Pen Tool in Photoshop: How To Create Paths and Precise Selections

1. Pen Tool in Photoshop :Promo video: Hello and welcome to the course. My name is David Tyminski, and in this course you will learn how to use the mental inside photo shop and you'll learn not only how to use it to create shapes with these, but also how to create fast and precise selections. Inside, we will take a look at the similarities and differences between the mantle in illustrator and Photoshopped. So if you've seen the illustrator version of the class, some concepts will be easier for you to understand. But if you haven't, you are still going to learn a lot of because this class goes deep into how the pencil inside Photoshopped really works and how to make it your friend. This class has two main parts. The 1st 1 focuses on creating shapes with the mental inside Photoshopped. You learn about the anchor points path segments fill stroke, all the things you need to effectively create shapes using that. And the second part is all about making fast and precise selections. And for that we will use the mental but also the freeform panto that we're going to change into a super selection toe with some simple tricks. So jump right in and start using the mental inside photo shop like a smiling professional ceiling side 2. Pen Tool :Introduction to the course: Hello and welcome to the course. My name is David Tyminski, and this course is a photo show part of the Mantle miniseries. So if you've seen the illustrator part of this miniseries, you will be familiar with some concepts that are going to be well taught inside this class . And this class is for all those who want to finally learned the pentacle inside Photoshopped. They finally want to learn how to use it the right way. And they want to learn how to use how to create these shapes with it and how to create the selections using the panel and the freeform mental. And also for those who want to have, like, a thorough knowledge off the panel. Because in your daily, like a day to day routine your graphic designer routine, you are using both a photo shop and illustrator and you want to use the mental inside illustrator and photo shop. So let me just quickly give you an overview off what we are actually going to be covering inside this class. I wanted to make all the great in phone inside this glass easier for you to understand. That's why I'm decided to divide it into segments. First, you'll learn the similarities and the differences between the panel inside photo shop and illustrator. So if you saw the illustrator part of this miniseries, creating paths at an anchor points, converting anchor points, etcetera will be so much easier for you. But if you haven't, you're still going to learn a lot because of this class goes deep into how the pencil in San photo shop works and how to make it your friend and creating shapes is what the second segment is all about. You learn fast and easy ways off, creating free form shapes, adding, filling, stroke, changing the stroke, virtually everything you need to create shapes you want. Now the last part is all about making selections, and for that we will use the pen took but also the freeform panel that we are going to change into a super selection toe with some simple tricks. So as you may noticed, some things about the mental inside photo show are actually quite the same as they are inside ill sir, but especially their selections part is something different, and it will definitely expand your skills, that portfolio. So let me just stop talking and let's actually start learning the panel inside Photo shop 3. Pen Tool :Design chalenge: you know there's a design challenge waiting for you inside this class. And since a big part of it is learning how to make the selections with the pen tal, it would be great if you took one off one of these fruits. Or you can take all of them if you want. If you traced it, if you turn to your trace into a selection and then like, change the color of the fruit, maybe increase or decrease its saturation and or maybe making black and white do whatever you want with it. But to trace it with the pen Tal changed into selection and then have fun. Have fun with your selection. Have fun with your fruit. Of course, it will also be great if you shared your project in our discussion discussion board. No. One of the last videos. I am going to show you my take on the design challenge so you will have all the knowledge, all the skills, all the tips to actually resolve that design challenge. 4. 1. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Creating Paths and Shapes: you can use the panel inside Photoshopped to create vector shapes just like you'd inside Illustrator. And you can create paths that you would ultimately turn into selections. So inside photo shop, you can create vector shapes and you can ultimately create selections using the Chantel. And the second thing that we need to keep in mind is that when I activate the mental right here in the tools panel, you can see this little switcher inside the control panel. And if I just click on it, you can see there we gathered know that we got two options right here so we can use the shape bath creation mode or we can use the path creation mode. So if I go with the shape creation, I'm going to simply create a shape like I would inside illustrator. And if I go for the path, I would create a path that I would ultimately turn into turn into selection. And actually these two main aspects of the pantaloons had Photo shop will be also the main aspect off this part of them in panto miniseries. So we'll focus on using the panel on creating the factor shapes, and then we will focus on creating paths that we would ultimately turn into selections. So we will basically learn how to create selections using the panel and the freeform pencil inside photo shop. Before we do that, I think that it's a good idea for us to first understand the similarities and the differences between the panel inside photo shop and illustrator, because there's a lot off similar things. But there's there's a quite a few things that are unique to the mantle inside photo shop. So these are the things and we are going to be covering in the next video. 5. 2. