Understanding the powerful Pen tool in Affinity Designer with its different modes,
actions, and gestures will help you draw any artwork
for your own projects. Welcome everyone I'm your host, Elias Sarantopoulos.
So inside Affinity Designer and looking at the layers panel I have already created a bunch of
different examples in separate layers to help you understand the different concepts using
the Pen tool. With the Pen tool selected and up in the Context Toolbar I can tap across to view
the different modes or I can tap the word, open the drop down menu and select one of the modes.
The first Pen tool mode we are going to explore from the list is the Line mode .
The Line mode draws single segment straight lines that self-terminate.
So I will go ahead tap and drag to create a bunch of independent straight lines that self-terminate.
I will remove those by tapping the Trash icon on the Tools panel and talk about gestures we
can use to control some of these behaviors. So still on the Line mode, I will start drawing and
with a two-finger hold onto the canvas I can constrain the movement to 45 degree increments.
Another way is to tap on the Command Controller center button and then tap again to lock the SHIFT
modifier and do the same constraining the movement to 45 degree increments. To release the Shift
modifier, tap again or change to a different tool. Another gesture is when I start drawing with a
four-finger hold onto the canvas I can change the starting point of each line as it has been created.
The next pen tool mode to explore is the Polygon mode. The Polygon mode
draws straight lines with sharp nodes and shapes with straight edges and no curves.
So I will go ahead tap and add a bunch of anchor points and as you can see here we have an open
path which means we have a line with two endpoints. For the second example we have a closed path.
A closed path is a closed shape with no endpoints. For that again I will activate the Pen tool, I will
add a bunch of anchor points and I'm going to misplace those paths on purpose to show you how
to align them using the Node Snapping controls. Now since this is a closed path all we have to do is
tap on the very first anchor point to close that up. As for the Snapping control I mentioned earlier,
up in the Control bar I will tap on the Node Snapping options and activate the Snap to Nodes.
Snap to Nodes will snap any node you drag to any other node on the same or a different curve.
So with the Pen tool still selected, I'll tap on the Command Controller, lock
the Command modifier and I will start aligning paths together. The horizontal
red line indicates horizontal snapping and the vertical green line indicates vertical snapping.
The next mode we are going to explore is the Pen mode. In this example we have a combination of
Curves with Corner Points and by the way a smooth point is a point made up of two linked controller
handles. First I will tap and drag to create a smooth point with this two linked controller
handles, before I release with a four finger hold onto the canvas I can change the starting point
which will allow me to reposition the anchor point. Now by just using a two-finger modifier,
I will constrain the control handles to 45 degree increments. I can do the same using the Command
Controller by locking the Shift modifier and constrain the movement to 45 degree increments.
The following point is a corner point with no directional handles, all I have to do is
just tap once and create one. Now the upcoming point is a smooth point so we need to get the
control handle out of this anchor points, in this case I will use the Command Controller
to lock the Option modifier, change the direction of the control handle and also add a one-finger
hold to constrain the control handle to 45 degree increments. Now this is known as a cusp point where
two control handles are not locked into alignment to each other, forcing the nodes into a sharp point.
The next point once again is a corner point without directional handles.
So I'm just going to tap once and create one, next we have a curve coming up so to get the handle
out of it I will just use the Command Controller to lock the Option and Shift modifiers, change the
direction of the control handle and constrain the movement to 45 degree increments. I will
release the modifiers in the Command Controller and tap once to create the last corner point.
In this next example we have a combination of Curves with Straight Lines so let's see how that
works. Still with the Pen tool active I will tap and drag to create the first smooth point
with two linked control handles using a two-finger modifier to keep the handle straight and release.
The upcoming point is also a smooth point so I will create that using a two-finger hold
to constrain the movement and draw the curve. Next we have a corner point so I
will get the help of the Command Controller by locking the Option and Shift modifiers.
From the last anchor point I will pull out a control handle, I'll tap and drag, change its
direction, go right across and tap and drag to create a cusp point as covered on the previous
example. Since a curve is coming up with only the Shift modifier active, I will go right across and
create the next curve. Once again we have a straight segment so with the Option and Shift
modifiers active I'll get the control handle out, I'll tap and drag change its direction, go right
across and tap and drag to create a cusp point. So now I will release all modifiers, go right across
to create the curved path by using a two-finger hold onto the canvas to constrain the movement.
