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Tips and Tricks
First things first...
These Tips and Tricks are a work-in-progress. They are, by no means, "complete" but simply a collection that I have developed over a number of years, some teaching gigs, and the generosity and support of those that know things I don't (and that's a lot). I will do my best to thank those who've contributed as I go, and if you have any tricks that you'd like to share please email them to support@threadies.org. This isn't a forum so I can't guarantee that they'll make it onto the site.
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This site is best viewed using Firefox, Safari, or more specifically, NOT Internet Explorer.
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Click on the Title » to access the Tips and Tricks within.
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Adobe Illustrator »
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The Tools
This is a rough run-through of some of the Illustrator tools that will come in handy when making Threadless tshirt design submissions. It doesn't cover all of the tools but, hopefully, someday it will.
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the select tools »
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There are three Selection Tools that will help you along your tshirt-design way. |
The Selection Tool (the black arrow) is used to select paths, groups or, if you click and drag over objects, multiples of paths and groups.
The Direct Selection Tool (the white one) is used to select line segments and points, or multiples of those. You'd use this one to move a line segment or a point on a path, or to (roughly) adjust the curve of a line segment.
The GroupSelection Tool (white with +) isn't used very much but can be handy if you're working with a large number of paths that are grouped. This tool will allow you to select a single path that is stuck within a group.
Tip: When working in Illustrator you can access the last used Selection Tool by holding down Ctrl. When drawing with the Pen Tool it is best to keep the Direct Selection Tool available when you press Ctrl, that way you can fine-tune bezier handles and anchor points on the fly. |
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the pen tool »
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Without a doubt, the most important tool in Illustrator, whether you've scanned in a sketch you want to vectorize or you're starting from scratch. To use the Pen Tool you have to aquaint yourself with 'anchor points', 'bezier handles' and the difference between open and closed paths. Basically, vector shapes are made up of (anchor) points and line segments that connect the points and the combination of the 2 is what we call a 'path'. An open path is a line with an anchor point at both ends, a closed path is a shape where there are no 'end points' (like a circle or square). |
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Both open and closed paths can contain a fill and stroke value. The other type of path is a compound path, which is a 'shape' made up of two or more paths. An example would be a donut shape where there is a closed path that makes up the outside edge and a closed path that constitues the donut hole. Compount paths are still considered to be one path or object because the fill attribute does not include the missing sections or 'donut holes'.
Bezier handles branch off of the anchor points and pull the line segment in the direction it's pointing. To make a bezier handle, using the Pen Tool, click and hold a point then drag the curser in the direction you want the line to curve.
To change the direction of the next curve (while using the Pen Tool) hold down Atl and pull in the intended direction, or click the last anchor point and pull the handle in a new direction. When holding down Alt the new 'V' shaped tool allows you to grab existing bezier handles and pull them independant of their counterpart. This tool can also delete the bezier handles or create handles on a point that didn't have any. |
If you click and hold over the Pen Tool in the Toolbar you'll see that there are 4 different Pen Tools. The plus and minus 'pens' are to add and subtract anchor points from a path, however, these two tools will show up if you hover over a path or anchor point so there's a good chance that you'll never need to grab them from the Toolbar. The 'V' Tool (or the Convert Anchor Point Tool), as discussed, can be used by holding down Alt when using the Pen Tool.
