- In this movie, I'll introduce you to the Pen Tool's
partner in crime, which is the Anchor Point Tool.
And it allows you to convert a point from a corner point
to a smooth point, to a cusp point and so forth.
It also allows you to bend straight segments.
Now before I start, I'm going to go ahead
and press the a key in order to switch
to the White Arrow Tool.
Then I'm going to zoom in on this D-shaped path down here,
and I'm going to go ahead and click
on one of its points to select it.
And then I'm going to press the p key
in order to switch to the Pen Tool,
and I'm going to click on a straight segment
to add a corner point.
And now I'll press the ctrl key or the cmd key on the Mac
and drag it outward.
So any time you click with the Pen Tool
on a curving segment, you add a smooth point.
Any time you click on a straight segment,
you add a corner point.
All right, now I'm going to select the Anchor Point Tool
by clicking and holding on the Pen Tool
and then selecting the Anchor Point Tool
from the bottom of the fly out menu.
And notice that it has a keyboard shortcut of shift + c.
That c stands for convert,
because that's what it does.
And also, this used to be called
the Convert Anchor Point Tool.
All right, now let's say I want to take this corner point
right here and I want to convert it to a smooth point.
In that case, all I have to do is drag outward
from that point like so.
And often times, you'll drag in the wrong direction.
In that case, all you have to do is switch directions
as I'm doing here.
All right, now let's say that you want to break the link
between these two control handles
and turn the smooth point into a cusp point.
In that case, all you have to do is drag
one of your control handles like so.
All right, now the problem with both of these segments
is they now have one control handle a piece
because there's no control handle coming out of this point
at the bottom, or this point up here at the top.
At least they're not associated with the left hand segments.
And so I need to add handles by clicking and dragging
to first convert the points into smooth points,
and then dragging on a control handle like so
in order to restore a cusp point.
If that's what I'm interested in, but let's say I'm not,
I'll go ahead and press ctrl + z or cmd +z on the Mac
a couple of times in order to restore this point
to the way it was.
What if what I really want to do is convert this point
back to a corner point with no control handles,
then all I have to do is click on it
with my Anchor Point Tool.
So once again, you drag from a point to convert it
to a smooth point.
You drag a handle to convert a smooth point to a cusp point.
And you click on a point in order to delete the handles
and turn it back into a corner point.
All right, let's take a look at a couple of other things
you can do here.
I'll go ahead and ctrl click or cmd click
on this point right here.
If I were to convert it to a smooth point
by dragging, as I did a moment ago,
then I'm going to upset the location
of all the control handles.
Let's say that's not what I want.
I'll go ahead and press ctrl + z or cmd + z on the Mac.
Let's say I like the position of this control handle
right here, and I want the other one to move.
Then you press the alt key or the opt key on the Mac
and you click on the handle that you don't like.
I really think this is weird, but that's what you do.
You alt or opt click on the handle
that isn't in the right location,
and it moves into alignment with the one
that you did not click.
All right, now let's say I want this segment right here
to be perfectly straight, so I want to get rid
of these two control handles.
Then with the Anchor Point Tool selected,
you press the ctrl key or the cmd key on the Mac,
which looks like it's going to get you the White Arrow.
But as soon as you click on one of those control handles,
it goes away.
And then you can ctrl click once again on the segment
to reselect the path and then you would ctrl,
or cmd click on this handle,
to make it go away so that you have a perfectly
straight segment.
All right, now finally, the Anchor Point Tool
allows you to bend straight segments.
And you do that by first selecting a path
that has a straight segment like this one right here,
and then you drag the segment.
And then the Anchor Point Tool
automatically gives that segment two control handles
so you have complete and total control over its curvature
in the future.
All right, now what's interesting
about the Anchor Point Tool,
is you can get to all of its features
except the ones that require modifier keys.
So that function where you can relocate a control handle
by alt or opt clicking on it,
and your option to ctrl click or cmd click
on a control handle in order to make it disappear.
You can get to everything but those functions
when the Pen Tool is active.
And so I'm going to go ahead and switch back
to the Pen Tool here.
And now, I'll ctrl click or cmd click on this path outline.
And now if I press the alt key, or the opt key on the Mac,
you can see that I have my caret-shaped cursor
that indicates the Anchor Point Tool.
And now I can go ahead and drag on this point right here
in order to convert it into a smooth point,
or I can alt drag or opt drag either the control handles
in order to reposition them independently.
So I once again have a cusp point,
or I can alt or opt click on the point,
in order to sever away it's control handles
and convert it to a corner point like so.
And finally, I could go ahead and ctrl click,
or cmd click on this path outline
to partially select it
and then press the alt key or the opt key on the Mac,
and drag on either of these straight segments
in order to curve it, as well as add two control handles
a piece.
And that's how you use the Anchor Point Tool
to convert anchor points from corner to smooth the cusp,
as well as bend straight segments here inside illustrator.