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- [Instructor] All right, now it's time



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to transition from libraries to actions.



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And as I was saying in the intro,



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an action is a recorded

sequence of operations



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that you can playback with a single click.



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And so in this movie, we're

going to use one of the actions



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that ships with Illustrator

to take this image,



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which we've seen before,



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I've just changed up the color scheme,



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and we're going to mask it

inside of the hot metal type



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in order to create this effect right here.



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And incidentally, in case

you're curious about the title,



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Untethered assets, the

idea is that I've removed



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all of the links to the Creative Cloud



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so that you can use this

file without any problem.



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All right, so to record

or playback an action,



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you go up to the Window menu

and choose the Actions command



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to bring up the Actions panel.



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At which point, you'll

see at least one folder



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that reads Default Actions.



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This folder is known as an action set



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and you have to have it in

order to create actions.



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Now notice if you twirl this guy open,



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you'll reveal a bunch of

prerecorded actions here,



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most of which are very simple.



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For example, this Revert

action, if you twirl it open,



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it shows you that all it does



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is playback the Revert command.



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This action probably isn't one

of the most stellar examples,



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which is why we're going to

drop-down to this guy right here,



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Unite (selection).



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And the fact that we're seeing



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the word selection right there



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indicates that you have to have selected



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some portion of your artwork

for this action to work.



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At which point, if you twirl it open,



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you can see that it references

the Pathfinder panel



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and it goes ahead and

applies the Unite operation.



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Let me show you one potential

use for that action.



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I'll go ahead and hide

the panel for a moment



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and then, armed with my black arrow tool,



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I'll go ahead and partially marquee



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all of these path outlines right here



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to select that gray hot metal type.



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Next, what you want to do

is turn that image layer on



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and then notice this red square right here



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on the far right side of the Layers panel,



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that indicates a selected object.



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You'll want to copy those

objects by pressing the Alt key



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or the Option key on the Mac,



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and dragging them upward like so.



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And notice that I'm seeing a plus sign



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next to my pointing finger cursor.



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That shows me that I am

going to copy those paths



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as opposed to move them.



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Now we need to unite them together,



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and so I'll bring back the Actions panel,



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which you can get by clicking

on that Play icon right there.



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And then I'll just click

on this Unite item.



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And I'll drop down to the

Play button and click on it



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and it just goes ahead and

plays that Unite operation.



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It's not necessarily wildly easier



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than bringing up the Pathfinder panel,



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but it is convenient



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if you already have the

Actions panel on screen.



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All right, now notice that

we have this big shape here



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with a couple of items inside of it.



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To get rid of that extra stuff,



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go up to the Object menu,



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drop all the way down to Compound Path



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and choose Release.



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And then Shift + Click on

this outer path right there



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to deselect it, which

leaves these guys selected,



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at which point, just

press the Backspace key



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or the Delete key on the

Mac to get rid of them.



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Then go over here to the Layers panel,



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just make sure the image layer is selected



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and then drop-down to

this little icon on here,



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which reads Make Release Clipping Mask



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and go ahead and click

on it in order to convert



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that united path into a

mask for the entire layer.



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Then go ahead and target the layer



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by clicking on this meatball



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and go up here to the Opacity

option in the control panel,



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click on it, and then

switch the Blend mode



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from Normal to Overlay in order

to produce this effect here.



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And then finally, you can

just press Control + Shift + A



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or Command + Shift + A in the

Mac to deselect the artwork.



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All right, now let me

show you another example.



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I'm going to bring up the

Brushes panel right here



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and notice that we have

quite a few brushes



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that are disposable,

none of which we're using



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in this particular piece of artwork.



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Same with the Symbols panel.



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We've got five default symbols



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in the case of this illustration



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and we've got a handful of Graphic Styles,



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none of which are doing us any good.



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We also have a whole bunch of swatches.



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The reason I bring that up



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is if you bring back the Actions panel



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and twirl close Unite action,



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just to save a little bit of space here,



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notice we got this one



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that's called Delete Unused Panel Items.



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If you twirl it open, you'll

see that the action starts



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by getting rid of the

stuff in the Symbols panel,



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then Graphic Styles, then the Brush panel,



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and then finally the Swatches panel.



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And I want you to notice the name here,



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Delete Unused Panel Items,



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so only the unused stuff gets thrown away.



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And so I'm going to go ahead

and select this action,



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and I'll drop-down to the

Play icon and click on it



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but before I do, I want you to keep an eye



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on what's happening here

inside the Actions panel.



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Notice after I click Play, we

can see the Action playback,



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so you see every one of

those steps highlight.



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After which point, you'll

notice that the Brush panel



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is now very nearly empty.



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We just had that one

default calligraphic brush.



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The Symbols panel is altogether empty



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and the Graphic Style panel

just has this one default.



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We've also lost a lot of our swatches.



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Now let's say I don't

want to lose the swatches,



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the good news is that was

the last operation applied.



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So once again, if I was to

bring back the Actions panel,



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swatches were the last

things to get thrown away.



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And so all I need to do to bring them back



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is press Control + Z here on the PC



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or Command + Z on the Mac.



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And so that's my introduction

to the Actions panel.



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In the next movie,



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I'll show you how to record

an action of your own.