Oct 30
Creating a Leopard folder in Illustrator
2007 at 09.19 am posted by Veerle
As promised before, here is how I would create my version of the Leopard folder in Illustrator. This time no screenshots but a screencast with voice-over.
You can download it here. It's in QuickTime format. This is my very first screencast, I don't sound like a professional trainer or anything, I only did my best to explain things as good as I can. I didn't want it to be in crappy YouTube quality so it's nice and big :) Still, 23 MB for a 15 minute movie 1280 x 800 pixels isn't that bad. Maybe you'll have to crank up the volume a bit since I've recorded it a bit too quiet. I'll keep that in mind for next time. I hope you enjoy it and learn from it.
Getting the file
You can download the movie on here.
Want to learn more?
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1
Thanks Veerle! I enjoyed that tutorial! I think you explained very well, and liked the little tips on shortcuts and keyboard modifiers.
Very good quality video, in 24MB, much better than YouTube, definitely!
2
Thanks a lot, Veerle, I really enjoyed that screencast and learned quite a few new things!
By the way, I think screencasts are more effective for showing tricks and techniques in graphical programs than screenshots, ‘cause you can follow the entire process. So keep ‘em coming!
3
Fantastic, I followed along in Illustrator and made my own!
Look forward to hopefully more screencasts from you!
4
Great tutorial. You should do more of these, they really are so much better than a text tutorial.
5
This is truly a marvelous tutorial. So sweet you didn’t upload it to YouTube. 24MB for that quality is more than acceptable.
Nice voice I must say… ;)
6
Very good video Veerle ! thanks
7
Very nice, well done!!
8
Great!
I hope there will be more Screencasts in future.
9
Fantastic stuff, Veerle!
Illustrator still scares me coming from Photoshop, so it’s great to see it in action for something practical.
10
Really good tutorial Veerle. I have been a visitor to your site for years and you are a great inspiration but this has been the first time I’ve posted a comment(so much for all those de-lurking days).
You explain things really well, even all the little points, just thought I would come out of hibernation to show my appreciation and hopefully this will be the start of many screen casts to come.
by the way it’s really weird to finally hear your voice. You do not sound like I thought its funny how you build up perceptions of people.
Anyway well done.
11
Hi, and thanks for a great tutorial. Hope there’s more like this to come. You DO sound like a professional trainer btw.
12
This is a great tutorial for anyone looking to learn Illustrator. Good work Veerle.
13
havent watched yet but kudos for the torrent option
14
Excellent idea, great video quality and very ‘didactic’. Your voice sound quite different (’younger’) than I expected! Looking forward to the more ‘advanced’ video tutorials ;)
15
Great tutorial! I hope you continue to do more video tutorials like this.
I learned a few things with illustrator here. Thanks!
16
A really nice screencast., it was was to follow and you explained each step well. I hope you’ll switch to screencasts permanently, because they are so much nore informative than just plain regular screenshots.
17
Thank you a lot for this nice tutorial!
As the first video tutorial I’ve seen on your web site, I hope there will be more like this… please !!
18
Excellent tutorial. I agree with those who think that the screencast is way more useful (and entertaining) than regular screenshots. I hope you will make the switch permanent.
As usual, great work and I can’t wait for the next one :)
19
You have a very relaxed and easy (dare I say “sexy”?) voice. This is something a lot of people from Belgium, and especially the female part, share :)
20
Thanks for this screencast! It was very easy to follow although english is not my primary language. Your voice sounds very nice. Please keep doing more like this.
21
From an American perspective you have an excellent speaking voice...you kind of sound like Bjork.
22
oh, of course we enjoyed your video tutorial! What a great way to learn! Not being a frequent Illustrator user, from this tutorial I got a bunch of tips and tricks. Thanks Veerle!
23
Very nice tutorial! i really enjoyed it and since i’m just starting with illustrator i learned some nice shortcuts and tricks.
24
Would you be willing on making this video available to watch “a la youtube” sans youtube’s quality restrictions? (all for free of course)
This would add the “watch it online” capability to it.
Just let me know, i suscribed to this thread.
25
Well done, Veerle.
I’ve been doing screencasts for a couple months now, so I know how hard they can be.
Don’t forget: screenshots suck, screencasts rulio!
26
When you do this it is so simply… :)
27
Fantastic screencast Veerle! You did a great job, you have a very calm and patient voice (great accent too).
I loved the shortcuts. I wish more screencast were done as well. I hope to see more soon!
28
It was nice to finally (after all these years) hear your voice. Good tutorial.
Keep up the good work.
Steph
29
Realy. Very nice video. I advise to look
30
Excellent tutorial. Looking forward to the next one.
31
Thanks, that was a great tutorial. You are single handedly teaching me how to use Illustrator.
I cant thank you enough for all your great tutorials.
32
Thank you very much for the tutorial.
Next time you post a video, could you please also post an image of the final “product” ?
