1 00:00:00.04 --> 00:00:02.09 - [Voiceover] In this movie we'll talk about stacking order. 2 00:00:02.09 --> 00:00:04.06 Which is, quite simply, the order in which 3 00:00:04.06 --> 00:00:07.06 individual objects and entire layers are stacked 4 00:00:07.06 --> 00:00:11.00 from the back of your illustration all the way to the front. 5 00:00:11.00 --> 00:00:13.05 So, let's say my text layer is selected, 6 00:00:13.05 --> 00:00:15.02 which is currently at the top of the stack. 7 00:00:15.02 --> 00:00:17.04 And I decide to switch to the Blob Brush. 8 00:00:17.04 --> 00:00:19.07 Which, if you went ahead and customized your shortcuts 9 00:00:19.07 --> 00:00:22.08 along with me back in chapter 11 of the Fundamentals Course, 10 00:00:22.08 --> 00:00:25.09 has a short cut of B for brush. 11 00:00:25.09 --> 00:00:28.00 All right, so I've made my cursor pretty big 12 00:00:28.00 --> 00:00:30.01 by pressing the right bracket key a few times. 13 00:00:30.01 --> 00:00:31.07 And now let's say I just decide to paint 14 00:00:31.07 --> 00:00:34.08 a random brushstroke, and it appears in black. 15 00:00:34.08 --> 00:00:36.05 All right, now I'm gonna switch to a different color. 16 00:00:36.05 --> 00:00:38.05 Let's say this shade of green right here, 17 00:00:38.05 --> 00:00:39.05 doesn't really matter. 18 00:00:39.05 --> 00:00:40.04 Press the Enter key, 19 00:00:40.04 --> 00:00:43.00 and then I'll paint a new brushstroke. 20 00:00:43.00 --> 00:00:46.03 And notice the new one appears in front of the old one. 21 00:00:46.03 --> 00:00:48.07 So every time you draw something in Illustrator 22 00:00:48.07 --> 00:00:51.05 it's appearing at the top of the stack. 23 00:00:51.05 --> 00:00:53.08 But that doesn't mean it's the top object 24 00:00:53.08 --> 00:00:55.05 in your entire document. 25 00:00:55.05 --> 00:00:58.06 And so, this time I'm gonna switch to yellow, let's say, 26 00:00:58.06 --> 00:01:01.04 and now I'll draw a really big brushstroke like so, 27 00:01:01.04 --> 00:01:03.04 and it appears in front of the text 28 00:01:03.04 --> 00:01:06.04 because I'm working on the text layer. 29 00:01:06.04 --> 00:01:08.03 Compare that to what happens if I go ahead 30 00:01:08.03 --> 00:01:09.07 and undo that brushstroke, 31 00:01:09.07 --> 00:01:12.07 and I instead switch to the head layer right here, 32 00:01:12.07 --> 00:01:14.09 and I again paint my brushstroke. 33 00:01:14.09 --> 00:01:17.00 It looks like I'm painting over the text, 34 00:01:17.00 --> 00:01:20.01 but as soon as I release, it goes behind the text. 35 00:01:20.01 --> 00:01:21.07 And that's because you're always working 36 00:01:21.07 --> 00:01:24.04 within the confines of the active layer. 37 00:01:24.04 --> 00:01:26.09 And so now, if I were to switch to, let's say 38 00:01:26.09 --> 00:01:28.06 this shade of purple right here, 39 00:01:28.06 --> 00:01:30.08 and then paint yet another brushstroke. 40 00:01:30.08 --> 00:01:33.01 It's going to initially, as I'm painting it, 41 00:01:33.01 --> 00:01:36.01 appear to be at the very front of the document. 42 00:01:36.01 --> 00:01:37.05 But as soon as I release, 43 00:01:37.05 --> 00:01:41.02 it resolves as being at the top of the active layer. 44 00:01:41.02 --> 00:01:43.05 So in other words, in front of the yellow brushstroke, 45 00:01:43.05 --> 00:01:46.01 but in back of the text. 46 00:01:46.01 --> 00:01:48.01 You can, however, change the stacking order 47 00:01:48.01 --> 00:01:50.05 any time you like by pressing the V key 48 00:01:50.05 --> 00:01:52.03 to switch back to the black arrow tool 49 00:01:52.03 --> 00:01:54.00 up here at the top of the tool box. 50 00:01:54.00 --> 00:01:55.04 And then select the object 51 00:01:55.04 --> 00:01:57.06 that you wanna send backward or forward. 