(upbeat music)
- Photoshop's pen tool,
are the key to creating vector paths, to draw shapes,
cut out objects, create masks,
and the best thing about making vector paths,
is that the resolution independent.
So I can scale them to any size
without losing any image quality.
Now, we're going to start with the curvature pen tool.
And what I love about the curvature pen tool,
is that I can just set down points
and then kind of bend those points
and pull them into any shape that I want.
So before we get started,
I'm actually going to choose the path selection tool
and under the select area,
I want to make sure that it's set to all layers.
Then I'll choose the curvature pen tool.
And then the way that it works, is that you just click
in order to start making the path.
Click again and that will set down a second point
and that path will always be straight
until you click on the third point.
Then it's going to curve the path,
and when you position your cursor over the starting point,
you get the icon with the zero, which will close the path.
So clicking will do that.
Now, if I want to reposition a point,
all I need to do is click and drag on that point.
If I want to add a point, just click anywhere on the path,
and then you can click and drag in order to reposition.
In order to delete a path, if it's selected,
meaning that the anchor point is solid blue,
just tap the delete key.
If I want to toggle between a curved and a corner point,
I can double click on any of the points.
I'll double click on that one.
And that one we can see now,
that we have the corner points there,
as opposed to the curve.
The reason that we selected the direct selection tool
and then set the option and the options bars to all layers,
is because this double click behavior won't work
if it's not set to all layers.
So what we're drawing is called a Bezier curve
and the paths that we draw are going to be vectored,
and the beauty of that is that they can be scaled
without any loss of quality.
I'm going to delete that first point and tap again
in order to delete the second point.
And I'll start by just clicking and putting down
a few points around the edge of the pear,
and I'll close that path.
Now, all I need to do is click and drag
wherever I need to add more points to change the path.
So I like to think about this as,
as if I have like a piece of string,
and all I'm doing is bending that string around.
So for example, I might not need the path at the top there,
and that way I could move this point over
and then we can make that shape.
So it's really just moving the points,
clicking in order to add another point,
and then refining the position of the points that you have.
And it doesn't have to be perfect here.
I just want to get the general shape of the pear.
I'll add another point there and bring that in
and then maybe just move this one out a bit,
and that one too.
I'm fine with that.
So what we've drawn is this Bezier curve over this path,
but I want to make it into a shape layer.
So on the options bar, I'll click shape.
That's going to fill it with my foreground color,
but I want to change that to a gradient.
So from my gradients panel,
I can click on a gradient and that would change it,
but this is giving me a linear gradient.
So I'm going to double click on the thumbnail
for the shape layer and just switch the style to radial.
I might want to reverse that.
And with all of the gradients in Photoshop,
when you're applying them like this,
you can click and drag in order to change
where the gradient is set.
And I can also come in here and scale it larger,
or scale it smaller.
So I'm going to leave it at about 144, and click okay.
Now, let's hide that shape while we draw the stem.
So here we have a mix of corner and straight points.
So I'm just going to double click
each time I set down a point,
and that's going to give me straight lines.
Then I can click anywhere on any of those lines on the path
and just add another point and make them curved like that.
Again, I'll click on shape.
Now it's going to load it with that gradient.
But for my swatches panel, I'll just select a brown color.
We can show the shape layer,
and then we can hide the background layer.
I find that Photoshop's curvature pen tool
is excellent for creating shapes.
When I need the most amount of control, say for example,
if I'm trying to cut out an object from the background
or make a really complex shape, or maybe make a vector mask,
then I'm going to switch to the traditional pen tool.
I'll click and hold and choose it from the pen tools.
Then I will right click on the icon for the tool
and just reset the tool.
I'm going to zoom in using command plus twice,
and then hold down the space bar in order to reposition this
canvas area here.
So when you first click with a pen tool,
you'll get what's called an anchor point.
And then if you click again,
you'll get a line segment in between them.
Now, as we start dragging curved points,
we'll also get direction lines.
As you can see here with a lighter gray areas,
as well as direction points.
I'm going to use command zero to zoom out to fit in window.
And let's take a look at the first path we're going to draw,
which is just the straight path.
I might go ahead and zoom in maybe twice again,
hold down the space bar and then reposition this
so it's a little bit larger.
So with the pen tool selected,
I will click in the middle of that black square,
to set down my first point.
I'll click again, to set down my second point,
and now we have a direction line.
We can tell the second point is active
because it's filled with blue.
I'll click again in order to set down the third point.
And again, for the fourth point.
Now, if you make a mistake, you can just tap the delete key,
and that will delete the most recently created point.
Once you tap delete once though,
you should notice that all of the points on the curve
are selected.
So if I tap delete again, they will all be deleted.
So let's do that again.
I'll just click once,
click again one more time and I'm done.
Now, if I want to modify this path,
I need to select either the path selection tool
or the direct selection tool.
So the path selection tool will select the entire path.
I can click and reposition that,
I'll use command Z to undo them.
If I want to modify a segment of the path,
then I need to choose the direct selection tool.
