board77

Never mind those last two - I figured them out.

New question - can one apply different fills to the same path? Like say I have a square and I want to fill the top half one way and the bottom half another way?

Also, can you move an anchor point once its placed?

I can answer some questions on Friday....work keeps me too busy and tired now. But quickly: You definately can move an anchor point. I think you hold down control or shift whilst clicking and holding the anchor point. I'm pretty sure the pen tool tutorial I linked you to covers that.

I'm still a novice when it comes to paths. I can try to experiment a bit and see if I can figure out how to do the two different fills.

Would be highly appreciative - this thing is driving me nuts!!!!!!!
I did figure out that you could move the path...though sometimes you can't and I'm not sure why.

This program really does seem way harder then it needs to be.
Right now I'm stuck on trying to figure out how to get my completed to look nice. The preset effects are somewhat limited and - WTF??? - it won't just let you draw on a damn shape layer.

yovargas wrote:

How'd you get the path tapered on one end and broad on the other, Eru?

Through the brush presets and messing around with the brush's fade. For info about that, read the brush settings part of this tutorial. Getting the right fade and brush width for the different parts of the face took quite a bit of experiementation unfortunately. Sometimes it was frustrating and slow.

Quote:

Such as, once you've stroked a path, is there any way to edit or change the stroke?

It doesn't look like it. You can transform the path or edit it with the convert point tool, but the stroke will still stay the same. The only way I can figure out how to change a stroke is to undo and try again.

Quote:

can one apply different fills to the same path? Like say I have a square and I want to fill the top half one way and the bottom half another way?

I don't think so (remember I am a photoshop novice as well!). But I did figure out how to achieve effect.

Draw your square with the pen tool. Fill it the way you want it filled. Then duplicate that layer and use your hue/saturation or color balance settings to get the desired second color. You can then use your rectangular marquee tool to select half of the square. Ctrl + X or edit -> cut to remove half of the square which reveals the first color. Who knows if there is a better quicker way, but that's all that I could figure out. Maybe you could ask at some Photoshop-geared forums.

Quote:

it won't just let you draw on a damn shape layer.

I'm not sure why you'd need to draw on the shape layer? Why not draw on a new layer. It would achieve the same effect, no? Photoshop is highly complicated. I wish there were some in depth instrustructions or good manuals out there...or that Adobe would provide a good one. I'm tempted to look at Photoshop for dummies but I'm afraid it wouldn't get advanced enough.

I'd be interested to see whatever you're working on.

Thanks for the answers, Eru.

The thing I was looking for is to be able to have something on a shape and then have the ability the morpth the whole shape. For example, if I draw a circle and then put a smiley face in the circle, I'd want to be able to streatch and transform the circle with the smiley face. That's why the 2 layer solutions won't work - I need it to be connected so I can modify it as one object.

Quote:

I'd be interested to see whatever you're working on.

Nothing very exciting to look at. My sis and bro-in-law are starting a company. They asked me if I'd be interested in giving a shot to designing their logo and I agreed. I roughly drew something I liked by hand and now I'm trying to get a polished version on the PC. It's HARD!

yov, if you make 2 layers like Eru suggested, you can still modify both at the same time. Click on one of the layers and link it with the other one.

Using an old picture from earlier in the thread:

See the paintbrush right next to "Layer 1?" That spot is empty for "Background," if you click on that spot it will link the 2 together.


Hope that made sense. I'm at work and quite burnt out.

Is there a reason you don't want to merge the layers, or have you not done it before? Ctrl+E will do that, if that's what you were after. ^^

*~Pips~*

I tried merging two layers a couple times. Whenever I did, I could no longer modify it, as if it had been stroked.

Oh yeah, meant to say...

Quote:

I'm tempted to look at Photoshop for dummies but I'm afraid it wouldn't get advanced enough.

...I checked this out from my library and found it pretty useless.

You should be able to link the layers without merging them. Right?

And I recommend the PhotoShop WOW! Book. I've learned quite a few things from there. There were some other ones at my library that were good, too. I do not remember the titles, though. (I bought the WOW! book.)


Lali

LalaithUrwen wrote:

You should be able to link the layers without merging them. Right?

Yup. You click on the empty sqaure next to the eye. Highlight one layer you want linked then click on that empty square of the layers you want to link to it. A little chain link icon will pop up.

I've done that to keep layers together for aligning purposes. Will it allow someone to edit them as yovi described?

I tell you what, it takes me a hideously long time to do simple stuff in Photoshop at work. I am sooooo glad its just the covers and I can mostly just use existing files, modifying the one or two things that change from cover to cover.

Heck just today it took me an hour to draw a simple polygon shape and figure out how to fill it with the color I wanted. Freehand and Indesign are so much easier to use.

LalaithUrwen wrote:

I've done that to keep layers together for aligning purposes. Will it allow someone to edit them as yovi described?

Edit them in some ways...but redo the lines he's stroked...not so far as I can tell. Those are permanent shapes you make whenever you stroke a path. Though I believe there is a way to save those paths which I would think would allow you to edit them later, but I haven't learned how to do that yet.

There has to be a way to edit paths that you've stroked or filled later. I would think photoshop would allow you to do that.

I think PhotoShop allows you to do anything. It's awesomely mighty. (I'm exaggerating a bit, but I really do feel like there are practically no limits to what can be done in PS. I just don't know how to do 5% of it!)


Lali

The most fun thing is playing with the Liquify tool! Except when you don't have a powerful enough computer! I was goofing around, making Liv Tyler look obese but when I hit okay to save all the changes, it said there wasn't enough RAM.

People beg me to make them look skinnier (which is fun to do, but boy are double chins tricky!). I haven't played around with the liquefy tool. I'm going to have to!

I think I've finally figured out how you can make vector shapes and edit them later yov! I'm at work now so I'll post how to when I get home tonight.

I thought you would have been happy about this yov!

Anyway, I've found a way to save the paths and edit shapes...but not strokes unfortunately. But it's a start.

Go ahead and draw whatever shape you're wanting to make. Now instead of filling it, go to your layers pallet and click on the circle that's filled half with black and half with white (adjustment layer). Choose solid color and then pick the color you want to fill with. You'll now have a vector mask. You can create a new layers but you'll always be able to go back to that one shape and change it around.