Introduction: Working with Paths

A lot of people have trouble working with paths because they don't understand the tools and how they function. In this tutorial we will attempt to explain how vector paths are drawn and how the different tools can be used to refine and create complex shapes.

1. Learning the Tools

Create a document of 400X400 pixels. On the toolbar select the Pen Tool or press "P". Make sure your pen tool is set for "paths" (draws only the path with no shape characteristics like fill color) instead of "shape layer" for this exercise, and that you are using the "Pen Tool" (selected by default) on your tool options, located to the right of the selected mode.

2. How Paths Work

Ok now let's examine the behavior of a node created by the pen tool. If you click anywhere on the canvas you will see a gray square appear in the canvas, this is your origin node.

If you continue to place points in the canvas in the same fashion you will find that the pen tool behaves much like the Polygonal Marquee Tool and as such, clicking on the original node will complete the loop an close the path. When you are over the origin node you will know because your pen tool will display a tiny circle to its right signifying a chance to close the path.

Well using the pen in this fashion is useful if you have a geometric shape, but how about something a little more organic.

Here is where most people get lost, when you click to create an anchor point with the pen tool, but instead of releasing the button you drag, you will see there are 2 handles that appear to both sides of the anchor point, in the direction and as far as you drag. These are the tangents and they determine the sharpness and direction of the curve that will be created when you add another node.

On my first node I pulled downward toward my bottom left corner, on the second node I pulled upward toward the top right corner, and on the third node I pulled downward in almost a 100 degree angle. So remember, the direction and distance to which you drag affects the severity and direction of the curve.

3. Creating Selections with Paths

Now, let's try to trace a complex shape to use as a vector mask and get to explore the rest of the pen tool's options. Let say we want to mask this flower to be used on a composition later on, we have a lot of edges and odd corners. Using the default pen tool try to trace the shape as close as possible.

There will be some curves and parts that won't match perfectly because of the tangents on the anchor points don't allow it. Don't worry about them for now, will correct them in the next step.

To select a node use the direct selection tool (the white arrow in the tool rollout directly above the pen tool) and click and drag outside the path over a particular node, this will reveal the tangents on each anchor point. A selected node will be a solid gray rectangle, while an unselected node will be a hollow square. The same behavior is true when using the Convert Point Tool.

In the next image there are some corners that are failing to follow the contours properly and some of then even have some odd twists.

The Convert Point tool will help us to correct some of these issues, this tool allows us to control an anchor point's tangent independently on each side to create sharper corners and reverse the direction of the curve at that particular node.

If you click directly on the node it will automatically convert it to a corner node attempting to follow the tangents of adjacent nodes:

As we can see on the previous image the next node heeds to be corrected to match a much more shallow curve. By using the Convert Point tool you can grab one of the tangent nodes and drag independently to adjust only the one side of the curve.

By selecting the next anchor point we can then adjust the remaining tangent for the previous node.

You can continue around the shape until you are satisfied that your corners and contours are where they need to be. If you need to move a whole path you can use the Path selection tool, located directly above the pen tool (Black arrow), here you can also find the direct selection tool (mentioned earlier), which allows yo to move groups of anchor points as well as manipulating the tangents.

If a point has already been edited with the Convert point tool you will be able to handle each tangent individually, otherwise you will transform both tangents at the same time. Other tools are the add and remove anchor point tools denoted with a plus (+) sign and a minus (-) sign to the right of the pen. These are pretty obvious about their function so we won't go into them.

With the shape traced to our liking, we can now take our work path and convert it to a vector mask or a selection for a bitmap mask. You can also fill, stroke or create a custom shape for later use.

4. Path Tips

A few more tips while working with paths: CTRL + H will hide/show any selection or active path. You can access your paths from the paths palette, located by default with your layers palette.

If you create a path and you wish to save it for use at a later point, you must go to your paths palette, name it and create a new work path. If you create a new path without creating a new work path layer, the new path will replace the previously created path.

5. Conclusion

Now our Image is ready to be placed in our composition and we have learned how paths work and how they can be used for complex masks. Paths can also be used in many other ways with a higher level of complexity by combining, merging and subtracting paths to create more interesting shapes or masks. This tutorial however is a good building block to get started.