Now I can click on a specific point.
You'll notice when I did that,
the other points became unselected,
and now I can either drag an anchor point,
or I can drag a direction line.
I'll go ahead and use command Z once and in twice
to undo that, and tap the P key to select the pen tool.
Now, if you don't want to continuously go back and forth
between those two tools, you can hold down the command key.
And you'll notice that what I get is the direct select tool,
because that's the tool that I had last selected.
So now I can go in and reposition this,
holding down the command key.
And when I released the command key,
I'm returned to the pen tool.
Once I've created a path,
I have what's called a work path in my paths panel.
I can click off the path.
It disappears from view in the canvas area,
and click on it again in order to view it.
However, if I click off the path
and then I start drawing another anchor point,
this work path will disappear.
So if you want to save it,
just double click on it and give it a name.
To create the next path,
I will click off of path one in the past panel,
use the space bar and then scoot over to the path
that looks like a triangle.
I'll start in the lower left, click once, click twice,
click again.
And when I position my cursor over the starting point,
it changes.
I get the little zero that tells me
that I'm going to close the path.
Now with the pen tool,
I can click anywhere on the path in order to add a point,
but unlike the curvature pen tool,
I can't position or reposition that point.
If I click again, it'll just delete the point.
So I'll add a point here.
And then instead of having to switch tools,
I'll hold down the command on Mac
or the control key on windows,
and just drag in order to reposition that path.
Positioning the cursor over the anchor point
gives me the pen with a minus.
So if I click, it would delete that point.
I've got another work path
that we can see in the paths panel,
in order to save that I'll double click on it,
click okay, and now I have two paths.
So there's a number of different things we can do
once we've created a path.
For example, in the options bar,
you can see that I can turn that path into a selection.
In which case I can add a feather,
which would soften the edges.
And if I had another path selected,
I could choose whether I wanted to add, subtract,
or intersect with that selection.
For now I'll click cancel.
I could also turn this into a vector mask,
by clicking on the mask icon,
and I can turn it into a shape.
There are additional options available from the paths,
fly out menu.
So for example, I could duplicate the path
or I could fill the path or stroke the path.
If the path is difficult to see with a pen tool selected,
click on the gear icon,
and you can increase the thickness
as well as change the color of the path.
We're going to create this shape of a duck
and we're going to use all of these guides
that are in the template to help us create our path.
So with the pen tool selected,
I'll start at the top of the head,
and I'm just going to click and drag up using those guides.
Now I need the path to go up, so that's why I dragged up.
Now I need the next direction to go down.
So I'll click on the second point and just drag down.
Now, as I drag down,
I'm always looking back at the line segment
that's being drawn, as I reposition this point.
So even though I'm drawing the direction line forward
for the next path, I'm paying attention to the line
it drew behind.
Now I'll click on this third anchor point here.
And because there's not much of a curve,
I don't need a very long direction line.
Then I need it to curve in the other direction
so I'm going to click and drag up.
But you can see, I actually really want it to drag
a little bit further,
but if I release the cursor right now,
I'm not going to get this nice long curve across the back.
So I'll hold down the option key on the Mac,
that's going to split these lines.
So I can go in any direction I want.
I just want to make it a little bit longer
so it gives a nicer, more gradual curve moving forward.
So I'll click and drag out.
And I'm really watching the back direction line here,
or you can watch the shape of the curve.
And again, once I release my cursor,
I need to change the direction here.
So I can either hold down the option key
and click on the anchor point and drag,
or I can hold down the option key
and actually click on the direction point
and then just drag that out.
So now I need to click again and drag up.
Then I want it to start going in the other direction,
so I'm going to click and drag down.
And if it's not exact, that's just fine,
I think you're just...
you really need to get the feel of the pen tool,
it's kind of like telling someone how to ride a bike.
So, just click down here at the next anchor point.
This is going to be a long drag here
'cause we want that nice kind of rounded curve
at the back of the duck.
Then we're going to need a shorter drag here
for the next start, basically of this line coming up.
Then I will click and drag up.
Again, watching the curve or the line segment
that I'm drawing behind me,
but also trying to pay attention to the line
that I've got ahead of me.
I'll click and drag again,
this time I'm going to want to change the direction.
So I'll hold down the option key
and click and drag to break the curve
into a corner point that goes in this other direction,
click and drag out,
again, click and drag in the direction you want it to go.
And when we return to the starting point,
I'll just click in order to close that path.
Now we've created a work path,
so I'll want to save that by double clicking on it
and saving the path.
And then let's go ahead and convert this path into a shape
by clicking on the shape.
I'll double click the icon for the shape layer
in the layers panel.
And let's go ahead and just change the color of this.
Maybe making him a little bit more brown,
or we could make him whatever color we want.
If we want to make it bright orange, that's fine too.
So I'll click okay.
And then just hide the background, hiding that template,
and then clicking off the path in the path panel.
So there you go.
With a little bit of practice,
you'll be drawing great paths in no time.