52 00:01:57.06 --> 00:02:00.02 And right click anywhere inside the document window. 53 00:02:00.02 --> 00:02:02.09 You don't have to right click on the object itself. 54 00:02:02.09 --> 00:02:04.09 Then, drop down to Arrange, 55 00:02:04.09 --> 00:02:07.08 and notice that you have these various options to work with. 56 00:02:07.08 --> 00:02:11.00 Starting with Bring to Front, and ending with Send to Back. 57 00:02:11.00 --> 00:02:12.09 So let's say I choose Bring to Front. 58 00:02:12.09 --> 00:02:14.02 That's gonna bring the object 59 00:02:14.02 --> 00:02:16.09 to the front of the active layer. 60 00:02:16.09 --> 00:02:18.06 So it's not gonna move it from the head layer 61 00:02:18.06 --> 00:02:19.07 to any other layer. 62 00:02:19.07 --> 00:02:22.03 If I wanted that to happen I would have to do so manually 63 00:02:22.03 --> 00:02:24.05 by dragging that little square 64 00:02:24.05 --> 00:02:26.08 up or down the stack, like so. 65 00:02:26.08 --> 00:02:28.04 Of course, that's not what I want. 66 00:02:28.04 --> 00:02:30.05 So, I'll press Ctrl + Z, or Cmd + Z on the Mac, 67 00:02:30.05 --> 00:02:32.02 to undo that change. 68 00:02:32.02 --> 00:02:33.05 The thing you really wanna know 69 00:02:33.05 --> 00:02:35.04 about Bring to Front or Send to Back, 70 00:02:35.04 --> 00:02:37.04 besides their, I think, fairly obvious meanings. 71 00:02:37.04 --> 00:02:39.03 If I go ahead choose Send to Back, 72 00:02:39.03 --> 00:02:42.04 I will send this object to the back of the active layer. 73 00:02:42.04 --> 00:02:45.06 Which is too far back, as you can see right here, 74 00:02:45.06 --> 00:02:47.03 because I've moved his face back 75 00:02:47.03 --> 00:02:49.04 behind this little edge right there. 76 00:02:49.04 --> 00:02:51.09 So what I'd need to do is right click, once again, 77 00:02:51.09 --> 00:02:53.05 anywhere inside the document window. 78 00:02:53.05 --> 00:02:56.03 Choose a range and choose Bring Forward, 79 00:02:56.03 --> 00:02:58.08 in order to nudge that guy forward. 80 00:02:58.08 --> 00:03:00.04 That is not to the front of the stack, 81 00:03:00.04 --> 00:03:04.00 but just one object forward inside this layer. 82 00:03:04.00 --> 00:03:06.03 Now, a lot of folks will caution you, you know what, 83 00:03:06.03 --> 00:03:08.03 you don't ever wanna use those options. 84 00:03:08.03 --> 00:03:11.04 Instead, what you wanna do is do a cut. 85 00:03:11.04 --> 00:03:14.04 Followed by either a Paste in Front or a Paste in Back. 86 00:03:14.04 --> 00:03:16.05 Because that way you're changing the stacking order 87 00:03:16.05 --> 00:03:18.07 relative to the existing document. 88 00:03:18.07 --> 00:03:20.01 And so, I might do that. 89 00:03:20.01 --> 00:03:21.02 I'll go ahead and choose cut. 90 00:03:21.02 --> 00:03:24.02 Or you can press Ctrl + X, or Cmd + X on the Mac. 91 00:03:24.02 --> 00:03:26.04 And then, I might click on an object that, 92 00:03:26.04 --> 00:03:29.01 obviously, the face needs to be behind. 93 00:03:29.01 --> 00:03:32.08 And then, I'll go up to Edit menu and choose Paste in Back. 94 00:03:32.08 --> 00:03:36.04 Or I can press Ctrl + B, or Cmd + B on the Mac. 95 00:03:36.04 --> 00:03:38.09 But, that doesn't really do the trick for us. 96 00:03:38.09 --> 00:03:40.08 That puts things in the wrong location. 97 00:03:40.08 --> 00:03:42.07 And my experience over time has been, 98 00:03:42.07 --> 00:03:45.02 the more complicated your document becomes, 99 00:03:45.02 --> 00:03:47.06 the less you can afford to rely on Paste in Front 100 00:03:47.06 --> 00:03:49.02 and Paste in Back. 101 00:03:49.02 --> 00:03:51.07 Which is why these relative options here, 102 00:03:51.07 --> 00:03:55.05 Right click, Arrange, Bring Forward and Send Backward 103 00:03:55.05 --> 00:03:57.04 have their own keyboard shortcuts 104 00:03:57.04 --> 00:03:59.04 that I really urge you to memorize. 