Take time to learn to master the Pen Tool, especially the bezier handles, these will be the key to your Illustrator salvation. Bloew are the different indicators that the Pen Tool displays to let you know what you can do. The little symbols appear when you hover over a corresponding area. |
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handy hotkeys »
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Hotkeys rule. They make our lives easier and work go quicker. Illustrator's got a bunch of hotkeys and, if you're sportin' a fairly recent version, you can even change and set your own hotkeys. This list of hotkeys is, by no means, a complete one but a list of, what I believe to be, some of the better ones. And I've even included a few that I've made up and programmed into my version of Illustrator, perhaps they can be of some use to you too. |
Basic Workflow Hotkeys
- Spacebar - Hand Tool
pressing down the spacebar while using the draw a path or shape allows you to move it in mid-draw
- Ctrl - switch to Select Tool on the fly
Note: it always switches to the last Select Tool used
- Ctrl + Spacebar - Zoom Tool (click and drag
zoom tool to fine-tune zoom)
- X - switches between fill and stroke in the Toolbar
- Shift + X - switches the fill and stroke colours when a path is selected
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- D - resets default colours to black and white
(when a path is selected too)
- Tab - hides/shows palettes
- Ctrl + C - to copy a path/segment/group
- Ctrl + F - paste in same spot in front of
copied object
- Ctrl + B - paste in same spot behind
copied object
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Tranformation Hotkeys
- E - Tranform Tool
- Shift - constraints proportions (when drawing shapes or transforming)
- Alt - sets anchor to the center
- Ctrl - allows you to 'pull' from one corner of bounding box (when transforming)
- Shift + Ctrl + Alt - allows you to transform perspective (when transforming)
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Threadies Specials - these are a few hotkeys that I made up out of pure necessity. To change your hotkeys go to : Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (this may only be available in newer versions of Illustrator)
- Ctrl + Alt + X - File > Document Setup, to change the size or measuring units quickly
- Ctrl + Shift + X - File > Export, for exporting quickly to different file types
- F2 - File > Place, to quickly drop images into a file
- Ctrl + Shift + Q - Object > Expand, for quickly expanding a path, blend, etc.
- Ctrl + Alt + F - select all paths with the same fill colour
- Ctrl + Alt + D - select all paths with the same stroke colour
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Palettes
Whether you're creating a tshirt design from scratch or simply scanning in a sketch and cleaning it up, Illustrator is an amazing and powerful program with a lot to offer. Illustrator's palettes are especially useful because they can be arranged and accessed at any time during your design making. Below is a run through of, what I believe, are the most important palettes for making Threadless tshirt design submissions. Tip: Remember that the Tab key can be used to hide and un-hide your palettes while you're working. If you've got limited screen space, like many of us do, this handy hotkey comes in real handy. Thanks Robsoul for the 'head's up' on this one.
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toolbar »
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layers palette »
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The Layers palette is where Illustrator holds all the paths and shapes that you create for your design. It allows you to select, hide, delete and move the paths from front to back (on top of each other). It is also great for organizing your design, creating multiple layers to 'group' the elements of your design.
On the Layers Palette to the left there are a few things to take notice of.
- the eye on the left turns the visability of that path/group/layer on and off
- the lock next to the eye is used to lock that object, so that it can not be selected or altered
- the bottom path is highlighted, the blue box to the right shows that that path is selected. The circle next to it (which called a "meatball") can be clicked on to select that object.
- the folder and trash can at the bottom are used to create a new layer, delete a selected layer/object, or you can drag an object over the folder to duplicate it.
- the arrows let you know that there are additional objects within that 'group'
Tip: It is a good idea to get into the habit of naming your paths and layers. This will help you find things easier, in case you need to make changes later. To do so, double click the object or layer in the layers palette.
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transform palette »
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pathfinder palette »
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The Pathfinder palette is probably the most useful yet, unused palette out there. It is used to combine, subtract, dissect, crop, etc. multiple paths from/to one another. It's great for creating complex shapes out of simple ones, as well as trimming objects and punching holes out of them. Take some time to play around and get used to using this one.
Things to take notice of.
- the examples below the Pathfinders palette are reflective of what the top 4 buttons will do to two paths
- the bottom buttons (I find) are used much less, but try them all out (the crop button comes in handy sometimes)
- the Expand button will 'solidify' the result of one of the "pathfindings"
Big Tip: When using the Pathfinder buttons, hold down "Alt" or "Option". This will save you from having to use the Expand button but it will make the change permanent.
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align palette »
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The Align palette is pretty self-explanitory. You use it to align and distribute one or more paths. This palette is super handy and should be ever-present in your workspace. |
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A quick walk-through:
- the top 6 buttons align all paths
- the bottom 6 button are used to distribute a group of paths evenly
Tip: If you use the little arrow at the top-right to turn "Align to Artboard" on then all alignments and distrobutions will be relative to the artboard, which can be handy if you want to make everything centered to the page.
