- Right! So now it's time to switch over to another powerful selction
tool, the PEN and it's PATHS Pallette.
- The PEN tool produces what are called Bezier Curves and is a vector-based
selection tool. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's pretty simple
once you get the feel of it. Each time you click with the pen tool it leaves
an anchor point. The idea is to connect the dots to define the shape you
want. When you click and drag it creates an anchor point with "handles"
on it. These handles can be moved around to make the line curve. This does
take some practice.
- In the illustration above the cursor is adjusting the handles
to follow the curve of Batgirl's helmet. You get that cursor by clicking
and holding the PEN icon in the toolbar. There are several types of pens
there: The cursor for moving points, one that adds and one that subracts
points, and one that turns points without handles into points that can
be curved. Consult the manual for more details.
-
- Moving the actual anchor point to the right would make the line curve
more, moving the point to the left would make that line straighter. It's
hard to explain in words, so just screw around with it. The point is you
should explore PATHS as a tool. You could do the whole figure this
way, without having to paint on the channel with the brush at all. That
would simply require a whole lot of anchor points all around the shape
and then considerable tweaking until the line was following the silhouette
just right.
-
- In this case we are using the path to cut into the mask. When
the shape is where you want it simply turn the path into a selection.
In the case above you would INVERT the selection (Select Menu) and paint
on the mask with white over the portion of her face that is still green.
NEXT
