted from vectors to pixels.

Unit 04 – Type & Vector Art

ART 1280 Photoshop Software is broken down into six learning units. Each unit contains multiple lessons. For example, this unit contains lessons 14 through 16. Each lesson has a posted due date both on the modules tab (where you can find your coursework) and on the course homepage. I highly recommend printing the semester schedule. It is your lifeline for this course. It lists all due dates for the entire semester.

What will we do in this learning unit?

Unit 04 – Type & Vector Art / Lesson 14 - 16
Lesson 14 – Layer Effects & Styles
Lesson 15 – Adding & Modifying Type
Lesson 16 – Vector Art & Paths
Unit 04 – Finishing Up

Lesson Format

We will spend several weeks working on each of the six learning units in this course. Each unit contains multiple lessons. You should expect to have a new lesson due every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the the semester. In addition to lessons, each learning unit includes an introduction and finishing up section (see list above).

Each lesson follows the same general setup. Lessons include a learning resources page, knowledge test, and skills practice discussion. It is important to note the activities and assignments within each lesson are designed to support your learning. These are not mean to test your mastery of the course content. That will come at the end of the unit during the finishing up section.

Learning Resources: Includes reading assignment and supplemental learning videos/resources.
Knowledge Test: Designed to highlight key information from the reading assignment. There is no time-limit. Knowledge tests can be submitted twice.
Skills Practice: These are hands-on activities where students get to practice using the Photoshop skills learned in the lesson. You can consider skills practices to be class participation. I want you to try and experiment. Use the skills practices to practice getting better at using Photoshop.

Finishing Up

The beginning of each learning unit will start with introduction information like this page you're reading right now. You will then work your way through multiple lessons before wrapping up the unit in a finishing up section. The finishing up section contains a unit exam and a creative project. These assignments are very important. They assess your mastery of the course content. I'm telling you about them now so that you can budget your time. It is a good idea to review the creative project requirements now at the beginning of the unit so that you can work on the project for several weeks and not just at the end of the unit.