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Common features with Illustrator : So first, let's take a look at the similarities. Well, first of all, both of a panel inside photo shop and illustrator are using something that is called The Best Year curves. And it's just a very technical or fancy name for creating paths like anchor points, sue path segments, all these things that we are already familiar with. By the way, if you want to impress someone at a very boring party, you can always ask him or her. Hey, do you know what Benazir curves are? And you know you can then say that you know, badger curves are creating path segments, corner points and so on. And who knows, man, you would get someone interested. Or maybe you will impress someone. But if you if you decide to do that, please don't until anyone that I actually encourage you to do that. But it's something. It's an option. It's something you can you can try and try for yourself. Of course, the shortcut initializing the mantle is the same. So if I pressed the peaky on the keyboard, you can see that I've actually initialized that panto. The process of creating the paths is, of course, the same. So if I just click anywhere on the art board at I'm going to create an anchor point. If I collect somewhere else on the art board, I'm gonna treat another anchor point. And I'm Of course I'm going to create. I'm gonna connect these anchor points with a path segment. And of course, I can create corner points like this one or an and straight path segments. But if I click and drag, I'm going to create smooth, smooth the anchor point. And I'm going to create a smooth path segment right here. And I'm gonna bring out these direction handles right here. And if I just hover over the first anchor point, you can see this hollow circle appearing. And that means that if I click right here, I'm going to finish this shape just like that. So let me just delete this shape and the shortcuts that we can use upon creating the paths are the same. So I mean, if I just hold down the shift key, I'm going to constrain the creation off the past 2 45 degree angles or increments just like that. So right now I'm holding down the shift key and I dont constraining the path creation 2 45 degree angles. And of course, if I click and drag, of course, we already know that I'm going to bring out these direction handles and create like like a smooth path segment. But if I hold down the old or option if you're on a Mac, I'm gonna hold them this Hold on the old key down. I'm going to manipulate this direction handle and I'm going to ultimately create a corner point. And I'm gonna tell Illustrator to create this past segment in relational in accordance to this to this direction, Direction handle. There are also similar the Pantelis siblings. So if I just click and hold on on my mouse button right here, I'm going to see the whole family off the pen. Tal's siblings. So we got like add anchor point tool that delete anchor point and convert anchor point to which are just the same as they are inside. Illustrator, we have 11 more segment right here, so the family is a bit bigger. So we got this free form panel and we are going to talk about it in the in the creative selections part of off season off this miniseries. Another thing that is similar to illustrator and is quite often being like mist in other videos or other courses is that relation between the pencil and these selection tools. So we got these selection, like the path selection tool and direct selection toe, which work just like they do in sign It was true. So if I just go for the path selection toe, I'm able to move this whole path around. And don't be fooled by this by this tool right here, which is called the move to that. That's not gonna work properly. You will be frustrated or disappointed why it's not working properly. Just go for these selection tools right here. And they have a very hand handy short cut off the a key. And if I just will weaken total between them and the path and the direct selection tools by President will holding prisoner holding down the shift key and then just pressing the a key on the keyboard so you can see that I am toggling between the path tool and them and the director selection tool right here. So if I judge is the direct selection toe. I can now just manipulate, hover over, hover over like a single anchor point and simply move it around. I can also move just one path, one past segment, just like that. And, of course, manipulate the direction handles if I choose so. 6. 3. Pen Tool in Photoshop- Common features Continued: There's one little thing that it's there is good to keep in mind when working on the panel and their selection tools inside a photo shop. I mean, remember how we could easily transform or manipulate just a single single direction handled inside inside the illustrator? I mean, we simply went for the group selection tool, which would be like like this white arrow with a plus symbol next to it. Well, unfortunately, we don't have a We don't have the this selection, this group selection tool right here. And if I press and hold on the old option, if you're on a Mac down, you can see that I am simply switching to the selection toe. Not that group selection toe, however, if I simply, just, maybe, maybe less select this thing this ankle point, however, if I just hover over a like a direction handled and now I am the press and hold on the old option. If you're I am actually able to initialize that group selection tool that I confined inside illustrator and now I can simply manipulate this path segment independently in this direction, handled independently. So again, I need to be sure that I have the threat selection to on, and I need to hover over the direction handle. And now I'm gonna present hold on the old or option if you're on a Mac down to initialize the group selection, told that I can and I can use it to manipulate the direction handle independently. Okay, So one last thing to keep in mind as far as the similarities go that if I choose the pen tal And now if I change this path creation mode from shaped to path, the direction that that the control panel will also change. So if I have to shape mode on, I got different options right here will allow me to create to add fill or stroke. And if I just switched to path, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get different options inside the control pounds. So it just like an illustrator. If I go for for different options and different tools, I'm gonna get different options inside the control panel right here. So, as you can see, there's actually quite a lot off similarities between the panel inside photo shop and illustrator and let me just briefly sum them up for you have been just maybe delete these guys. All these guys. So first of all, the idea behind behind the panel inside photo shop and illustrator is the same, and the bath creation