Trying to use Adobe Illustrator Magic Wand tool

[xarzu]

Hello Forum!

I am trying to use Adobe Illustrator and I am just about ready to give up. This is my first time, so I have some patience but it is running thin.

I am trying to use the magic wand tool to select an area. As this video I made shows, it does nothing when I select on the magic wand. I try to use the lasso tool first, but that does nothing as well:

On Adobe's web site, there is an ***** with a radio announcer's voice walking through the steps but I do not have any of the results that he has and I do not know why:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-ill...ol-to-select-colors-patterns-shapes-and-more/

He throws out "Adobe Illustrator is an Object Oriented software...." as if this is something new. Who is he trying to impress. Not me. The guy does not seem to be a real user of Adobe Illustrator and is only making the video to satisfy Adobe's desire to have a few tutorials in existence. It is disappointing. I think there are steps that this guy leaves off that clearly I need if you look at my video first.

Can you help?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Unfortunately I don't have experience with Adobe Illustrator. The program I work with has layers. If the layer with the object is not selected, the wand will not select correctly. I am confused as to why there is an object on the left side that looks as if it is selected. But yet you are trying to select an area on the right side.

 

[xarzu]

The image on the right was scanned in and so it is not made of objects or layers. The image on the left is one I am making from scratch. How cut a piece out of the image on the right?

 

[captaincranky]

Photoshop, (one has to assume Illustrator has this feature also) .has several modes of their selection tools. One of their functions is, "subtract from selection". Obviously, if the Magic Wand is locked in that mode, and there is no selection made, it won't do anything.

As was pointed out, the canvas has to be "hot", (selected), before you can do anything to it. So, just to be sure click on the canvas you're trying to copy from, before you do anything. You can confirm with selection with .the "Crtl A" command. That should give you the, "marching ants" at the boundaries of the canvas. (Crtl D, will then deselect the canvas so you can work on your real selection).

To go from one side to another should be a simple process, select the donor area, copy, (Ctrl C), select the canvas which will be receiving the selection, then, "paste", (Ctrl V).

 

[xarzu]

I think the blob brush tool is the next thing I am going to try. But, before that, let me tell you what I just tried:

I have opened the graphic file in Photoshop and then I used the lasso tool to select an area, and copy it. Then I tried to paste this into my illustrator image I am making. This almost worked but the background around the object was not transparent.

I made this small video to show what I am talking about:

I noticed that the background is a layer in the image I made in photoshop. I tried turning it off or making it invisible, but that did not help.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/Athono/hidebackground_zps0338ed4b.png

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/Athono/backgroundinphotoshop_zps04ea33fd.png

 

[tphinsf]

Xarzu,

Illustrator's selection tools are for vector objects, not elements of a bitmap image, which is what you're trying to select on the PNG image of the snowman. You can select a bitmap object, say, a placed bitmap image, but Illustrator will select the entire image, not pixels within the image.

If you're trying to recreate the coal "buttons" on the snowman, one approach would be to create a new layer over the PNG of the snowman, and use one of Illustrator's drawing tools to create the buttons, essentially use the snowman PNG as a tracing pattern.

There are multiple way to draw shapes in Illustrator, (Pen tool, Pencil tool, Shape tools, etc.) but you may want to try the Blog Brush tool to create simple shapes such as these. The Blob Brush (Shift + B), let's you create filled objects just by "sketching," paths of the same color will blend into a single object. You can control the size of the brush with the brackets keys [ ]. You can also switch tot he Eraser tool to shape your object.

You might want to check out this video to learn a bit more about the Blob Brush tool:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-illustrator-cs6/using-blob-brush-and-eraser/

The shapes you create can then easily be selected and copied to your vector snowman image.

Hope this helps.