105 00:03:59.04 --> 00:04:02.01 They're Ctrl or Cmd, depending on your platform, 106 00:04:02.01 --> 00:04:04.04 and one of the square bracket keys. 107 00:04:04.04 --> 00:04:06.09 And these are the keys just to the right 108 00:04:06.09 --> 00:04:10.03 of the P as in Paul key on an American keyboard. 109 00:04:10.03 --> 00:04:13.02 So Ctrl + right bracket is going to bring 110 00:04:13.02 --> 00:04:14.06 the object forward. 111 00:04:14.06 --> 00:04:16.00 Ctrl + left bracket, 112 00:04:16.00 --> 00:04:18.01 that would be Cmd + left bracket on the Mac, 113 00:04:18.01 --> 00:04:19.07 is gonna send it backward. 114 00:04:19.07 --> 00:04:21.04 Again, one object. 115 00:04:21.04 --> 00:04:23.03 If you wanna send it all the way back. 116 00:04:23.03 --> 00:04:24.05 All I'm doing, by the way, 117 00:04:24.05 --> 00:04:26.04 is repeating the keyboard shortcuts 118 00:04:26.04 --> 00:04:29.07 that you can see for yourself inside of this submenu. 119 00:04:29.07 --> 00:04:31.06 But if you wanna send things all the way to back 120 00:04:31.06 --> 00:04:34.02 you would press Ctrl + Shift + left bracket, 121 00:04:34.02 --> 00:04:36.00 that's Cmd + Shift + left bracket on a Mac. 122 00:04:36.00 --> 00:04:37.07 To send it all the way forward, 123 00:04:37.07 --> 00:04:41.00 press Ctrl + Shift or Cmd + Shift + right bracket. 124 00:04:41.00 --> 00:04:42.04 Now, I've really messed things up, of course, 125 00:04:42.04 --> 00:04:44.07 so what I'm gonna do is send it all the way back, 126 00:04:44.07 --> 00:04:46.08 which is Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + left bracket, 127 00:04:46.08 --> 00:04:49.07 and then I'm gonna nudge it forward just one object 128 00:04:49.07 --> 00:04:52.03 by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + right bracket, 129 00:04:52.03 --> 00:04:54.05 and that ends up being the proper location 130 00:04:54.05 --> 00:04:56.06 for this specific object. 131 00:04:56.06 --> 00:04:57.07 All right, you can also adjust 132 00:04:57.07 --> 00:04:59.08 the stacking order of entire layers. 133 00:04:59.08 --> 00:05:03.02 And you do that just by dragging and dropping layers 134 00:05:03.02 --> 00:05:05.02 here inside the Layers panel. 135 00:05:05.02 --> 00:05:07.02 So notice if I drag the body layer 136 00:05:07.02 --> 00:05:08.04 in front of the head layer, 137 00:05:08.04 --> 00:05:10.02 I get this effect here. 138 00:05:10.02 --> 00:05:12.01 I could drag the aura layer all the way up 139 00:05:12.01 --> 00:05:14.06 so it's covering up these two layers. 140 00:05:14.06 --> 00:05:17.00 You can also move multiple layers at a time. 141 00:05:17.00 --> 00:05:19.06 So let's say I wanna grab both the body layer 142 00:05:19.06 --> 00:05:20.06 and the head layer. 143 00:05:20.06 --> 00:05:22.05 I click on one, Shift + click on the other, 144 00:05:22.05 --> 00:05:26.00 and then drag them and drop them above the aura layer. 145 00:05:26.00 --> 00:05:28.01 A couple of things to be careful about, 146 00:05:28.01 --> 00:05:30.00 obviously, at this point, I need the head layer 147 00:05:30.00 --> 00:05:31.09 to be in front of the body layer. 148 00:05:31.09 --> 00:05:33.09 But, notice what happens if I drag it 149 00:05:33.09 --> 00:05:35.08 and then drop it in the middle. 