process is the same. So if I just click and click and click, I'm going to get anchor points that are being connected with the straight past segments. If I click and drag, I'm gonna get smooth a smooth path segment. And of course, if I just hover over the first anchor point, I'm gonna get this hollow circle. And if I just click on it, I'm going. I'm going to close this shape, you know, just like that. The shortcut initializing that the mantle is, of course, the same. So it's the peaky. So whenever I have some other tool active and if I just press the peaky, I'm going to initialize the mental. Also, the shortcuts that you can use when you are creating paths are the same. So if I just press and hold down the shift key, I'm going to constrain the creation to 45 degree angle. And if I just click drag to drink of the direction handles and now present, hold on the old key. I am going to simply or option. If you're on a Mac, I am going to manipulate the direction handled independently and I'm going to make the next Well, actually, I'm going to make this thing this anchor point a combination of a smooth point and a in a sharp corner. So if I just click anywhere here, you can see that Ryan, Not right now. I have, like, a sharp corner point right here which is connecting like a Suessmuth bath segment with another past segment right here. The tools that you can find inside the mental group are mostly the same. So he got add Anchor point will delete Anchor point or and also the convert convert anchor point right here. Of course. With an exception of this free from Pantelis, you do that that we wont find inside illustrator But the rest is the same and then they work just like they do inside Illustrator Okay, so these are the basic similarities that if you just keep them in mind And if you practice what you've learned in the illustrate reversion of the glass, they will help you in understanding the panel in photo shop and I think that will take away , like 50% of the time needed to learn it. So let's actually move onto what's unique for the mantle inside photo shop. 7. 4. Pen Tool in Photoshop and Illustrator - Differences: Okay, so now let's talk about the differences between the mantle inside, photo shop and illustrator. Let's talk about what's unique to the mental inside for OSHA. So as we already know, we got two main modes of creating shapes or paths using the panel inside photo shop. So in the control panel, we can choose between the shape mode and a path mode. So if I choose this shape mode, I'm going to create a shape that it's good that is going to look like a shape that we would create an illustrator with the stroke attributes and the fill attributes. And we will talk about all that in a bit in the greater detail a bit later in this in this Siri's. So let me just delete this guy. And if I go for the path mode I'm going to for the path mode, I'm going to create a simple, simple path that is gonna have no filled North stroke attributes and is going to look like like it's being shown in the outline inside. Illustrate or so in a photo shop you can choose between, like this simple kind of like an outline mode and a normal a shape creation mode. So let me just quickly go back to the shape creation mode just like that and notice that as soon as I create a shape here in the layer spell, I can she I can see a new shape layer being created automatically, which is which is something typical four pills for a photo shop. And it's not difficult for illustrator in Illustrator. We would just be creating a single object on the same layer. But in photo shop on Lee, if we are in the shape mode, we are goingto automatically create a new shape layer like this one right here. However, if I just enemy quickly, just delete that. However, if we just create a simple path like this one, you can see that we have that we haven't well, Photo shopped hasn't created created a separate layer for us, which is unlikely for photo shop because, as you may already know, Photoshopped just loves layers and they are essential to photo shop and almost everything that you are doing and then that has like its visual representation inside photo shop is being created on a separate layer. However, in this case, when we are just creating a simple path like is being displayed in an outline mode. We cannot see this well. We cannot see because actually, Photoshopped is not creating a separate layer for for us. So if I just, like, maybe decide that that I want to create something new, and if I just create a shape, you can see that that that that path is actually well, we can't see it. But it's not really gone, because when we just go to the paths, the paths, the panel right here. And by the way, if you can see, just go to the window menu baths right here. And by the way, it's also a part of the essentials of the essentials workspace right here. So if I just click on the work path right here, we can see that it's now being displayed in our document view that it's actually here, that it hasn't gone because we haven't deleted it. It's just not being displayed here when we are when we are in the layers in the layers of you, like so So the thing to remember, Let me just delete all that. Let's just delete this shape as well so the thing to remember when you are creating a shape and you are in the shape mode right here, Photoshopped is going to create a new layer for you. And if you are, And if you are in Van in the path creation mode right here and we are going to create a path, Photoshopped is not going to create a new layer. But it is, however, going to create work. Bath here, inside way are going to see it inside the paths pile right here. Until, of course, we deleted just like that. 8. 5. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Freeform Pen Tool: We've already talked a bit about this eso We already know that the Penta family inside photo shop is actually a bit bigger and it has one more sibling and it sits right under the free under the mental and it's called the free form Mental. It also has a short cut off the letter p But if I just pressed letter p, I am not going ti toggle between between the panel and the freeform mental. If I If I just press the shift key on my keyboard and then I'm gonna press the big key on my keyboard, I'm going to be targeting between the freeform panel and the mental just like that. And the freeform panel is kind of like a combination of a pencil tool and a pen tal. And it also can be a combination of a pencil tool pan talked and the magnetic lasso tool. But we are going to be talking about that later in a later video. So if I just click and collect somewhere here, you can actually see nothing being displayed right here. I'm not getting ankle points. I'm not getting in. They are not getting them. They are being connected with bath segments. What I need to do is any do click and drag just like that to create, to create a set of anchor points that are being being connected with bath segments. And of course, we can check that with that. With the direct selection qualify, just click anywhere. You can see that on that I've just actually created, created a shape that has a lot of anchor points and has some direction handles. And of course we can. We can control through this to a bit more, but I think that we are going to become We're gonna cover it a bit more in this election making selections. Parton off these off this Siri's because this free from parental is best used when creating one creating selections. 9. 6. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Add and remove anchor points: Now, before we wrap this this similarities and differences part up, let me just tell you about one more. One more difference between a mental inside photo shop and illustrator. So if I just go to them the mental right here and I have all this bath selected, you can see that I have this order and delete function right here being checked in the control panel. And as you may recall, inside Illustrator, we have to go to the preferences in order to disable this functional in in photo shop. Listen, sees six right here. You can just quickly enable or disable that here in the control panel. So off course, if I have this bath selected and if I hover over a path segment like that, you can see this little plus symbol being displayed next to the next to my panel. And if I just click right now anywhere on the path, I'm gonna add another another anchor point. And again, if I hover over an anchor point provided that this function is on, I'm going to remove an anchor point, just like so. And if I of course the disabled dysfunction, I am going to be creating another side of anchor points or another path I'm not gonna be able to remove or or add anchor points like so. So there you go. These are the basic differences between the pen and the mental inside photo shop and illustrator. So there you go. These are the basic differences between the mantle inside photo shop and illustrator. So the things that I would like you to keep in mind is that inside photo shop, you can choose that path mode or the shape mode in order, create shapes with the Phil and stroke attributes, or you can create past, mainly for for creating, ultimately created selections that will have no, of course, no, no Phil nor stroke attributes. 10. 7. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Let's sum up what we've just learnt: So these are the main differences between using the Chantel Inside photo shop and inside illustrator. So the things that I would like you to keep in mind before we move on our that in photo shop, you can choose between the main shape creation or path creation knows right here, which are path and shape creation. So if we just go for the path, we're going to create a simple, simple path with no stroke nor Phil attributes and even know representation here in the layers panel. However, we can find it here in the path spell. You can see this work bath right here. And if I go for that for the shape creation for the shape creation mode, I am going to get a shape right here that I can and I could give it attributes that like Phil and Stroke, and these are the two main modes when creating paths inside fellow shop. Also keep in mind that this freeform pan tal is actually a very handy tool. And I think that you are going to understand why it's a very handy tool for treating selections when we covered this tool. T this in greater detail in a later video. For now, remember that in order to use it properly, we can just click and click and quick and click, willing to click and drag to create, to create a path like so and in order to add and remove anchor points to our existing paths , we need to remember to keep this order, add delete the function on when we want to automatically add that anchor points to our past or to, or to remove them. And it's a great idea to keep him or toe preferably. Remember the shortcut with for that selection tools, which is the letter A or shift if you want a total between the path and direct selection tool. So if I just have the direct selection still active right now, I can select. I can select a simple, simple anchor points or past segments just like that, and with selection pet selection, till I'm gonna be able to select the whole path and move it around just like so. So in the next video, we're going to start talking about creating the shapes inside inside the photo shop with the mantle, so stay tuned 11. 8. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Creating shapes. Adding,removing and converting anchor points: So as we already know, with the pencil inside for a shop, we can create shapes and we can create paths. And if you want to create shapes that will have stroke and fill, you need to choose this shape creation a mode inside the panel. So if I just click on it, you can see that the control panel changed in order to give me some more. There are some unique features that can be set when creating shapes using the panto. So let's me just click somewhere here and then maybe here, in order to create to anchor points that will be connected with with a path segment or with a line. And then if I just click somewhere here and drag, I'm gonna I'm gonna drag all direction handles, and I am going to create a smooth, smooth path segment just like so in a smooth anchor point right here and now if I want to close the path, I'm simply going to hover over this first anchor point. I'm going to see this hollow circle appearing beside my pencil symbol, and I'm simply going to click to close the path and make it look like something like this. So now you can see that we created a new layer for our shape. And now, Aiken, go up here to the control panel and simply changed to fill. If I want to let said, I'm gonna go with this pink color just like that and I can change the stroke and make it maybe yellow just so you can see everything matter If you're familiar with the stroke, pal. Inside Illustrator, you'll notice some similarities. You can manipulate or control their with of the stroke right here inside inside photo shop . You can change the stroke to beauty to like a dashed line