The Most Powerful Panel in Illustrator

Imagine a panel that is so powerful it can control everything about the appearance of a selected object. That’s exactly what the Appearance panel can do for you in Adobe Illustrator.

This powerhouse panel is designed to help you create the exact look you want for an object in the most efficient way possible. So whether you want to change the basic appearance of an object, such as the color and weight of a stroke, or the color of a fill, or add effects and transparency to the various parts of an object, the Appearance panel is the one place to simply do it all.

The Appearance panel is almost like a Layers panel for everything that makes up the look of a selected object. It’s the only place you can create multiple strokes and fills within an single object and then move these “object parts” up or down in the stacking order of that object. And like the Layers panel, you can hide or show any part of the stacking order by clicking a visibility eye next to its listing. You can also apply Illustrator Effects to each of the various parts of an object and use the panel to determine the order in which these Effects will be applied.

Also, because everything you can accomplish in the Appearance panel is non-destructive, you have the flexibility to quickly and easily experiment with different looks opening up the whole design process to more creativity.

In the following video tutorial, you will learn all the basics of the Appearance panel along with a lot of advanced techniques, tips, tricks, and secrets. You’ll even see how to accomplish the impossible using this amazingly powerful panel.

 

Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since. Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination. Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 23 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the ?go to? guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics. As an Adobe Certified Expert, he?s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Adobe InDesign CS4. Jeff is also a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6, which comes in handy in helping ?switchers? to make a smooth transition to InDesign. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, newspapers, illustrators, and photographers. Jeff writes for both Layers magazine and InDesign magazine and has authored and been the Instructor for various training DVDs as well as online videos for both InDesign and Illustrator. He also writes online tutorials for www.LayersMagazine.com and is the author of ?Layers Magazine Tip of the Day,? which is received by nearly 20,000 subscribers each weekday.
>
Notice: We use cookies on our websites to give you a great online experience. If you keep browsing, we'll assume you're ok with this. For more information, see our privacy policy. By closing this banner, you agree to the use of cookies.I AGREENo