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Most designs in Adobe XD consist of simple shapes, so learning how to draw shapes is one of the most important paths to expression.
Shortcut Keys
- Constrain from Center: Alt (Windows) / Option (Mac)
- Constrain Proportions: Shift
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Resources
Image Files - These are the image files we'll use throughout this course. Download this file, unzip it, and look for the photos folder.
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[MUSIC]
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Below the top bar that we created previously, we're going to add four boxes
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that will contain photos, labels, and prices for each trip that users can book.
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But we want to do this by only creating the first box and then repeating it.
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With the rectangle tool still selected, hover your mouse
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cursor toward the middle of the art board and down a bit from the top.
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You should see a smart guide appear that shows you the center of the art board.
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Start to click and drag a box, but don't release your mouse cursor just yet.
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While holding down the mouse button,
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also hold down the Alt key on Windows, or the Option key on Mac.
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This will constrain the rectangle so that it's centered on
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the origin of your click rather than drawing it from the corner.
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Now we're just going to leave the fill and
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border on this for now because we'll adjust those settings later.
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But let's draw out this box, maybe just like that.
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Back in the left side toolbar, choose the selection tool at the top.
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Using this tool, we can make adjustments to objects that are already created.
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If you don't like the position of your box,
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you can click and drag to reposition it.
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And if you don't like the dimensions of it, you can click and
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drag along the edges to resize it.
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The smart guides can help you center things like this but
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let's say you move something and it got a little bit off center like this.
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We could just move it back and use the smart guides, but
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with the rectangle still selected,
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we can also use the alignment tools in the upper right corner.
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On each of these icons, the bars and lines illustrate how
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multiple elements might be aligned with one another.
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To get this back to center, click the button that's third from
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the right with the line going down the middle.
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This will horizontally align any selected elements.
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Finally, I'm going to add a little profile circle in the upper right corner.
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We'll add the actual photo later, but for now,
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let's just draw a circle as a placeholder for the profile image.
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Select the ellipse tool on the left side tool bar.
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And then in the upper right corner, start to click and
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drag from the center where you want the circle to appear.
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Without releasing the mouse button, hold down the Alt key on Windows,
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and the Option key on Mac, to draw from the center.
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This will place the origin of the circle in the middle, and
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constrain the proportions.
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But there's still a problem,
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how do we know if a circle is perfectly circular and not an oval shape?
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In addition to the Alt or Options key, you can also hold down
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the shift key to make it a perfect 1:1 aspect ratio, so it's a circle.
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So I'm just gonna make this a little smaller than the toolbar like that and
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then release the mouse button.
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And then if you need to, you can move it around with the selection tool.
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Remember to save your work when you're done by hitting Ctrl+S on Windows or
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Cmd+S on Mac.
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This is a good start, next we'll add images, text and
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adjust the shape properties.
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