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FlyingBrickAnimation In reply to ??? [2014-05-21 19:35:19 +0000 UTC]

Oh man! And right when I thought I did something right XD

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TheDagwoodBrony In reply to FlyingBrickAnimation [2014-05-21 22:18:36 +0000 UTC]

Haha. It's fine.  I'm not even sure if your version of photoshop has the pen tool at all.  If you do, it should be on the toolbar, though you might need to switch a few tools around, like how you switch between the gradient tool and the paint bucket tool, or from the blur tool to the burn tool. Actually, now that I think of it, you might not have those tools either... The paint bucket tool is pretty standard and so is the gradient tool, but I'm not sure if you'd have the blur or burn tools.

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FlyingBrickAnimation In reply to TheDagwoodBrony [2014-05-22 00:08:42 +0000 UTC]

No I definitely have the blur and burn tools... and now that I look I have the pen tool too!

Great! Now I just gotta learn how to use it.

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TheDagwoodBrony In reply to FlyingBrickAnimation [2014-05-22 05:21:19 +0000 UTC]

The pen tool is a bit tricky at first.  You have to learn a bit how it works.  Left click to place a point, left click again to place another point.  A line will appear connecting the two points.  If you want a curved line, place a dot, then place your next dot but hold down the click and drag the mouse to make a curve.  You can also do this with the point you start with to create an immediate curve, helpful for circles.  Going from a dot with a curve to a straight line requires an extra step.  To "reset" the dot for a straight line on the next dot you have to hold the alt button and click on the current dot to reset it.  There's two other tools that work with the pen tool's lines and dots, the direct selection tool and the path selection tool.  You have to use these to select, move, and do other stuff with your paths and dots.  And, you can connect your first and last dots to create a whole shape by simply clicking on your original dot while your most recent dot is selected.  Also, when you place a dot and drag to make a curve, a new little line will appear going through the dot, which will have a little circle on each end.  If you click and drag the dots you can readjust the curve how you like.  One line segment alters the curve towards the nearest point in that direction, the other works in the other direction.

The pen tool doesn't make lines that appear on your picture, but instead are under the "paths" tab instead of the layers tab.  The same with layers, you can have multiple paths for multiple levels.  In the paths tab you also get a number of options at the bottom of the little paths box. These options should be, "Fill path with foreground color", "stroke" or "stroke path with brush", "load path as a selection", "create new path", "delete current path", and an additional button that I have no idea what it does or what it's called.  It won't say anything when I mouse over it.

Though the "create new path" and "delete current path" are very important since they are your only way to work in layers with the pen tool, the most important of these buttons when drawing is the load path as selection, and stroke buttons.  If you make a path with the pen tool, whole shape or no, you can make a selection that directly follows the path you made.  If you press the stroke button while still using the pen tool, a very thin, very dark line will appear over your path.  However, if you switch to the brush tool before you press the stroke button, it will use the brush, brush size, color, and any other settings on your brush to make a line that perfectly follows the path you made.  It's what I used to draw the Fluttershy vector I recently uploaded.

I hope this was at least a little helpful.  It's hard to summarize a month's worth of education I had on the pen tool.

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FlyingBrickAnimation In reply to TheDagwoodBrony [2014-05-22 15:58:29 +0000 UTC]

Woah, wall o' text!

I'll try to teach myself that, thanks (: Meantime I'll use the pencil tool as I've been doing.

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TheDagwoodBrony In reply to FlyingBrickAnimation [2014-05-22 20:14:57 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, sorry about that.  And alright.  Whatever works for you.

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