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color palette »
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The Color palette is an interesting one that's often overlooked.
A few things to take note of:
- the (blue) square is the path's fill color while the (white) outline represents the stroke color and you can switch between the 2 by clicking on them
- the cube below them allows you to snap to the 'web-safe' version of the color (which, for our purposes, is useless)
- the 'yield' sign below that warns you that the current colour isn't available in CMYK
- note the available slider options in the top-right arrow pullout
- you can also snap to the inverted color or complimentary color from the same pullout
- you can also use the teeny tiny color picker at the bottom, but it's not very useful
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Tip: I find that using the HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) sliders is the easiest and most effective for picking colours. It's the only one that offers any real control.
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swatch palette »
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Big Tip: To get rid of the default swatches click here and following the READ_ME.pdf... believe me, you're better off without them.
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The Swatch palette is seldom used correctly. In my opinion the purpose of the swatch palette is to store the colours used in that particular design. The trick is to get rid of the default swatches that comes with Illustrator, this forces you to create new colour combinations for each and every design.
Here's a few swatch palette functions:
- through the top-right arrow you can access premade colour swatch libraries
- top-arrow: if you come up with an amazing swatch group you can save it into the Swatches Library and access it later
- saving your swatch combos can save time if you're doing a series of projects for the same company
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symbols palette »
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The Symbols palette is may not be super handy for designing tshirts but I still thought that it should be mentioned. The cool thing about the symbols palette is that you can drag designs into it and then drag them out to place them later. This is really handy if you're an character illustrator, you can keep a symbols library of different characters or one library of different expressions of one character. And these symbol libraries can be accessed from any Illustrator file by using the top-right arrow in the symbols palette.
Simply click on the arrow, scroll down to 'Open Symbol Library' then choose 'Other Library'. From there open the file containing the symbol library that you saved in that file and presto.. those symbols are there for you.
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trick! »
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Tip: A great thing about Illustrator (and Photoshop) is that you can combine palettes with one another, but you can also attach them to each other at the bottom. This allows you to move them as a group rather than individual palettes. To do this simply drag the tab of one palette to the bottom of another. You will notice that the top palette will get a grey line at the bottom (red arrow below) to indicate that you can 'stick' it there.
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To see an example of an efficient palette arrangement click here.
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Adobe Photoshop »
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Submission Tips and Tricks
The following are a few tips and tricks for making the most of your Threadless submission in Photoshop. This area will focus mainly on putting the finishing touches on your submissions, like placing your submission onto a photograph.
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going from sketch to vector »
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This trick will help you take your hand-draw sketches and use Photoshop to take them from the scanner to vector format, whether it's a one colour design, or a 4+ colour design. If you are working with Illustrator CS2 then you may prefer to use Live Trace, but make sure to read the scanning instruction below.
NOTE: Make sure to really clean up your sketch before scanning it, your lines should be dark and the lines you don't want should be erased. You can do this work in Photoshop but the results are WAY better if you begin with a good scan.
I will be using Travis' latest Derby Girl as the example sketch, let's hope he doesn't mind. |
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SCANNING
Before scanning your sketch make sure that all your lines are dark and that your erased lines are erased. Then scan your image at a very, very high resolution. The higher the better. For larger sketches I'd go 600dpi or higher, for smaller sketches I'd basically max out the resolution. Also, make sure that your scanner is set to greyscale or colour, just not black and white or you may not get a very smooth edge on the drawing.
FINE TUNING
Next, using Image » Levels, adjust the top left and right arrows (in the Levels window) to 'sharpen' the contrast between the light and dark. You may also want to use your Brush Tool to paint white over any erased lines that made it through the scan.
MAKING A SELECTION
Everybody has their own method of making selections and my recommendation is to use what works for you. In this case I would probably is Selection » Color Range, then select 'Shadows' from the selection menu at the top of the window. Once you click OK you'll notice that all the black areas in your sketch are selected.
