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- In this movie, I'll show
you how to draw smooth points

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with the pen tool.

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Now, the short story is
that you drag with the pen

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instead of clicking,

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but let me show you what that looks like.

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I'll go ahead and turn
off my smooth points layer

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and I'll create a new
layer by Alt-clicking

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or Option-clicking on the little page icon

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at the bottom of the layers panel,

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and I'll call this guy
More Smooth, let's say,

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and I'll change the color to
violet, then I'll click OK.

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Now, I'll go ahead and select my pen tool,

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which again, I can get
by pressing the P key,

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and I'll start up here at the top.

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Notice that my pen cursor,
once again, has an asterisk

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to show me that I'm about to
create a new path outline.

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I'm going to do so by
clicking and dragging.

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So the point at which you click,

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that determines the location
of the smooth point,

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and as you drag, you're going
to draw forth control handles.

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One, under your cursor,

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and the other, opposite
the cursor like so.

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And now notice that my rubber
band preview is curving

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to show me that I'm going
to create a curving segment,

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but it's not entirely accurate.

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What we're seeing is a
preview of what would happen

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if I were to click in order
to create a corner point.

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But you don't want to do
that because if you do,

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you'll have just one
control handle associated

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with this segment, and
that's generally a no-no

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because you end up with
this curving segment

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that ends with this kind of flat tire.

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So I'm going to go ahead
and press Control Z

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or Command Z on a Mac.

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What you want to do
instead, is drag to create

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another smooth point like so.

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And now notice that the
control handle under my cursor,

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and my cursor is located
downward by the way,

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has nothing to do with the
segment that I'm about to create.

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Instead, it's the opposite control handle

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that's informing this segment

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while the control handle that I just made

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will affect the next segment I draw.

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So now I'll go ahead and drag down here

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to create another control handle,

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and notice that I have
established a pattern.

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So I started dragging from the top here

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in a counter clockwise direction,

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which means that I need to continue

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in a counter clockwise direction.

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If you start clockwise, then
just continue clockwise.

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So you can draw in either
direction you want,

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but what you don't want to
do is now start dragging

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in the wrong direction because
you'll get this big loop.

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Alright, a couple of
other things to note here.

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If you press and hold the
Spacebar as you're creating

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a smooth point, then you can
move that point on the fly,

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and as soon as you release the Spacebar,

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you'll continue changing the
curvature of the segment.

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You can also press the Shift key

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if you want to constrain the
angle of your control handles

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to the nearest 45 degrees.

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But, you cannot do both at the same time.

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And so if I were to add the Spacebar

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while I have the Shift key
down, then I would just continue

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to constrain those control handles,

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I will not move the anchor point.

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So if you want to move that smooth point,

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you need to release the Shift key,

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then move the point to
where you want it to be,

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go ahead and release the Spacebar,

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then hold the Shift key once again.

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A final option that's available to you

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is to press the Control key
or the Command key on the Mac.

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Right now, notice when I
don't have any keys down,

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that both of my control handles
are absolutely symmetrical.

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They're both moving along with my cursor.

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But if I press the Control
key or the Command key

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on the Mac, just the control
handle under my cursor moves

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and the opposite one
remains the same length.

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I can move around to change its angles,

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but its length remains the same.

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But if at any time, you release
the Control or Command key,

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then your control handles are going

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to be the same length once again.

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Alright, finally, let's say
you want to close the path.

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I'll go ahead and move my active
cursor that has no asterisk

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over the first point in the path.

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We now see a circle which tells
us that we're about to close

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the path, but if I were
to just click, I'll get

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this flattened segment that
we're seeing in the preview.

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That's not what I want, so
in order to get a nice smooth

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point at the end, you want to
go ahead and drag once again.

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Now the good news you'll
find as you become

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more experienced, is that
you're only affecting

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the opposite control handle.

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You're not affecting
the one that's over here

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on the left side of the
shape, in other words.

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It's remaining the same, so
that gives you a little more

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latitude and control when
you're closing the shape.

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You also have the option
of pressing and holding

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the Spacebar to move that
closing point on the fly like so.

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And when you get it where you want it,

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you can release the Spacebar once again

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and continue dragging.

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So I'm going to go ahead and
release to create this shape.

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Alright, now let's say you
want to make some modifications

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because it's not really
the smoothest shape

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I've ever created.

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In that case, go ahead and
press and hold the Control key

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or the Command key on the Mac
to get the lasso arrow tool

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on the fly, unfortunately for
me, that's the black arrow

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tool, which does allow you to
drag control handles around

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incidentally, so you
can move control handles

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with the black arrow tool, you
just can't move anchor points

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because if you click on an anchor point,

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you'll end up selecting the entire shape.

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You'll also select the
entire shape if you click

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on a segment, which means I can't see

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the control handles down here.

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So I need to switch to the
white arrow tool by pressing

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Control tilde here on a PC

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or Command Option Tab on the Mac,

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then I'll click on this segment
to see its control handles.

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Notice the segments just
aren't quite long enough,

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they should be a little longer in order

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to get a nice smooth arc.

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And notice if I make
them too long like so,

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then I'll end up with this
kind of rounded corner effect

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right here, and if you
really go far enough with it,

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you'll get the segment to loop around.

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Whereas, if you make your control
handles too short like so,

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then you'll end up with
a flattened segment.

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So keep in mind that rule of thirds,

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which says that the
control handles together

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should add up to about
two-thirds the length

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of the curving segment,
which is a problem up here.

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This guy's too flat, so
I'll go ahead and click

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on this segment and drag
these control handles

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out just a little bit like so.

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Alright, you can also draw
open path outlines if you like,

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but you don't want to start
dragging on the path outline

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because it's selected.

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So if I were to click on a
selected curving segment like so,

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then I will not only see the
plus sign next to my pen cursor

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but I will also add a smooth point.

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So any time you click on
a selected curving segment

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with the pen tool, you add a smooth point.

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Alright, let's say I
don't want to do that.

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I'll just press Control
Shift A or Command Shift A

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on the Mac in order to
deselect that path outline.

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And now, I'll just drag a bunch
of times in order to create

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some more smooth points,
and I'll use the Spacebar

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in order to get that guy
into a better position.

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By the way, you can always edit
the points as you're working

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just by pressing the Control key

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or the Command key on the Mac.

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Go ahead and click an anchor point,

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adjust its control handles,
do whatever you want to it.

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You can even move points
around incidentally

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without deactivating the
paths, so notice, as soon

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as I release the Control key
or the Command key on the Mac,

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my path is still active as I
can see by the lack of asterisk

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and the fact that I have
a rubber band preview.

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But, if I try to nudge a selected point

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using the arrow keys on the keyboard,

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the second I press an arrow
key, I will deactivate the path

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as you're seeing here.

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So to reactivate it,
you don't want to click

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because you're working with smooth points.

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Instead, you want to drag and
then you can continue dragging

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to add more smooth points
to your path outline.

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Then, once you get the
desired effect like so,

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and I'll just go ahead and
Control-drag or Command-drag

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that control handle inward a little bit,

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then you can deactivate the
path outline just as you can

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when you're creating corner points

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by pressing the Escape
key or the Enter key

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or the Return key on the
Mac, it's entirely up to you.

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Now I'm going to press
the V key to switch back

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to my black arrow tool, and
I'll click off the path outline

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to deselect it.

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And that's how you create
smooth points with a pen tool,

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by dragging in a consistent
direction, remember that,

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here inside Illustrator.