- In this movie, I'll show you how to create cusp points
with the Pen Tool, which are corners between
two curving segments, or a curving segment
and a straight one.
Alright, I'm going to start off by turning off
this more smooth layer, and then I'll alt click,
or option click on the little page icon,
at the bottom of the Layers panel.
I'll name this layer cusp points,
and I'll change its color to orange.
And then I'll click OK.
Alright, now before I show you how to draw a cusp point,
which by the way, short story, you alt drag,
or option drag with the Pen Tool.
I want to show you what it looks like.
So I'll go ahead and select the Ellipse Tool,
and I'm going to shift drag,
in order to create a circle like so.
And now, I'll press the v key to switch back
to the black Arrow Tool, and I'll go ahead
and drag this guy over to the right,
while pressing the shift and alt keys.
Those are the shift and option keys on a Mac.
The shift key is constraining the angle of my drag,
the alt or option key, is making a copy.
Alright, now I'll go ahead and shift click
on the first shapes, so both are selected.
And then, I'll get my Shape Builder Tool,
which, if you changed your keyboard shortcuts
a couple of chapters ago, you can also get
by pressing the l key.
And then I want you to alt or option drag
inside these two regions, to subtract them away.
And now I'm going to zoom in on my shape like so
and I'll press the a key to switch to the white Arrow Tool
and I'll click on this point right there.
And notice, that it does have two control handles
just like a smooth point,
but they're independent of each other.
So I can move them around as much as I want,
which means that instead of getting a smooth arc
at this point, I end up with a corner known as a cusp.
Alright, I'm going to go ahead
and move these guys inward a little bit.
And then, I'll press ctrl, zero, or command, zero, on a Mac,
in order to center my zoom.
Alright, so let's say I want to draw the shape
of an eye, using my Pen Tool.
I'll go ahead and get the pen, which of course,
I can get by pressing the p key.
And then I'll draw my first smooth point like so.
So that's how you start things off.
And then I'll create another smooth point
up at the top here.
I might use the spacebar to get it into a better position
and then I'll press the shift key to constrain
the angle of my control handles,
so that they're exactly horizontal.
Then I'll create a new smooth point
over at this location here.
And so once you get the opposite control handle
into the desired position, you press and hold
the alt key, or the option key on a Mac,
to move the control handle
under your cursor independently.
Alright, now I'll just go ahead and create another
smooth point like so.
And now, instead of dragging to close my shape,
I'll press and hold the alt key, or the option key on a Mac,
and notice, that moves the opposite control handle,
and now I'm seeing nothing.
Nothing whatsoever, under my cursor.
And that's just the way things work
when you're drawing cusp points with the Pen Tool.
Alright, now I might modify my shape a little bit
by ctrl dragging, or command dragging
this guy outward like so.
And then I'll turn the shape into an eye,
by selecting the Ellipse Tool, and then I'll
just draw a big ellipse for the iris right there.
And I'll go ahead and shift, alt, click,
or shift, option, click,
anywhere on that first path to select.
Just one segment is enough.
And now, I'll select my Shape Builder Tool once again,
and I'll click inside the eye right there.
That's all you have to do.
And then you can press the v key
to switch back to the black Arrow Tool.
Click off the shapes to deselect them,
then click on this guy and shift, click, on this guy,
and press the backspace key, or the delete key on a Mac,
in order to make that, albeit very primitive looking eye.
Alright, you can also alt drag after the fact.
And to see what that looks like,
I'll return to the Pen Tool and I'm going to draw
an equally primitive heart, by dragging up right there.
Then I'll drag down while pressing the shift key,
right about there I figure.
And I might want to reposition that point a little bit
by spacebar dragging.
Alright, and then, I'm going to drag down
from this location.
Actually, I think I'll press the shift key
and create the control handles diagonally like so.
And now, I'll go ahead and press the a key
to switch to my white Arrow Tool for just a moment.
And I'll drag that guy down and I'll drag this one up.
I do want this heart to look fairly good.
Alright, now I'm going to press the p key
to switch back to the Pen Tool.
You can see, that I've got a smooth point,
but I can change it to a cusp, just by pressing the alt key,
or the option key on the Mac,
and dragging from that point once again.
And if I press the shift key as well,
is the alt or option key,
then I'm not only going to create a cusp point
but I'm going to constrain the angle
of this independent control handle
to the nearest 45 degrees.
Alright, now I'm going to drag up like so,
in order to create another smooth point,
over here on the left-hand side.
I might want it to be a little bit higher,
so I'll release the shift key for a moment
so I can just use the spacebar.
And then, let's say I start dragging, at this location.
Well, in that case, I'm going to make a smooth point
and it's going to be a mess, as we're seeing right here.
I'm messing up the shape in another words.
So, if that becomes an issue,
you don't have to start over again.
You can just go ahead and move your cursor back up,
so that the control handle under your cursor
is in the right location.
And then, press the alt key, or the option key on a Mac.
And move the other control handle
that is not under your cursor,
into the desired position,
which should be around here, it seems like,
it's just that I need to ctrl or command drag
this control handle upward,
to make things look a little bit better.
Alright, now so far all of our cusp points
have occurred at the intersection
of two curving segments.
What if you want to add in a straight segment.
Well, just go ahead and draw a few points here,
a few smooth points.
And let's say I want to end this shape right here,
after auto-scrolling, with a straight segment.
Then I don't have to alt click.
That is an option, but you just don't have to do it.
Just click, on that segment,
in order to sever away the other control handle,
and then click up here
to sever its extra control handle as well.
Now, another way to work,
is to draw the straight segment first.
So I could click here, and then click up here someplace,
and now if I drag after creating that straight segment,
I will draw forth a control handle.
And then I can draw another smooth point down here,
and finish it off by dragging,
in order to maintain two control handles
for this final curving segment.
So the moral of the story here,
is that you can create cusp points,
either by alt dragging with the Pen Tool,
or by clicking, if you want to add a straight segment.
But, you need to make sure that all of your curving segments
have two control handles, or just leave them straight,
with no control handles at all.
And that friends, is how you create and modify
cusp points, here, inside Illustrator.