maybe. Or you can create a like a dotted line. You can align the stroke to inside, outside and to the center. You can manipulate the caps and the corners. Basically, you have the control that you have inside, Illustrator. When you are creating shapes inside inside Photoshopped work that mental. I'm gonna go go back to hiss. Simple, simple stroke. Just like that. As we previously mentioned, Photoshopped will automatically change their Pantelis to remove or add anchor points. So as long as you have this order at delete function here enabled right here in the control panel. And if you just hover over any anchor point provided that they are selected, you'll get a little like this among little minus symbol appearing next to your next your pencil. And if I just click on it, I am goingto remove an ankle put. I'm not going to I'm not not going to delete it. I'm going to remove it. So my path remains closed right here. So if I just hover over the path and now I can see this little plus symbol being displayed , I can simply click on it. And now I've added, brought back actually those, though. Well, that anchor point that I just removed with the remove anchor point to. Of course, you can always go to the Mantle siblings right here to the Pentagon group, and you can choose the ad anchor point or delete Anchor Point, which should be called Remove Anchor Point, actually, right here from the from the tools from the Stools Group, if you wish so so inside this group you can find this convert anchor point tool right here , So if you want to convert corner points to smooth or smooth the corner points. You can use this this tool right here. But I would advise you to simply hold down the old key in order to temporarily exchange or switch to that to the convert anchor point toe. However, if you just If I just press the old andan, hold it down on a Mac, you depress and hold the option keep. You will see that I am simply that I'm not exchanging this. Will my panel into convert anchor point all. However, if I just hover over the any ankle point and now press and hold down the bulky, you can see that I am changing temporarily switching to the convert anchor point all. And if I just click on it, I am converting a smooth point into and into a corner point just like so. And I'm creating a triangle just like that. And of course, we can do this thing other way around. If I just hover over at the like a sharp corner like this one on my presser and hold on the Elke I'm simply going to click and drag to change this this anchor point from corner to smooth just like that and you can see that I am dragging out these direction handles just like that. So there you go. These are the really, really basics of creating shapes using the panel inside photo show. So all you need to really remember is, too. If you want to create a shape, just make sure that you have the shape mode on right here that you can control Phil and stroke and the stroke with here in the control panel, and that you can always convert the anchor points with the convert anchor point tool you can remove. You can add anchor points and actually manipulate all these all these anchor points, all these paths segments just like you would inside illustrator Off course, we have the same flexibility as we do inside illustrator. When it comes to adjusting the path segments of the direction handles, we can manipulate them inside Photoshopped just like we can in elusive. But the process and the shortcuts are a bit different. So let me show you those differences in the next video 12. 9. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Adjusting Paths: manipulating, and it's just in a pass Inside. Photo shop is actually quite easy, but there is a few things that you need to keep in mind. Well, first of all, take a look at these two. These two tools right here, that's it. Be need the panel, the path selection tool and the direct selection toe. Both of them have the same shortcut, which is the letter A. And basically what they do is they select either the whole path like this path selection tool, or like a single anchor point or a path segment like this direct selection tool. And, yes, they look. And they basically worked pretty much the same as they do inside Illustrator. So let me show you actually, how they work. So first I'm gonna go with the path selection tool. And if I just click on a bath, I can simply move it around. I can simply drag it around just like that. And if I just present, hold on the old key or option. If you're on a Mac, you can see that this black arrow gets a little plus symbol next to it. So if I now just click and direct I'm actually going to duplicate this shape just like so I'm duplicating the shapes inside photo shop, just like so. Of course I'm not gonna need all of them. So I think to remember is that if you have the path selection tool enabled and if you present hold on the old or option key, you're going to duplicate the shape just like so. But for pass and ankle points and direction handles manipulation, the direct selection tool is much better. And actually, it is what it does. So let me just press the shift and a on my keyboard, which will enable me to switch to the direct selection to and by the way, it's a toggle. If I just keep pressing the shift and a on my keyboard, I'm going to toggle between the path and the direct selection tools, just like so. And now, if I simply press like click on the now put taken simply no manipulate on Lee the anchor point, just like so I think it's better to I think it's better to simply drag around it just like so, so we can freely manipulate it just like that. But notice that if you want to move your you move your shape with the direct selection till you actually cannot do it. So what you could do is you could simply press the shift a on your keyboard and then move your move, your selection and then, if you want to. If you want to go back to the direct selection tool again, press the shift A to simply to simply manipulate the anchor points just like so. And just like an illustrator, we can, of course, manipulate the direction handles with that direct selection till just like so. And just like an illustrator, if you press and hold on the old key or option if you're on a Mac, we're going to temporarily make this path. Will direct selection toe act like it's a group selection toe inside elsewhere? You won't find a stool right here in these in this group, however, if you simply have an anchor point selected, and if you press and hold on the altar key, let me just let me just select these guys. So if you just hold out if you hover over a direction handle and doesn't then press and hold on the bulky, you can manipulate Onley only one path segment independently, just like so, and noticed that after you do that, you no longer have to press and hold of the bulky photo shop is making making this path segment permanently independent, so to speak. And so the same goes for this past segment right here. So it on Lee. Well, it only requires you to click with the holding down the bulky on this direction, handle once or manipulated ones. And right now, these paths segments these both bath segments are actually independent, and you can manipulate them independently. 