Thanks - Lise
33
very nice tuts ... i just come from inner.geek.nz they mentioned your blog as bookmark and i must say fantastic, great stuff veerle!
34
First time I actually had fun listening to an illustrator tutorial. Calm voice, speed I can follow, nice example. We need more of that. Hope it isn´t more work than the text-tuts.
35
That was a great screencast Veerle! I love all of the little tricks up your sleeve. The spacebar to reposition the shape as you are creating it was a great tip.
36
Thanks Veerle!! Also first time I hear your voice… nice tutorial greatly explained.
37
Wow! Thanks so much for all your positive feedback :) I knew people would prefer this over screenshots, but I wasn’t sure about the end result, your feedback and how I would sound. If I consider the time I spend in writing a tutorial, then screencasts are better. I needed a bit of practice though to be honest. Hopefully this will get better and smoother so I can do this in less time in the future (meaning, not starting over a few times which was the case now).
whiskey said:
Actually no, sorry, at least not for now. This requires re-encoding the movie and that takes a long time and extra steps, experimentation etc. Now I only need to record, choose my encoding and click OK and that’s it and I prefer quality. That’s why I choose H264 over other formats. The file would be bigger too.
lise said:
You are totally right. I was just referring to one of my previous articles where I promised I would show how to create this folder, but didn’t think about showing a screenshot for people who are just new or didn’t know about this. I forgot all about that. It’s now in place.
38
Thank you Veerle. Very nice tutorial. QuickTime format is much better than youtube so don’t worry about file size ;-)
Did I mension you have a very sexy voice? :-)
39
Good work!. Made me realize that I still need to think more in shapes when working with Illustrator, I keep messing about with lines too much (which is much more time consuming).
40
Perfect tutorial! You make the web a wonderful place. Again I’ve learned something today! The trick with the spacebar to move the rectangle and the in-/decreasing of the rounded corners are true little diamonds to me. Thanks!
41
Sexy voice. Love the accent. You should also have a pip webcam so you can actually talk to and look at us! :)
42
Thank you very much, it was great… I am just starting out and follow a few blogs, but I always look forward to your articles and approvels..but today it was a great suprise to see this screencast grrreatly enjoyed it a very pleasing voice and great timing.
I hope you will continue this, and I thank you once again
Chris
43
Thanks a bunch, Veerle.
As others have mentioned the quality of using video lets you really see the process from start to finish. Even the best of teachers some times forget to include steps that may seem obvious to you but not to the reader :)
I also picked up a few steps about general illustrator use, great tutorial all round!
44
Great video. I used to work a lot with Illustrator, but I am not into visual design anymore. At least, not professionally. Also, great to hear your voice.
What recording software are you using?
45
Nice! your voice is so sweet!
46
Coool, to bad I don’t like the look of the new icons, however… I’ll try to make some new folder icons in 512x512, so I may use this as a reference :)
47
I would like to thank you for this excellent video tutorial! Your voice is so lovely and I think you should do this more often ;)
Great job!
48
Amazing job Veerle. Let me just reiterate with everyone that it would be fantastic to see more screencasts from you. You are someone I have always admired for great illustration skills and it would be great to see you impart more of that knowledge.
Thanks again for sharing!
49
Thanks for adding the 3 screenshots!
It’s perfect!
Lise
50
Simply amazing how easy you make it all seem. I’ve recently discovered your blog and I have to say that from a designer’s point of view, it’s fascinating. The rich content powered by a magnificent design makes your website stand out. Kudos Veerle! You just convinced me to become a regular reader of a blog. This is a first :-)
51
woow..really cool tutorial, simple but really amazing result..thanks a lot
52
Veerle I will happily watch your future screencasts. I learned many helpful tips in just a few minutes from this one. You explained things very clearly and your speaking voice is wonderful.
I would not enjoy the tutorial as much if it were too polished and “professional”. That would make it would seem unnatural and packaged.
Please make another one soon. Thank you.
53
It’s really a nice tutorial.
Thanks for the effort.
Although, one thing to point out, you could see some pattern on the icon if you zoom it up and I guess you might have missed out.
54
Great - picked up a few tip I didn’t know before.
What software did you use to record the screencast?
55
someone said that would start to think more in combining shapes from now on. i second that. the way you made the tiny little corner of the folder tab was almost to damn simple. would have never thought of it myself.
noticed an audioscrobbler icon on your dock… would love to know what do you listen to…
56
We thank you
57
Nice tutorial, very clean workflow.
Oh, and your voice and accent sounds just like Björk’s. Real charming. ;)
58
Video tutorials are definitely the way forward for things like this. Not being the most graphically skilled person i really struggle when it comes to following paper based tutorials.
In my opinion hosting the video yourself (as you have done) is much better too. The video quality of the some of the tutorials that can be found on YouTube is awful because of the way that they re-encode everything that’s uploaded even if the source file is flash anyway.
Thanks and keep them coming.
59
Charming voice.
