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lynda.com and vtc.com both have traning classes but they only teach the basics of software. I wish I could do more for the illy crowd but that will be coming one day...
I think he meant "illy crowd" as in "people who use illustrator"
I think taking a class at a local community college might help, or even searching for online tutorials.
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Rodney Blackwell - It's Member Appreciate Month - see how to get involved! PrinterListings.com: a place find, rate, and review custom t-shirt printing businesses
You could also click on the "illustrator tag" and read through some of the informative adobe illustrator related topics.
I don't even have Illustrator, and I've learned a thing or two from some of the recent tutorials that Randy (feilong) has posted
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Rodney Blackwell - It's Member Appreciate Month - see how to get involved! PrinterListings.com: a place find, rate, and review custom t-shirt printing businesses
Go to google and search illustrator tutorials. Even on the things you aren't exactly looking to do; the more you work in the program the more familiar everything will become and overtime you will become more proficient. It doesn't happen overnight but just stay on top of it and over time it will pay off. Take baby steps. One building block will lead to another. Good luck!
There are also some great books out there that help. But nothing beats using it and experimenting with it. Don't worry, you'll get better as time goes on.
I would like to get better using Illustrator, but I'm terrible, and I don't know what to do for anything. Any suggestions or tips or something?
Hahaha! Not laughing at you, Cameron - it's just that I sense your frustration and can completely identify with it!
I think all the suggestions posted are appropriate, and for me, Dickiejones' comments especially ring true. I bought the fairly pricey Adobe Illustrator Classroom In A Book, and while working through it certainly helps with the big picture, I have found looking up tasks as I needed to complete them while working on an actual design to be most helpful. Sometimes I use the Classroom in a Book text, but more often I google to find tips or a tute online, and often end up learning other stuff in the process - and sometimes incorporating this unexpected new knowledge into my design (hey, don't laugh folks - they say some of the best art happens by accident!).
Like you, I found the early stages of learning VERY difficult with Illustrator, and felt that I was getting nowhere, but bit by bit the mist is clearing, and I now have a few designs completed that somehow have worked out quite well (at least to my biased and inexpert perception!). The key, as others have said, is to just push on and keep persisting.
I have to say though, as one who has reasonably easily picked up web design and hard disk recording software like FrontPage and Cool Edit Pro, I think Illustrator is far less "intuitive" than any other software program I have encountered. Bloody steep learning curve! Fascinating, though, just to glimpse the amazing design potential of this program (and PhotoShop).
I bought the fairly pricey Adobe Illustrator Classroom In A Book, and while working through it certainly helps with the big picture, I have found looking up tasks as I needed to complete them while working on an actual design to be most helpful.
I learned Illy the old way (on Illustrator 6) just messin around and figuring it out. I learned it welll enough to land my first graphics job many years ago. One of the artists I worked with (who actually went to school) showed me his book and I was impressed how easy itr was to follow. Now it will teach you the basic stuff to get up and running in the program, and I think this book is great for that. When you want to learn how to do some really killer stuff pick up one the Illustrator WOW books, those have some killer tricks in there. I learned Illy on my own and then picked up a ton tricks on the way (it helped that I work in the graphic industry and learned alot from my peers) but these days with the programs having so much in them, it would be a very hard task to pick up a program and learn it without some good direction.
i used an earlier version of a book entitled "Illustrator CS2 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)" when i was in school. it's inexpensive and very comprehensive. you can find it on amazon for less than $20.
i would say focus your attention on the pen tool. it's the backbone of the whole program. once you've got that down, everything else is cake.
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." Groucho Marx
As mentioned above, it takes alot of time to really learn this stuff. My frustration came when I would design something and thought it was cool. Then I look at designs that other guys are doing and it blows your mind at first. It makes you doubt yourself but you have to hang on in there.
YouTube. From this and the aforementioned you have quite a bit of homework. Schedule time for yourself, as if these tutorials were your teachers in school. Do it as homework. Don't try to squeeze it in. Make the time. Remove distractions.
Seems the crowd here would be willing to serve as a sounding board when you have specific questions. I love this place.
Any ideas on how to better learn Illustrator? 