NOTE: If you scanned in a multi-coloured sketch then use this process to select one colour, go to the next step, then read the bottom paragraph.
CREATING A PATH
Now that you have selected the area that you want to vectorize go to your Paths Palette and click the 'Make Work Path' button (red arrow). The go File » Export » Paths to Illustrator and save your work path as an Illustrator file.
If you are working with a multi-coloured sketch and wish to make working paths for all the different colours then simply double click the Working Path in the Paths Palette and name it. Then select your next colour and repeat steps. The Paths Palette only allows for one Working Path but naming the paths saves them.
When you open the file in Illustrator it may look like there's nothing there, simply click and drag over the artboard using your Selection Tool then apply a fill colour. Depending on the number of colours or quality of finished vector you may need to change the colour of some of the paths to make sense of the sketch.
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placing your submission on a photograph »
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Placing your design onto a photograph of a person wearing a shirt can be tricky to get right. The first thing to be careful about is size and placement. Make sure it's not too big and, if the person in the photo is standing at an angle, make sure to skew the design to match the perspective. |
| In this first example we're focusing on placing it on a dark coloured shirt. The trick is to bring down the opacity by 10% to 20%, this will take down the brightness of the design and make it blend in more with the shirt. |
| The trick to placing a design onto a light coloured shirt is to change the Blending Mode (at the top of the Layers palette) to Multiply. This will make the dark areas of the design blend in better with the shirt and tone down the lighter areas. |
If you're looking for photographs of people wearing blank tshirts (like the ones used above) make sure to download Threadies Ultimate Download at the bottom of the page. It contains Photoshop files that have all the Threadless shirt colours on 2 different American Apparel models. |
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masking - gallery photo magic »
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Using Layer Masks is probably THE most useful thing I've ever learned to do in Photoshop, they are handy beyond belief. Two things that you should always avoid are (1) the Eraser Tool and (2) Edit > Undo. The Eraser Tool is an unecessary device that, with this next bit, will become obsolete for you. Hopefully we can drastically cut down on the use of Undos as well. |
| The idea behind the layer mask is to allow you to draw (using the Brush Tool) the visible and invisible. Clicking the 'circle in the square' button at the bottom of the Layers Palette will create a white box next to the thumbnail of the layer that you have selected. With this white box selected (notice the border around it) what ever you paint black will disappear and what ever is white will be visible, and whatever percentage of grey in between will have the corresponding opacity. |
| The advantage of working with Layer Masks as opposed to using the Eraser Tool is simple - when using a Layer Mask no pixels are ever changed or destroyed in your original image, the invisible items are still there. Some of the benefits are: (1) If you make a mistake while masking out simply switch your brush to white and 'paint' back in the part that became invisible. (2) You can use other tools and filters on your mask, like the Gradient Tool to fade in or Blur Filter to soften the edges of the masked subject. |
In the final version I was able to place the three of them in a setting and was even able to add an Adustment Layer of Magenta at the top to act as a lighting source. An Adjustment Layer (the b/w/ circle next to the Layer Mask button in the Layers Palette) is a layer that effects all the layers below it. Some Adjustment Layers include Levels, Hue and Saturation, Invert and Posterize. And the best part with Adjustment Layers is that they too have a mask associated with the layer, so that you can 'paint' which parts you want to adjust. Also, all Adjustment Layers can be changed after they've been set, so if you find that you've added too much Saturation you can always double-click the Adjustment Layer and make changes to the settings. Note: I used the Gradient Tool to create a magenta light source coming up from the floor. |
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handy hotkeys »
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Hotkeys rule. They make our lives easier and work go quicker. Photoshop's got a whole heck of a lot of hotkeys and, if you're sportin' a fairly recent version, you can even change and set your own hotkeys. This list of hotkeys is, by no means, a complete one but a list of, what I believe to be, some of the better ones. And I've even included a few that I've made up and programmed into my version of Photoshop, perhaps they can be of some use to you too.