Alright so now that you are familiar with Pen tool gestures and modifiers here's another example
curves with Corner Points. With the Pen tool active I will create the first smooth point with two
linked control handles and release. Then I will go right across and create another smooth point.
Now with the Option modifier active, I'll tap on the last anchor point, add
a one-finger hold to keep a straight line and change the direction of the handle.
I will release all modifiers, tap and drag to create the curve using a two-finger hold. Still
with the Command Controller and with the Option and Shift modifiers active, I'll tap on the last
anchor point and change the direction of the control handle. With only the Shift modifier
active, I'll tap and drag to create a curve. And for this last part with both the Option and Shift
modifiers active, I'll tap on the last anchor point and change the direction of the handle.
Now with only the Shift modifier active, I'll tap and drag to create the curve.
The next Pen tool mode we are going to examine is the Smart mode. The Smart
mode will automatically create curves for you, nice flowing line shapes as smooth as possible.
In this example, I will just add three anchor points, one in the middle of the heart contour
shape, one to the right, and one at the bottom. So I'll go ahead grab the Node tool and notice when
I tap on each of the nodes formulating the curve, the control handles up here giving us
full control shaping the heart. Still with a Node tool active, I'll tap to select one node at
a time, adjust its control handle accordingly and formulate the heart shape using the Smart mode.
Now let's talk about some actions to manipulate curves and points.
So I'll go ahead grab the Move tool, select the existing path,
I'll turn on Snapping and with a three-finger hold, I'll duplicate it and bring it to the other side.
So now under the Transformations I'll also Flip this horizontally. So the next
step is to join those two paths to make them one curve using the Join command.
So inside the Layers panel I'll swipe to the right to select both paths, I'll grab the Node
tool, marquee select these two endpoints and up in the Control bar I'll use the join command.
I'll do the same for the bottom two anchor points, marquee select both and Join them as well
and now we have connected two separate curves together to make one curve.
Now let's talk about the Break and the Closed curve action. With Pen tool still active,
I'll tap and drag to create a smooth point and go right here to create a nice and smooth curve path.
I'll release everything and with the Option and Shift modifiers active, I'll tap and drag on this
last anchor point to change the direction of the control handle, I'll release the Option modifier
and go right across here and tap once to create the straight line.
Now in order to break the curve, I grab the Node tool, I'll select this node and up in the Control bar
I'll go ahead and use the Break command. The break command splits the nodes into two anchor points
one for this line and a one for the other line. So I go ahead marquee select these two nodes
with the Node tool and I'm also looking inside the Layers panel to make sure both of these curves
are selected and once again I'll go ahead and Join those two nodes. Now in order to close this curve
all I have to do is just tap on the very last node here and then up again on the Control bar,
I'll tap on the Close command which joins the start and end nodes to create an enclosed shape.
Other great actions to talk about is the Split and Reverse actions.
So I'll go ahead and create a nice and smooth curve like so and release. I grab the Node tool,
I'll select these nodes and up in the Control bar I'll go ahead and Split the curve.
Split adds a new node at the midpoint of the currently selected node, depending on the current
curve orientation. Now the current orientation is indicated by the red line at the endnote. I can
also reverse the curve by using the Reverse action to change the curve orientation and then once
again I use the Split command to split the curve, adding a new node at the midpoint of the currently
selected node. Now the orientation has changed as indicated by the red line at the beginning nodes.
The Preserve Selection keeps the previously drawn curve selected
so that their nodes and geometry can be more easily snapped to as you draw additional curves.
So with the Pen tool selected, I am just going to create a simple shape here
and without the Preserved Selection active, I'll start creating an additional shape.
Notice as I do I loose all reference in terms of nodes and their placement from the previous shape.
So I'll go ahead and remove that shape here, the second one and activate The Preserve Selection
on the shape here and I'll start drawing again the second shape. And as I do notice that I can
see the nodes of the previous shape and I can continue drawing in reference to that.
The Add to Curves creates additional curves on the same layer as the initial curve.
So with the Pen tool active, I'll go ahead and create the first shape
and then go ahead and create another shape and looking inside the Layers panel as you
can see we have two curves. So I'll go ahead and remove the second curve and then activate
the Add to Curves and then continue drawing the second shape. Then looking in inside the Layers
panel the second path was drawn in the same layer and we can also see that by applying a Fill color. Elias Sarantopoulos 😊