150 00:05:35.08 --> 00:05:38.01 I will go ahead and drop the head layer 151 00:05:38.01 --> 00:05:41.01 inside the body layer, at which point, 152 00:05:41.01 --> 00:05:42.04 notice it disappeared, 153 00:05:42.04 --> 00:05:46.00 I have to twirl open the body layer to find the head layer, 154 00:05:46.00 --> 00:05:49.03 which is now a sublayer inside the body layer. 155 00:05:49.03 --> 00:05:51.04 Now, I'm not a big fan of sub-layers. 156 00:05:51.04 --> 00:05:53.06 I think you're better off working inside groups 157 00:05:53.06 --> 00:05:55.06 if you're looking for yet another container 158 00:05:55.06 --> 00:05:57.05 inside of a layer. 159 00:05:57.05 --> 00:06:00.03 And one of the big reasons is, notice how I've gone 160 00:06:00.03 --> 00:06:03.05 and messed up the coloring of all the objects 161 00:06:03.05 --> 00:06:05.04 inside the body layer. 162 00:06:05.04 --> 00:06:07.06 They are now gold like the head layer. 163 00:06:07.06 --> 00:06:08.08 Which is not what I want. 164 00:06:08.08 --> 00:06:10.05 So, I'm just gonna drag this head layer 165 00:06:10.05 --> 00:06:14.01 and drop it out in between the text and body layers. 166 00:06:14.01 --> 00:06:15.09 And now, it exists as a separate layer 167 00:06:15.09 --> 00:06:19.02 in the proper stacking order inside this illustration. 168 00:06:19.02 --> 00:06:21.04 The color of the objects inside the body layer 169 00:06:21.04 --> 00:06:24.06 are still messed up and you can fix that by twirling closed 170 00:06:24.06 --> 00:06:27.03 that body layer and then twirling it back open. 171 00:06:27.03 --> 00:06:29.07 At which point, everything should look correct again. 172 00:06:29.07 --> 00:06:31.07 All right, another thing to bear in mind 173 00:06:31.07 --> 00:06:36.05 is that layers span artboards inside of Illustrator. 174 00:06:36.05 --> 00:06:38.09 So if I go ahead and switch over to this document. 175 00:06:38.09 --> 00:06:40.08 Notice that I've changed the coloring scheme 176 00:06:40.08 --> 00:06:42.04 of that Wizard of Oz excerpt 177 00:06:42.04 --> 00:06:44.08 from chapter eight of the Fundamentals Course. 178 00:06:44.08 --> 00:06:47.08 And I've also added some coloring inside the Scarecrow 179 00:06:47.08 --> 00:06:50.02 that exists on this green layer right here. 180 00:06:50.02 --> 00:06:52.05 Now obviously, if I accidentally drag and drop 181 00:06:52.05 --> 00:06:54.04 this guy above the Tin man layer, 182 00:06:54.04 --> 00:06:55.06 I'm gonna notice that, 183 00:06:55.06 --> 00:06:57.05 and I'm gonna think "Okay, that was wrong." 184 00:06:57.05 --> 00:06:59.03 So, I'll just grab the Tin Man layer 185 00:06:59.03 --> 00:07:01.06 and put him on top of the green layer, 186 00:07:01.06 --> 00:07:03.06 and everything's the way it should be. 187 00:07:03.06 --> 00:07:06.02 Well, this document contains multiple artboards. 188 00:07:06.02 --> 00:07:09.02 And so, if I were to press Shift + page down 189 00:07:09.02 --> 00:07:11.02 in order to advance to the second artboard, 190 00:07:11.02 --> 00:07:12.06 everything's gonna look fine. 191 00:07:12.06 --> 00:07:15.02 But if I press Shift + page down again, 192 00:07:15.02 --> 00:07:17.04 I'm gonna see that my green fill 193 00:07:17.04 --> 00:07:19.08 now exists in front of the Scarecrow. 194 00:07:19.08 --> 00:07:21.05 And of course, the solution in that case 195 00:07:21.05 --> 00:07:22.09 is to grab the Scarecrow layer 196 00:07:22.09 --> 00:07:27.04 and drag it and drop it above the green layer, like so. 197 00:07:27.04 --> 00:07:29.04 And that, friends, is my whirlwind tour 198 00:07:29.04 --> 00:07:31.06 of everything related to stacking order. 199 00:07:31.06 --> 00:07:34.07 Whether we're talking about objects inside of a layer 200 00:07:34.07 --> 00:07:37.00 or entire layers with respect to each other. 201 00:07:37.00 --> 00:07:39.01 Here, inside Illustrator.