- In this movie, I'll show you how to draw smooth points
with the pen tool.
Now, the short story is that you drag with the pen
instead of clicking,
but let me show you what that looks like.
I'll go ahead and turn off my smooth points layer
and I'll create a new layer by Alt-clicking
or Option-clicking on the little page icon
at the bottom of the layers panel,
and I'll call this guy More Smooth, let's say,
and I'll change the color to violet, then I'll click OK.
Now, I'll go ahead and select my pen tool,
which again, I can get by pressing the P key,
and I'll start up here at the top.
Notice that my pen cursor, once again, has an asterisk
to show me that I'm about to create a new path outline.
I'm going to do so by clicking and dragging.
So the point at which you click,
that determines the location of the smooth point,
and as you drag, you're going to draw forth control handles.
One, under your cursor,
and the other, opposite the cursor like so.
And now notice that my rubber band preview is curving
to show me that I'm going to create a curving segment,
but it's not entirely accurate.
What we're seeing is a preview of what would happen
if I were to click in order to create a corner point.
But you don't want to do that because if you do,
you'll have just one control handle associated
with this segment, and that's generally a no-no
because you end up with this curving segment
that ends with this kind of flat tire.
So I'm going to go ahead and press Control Z
or Command Z on a Mac.
What you want to do instead, is drag to create
another smooth point like so.
And now notice that the control handle under my cursor,
and my cursor is located downward by the way,
has nothing to do with the segment that I'm about to create.
Instead, it's the opposite control handle
that's informing this segment
while the control handle that I just made
will affect the next segment I draw.
So now I'll go ahead and drag down here
to create another control handle,
and notice that I have established a pattern.
So I started dragging from the top here
in a counter clockwise direction,
which means that I need to continue
in a counter clockwise direction.
If you start clockwise, then just continue clockwise.
So you can draw in either direction you want,
but what you don't want to do is now start dragging
in the wrong direction because you'll get this big loop.
Alright, a couple of other things to note here.
If you press and hold the Spacebar as you're creating
a smooth point, then you can move that point on the fly,
and as soon as you release the Spacebar,
you'll continue changing the curvature of the segment.
You can also press the Shift key
if you want to constrain the angle of your control handles
to the nearest 45 degrees.
But, you cannot do both at the same time.
And so if I were to add the Spacebar
while I have the Shift key down, then I would just continue
to constrain those control handles,
I will not move the anchor point.
So if you want to move that smooth point,
you need to release the Shift key,
then move the point to where you want it to be,
go ahead and release the Spacebar,
then hold the Shift key once again.
A final option that's available to you
is to press the Control key or the Command key on the Mac.
Right now, notice when I don't have any keys down,
that both of my control handles are absolutely symmetrical.
They're both moving along with my cursor.
But if I press the Control key or the Command key
on the Mac, just the control handle under my cursor moves
and the opposite one remains the same length.
I can move around to change its angles,
but its length remains the same.
But if at any time, you release the Control or Command key,
then your control handles are going
to be the same length once again.
Alright, finally, let's say you want to close the path.
I'll go ahead and move my active cursor that has no asterisk
over the first point in the path.
We now see a circle which tells us that we're about to close
the path, but if I were to just click, I'll get
this flattened segment that we're seeing in the preview.
That's not what I want, so in order to get a nice smooth
point at the end, you want to go ahead and drag once again.
Now the good news you'll find as you become
more experienced, is that you're only affecting
the opposite control handle.
You're not affecting the one that's over here
on the left side of the shape, in other words.
It's remaining the same, so that gives you a little more
latitude and control when you're closing the shape.
You also have the option of pressing and holding
the Spacebar to move that closing point on the fly like so.
And when you get it where you want it,
you can release the Spacebar once again
and continue dragging.
So I'm going to go ahead and release to create this shape.
Alright, now let's say you want to make some modifications
because it's not really the smoothest shape
I've ever created.
In that case, go ahead and press and hold the Control key
or the Command key on the Mac to get the lasso arrow tool
on the fly, unfortunately for me, that's the black arrow
tool, which does allow you to drag control handles around
incidentally, so you can move control handles
with the black arrow tool, you just can't move anchor points
because if you click on an anchor point,
you'll end up selecting the entire shape.
You'll also select the entire shape if you click
on a segment, which means I can't see
the control handles down here.
So I need to switch to the white arrow tool by pressing
Control tilde here on a PC
or Command Option Tab on the Mac,
then I'll click on this segment to see its control handles.
Notice the segments just aren't quite long enough,
they should be a little longer in order
to get a nice smooth arc.
And notice if I make them too long like so,
then I'll end up with this kind of rounded corner effect
right here, and if you really go far enough with it,
you'll get the segment to loop around.
Whereas, if you make your control handles too short like so,
then you'll end up with a flattened segment.
So keep in mind that rule of thirds,
which says that the control handles together
should add up to about two-thirds the length
of the curving segment, which is a problem up here.
This guy's too flat, so I'll go ahead and click
on this segment and drag these control handles
out just a little bit like so.
Alright, you can also draw open path outlines if you like,
but you don't want to start dragging on the path outline
because it's selected.
So if I were to click on a selected curving segment like so,
then I will not only see the plus sign next to my pen cursor
but I will also add a smooth point.
So any time you click on a selected curving segment
with the pen tool, you add a smooth point.
Alright, let's say I don't want to do that.
I'll just press Control Shift A or Command Shift A
on the Mac in order to deselect that path outline.
And now, I'll just drag a bunch of times in order to create
some more smooth points, and I'll use the Spacebar
in order to get that guy into a better position.
By the way, you can always edit the points as you're working
just by pressing the Control key
or the Command key on the Mac.
Go ahead and click an anchor point,
adjust its control handles, do whatever you want to it.
You can even move points around incidentally
without deactivating the paths, so notice, as soon
as I release the Control key or the Command key on the Mac,
my path is still active as I can see by the lack of asterisk
and the fact that I have a rubber band preview.
But, if I try to nudge a selected point
using the arrow keys on the keyboard,
the second I press an arrow key, I will deactivate the path
as you're seeing here.
So to reactivate it, you don't want to click
because you're working with smooth points.
Instead, you want to drag and then you can continue dragging
to add more smooth points to your path outline.
Then, once you get the desired effect like so,
and I'll just go ahead and Control-drag or Command-drag
that control handle inward a little bit,
then you can deactivate the path outline just as you can
when you're creating corner points
by pressing the Escape key or the Enter key
or the Return key on the Mac, it's entirely up to you.
Now I'm going to press the V key to switch back
to my black arrow tool, and I'll click off the path outline
to deselect it.
And that's how you create smooth points with a pen tool,
by dragging in a consistent direction, remember that,
here inside Illustrator.