13. 10. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Quickly manipulate paths: So one more quick little trick before we before we move on to crew cretin selections out of our out of our shapes. When you are when you are creating, pass with the pen tal and the Penta is active. If you want to quickly, quickly adjust your anchor points or your direction handles. It's best to simply present. Hold down the control key or command. If you're on a Mac, as you can see temporarily, that switches switches YouTube that drew to the direct selection toe, and now you can manipulate that the anchor points or direction handles. So I'm simply pressing and holding down the control key on my keyboard to temporarily switch to to the direct selection toe and notice that if you have, like any other tool, selected almost any other tool selected. If you're now present, hold on the control key. You will not go temporarily switch it to the direct selection tool, but toe the move toe, which is this tool right here. Unless you have, like a shape shape told like a Schapelle created. And then if you just press and hold on the control key, you were moved to do that to the selection tool because most probably when you are creating shapes, you want to move it, move it around, and Photoshopped is giving you a quick access to this to the selection toe. So the thing to keep in mind here is when you have the pencil active and you're creating your past, you want to adjust them, just present. Hold on the control key to temporarily switch to the direct selection tool and then move and adjust your paths, just like so. So there you go. This is how you can manipulate to your direction. Handles annual path segments using their selection tools inside inside Photoshopped. In the next video, we are actually going to take a look at how to create how to make selections out of your shapes. 14. 11. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Make selections out of shapes: the next videos will be all about making selections with the mental, and you can create or make selections out off shapes like this one or out of basic paths that have no filled nor a stroke. But we will talk about that in a later video. For now, let's just let you see how we can create a selection out of a shape like this one. Actually, all we need to do is to right click or command Click if you're on a Mac on the shape and then just choose make selection right here, some right clicking on my shape and choosing makes election just like so. Now, if you need greater control if you If you want to smooth out your your selection, you can control the feather radius right here. I'm not gonna be doing this right now, and if I just click, OK, you can see that I have the selection and the shape both being displayed right here. And I can actually control the filling the stroke if I want to. So if I just changed the field to blue, maybe and the stroke to think I still got the selection, but I am still manipulating my shape. And by the way, if you accidentally turn your selection off, or maybe off click somewhere, remember that just de selected. If you have your your your your shape and you don't see your selection, simply go to your to your layers panel and control or command. If you're on a Mac, click on this layer of thumbnail and you will bring your selection back just like so. So there you go. This is how you can create more, make selections inside photo shop using the mantle, and this is how you can make selections. Out of these shapes are out of shares that have Phil and Stroke. But the chances are that if you if we're gonna be using the panel to create selections, you'll actually be using the path creation mode, not the shape creation mode in them in the pen tal. So let's actually see how we can make selections. How to create selections using the mantle in the path creation mode 15. 12. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Make selections with the Pen Tool: Now, I thought that we should talk about creating paths for selections on a bit more practical, practical example. And by the way, yes, this is Well, this will give you some hints on how you can, how you can resolve our design challenge. So let me just trace or create a path and around this orange in order to let's say, like, maybe change its collar or maybe black and white if I want to change its situation and we will actually learn how to do all those things in a later video. But for now, we will focus on just creating the path that would go around this orange. So I'm gonna go to the pen tal right here, and I'm gonna make sure that I'm that I'm in the path mode like that. And I'm simply going to maybe make it a bit. Well, I'm going to zoom in. I'm not gonna picket bigger, but I'm going to zoom in, and all we really need to do is to simply click somewhere here and then just start tracing it. Of course, my trace won't be as accurate as hopeful. Yours will be the and I really don't bore you with with me clicking like like 1/2 an hour or something like that. And you can see that there's actually quite a lot off quite a lot off small indents in this orange. And you you actually do have to be a bit precise to make this selection this selection good . So right now you can see that we can use our the our little trick that we learn to in the previous video. I mean, we can simply hold down on press the a key in order to select maybe this anchor point and simply maybe adjust just the crabbiness off this path right here. And maybe this one, this one as well. But again, I really don't want toe. I don't want you to spend the whole evening watching me or even even 30 minutes watching me . Just clicking anywhere on this, tracing this orange, actually. So let me just speed this process just a bit up, okay? Now we got the orange created. Of course, it would still need some adjustments here, here and there. But I'm gonna leave it up to