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About this lesson
A brief look at the Curvature Tool and how it can be used with the Pen Tool.
Quick reference
The Curvature Tool
A brief look at the Curvature Tool and how it can be used with the Pen Tool.
When to use
The Curvature Tool is the ideal choice when you want to either change an angular shape to a curved shape, or from a curved shape back to an angular shape.
Instructions
- Similar to the steps we took when using the Pen Tool, create either a geometric or organic, curved shape.
- Select the Curvature Tool next to the Pen Tool and click on one of the corners or edges of your shape.
- Notice how the Curvature Tool is able to quickly change a 45 or 90 degree angle into a smooth, curved shape.
- If you click on the same corner or edge once again, it will revert back to the previous angular edge.
Hints & tips
- You can use the Curvature Tool on one or several edges or corners to change a square into a complete circle or ellipse.
- If you are having trouble creating nice curves in a shape, experiment with the Curvature Tool to produce better results.
- The Curvature Tool can also be used to create curved shapes from scratch.
- 00:04 So hopefully by this point, you guys will have a little bit more practice just
- 00:07 drawing some shapes, even basic ones, with the pen tool.
- 00:11 And like I was saying in the last section, you can use the pen to either create
- 00:15 straight lines that will make up a hard edge shape like this, or you can click and
- 00:19 hold to create curved paths.
- 00:22 And you can use the handles to manipulate those even further, and
- 00:27 you can use this as a guide to tell you where your next point will be and
- 00:30 the shape that it's going to take.
- 00:32 So if I click my last point here, I'll have more control over where I end up.
- 00:38 All right, because if I were to just continue right now,
- 00:40 you can see that my handle is extended pretty far.
- 00:43 So if I try and close this shape, it's going to arc out really far and
- 00:46 then close the shape.
- 00:48 But if, instead, I click on this last point first,
- 00:51 I'll have more control over that next point.
- 00:57 I can then select that with my direct selection tool, and grab one of
- 01:00 the handles to modify it and bring it in a little bit, if it sticks out too much.
- 01:05 Or I can click on one of these handles to bring it in even more,
- 01:09 to make something really exaggerated, almost like a comma kind of shape.
- 01:14 But from here, what I can do is I can grab the tool next to my Pen tool,
- 01:18 which is called the Curvature tool.
- 01:19 And this is a really useful tool because, let's say I have a harded-shape like this,
- 01:25 well, I can come over to one of these points and double-click on it, and
- 01:28 it will then suddenly turn this into a curved path.
- 01:32 And I can do that over any of these points,
- 01:34 to essentially just create this giant kind of egg shape,
- 01:37 which I can then grab one of those points and extend it further.
- 01:40 And if I double-click it again,
- 01:42 it will return to more of an angular type of shape.
- 01:47 All right, so this is a good way to easily and quickly create some curved shapes.
- 01:51 So let's try it on this one over here, as well.
- 01:54 If I double-click on this shape, it'll actually make that point rounded.
- 01:59 And if I try that on my shape that's already rounded,
- 02:03 it'll turn it into more of an angular shape.
- 02:07 Okay, so that's kind of how the Curvature tools works.
- 02:09 If I were to just do this on a regular old square,
- 02:12 you can kind of see it even better, how it's creating these curves on both sides.
- 02:17 And now, I basically have a circle.
- 02:20 And if I double-click again on either of those points, you can
- 02:24 make it more angular, which you can really start to notice as I drag it out.
- 02:29 Okay, and I can use this to manipulate my points even more.
- 02:33 So by using a combination of this with the Pen tool, we can really create just about
- 02:37 any shape that you want, and especially if you are trying to trace a drawing, or
- 02:42 a photograph, it can be really handy to get a shape that is just right.
- 02:48 So I can click on here, and I can move this point around, but
- 02:51 I can also double-click it, to make it curved.
- 02:56 Click on that, double-click here, and now you have this rounded, kind of orb shape.
- 03:02 So it's a really quick and easy way to kind of manipulate and
- 03:05 transform a hard-edged shape into a rounded one,
- 03:08 without having to go crazy manipulating handles.
- 03:11 If I did want to manipulate the handles, I could just grab my direct selection tool
- 03:15 and pull or push those handles out, as much as I need.
- 03:20 So, in addition to practicing using the Pen tool,
- 03:23 I want you guys to try this out on your own using some hard-edged shapes.
- 03:28 We're even using some of the default shape tools,
- 03:30 and double-clicking on some of the points to turn them into curved shapes.
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