Using pen tool in Photoshop CS3

[Flep]

Continues tutorials of Photoshop CS3!

In last tutorial, we saw how to create illustrations with Photoshop CS3.

Since the tool was used pen, probably some of you are curious to learn how to use it, then here's Edoardo Gioè who writes a tutorial on the pen tool of Photoshop CS3.

Here it is:

As I’m sure you all know, Photoshop is a program with a primary focus on raster images and effects.

Adobe has, however, included numerous tools we can use inside Photoshop to create all sorts of interesting vector shapes and effects.

Before we start our little journey on the discovery of the pen tool, let’s introduce the concept of vector and raster graphics, and explain the difference between the two...

Raster

Raster graphics are images displayed a rectangular or square grid of pixels of different color.

This grid, which displays an array of pixels each with a specific color, will form a complete image (such as a photograph) when viewed in its entirety.

Raster graphics are generally used to create images and graphics which are to be displayed on a computer screen or printed out at low resolutions.

While vector images can be scaled to any size without losing quality, a raster image will lose quality with scaling, especially when making the image larger.

By scaling down a raster image, the pixel data will be lost and thus even if rescaled back to the original size, there will be a very noticeable quality loss.

Vector

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, curves and polygons to create more complex images which use mathematical equations to represent a digital image.

The main advantage of creating and using vector graphics is that due to their mathematical structure, these can be scaled to any size without ever losing quality.

This is why vector graphics are recommended in the creation of advertising prints and large banners.

At the same time, the number of effects possible with vector graphics is limited when compared to raster graphics.

This is because extremely complex visual representations such as a photograph can really only be obtained by displaying a fixed array of different colored pixels, which would be a good definition of what raster graphics is.

Vector graphics will also always have a very defined, geometrical look, while raster graphics are usually much more smooth and “blurred” if compared.

Now that we know what a vector image is, we can now proceed to creating our own shapes and designs in Photoshop with the use of the pen tool!

Let’s select the pen tool in the tools panel or by pressing P on the keyboard.

By clicking anywhere in our document we will create a point.

If you click a second time in another spot, you will see a line forming between the two points.

You can create as many points as you wish to create a normal polygon.

You will generally want to close your path though, so in order to do that you will simply position the cursor on the very first point created until a small circle comes up near the mouse cursor and then click:

Now let’s see how to create curved shapes.

Click anywhere on your document with the pen tool selected, and then click on another part of the document, but this time hold down the mouse button and drag your mouse around.

As you can see the path you just created will now form a curve. (Note that you can also hold down shift while dragging the mouse to create perfectly angular curves)

If you click somewhere else in the document, you will see the shape will keep curving following the guideline on the second anchor point we just drew:

You can also drag your mouse while creating the third point to keep curving your path, just like this:

Now let’s close our path:

As you can see, while the shape is definitely curvy, it is not a continuous curve and has a straight angle in the bottom left corner.

We want to fix that, so what we’ll do is we’ll use the “Convert Point Tool”, which can be found in the same sub-panel as the pen tool on your tools panel.

Hold down the pen button and select the convert point tool just like this:

With the convert point tool active we will now click on our shape and position the mosue cursor closet o the straight angled anchor point.

By clicking and dragging on that point with the mouse we will convert that angle into a curve, giving our path an overall smoother shape:

Let’s examine the situation further.

Let’s say we created a curved path but we don’t like the way we positioned the anchor points, or the directions we have given to the curves.

What we would do in that case is use the “direct selection tool”, which can be found beneath the Text Tool in the tools panel or it can be activated by hitting “A” on your keyboard.

With this tool active you can drag the anchor points around and even modify the curve’s definition:

Let’s say we now need a path that is curved up to a point, but after that the curve suddenly turns into a straight angle.

To obtain this effect we can drag the curve guideline point facing the direction of our curve to the center of the anchor point or we can click while holding ALT on the keyboard while drawing the shape:

By combining different primitive shake and paths you can obtain images which are rather complex in nature, you recreate almost anything you want.

A good thing to do if you want to practice is opening up a photo and drawing the outlines of objects or people in it with the pen tool.

You could even try to recreate the photo to give it a cartoon look!

Edoardo Gioè

[ryan_276]

photoshop is a very nice software for editing photos . I also use this for photo editing.