you. It takes quite a lot of time to get all these all these lines or these paths, right? And I do encourage you to experiment with that. I do encourage you to to play along with these with these past with these selections Because this is how you this is how you get to get good at it. Simply So Okay, so let's say that my selection is OK, let's just leave it like that. All we really need to do right now is we could either again command or right click on our on our path and click. This option right here makes election all we could simply go to the control panel and click this button right here to create a selection. If you wanted to create a shape, we could create a shape right here. But we want to create a selection. So I'm simply going to click on this and I'm going to click, OK, Just like so there you go. You can see that we created our our selection. We traced our orange and we created the selection. And now we can actually change its color. And we can maybe make it black and white change its saturation. But this is some that we are going to do in the subsequent video because right now or in the next video, I want to show you how you can say for the selection if you want to. Well, like, be sure that you have it. Have it handed that you can always return to it if if something goes wrong so that this is something that we are going to do in the next video. 16. 13. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Save and load selections: Now that we have our our selection ready, we can actually save this selection if you want to use this in the future. So all we really need to do is we need to go to the select menu and then go to safe selection. And it's a good practice to simply give this selection some descriptive name. So I'm gonna call it orange trays or you can call it orange or orange selection and I'm gonna hit. OK, so now let's say that I am working working on my document. Let me just maybe duplicate the background that we just diesel ect everything. I'm gonna grip the pencil to depend two of the brush tool and I'm gonna maybe painted paint over just like that just because I want Teoh. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna do some, some really some really like arbitrary changes. So let's say that right now I want to go back to my selection, so I'm simply going to go to the select menu and I'm going to go to load selection and I'm gonna choose orange trays just like so, and I'm gonna click, OK, and as you can see, I got my selection Back and Aiken do all the things I can usually do when I have something selected inside photo shop. So first we select, it just may be deleted. So first we created the path, then we turned it into a selection. And then when we went to the select menu, and then we saved the selection and then loaded that selection in order to in order to bring to bring the selection back. So this is how you can keep how you can make or keep your selections flexible. You can simply create this election, and then you can save it, because let's say that you want to that you want to select some some object that you selected before you want. You want to select it again, but don't want to go over all this clicking and turning and turning your path into a selection. So this is one way off using the mental to create their selections. In the next video, we are actually going to discover the freeform panto, which I think is a bit better for creating selections, especially if you don't have a such a good contrast as you as you do as we do here with this orange and and the white background. So we were discovering their the freeform pencil in the next video. 17. 14. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Make selections with the Freeform Pen Tool: in this video, we are going to talk about their freeform Chantel and the freeform panel sits right here in the group besides the mental. And it has the same shortcut, actually, as the panel, as you can see the P letter. And if you want to quickly toggle between the pan tal and the freeform Chantel, you can simply hold down the shift key on your keyboard and then press the letter peak just like so. And you can see that I am toggling between the pencil and a free for mental, just like so. So how does this toe actually work? So the free from parental is basically a combination of a pan tal and a pencil toe. Well, kind off. I mean, if you kulik and then click, you won't see any any path and anchor point being created, which actually need to do is you need to collect and the drag click and drag to create a path that you can that you can close right here when you hover over your first anchor point . Just like so. And there you go, you got you got Well, we got we got our our path, our path created. And of course, if I just turn the shape mode on if I want to, I can create a shape with the free for mental as well, just like so. But that's actually not what I want to do. I mean, I want to let me just maybe remove this work path from the paths panel. What I actually want to do is they want to trace my orange with their free for mental. But to tell you the truth, I think that it would kind of be a bit difficult to get all these things right. I mean, even if we trace it quite, quite accurately, we would have to refer back to our to our anchor points and direction handles actually quite well up. So, actually, what? I think we're that we can dio just delete that. What I think that we can do is we can use the magnetic option right here inside the well in the control panel. So if I just turn around now, the panto is going well. The freeform panel is actually going to behave like a combination of a mental pencil toe and a magnetic lasso. But it will be even more flexible than than its name that I just made up suggests. So before we actually know, maybe let let me let me just show you how how the magnetic function changes the behaviour off the free from pencil. So right now, if I just click and start dragging, you can see that it actually, all these anchor points are snapping the to to my to my trace. So I don't have to be that accurate, as I as I would have to be with them free for mental with dad, the magnetic function. And you can see all these anchor points being added to my path. So these all these all these Let me just maybe delete it, okay? Just like so all these anchor points. I mean, the amount off these ankle points didn't depend on the settings that you said right here when you click on this cog right here. So these options that you have right here control than the amount of the of the ankle points and