So how do we add these details to the shape? Simple. At the very least, I think we should include his eyes and mouth in the shape, and probably even his bow tie and the two large buttons below it. In my case though, my gingerbread man shape needs a bit more detail. We've traced around the basic shape of the object, and depending on the shape you're using, this may be enough. The shape of the object is now clearly visible in the Layers palette. Photoshop is filling the shape with the Foreground color (mine is currently set to black) as I draw it, blocking the gingerbread man from view: We can see the anchor points and direction handles in the screenshot below, but notice that we also have a bit of a problem.
I'm going to start by tracing around the top of the gingerbread man, clicking with the Pen Tool to place anchor points and dragging out direction handles to create curved path segments around the side and top of his head.
Now that we have the Pen Tool selected along with the "Shape layers" option in the Options Bar, we can begin tracing around the object. This is actually going to create a bit of a problem for us, as we'll see in a moment. The difference is that with shapes, Photoshop fills the path with color, even as you're drawing it, which is what allows us to see the shape. In fact, regardless of whether you're "officially" drawing shapes or paths, you're drawing paths. Both are created exactly the same way, by clicking to add anchor points, then dragging out direction handles if needed to create straight or curved path segments (again, see our Making Selections With The Pen Tool tutorial if you're unfamiliar with these terms). I should point out here that there's no difference between drawing paths with the Pen Tool and drawing shapes with it. It's a good idea though to check and make sure it's selected before you begin drawing your shape. The "Shape layers" option is selected by default whenever you grab the Pen Tool so you probably won't need to select it yourself. Select the "Shape layers" icon to draw shapes with the Pen Tool. Gingerbread Man here into a custom shape: If you have a natural talent for drawing and can draw your shape freehand without needing to trace around anything, great! There's no difference between tracing an object or drawing one freehand and there's no benefit to either way of doing it (other than bragging rights), but I personally find it easier to trace around objects (I have no natural talents), and that's what we'll be doing here. In this tutorial, we're going to create our custom shape by tracing around an object in an image. Be sure to read through that tutorial first though if you're not familiar with the wacky world of the Pen.
Make custom photo for mac how to#
We cover how to use the Pen Tool in great detail in our Making Selections With The Pen Tool tutorial, so we won't be going over all that stuff again here.
You can create them out of Photoshop's basic Shape tools, like the Rectangle Tool or the Ellipse Tool, but unless you want to limit yourself to creating shapes that look like boxes or bicycle tires, you're going to need to use the Pen Tool. Creating custom shapes involves using the Pen Tool. One more thing I should point out before we begin. Or combine a custom shape with a vector mask to create really interesting photo borders! Before we can do any of that, though, we first need to learn how to create them!
Make custom photo for mac professional#
You don't need to be into digital scrapbooking, though, to benefit from knowing how to create your own custom shapes.įor one thing, creating them is just plain fun! Creating a whole bunch of them and collecting them into different sets is even more fun! You can use custom shapes as decorations in digital scrapbooking pages, but you can also use them in professional design work. I came up with the idea for this tutorial after looking through a scrapbooking magazine recently and coming across pages and pages of simple, ready-made shapes, all packaged together neatly into different themes, that people could buy for ridiculously high prices, and I immediately thought, "Hey! You could create these shapes in Photoshop for, like, FREE!". In Part 2, we'll look at how to collect and save multiple shapes into custom shape sets! In Part 1, we'll look at how to create a shape, how to define it as a custom shape, and then how to call it up and use it whenever we need it. There's a lot to cover, so we're going to break things up into two parts. In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at everything you need to know to create and work with custom shapes in Photoshop.
0 kommentar(er)
