Pen Tool in Illustrator. It's also going to cover the selection tool and the direct selection tool

(the black and white arrows). These are the three most commonly used

tools in Illustrator and

we're going to go over

every single thing that you can do with them. All of the different versions

of the pen tool and

how it affects anchor points,

handles, and segments; along with each one of the tools uses with the modifier

keys (control/alt/shift)

So, we're going to go in to all of these.

This file we're looking at is available for free in the description to

download. It's going to go over all the stuff i'm going over with you here.

It's all written out and explains it all as a nice little shortcut to

explain every last aspect of it.

I'll go over the layers here real quick. In the layers we have a tracing pad,

which is so you can practice on these images here. You can draw over them

with the pen tool.

Below that we have the examples which are these shapes here. If I disable them

you'll see. Those are the examples. We have the text, obviously.

And then the images in the background. So

in this case I'm going to uncheck the examples for this demonstration.

I'm going to zoom in to the very start, here.

So, we're starting off with the bare essentials.

Don't skip this video just yet! This part is going to be super super

simple.

But we have to start with the basics first, right?

So, select the pen tool, it's the 5th option in the here in the tools box.

Click once to create an anchor point.

Click once again to create a second anchor point and these two will be

connected by a segment.

If I click and drag, then I'll pull-out handles

and the further I pull them out the more curved

my new segment will be.

The closer I have them to the original anchor points that I clicked

the sharper it will be; the more it will be a straight line.

So I'll put this out some.

If i hover over the original point that I left

my cursor changes to have

a circle,

instead of just the pen tool. So, I'll hover over it

and it turns into a circle.

Which means this will close the path if I click on this anchor point. So I will do so;

and now I have a closed path.

That is the basic functionality of the pen tool. How to create a shape just by clicking

in different sections and using the handles that come out to create

these curved shapes, these bezier curves.

And how to connect back your path to make it a closed path

The most primary function for the selection tool

is to deselect objects that are already selected by clicking on the artboard,

or to

click and drag those objects around (to move them).

And that is the most basic functions of them.

Let's go to the next section.

The inside of a shape this called the fill (that's what this green section is).

The outside edge of it is called the stroke,

that's the blue section there.

You can use the selection tool to select a shape,

and when you do

it's colors will be adjustable here in the tool box.

There are several other places you can adjust them as well, but this is a quick

way of doing so.

There's little arrow here as well that will swap them, so it swaps the fill and the

stroke colors. Or you can just double-click on them and change their

color

like so. Double-click on the box here in the tools section.

You can also adjust the stroke width.

Here on the side I've got the stroke

panel pulled up, you can also find that under window and stroke if you don't see

that

and I'm gonna change this from 18pt to 4pt.

And it's going to be adjusted because that object was selected when i changed

that.

We'll go in to the next section.

You can click and hold the pen tool icon,

which is here and the toll box. Click and hold on that

and it will pull out your different options. You've got

the Add Anchor Point tool,

the Delete Anchor Point tool, and the Convert Anchor Point tool. So there's different versions

of the Pen Tool that you can use that have different functionalities. If I click

this little Tear Off button here, then I get it

like so, and I like to keep it up here in this top corner. I basically have it up

there all the time, because

the Pen Tool is so useful in Illustrator.

So far we've been using just the Pen Tool on its own, I'm gonna switch over to the

Add Anchor Point tool.

And I'm going to click

anywhere on a path.

