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- In this movie, I'll
introduce you to the Pen Tool's

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partner in crime, which
is the Anchor Point Tool.

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And it allows you to convert
a point from a corner point

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to a smooth point, to a
cusp point and so forth.

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It also allows you to
bend straight segments.

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Now before I start, I'm going to go ahead

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and press the a key in order to switch

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to the White Arrow Tool.

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Then I'm going to zoom in on
this D-shaped path down here,

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and I'm going to go ahead and click

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on one of its points to select it.

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And then I'm going to press the p key

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in order to switch to the Pen Tool,

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and I'm going to click
on a straight segment

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to add a corner point.

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And now I'll press the ctrl
key or the cmd key on the Mac

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and drag it outward.

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So any time you click with the Pen Tool

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on a curving segment,
you add a smooth point.

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Any time you click on a straight segment,

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you add a corner point.

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All right, now I'm going to
select the Anchor Point Tool

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by clicking and holding on the Pen Tool

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and then selecting the Anchor Point Tool

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from the bottom of the fly out menu.

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And notice that it has a
keyboard shortcut of shift + c.

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That c stands for convert,

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because that's what it does.

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And also, this used to be called

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the Convert Anchor Point Tool.

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All right, now let's say I
want to take this corner point

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right here and I want to
convert it to a smooth point.

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In that case, all I have
to do is drag outward

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from that point like so.

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And often times, you'll
drag in the wrong direction.

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In that case, all you have
to do is switch directions

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as I'm doing here.

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All right, now let's say that
you want to break the link

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between these two control handles

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and turn the smooth
point into a cusp point.

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In that case, all you have to do is drag

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one of your control handles like so.

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All right, now the problem
with both of these segments

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is they now have one
control handle a piece

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because there's no control
handle coming out of this point

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at the bottom, or this
point up here at the top.

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At least they're not associated
with the left hand segments.

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And so I need to add handles
by clicking and dragging

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to first convert the
points into smooth points,

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and then dragging on a
control handle like so

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in order to restore a cusp point.

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If that's what I'm interested
in, but let's say I'm not,

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I'll go ahead and press ctrl
+ z or cmd +z on the Mac

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a couple of times in order
to restore this point

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to the way it was.

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What if what I really want
to do is convert this point

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back to a corner point
with no control handles,

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then all I have to do is click on it

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with my Anchor Point Tool.

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So once again, you drag
from a point to convert it

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to a smooth point.

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You drag a handle to convert a
smooth point to a cusp point.

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And you click on a point in
order to delete the handles

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and turn it back into a corner point.

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All right, let's take a look
at a couple of other things

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you can do here.

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I'll go ahead and ctrl click or cmd click

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on this point right here.

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If I were to convert it to a smooth point

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by dragging, as I did a moment ago,

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then I'm going to upset the location

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of all the control handles.

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Let's say that's not what I want.

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I'll go ahead and press ctrl
+ z or cmd + z on the Mac.

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Let's say I like the position
of this control handle

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right here, and I want
the other one to move.

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Then you press the alt key
or the opt key on the Mac

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and you click on the
handle that you don't like.

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I really think this is weird,
but that's what you do.

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You alt or opt click on the handle

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that isn't in the right location,

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and it moves into alignment with the one

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that you did not click.

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All right, now let's say I
want this segment right here

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to be perfectly straight,
so I want to get rid

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of these two control handles.

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Then with the Anchor Point Tool selected,

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you press the ctrl key or
the cmd key on the Mac,

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which looks like it's going
to get you the White Arrow.

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But as soon as you click on
one of those control handles,

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it goes away.

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And then you can ctrl click
once again on the segment

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to reselect the path
and then you would ctrl,

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or cmd click on this handle,

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to make it go away so
that you have a perfectly

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straight segment.

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All right, now finally,
the Anchor Point Tool

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allows you to bend straight segments.

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And you do that by first selecting a path

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that has a straight segment
like this one right here,

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and then you drag the segment.

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And then the Anchor Point Tool

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automatically gives that
segment two control handles

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so you have complete and total
control over its curvature

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in the future.

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All right, now what's interesting

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about the Anchor Point Tool,

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is you can get to all of its features

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except the ones that
require modifier keys.

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So that function where you
can relocate a control handle

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by alt or opt clicking on it,

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and your option to ctrl click or cmd click

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on a control handle in
order to make it disappear.

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You can get to everything
but those functions

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when the Pen Tool is active.

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And so I'm going to go
ahead and switch back

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to the Pen Tool here.

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And now, I'll ctrl click or
cmd click on this path outline.

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And now if I press the alt
key, or the opt key on the Mac,

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you can see that I have
my caret-shaped cursor

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that indicates the Anchor Point Tool.

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And now I can go ahead and
drag on this point right here

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in order to convert it
into a smooth point,

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or I can alt drag or opt drag
either the control handles

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in order to reposition them independently.

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So I once again have a cusp point,

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or I can alt or opt click on the point,

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in order to sever away
it's control handles

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and convert it to a corner point like so.

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And finally, I could go
ahead and ctrl click,

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or cmd click on this path outline

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to partially select it

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and then press the alt key
or the opt key on the Mac,

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and drag on either of
these straight segments

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in order to curve it, as well
as add two control handles

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a piece.

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And that's how you use
the Anchor Point Tool

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to convert anchor points from
corner to smooth the cusp,

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as well as bend straight
segments here inside illustrator.