the vicinity off the ankle points to that to your to your freeform pantaloon movement. It sounds kind of quirky. I know. So let me just let me just some explain it to you. Well, very simply, the most important thing about this about these options is this curve fit option. Right here. The default setting is two pixels, which means that photo shop is going to register your movement If it's greater than two pixels and it's gonna and it's gonna add an anchor point after you have moved your cursor A to leased by two pixels. Logically, if you need greater control, you will. You would decrease this value and you can, you can. The range of this curfew option is from half a pixel to 10 pixels. So if I go with just with just 1/2 a pixel just like that and now when I start tracing my orange, you can see that there's quite a lot off anchor points being added to my to my to my path or ultimately to my selection. So it all depends on the precision that you are looking for in them in a case off this off this orange, and we have, like a big contrast between the orange and the background, so we actually don't need these many anchor points like so let me just let me just remove it. So I'm gonna go back to the cog, and maybe I'm gonna go up to three pixels just like that. Okay, so now let me just trace it. So I'm going to click and click. And, well, I'm not clicking. I'm just clicking in Dragon. And these anchor points are being added automatically off course if you want to. If you think that photo shop is not adding, adding an anchor point where you think that the anchor point should be you can simply click , And you will add the anchor point automatically, just like that. And if you go to the edge of the document view, you can simply press and hold on the space bar and to temporarily switch to the to the hand tool. And you can move your orange just like so. So let me just speed the process a bit up for you so you can don't have to watch me clicking and clicking and dragging all day long. So there you go. We got that path created off course. As as usual. I still need to need to do some adjustments right here. I can see that this this anchor point is not being bean. Well, I didn't I didn't make it. I didn't draw it correctly. So let's say that I am happy with my selection because actually, I am. Well, I almost I almost And let me just move this guy a bit up ass like so this should be fine. And always, of course, need to do is willing to simply I'm just gonna go back to the free frontal and I'm gonna I'm gonna just press a make selection or right here. I don't want any feathering. And again, I got my selection. I got my selection ready, Just like so. So there you go. This is how you can use the freeform panto in order to make in order to make selections. So now that we know how to make the selections, I think it's high time we actually do. I mean, it's high time we did some good with it. So in the next video, we are going to change the color of this orange and the saturation, and you're going to wear going to play with it just a bit 18. 15. Pen Tool in Photoshop - Design challenge resolved: in this video, we are actually going to see how we can resolve our design, a design challenge. So now that we have our selection ready, there's a few things that we can we can do with it. I mean, it's a, well, selections are actually quite flexible. So let's say that I want to just maybe copy this orange because I want to move it to some other background just because what we can do is we can simply press the control or command if you're on a Mac J on your keyboard, which is the same as going to the layer the menu than new, and then layer via copy right here, which actually copied on Lee the selection, which was our orange. So if I now just turn all, then the background layers off, you can see that we get that we got to Onley only our our orange, just like so. So now that I have my orange copied, if I just control or command click on the layer thumbnail, I'm going to select Onley my orange and let's say that I want to create that. I want to change the color off my Orent right now and I haven't selected. If I simply now go to the adjustments panel and I click, let's say hue saturation. You can see that photo shop is actually creating a new layer for rats worth a layer mask. That is, that is being represented right here. So all the changes that we are going to make right now we are going to make on Lee to our orange. We can make it look like a lemon, actually. And we don't need Teoh. Actually, we're not applying any changes toe all the underlying layers. So let me just maybe make it yellow. Why not? And maybe let me just drop the saturation a bit down to somewhere here. There you go. This is how you can change them, change the color of your of your orange or off any actually object that you are that you are well that you have selected. So again let me just maybe remove this. There's delete this layer. So again, since I have this orange carpet, remember, we have selected it and copied now with the Control J Command I cannot control click on its layer thumbnail just like that Or I could load our selection. If I say that that that in this case it will work just the same. And this time maybe I'll do something else. I'm gonna go to black and white. Why not? And you can see that illustrate. The photo shop is his making. Our orange looked black and white and still I can control. I can control the looks of it, just like so. Of course, we've got some problems right here that will I Wells kind of sloppy with selection. I know, but I do believe that she will not be a sloppy as I was. And you will make your selection even better because I think that you already know how to do it. So there you go. This is how you can use the pen tal to create selections. This is how you can use the freeform Chantel to create selections. And this is how you can resolve our design challenge. And I really encourage you to play with them well, to test all the settings from off the free for mental, to play around with their with the mantle to create paths or shapes and selections. And, of course, that to share your your projects in our discussion board 19. Thanks for watching: so thanks again for watching this course. I really do hope you found it useful that you learned a lot and that from now on you'll be using the pen tal with confidence that it will actually be your friend rather than your enemy. And please do check up my other courses where I teach other design related topics and, as always, happy designing. And my name is David Tyminski.