Lesson 7: Pen Tool Basics. Why You Need To Learn Them.

[DeadeyeRich]

Pen Tool Basics

You can't beat the Pen Tool for making precise selections and smooth lines. You can use the pen tool to clean up titles, lettering and shapes from movie posters that are so over compressed, the colors bleed into one another. If you want to see where I used the pen tool, check out the difference between some of my label downloads. The title to Back To the Future I just did a copy and paste. The title to Back To The Future II and III, I cleaned up with the Pen Tool, added a new gradient and stroked the path lines. Some others I cleaned up are The Buddy Holly Story, and The Time Machine.

There are actually two tools you will be using from your toolbar, the direct and path selection tools (shortcut A) and the pen and point tools (shortcut P).

Click on File-New and select the 4 x 6 300 dpi Preset and click OK. Make sure your rulers are showing (Ctrl-R) and change them to pixels by right clicking on any ruler and selecting pixels.

Above your toolbar in the Options Bar, make sure you have the Pen Tool selected and not the Freeform Pen Tool. Also, the Paths icon is selected and Auto Add/Delete is checked.

We are going to make some simple shapes (a D), and along the way we will duplicate the path, use Free Transform, fill selections and change the D to a B.

Make a square aproximately 500 pixels high by 300 pixels wide. Starting at the top left about 100 pixels from both the top and left side, click with your Pen Tool to make a selection point. Going clockwise add three more to make the corners of a square. Take your Pen Tool to the first point. As you approach the first point a little circle will appear, telling you that you are creating a closed path. A path can be open or closed but for our lesson we need it closed. Click on the starting selection point to close the path. Don't worry if your selection points are not perfectly square. We will move them.

Before we continue it's time to explain the auto add/delete checkbox in the option bar. When you have it checked, anytime you move your pen tool over an existing selection point it will be deleted if it is clicked on. Anytime you move the pen over a path line it will add a selection point, if you click. Try it but don't click. Notice the + and - signs as you move over the point or path line.

Temporarily select the Direct Selection Tool (unfilled arrow) by holding down he Ctrl key. Click and drag your selection points, so that the path lines are straight. The selection point that is filled is the one that you can move. You can select and drag multiple points by holding down the Ctrl + Shift keys and click on the selection points you want to move. Try it. Select both of the selection points closest to the left, then click and drag the line between the two points. To deselect selection points, click the points again or click into any open space with the Direct Selection Tool to deselect all of them. Now lets move the selection points to make a perfect square.


We are now going to make the letter D from the square. Place the pen tool over the top right selection point and hold down the Alt key to activate the
Convert Point Tool. You must be over a selection point to see the the tool (upsidedown V). Click the top right selection point and drag right. A curve will appear to the right. The further you drag the handle, the bigger the curve. Release your mouse and the Alt key. Hold down the Ctrl key (Direct Selection Tool) and drag the handle in a circle around the selection point to get an idea of what moving the handle will do. Align the handle with the path on the left side and release your mouse button. You just created a smooth point, where the direction points on both sides of the path line move simultaniously. Hold down the Alt key to activate the convert point tool again, drag the same handle you just released. This will create a corner point. Each handle will now move independently. Drag the handle down about 100 pixels and release. Now take the pen tool to the bottom right, make a corner point, drag a handle and make your D. This is only the outer path we are going to use but I want to show you something real quick that will be of interest. Press Ctrl + Enter keys to convert a path to a selection and then Ctrl + D to deselect. Don't worry, you did not lose your path. Click on the Path tab next to your Layers and Channels tabs and your path is there.

Let's finish making the D. So far we have only used the Pen Tool with the Ctrl key to temporarily activate the Direct Selection Tool and the Alt key to
temporarily activate the Convert Point Tool. We now need to use the Path Selection Tool. Either press the A key or mouse over to the tool bar to activate the Path Selection tool which is an arrow that is filled with black as opossed to the Direct Selection Tool which is white. You can click and drag the whole path with this tool. But that's not all. With the Path Selection Tool, hold down the Alt key and click and drag your selection to make a duplicate. Activate Free Transform (Ctrl + T), hold down the Space key and drag a corner point to reduce the size of the duplicated D to about half its original size. While still in Free Transform, drag the small D into the big D and press Enter. Check your Toolbar and make sure your foreground color is anything but white. Click on the outside path to select it, then right click and click on Make Selection. Choose New Selection and click OK. Click on the inside path to select it and then right click and click on Make Selection. Choose Subtract From Selection and click OK. Press Ctrl + Delete to fill with the foreground color. You now have a filled D.

Let's make a B.
With your Path Selection Tool (Black Filled Arrow), click on the inside path, then hold the Shift key down and click the outside path. Release the Shift key and drag the paths below the D. Click an empty area to deselect the paths. Press the P key to activate the Pen Tool. On the inside path, in the middle of the curve, click to make a new direction point. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the point to the left about on third the distance. Release the Ctrl key. Hold down the Alt key and drag both direction handles towards the right. Do the same to the outside path, make both into selections and fill. You have a B.

Last minute info. Selection points will snap to guides. You can also make any selection into a path. Make a selection with your marquee, lasso, or magic wand tool. Convert it to a path by clicking on the Path Tab. At the bottom, the third icon from the right, click Make Workpath From Selection. Then you can tweek all the selection and direction points to suit your needs.



That's it for the basics. Experiment with it and have fun.
_________________
If you can remember the sixties........you weren't there.

[DeadeyeRich]

It looks like a lot of work to clean up this one. But it can be done. I just tried a few things and it looked better. This is what I did after downloading your cover. I made two duplicate layers. Turn off the original Background layer. The middle layer I adjusted the contrast to about +47. The top layer lowered the opacity to -43, then merged visible layers. This got rid of most of the garbage on the right edge. You can use the burn tool to darken up anything that remains. This also made some of the images darker. If you need to lighten them up, there are several techniques you can do. You can use your dodge tool to lighten areas of the merged layer. You can also make another duplicate layer from the Background layer. Make sure it is between the merged layer and the Background layer. Set your eraser tool opacity to about 10 and size your soft edged brush accordingly. Slowly erase the image on the merged layer, exposing the duplicate underneath. As far as the text goes, either clone it out or use the patch tool. Then retype it on another layer. One thing I did notice is the two eyes on the top. I'm assuming you scanned this cover. If so, I would adjust the contrast on your scanner to get at least one good eye, then you could copy and paste it on two layers and flip one layer horizontally, giving you a left and right eye.
_________________
If you can remember the sixties........you weren't there.