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- [Voiceover] In this movie,

we will meet layers panel.



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Now some of this is gonna be stuff



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that we've reviewed in future movies,



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as well as the fundamentals course.



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And some of the stuff will

be brand new information,



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little known information as well.



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Now we're looking at this

piece of art that I made



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in the style of this

guy named Dan Paladin,



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who among other things was the lead artist



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for this really great,

really hilarious game



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called Castle Crashers.



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Now notice that I have

just launched the program,



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for what it's worth.



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And you can see that I've got this



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huge colors panel going right here,



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I don't want it to be that big,



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what I want to do is make it smaller.



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And notice I can't drag these

horizontal boundaries at all,



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so I don't have any control

over what's going on here.



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And also I'm not seeing my layers



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here inside the layers panel.



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And this happens a lot when

you first launch Illustrator.



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The culprit is that the layers

panel is coming up collapsed,



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and if that happens to

you, all you need to do



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is double-click on the layers tab,



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and then that will expand the layers panel



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and it'll give you control over how big



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you want to make these panels once again.



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So, just in case you

run into that problem.



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I run into it all the time,



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so I imagine you might as well.



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Alright, so notice that we have these eyes



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in front of each one of the layers,



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and these are great for being able to



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hide and show layers of course.



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But, the reason it's so

great that you can do that



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is because it gives you a chance



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to try to figure out what's going on



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in a specific piece of art work.



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Whether it was created by someone else



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and you're taking it over



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Or, it might have been created by you.



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I have created stuff, since 1987



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I've been using this program.



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So I have thousands, literally

thousands of documents.



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And so I'm often unclear



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in how I created a piece

in the first place.



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And so you can either just turn an eye off



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in order to hide that layer



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or turn it back on of course.



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Or if you alter option click on an eye



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you'll turn off everything

but that one layer,



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and then you can Alt or Option click again



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to turn all the other layers back on.



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But what's good about working this way



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is I typically start at

the back of the stack,



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this isn't a particularly complex document



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in terms of the number

of layers it possesses,



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although it's complex in

terms of it's implementation.



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But let's say I decide to

Alt click or Option click



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on the eye in front of the back layer,



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now I know that it contains,



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if I zoom out here a little bit



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by pressing control zero,



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it contains a big purple rectangle



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as well as this text



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that's been converted to path outlines.



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We also have this aura layer right here,



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and then a body layer which

contains these things,



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and the head, and that

completes the document



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so that gives me a sense



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of how it's put together.



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Alright, I'm going to go ahead

and press Control + Plus,



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or Command + Plus on

a Mac to zoom back in.



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And now let's say I want

to create a new layer



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to contain the text so that I'm separating



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the text from the purple background.



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Well, there's a couple of different ways



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to create a new layer.



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One is to click on the layer



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onto which you want to put the new layer,



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and then go over here



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to the layers panel fly out

menu and choose new layer



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and that brings the layer

options dialogue box



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which allows you to name the layer



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and assign it a color and

we'll come to that in a second.



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I'm going to cancel out here



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because my preferred method



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is to drop down to the

little page icon here



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at the bottom of the layers panel,



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and not click on it because

that will just create



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a default layer like so,



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and then I'd have to double

click on it to modify it.



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Instead, press the Alt key



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or the Option key on the Mac



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and click on that little new layer icon,



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and notice that the back

layer became selected there



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which is why I'm creating this new layer



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in the wrong location.



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So, I'll just go ahead an cancel out



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and I'll click on the head layer instead,



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and then Alt or Option click



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on the little page icon



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to bring up the layer

options dialogue box,



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and I'll give it a name of text,



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and I'll change it's

color to whatever I like.



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So you have a lot of color

options available to you,



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and I'll tell you what that's all about



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in just a moment here,



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but I'm just going to go with light blue



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because I haven't used that.



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You can also click on custom,



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if you want to dial in

your own custom color.



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I almost never do that,



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because we got a pretty wide array



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of colors to work with here.



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So, I'll just go ahead

and click light blue,



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and then click OK in order

to create that new layer.



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We'll put the text on the

layer in the next movie,



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for now we just have it sitting here.



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I want you to know, one other option



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that's available to you,



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Let's say I want to put my signature



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on it's own independent layer as well,



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because it's an imported image file.



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And this gives me a chance



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to also show you a different way



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to create a new layer,



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there is a keyboard shortcut



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and it's Control + L or

Command + L on the Mac,



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of course the L being for layer.



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But notice what it does,



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the body layer is selected,



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if I press Control + L or Command + L



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I create a default layer way up here



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at the top of the stack,



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so it has no reference to the layer



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that was formerly selected



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that's why you can also add the Option key



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or the Alt key on the Mac,

but it does a weird thing.



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I'll go ahead and undo that change.



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Notice as soon as I

press Control + Alt + L,



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or Command + Option + L,

the body layer is selected



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Control + Alt or Command + Option + L



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will create a new layer,



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bring up the layer options dialogue box,



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but the new layer is occurring underneath



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the previously active layer right there.



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And that's because if you Control + Alt,



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or Command + Option click

on the little page icon,



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instead of creating a layer

on top of the active layer



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you'll create one below, and

so that's the weird thing



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about that keyboard shortcut



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which is why I have not mentioned

it prior to this moment,



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but it is an option

that's available to you.



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And so I'll just go ahead

and call this guy Sig,



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and then I'll change it's color



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to let's say tan would be lovely,



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and then click OK.



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And now the reason these

colors are so useful by the way



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is not because they somehow

colorize the objects on a layer,



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but rather if I were to click on this text



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for example once again.



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I'll see that its anchor points are red,



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and that tells me these objects



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are residing on the red layer,



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which is the back layer



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as I can clearly and quickly see



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here inside the layers panel.



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And so those are a few basic things



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you should know about the layers panel:



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how to expand it if it's

accidentally collapsed,



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how you hide and show layers,



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and finally how you create layers



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both on top of and in

back of existing layers



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here inside Illustrator.