Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:41:35 GMT -6
For this signature you'll be using the pen tool. If you aren't familiar with this tool you can check out the Pen tool tutorial.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:42:24 GMT -6
Open a picture you want to make a silhouette from. You can use the zoom tool to enlarge the view so it's easier to see your path. Just click down in your file to enlarge the view. Each click down will enlarge it even more. To return the view to 100% double click on the zoom tool's button in the toolbox.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:42:54 GMT -6
With the pen tool you're going to click and drag in the direction of your object, red arrows, then release. Each time you click and drag an anchor point will be created, yellow arrows. It's okay if your path is rough and I purposely made mine that way to show you it doesn't matter how good you are with the pen tool because you can clean your path up once it's closed. The more you practice with the pen tool the better you'll get and you'll start to see your paths needing little to no cleaning up.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:43:21 GMT -6
Here's my path as I continued around Woody's ear. The red arrows are the directions I clicked and dragged and the yellow arrows are the anchor points that were created. Continue your path going around your entire pup. When you get close to the first anchor point your final click and drag should be on the first anchor point so you close the path.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:44:11 GMT -6
Once your path is complete you're now going to clean it up. Select the direct selection tool from the toolbox. If you click on your path with this tool you'll see the anchor points on your path. If you click on an anchor point it will become filled and be a selected anchor point, black arrow. You'll see the selected anchor point has a direction line that has direction points at both ends. To clean up your path you're going to change the curves between two anchor points around your entire path. You do this by clicking and dragging direction points and/or clicking on an anchor point and moving it to a new location. Moving direction points closer or farther away from their anchor point as well as moving direction points to change the angle of the direction line will adjust the curve. As you clean up your path if you need to you can add or delete anchor points on the path. See replies 16-19 in the Pen tool tutorial to see how.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:44:44 GMT -6
You don't have to make your path very detailed and can keep it simple as you can see I did when going around the fur.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:45:13 GMT -6
I lowered the opacity of my picture's layer so you could better see my path. When you're happy with your path choose Edit>Define Custom Shape...
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:45:49 GMT -6
When the Shape Name window pops up name your shape and click OK.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:46:35 GMT -6
Now if you select the custom shape tool from the toolbox... ...then click on the shape showing in the options bar, red outline, in the window that pops up you'll see your new silhouette is the last shape in the set you currently have loaded. Repeat these steps to make as many silhouettes as you'd like.
|
|
Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
|
Post by Jen on Oct 3, 2009 14:47:18 GMT -6
With your silhouettes made START With A New File Select the gradient tool from the toolbox. Click on the gradient showing in the options bar. In the window that pops up select the Black, White gradient.
|
|