Evil Nemesis

Hi , I'm totally un-awared from using Pen tool I've tried it some times but nothing fine :S for example I can't draw smooth lines with it. Can you tell me in example how to draw an apple with it? thanx

stanislav

Hi Evil Nemesis,

I was struggeling too with this tool until i watched a videotutorial from the W2k website.
See for yourself http://www.wz2k.co.uk/pages/download...toshop%20Video
If you are a beginner the http://www.wz2k.co.uk site provides lots of great video tutorials.

Lee

Great link, Stan. [righton]

The Coach

http://www.good-tutorials.com/search.php?q=paths


Practice, practice and practice, that's all I can advice you :B

retired_Craig

It is/can be a very confusing tool to use at first!! But once you get the hang of it, you may find that it is your best friend!! You can create smoother lines than you think. And as JoeD stated --

[righton]

Evil Nemesis

Sorry but that video tutorial doesn't make sense, it asks for 25 MB of codecs to be installed. And I'm on Dialup.

ladyfinger007

If video is too big for you, try this very good tutorial:

http://www.kromefx.com/index.php?pag...8b6bc5d2cafc31

Evil Nemesis

What if someone could gimme a practical tutorial, like creating something

Welles

This is just a little tutorial to make an apple shape in the easiest manner possible. It is not really a pen tool tutorial but may help get the idea across a little bit. In the setup make sure your vector tools are set to drawing Paths (#1). I also have the Auto Add/Delete cheked for simplicity of a later pen tool step (#3). My first step in creating an apple shape is to use the Oval Shape Tool (#2) and draw out a circle, easily done by holding down the Shift key to constrain the shape to a circle.

In the next image I'm creating the apple shape in the most simple manner. The order of the steps isn't important. After drawing the Shape, I went and activated the Pen Tool. When I use the Pen Tool I keep one hand on the mouse or stylus (if I'm using an art pad) and one hand on the keyboard. Two keys are really handy. With the pen tool active, holding down the Control (Command) key will turn the pen into the Direct Selection Tool and holding down the Alt (Option) key will turn the tool to the Convert Point Tool.

A. Move the pen tool over the path approximately where I'm showing and you will see a + appear which means you can add an anchor point. Add two new anchor points to your circular path.

B. I'm using the Direct Selection Tool to make the anchor point at the top of the circle active. Active anchor points are filled in. Inactive anchor points appear hollow.

C. Use the Convert Point Tool on each of the Control Handles and move them up. When you use the Convert Point Tool each of the handles can be moved separately. If you used the Direct Selection Tool, both control handles move together as ends of a straight line with the anchor point a fulcrum.

D. With the Direct Selection Tool click, one at a time, on the two anchor points added in step A and drag them down slightly.

E. Use the same click and drag upward on the two anchor points which were the 'sides' of the original circle.

For the final step I selected a red color and went to the Paths palette and clicked on the button at the bottom left to Fill path with foreground color. There's an apple!

Evil Nemesis

Welles I'm glad pplz like you are still on earth. I can't thanx 4 your help specially 4 me. Thanx alot [righton]