60
Thank you so much for sharing this vid. I learned some nice illustrator tips I didn’t know :D
61
people easily forget the earlier illustrator sketch from start to finish tutorial that I still give my students! and I’d also like to know the screencast process, I’m about to do them for class in the spring.
62
Thanks - this will definitely come in handy, I can’t see this working on youtube’s tiny window!
63
Wonderful!!! Thank you so much for this ! I really appreciate your effort.
Is there any tutorial on how to create that inset effect, those symbols inside the Leopard folders ? I tried something but it never looked as good as original ones… :(
Thanks in advance!
64
I really liked it. Very informative, and inspiring. I really think you should do more of these.
Thank you very much Veerle
65
Like a lot of others here I much prefer the video tutorials to the static screenshots versions. Although I use Illustrator all the time I’ve picked up a few little tips here & there, thanks a lot!
And sorry to sound shallow but love the sound of your voice & accent. I think if you read out headlines from a newspaper all day I could listen to it :p
66
I loved the screencast too – it’s such a great way of getting a message across, especially to non-technical clients! Does anybody know (or Veerle, could you tell me) what software was used to display the keystrokes on the movie? I’ve used Mouseposé from Boinx (on the mac), which displays in a “lower third” format, but I much prefer the central fading display on Veerle’s movie. Any help gratefully appreciated!
67
chris said:
It’s pretty simple: set up the screen-size click record and encode.
SasH said:
If you look under the article there is a section called “related”. The link is there.
zoë jessica said:
It’s built into the application that I used to record this tutorial. It’s called Screencast.
68
Veerle said:
Yes, yes I’ve noticed that one, but is there anything on how to create those icons inside the Leopard folders like original ones… for example, we have all those icons we get with Leopard, but in case I want to create some new icon type using completely new icon inside the Folder (the image in the center of the folder), I don’t know how to proceed with it…
Thanks again!
69
SasH said:
I haven’t tried this yet on a folder icon, but I assume if you add the same (white drop shadow) effect to your icon on the folder, you get the same inset effect. That’s why I linked to that article. After all it’s the same effect you want to achieve. Hope this helps.
70
Thanks, Veerle for the screencast. Having made quite a few of them, I could only imagine how tedious it is to make one. Screenshots may just take less time and efforts. However, the fruit of your pain and efforts is only going to grow larger and juicier. Please keep up the good work!
And I hope you don’t take the Youtube route. :) The compressed video format does not lend itself well to this kind of information delivery.
Thanks again!
71
Amazing !! :)
Rhnaks Veerle ;)
72
Can you give us the final folder in .AI?
73
Really great. I also tried this before watching your video and as I’m a illustrator beginner I wasn’t that successful. Now that I’ve watched your video I see how easy it is and how silly I was :-).
74
Agreed this is much easier than following text based tutorials.
75
Knap… Very nice tut, hoping there will be more. You are the Andrew Kramer of AI :-) Keep it up
76
Awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing this with us, Veerle!!
77
Great tutorial! You sounded exactly how I imagined you would sound.
You brought an honest element to this tutorial that a professional voice over never would have achieved.
I’ve been reading you for years, and the one truely amazing thing that stands out about your entire community approach is your honesty.
You make everyone feel welcomed!
Thank you!
78
Veerle, you ROCK!! Thank you SO MUCH for this screencast! It’s so much easier than following a written tutorial. You get to watch the designer in action and really get a sense of how they manipulate the points and tools provided by AI. I really enjoyed this tutorial and can’t wait for the next one (you’re now my homepage)…
And btw, in English, the letter “J” is pronounced like the French letter “G”. Not a big issue because each time you said the command aloud, you also displayed a screenshot of each command. At first, I thought you meant the actual letter “G”, until I saw the screenshot.
I live in France right now, but I’m from the US, so I understood afterward why your “J” sounded like or “G”. :0) Keep up the great work! And we LOVE accents!
79
Medina said:
Thanks for that tip. I wasn’t aware I pronounced it wrong. I’ve probably pronounced it like you should pronounce the letter ‘G’ in English, but instead I should have said ‘Jay’, right? I’m not from France myself btw (though, totally love that country). My main language is Dutch. I live in the Flemish part of Belgium, but I see what you mean with the French “g” isn’t not exactly the same but close. Happy to hear you like the screencast and my accent ;) It’s hard to hide but I do my best :)
80
Is it possible to indicate maybe briefly here, (or with another nice screencast, hint hint!) how to create the paper texture of the leopard folders? I’ve been up all night trying to figure it out with effects in Illustrator and I have yet to be able to mimic it. :ol Any suggestions?
You mentioned in an earlier Leopard post that you weren’t fond of the remaining aqua scrollbars in Leopard. I happened upon this post regarding solutions for making all of your Mac Leopard scrollbars appear the way the scroll bar does in iTunes. Maybe it helps?…
81
what a sweet voice.
82
This is SO cool… Thank you. The little tips ‘n’ tricks were invaluable.