{"id":1584,"date":"2014-01-25T12:11:44","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T20:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2014-01-25T12:12:27","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T20:12:27","slug":"new-shaping-tool-in-illustrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=1584","title":{"rendered":"New Shaping Tool in Illustrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blognosticator<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m on a roll here with the three newly improved tools in Adobe Illustrator. I like them all.<\/p>\n

The last of the three is the Shaping Tool,<\/em> which I have always known as the Modify Anchor Point<\/em> tool. It is a tool I use often enough to know the keyboard command to get it \u2013 Shift-C.<\/em> It\u2019s useful for changing the direction of anchor points, to cause a tangent to abut a curve, and to make curves into angular tangents. It\u2019s very helpful.<\/p>\n

The new version of that tool is called the Shaping tool.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/a><\/p>\n

I used the Shaping tool on the path at the top, pulling the control handles in the opposite direction, thus making the curves double-back on themselves. Though this is not something I do often, it is occasionally valuable.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It does impressive things to components of illustrations. Choosing it (Shift-C) allows you to click on an existing line and turn it into a curve, with tangent anchor points automatically created at its corners.<\/p>\n

\"Shaping<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the effect of shift-dragging on the vertical line on the left of this rectangle. The line is converted to a curve. The shift key makes the two anchor point handles on the ends symmetrical.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Shaping tool will also allow you to change or reverse an anchor point\u2019s characteristics, reverse an anchor point\u2019s handle (and thus the curve\u2019s direction or angle-of-attack), or change a curve into an angular chamfer (or vice versa).<\/p>\n

\"Chamfer<\/a><\/p>\n

In this illustration I changed the round corners into chamfers by clicking on each anchor point with the Shaping tool. This can also be accomplished now with the new Corners tool set to chamfer.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Shaping tool, when applied to the tip of a control handle, allows the curve coming from that handle to be adjusted irrespective of its adjacent curve.<\/p>\n

\"Ogee<\/a><\/p>\n

I modified the shape on the left to become the shape in the middle with the Shaping tool, then I modified the interior angles with the new Corners tool to round them to a 0.3 in. radius.<\/span><\/em>
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The new functionality of the Shaping tool changes straight lines into curved lines. Adding the shift key forces both control handles on those curves to be the same length, and thus making the curve symmetrical.<\/p>\n

\"Toast<\/a><\/p>\n

Without the shift key, the Shaping tool allows me to drag the vertical line on the left, converting it to a curved line emanating from the straight lines it touches.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Shaping tool can be accessed with the menu (with the pens), by using the keyboard combination Shift-C, or by adding the Option key when using the Pen tool.<\/p>\n

It takes a bit of practice, but it\u2019s a great new tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m on a roll here with the three newly improved tools in Adobe Illustrator. I like them all. The last of the three is the Shaping Tool, which I have always known as the Modify Anchor Point tool. It is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,9,25],"tags":[340,337,338,339],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-new-technology","category-software-2","tag-illustrator-new-tools","tag-new-illustrator-shaping-tool","tag-shaping-tool","tag-tangent-tool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}