In this case you see that there is an anchor here

and hear and this is a segment between a metallic reports

click click anywhere in their i can create a new anchor point

there's also a delete agricultural if i use that but i can remove anchor points

like this one here there's also the convert anchor point two

with its elected i can click on a an anchor point that has handles

quick not once we remove its handles

and now this which was rounded as a sharp point 'cause the handles have been

removed

i can also

click on a single individual handle

to remove just yet while the other hand on an anchor point

is still

uh... it still visible and uh... at its original position

you can also click and drag out from anchor point to create new handles that

will move in tandem with one another

and you can't click and drag a single handle to convert it to be moved

independently from the other

i'm going to do so at this shaped by clicking on the our border with he

selection tool

uh... with this little when i click on a ship it selects every anchor point and

that shape so i can move the shape

as one individual object

the

direct selection told the white arrow on the other hand

allows you to select individual anchor points and to just them on their own

so i can select a single anchor point

and relocated

like so click and drag it to a different position

you can also hold on the shift key

to select multiple anchor points

some sort of a large shift and click on malt liquor points

and i can move those together

while the rest of the anchor points

are stationary

the drexler talking also click and drag out the window an any anchor point

inside that window become selected to allow you to control

what is selected ups

if you select a single

uh... anchor point with handles like this one

you can click

either handle and if they are in line with another

you can move in both at the same time in tandem

on anchor points where the handles are now in a straight line you can move the

handles independently wakes up

and finally

uh... you can also click on a segment on it's gone

and move a single segment

costume exceptions that was the basics

this exception will cover and use of the modifier keeps

you can choose the selection tool the black arrow

and while clicking and reading the shape of people dont all tool see the cursor

changes to have

uh... a black on top of white shake you can release it

annual create copy

putting dragging while holding on all critic opic if you click and drag while

holding and shift it moves your object

in a straight line at forty-five uh... degree increments

this is useful if you wanna move something directly

to a genocide

you can also combine these two people down

shifts

to constrain

and hold on all to the same time and let go

annual create copy directly in line with the original

this can be very useful for a number of of things

uh... finally within the selection tool selected you can hold on control and it

will temporarily give you access to

the direct slept well

are released the control key and still using the selection too

but if i hold a control again my white arrow instead

and so you have access to some of the uses of the white arrow

uh... very quickly by just hole in the control key

they're using the directs electro

all the white arrow

with the drug sexual on an anchor point you can click and drag in anger point

and hold them alts

and create copy of what you're dragging out the only

banker point in the segments that are connected to it

now if i were to

move this

elsewhere you'll see that created

as shape

based off of what i pulled out

from an anchor point the original one stays intact

at crazy duplicate only of the anchor point in the two segments that on either

side of it

well down shifts just like before while cooking dragging

and moves that forty five degree increments

and holding down the control key switches back to the black arrow

temporarily so i can select

the entire object the oldest tanker points oregon's click off of that

to remove

the selection and i have because he's modifier keys with the direct such a

toll on handles

so it looks like they single anchor point and just the tamils like this one

here i called on the holtz ki

mike researchers have a plus side and i are going to

than this

single uh... anchor part of the single handle

uh... independently

of the other handle

holding us shift wall dragging it

will constrain it

to be at forty five degree angle ps

and finally will use the control

this was back to the pencil here

and if you hold out of control wheel temporarily have the selection told the

white arrow people dont bolts

built over really have the

convert anchor points tool

thatcher's bozell i've now you will have these tools within their ability to

uh... use modifier keys because you're already in a different or using modifier

q

if you try it out and getting an error sound

with potential

like before you can draw anchor points and pull the handles out

hold down shift will point handles out he'll be constrained at forty five

degree angle ts

wall drawings of what the pencil

you if you put the anchor point the wrong position

if you're still clicking and dragging out the the handles

you can hold the space bar to reposition that point

this is extremely useful specially for tracing something and you ask the lake

uh... click your anchor point

down the wrong place you can hold on a space part repositioning

to be on top of the correct area of the image

this franchise missing from the pencil in photoshop

and i think it actually hampers at quite a bit

as i said it it can be extremely useful particularly when

uh... went racing or something but just in general it's very helpful would be

able to quickly reposition it

on the fly wire drawing something in making a shape

i'm relieved that shit

and the next thing is if you click and drag

as you point out the handles

if you hold down alts

you can is uh...

changed in the uh... the forward facing handle independently

of the the previous one

this is really good if you're trying to make corner

for example

and then click and drag on a new area

uh... as your as your clicking and reading

wherever in the backward spacing

uh... i handle is izzat whenever you hold on the old key