One thing to always watch out for with any hotkey is to try holding down Shift, Alt, Ctrl, etc when clicking them... you may be rewarded with some fancy previously unknown hotkey. |
Basic Workflow Hotkeys
- Spacebar - Hand Tool
pressing down the spacebar while using the Marquee Tool or Crop Tool allows you to move it
- Ctrl - switch to Move Tool on the fly
when using the Move Tool, pressing down Ctrl and clicking allows for direct selection
- Ctrl+Tab - toggles between windows in Photoshop
- Ctrl + Spacebar - Zoom Tool (click and drag
zoom tool to fine-tune zoom)
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- double-click Photoshop background
- pops up Open window (PC only)
- X - switches background and forground colour
- D - resets colours to black and white
- Tab - hides/shows palettes
- Ctrl + Backspace - fill (selected) area with background colour
- Alt + Backspace - fill (selected) area with foreground colour
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Drawing Hotkeys
- B - Brush Tool
- ] - increase Brush size
- [ - decrease Brush size
- Shift + ] - decrease Brush feathering
- Shift + [ - increase Brush feathering
- Alt (while painting) - toggles to eyedropper
- Shift + B - toggles between Brush/Pencil/etc
E - Eraser Tool (read masking tip)
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Layer Mask Hotkeys (click on mask)
- Ctrl - Makes a selection based on "opacity"
(light and dark)
- Alt - displays layer mask by itself
- Shift - turns layer mask on and off
- right-click - give you option to apply or delete layer mask
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Threadies Specials - these are a few hotkeys that I made up out of pure necessity. To change your hotkeys go to : Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (this may only be available in newer versions of Photoshop)
- Ctrl + / - I made this a hotkey for Image > Image Size. I mostly use it to check what size images are,
but it is also handy for changing dimensions on the fly
- Ctrl + Shift + / - Image > Canvas Size, the same reason as above
- Ctrl + Alt + / - Image > Mode > RGB Mode, this one if handy for switching GIFs out of index colour quickly
- Ctrl + Z - this, by default, is Undo/Redo but I felt it was more useful as Edit > Step Backwards (or multiple Undo)
- Ctrl + Shift + Z - Edit > Step Forward
- Shift + Ctrl + W - Image > Crop, this crops based on a selected area because making selections is
way easier than using the crop tool
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Macromedia Flash »
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Submission Tips and Tricks
ATTENTION FLASH DESIGNERS!!!
I currently have only one tip for Flash. If you have any to contribute please email me at support@threadies.org. Thanks!
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the background colour issue »
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When submitting a design that was created in Flash you may have noticed that the background colour that you chose doesn't show up on the website. This happens when Threadless adds the zooming feature to your submission (characterized by the '?' in the bottom left corner).
To avoid losing your background colour you must do the following:
- Create a new layer and place it at the very bottom of the layer order on the timeline.
- Using the Rectangle Tool, create a solid block and make the fill colour the desired background colour.
- Change the dimensions of the new block to 640px x 480px and position it at X: 0 and Y:0
A special thanks to bortwein for sending in this tip.
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Other Goodies
threadies ultimate download
The Threadies Ultimate Download is a "bag of goodies" designed to help you out in the creation of your future Threadless tshirt submissions. Please make sure to check out the READ_ME.pdf files that are included with the folder contents, they have important instruction on how to install and make use of the Threadies_stuff.
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The following items are included in both of the above downloads. Thank you to bortwein and midgetbigot for contributing to this 'goodie bag'. If anyone has something that they think is worth adding to a future version please let me know at support@threadies.org. |
- an Illustrator file containing all the shirts vectorized (thanks again bortwein)
- an Illustrator file that contains the swatches and symbols for the tshirt options
- the Flash template from Threadless
- the Photoshop template from Threadless
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- a Photoshop .aco file containing all the shirt colour swatches (thanks again midgetbigot)
- a Photoshop file that contains all the tshirt options on an American Apparel model
- a second Photoshop file that contains all the tshirt options on a different American Apparel model
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"something's missing..."
If you have any suggestions on how we can make Threadies.org a better place, or if there are any errors or things missing please email it to support@threadies.org. We appreciate all your support.
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