Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Photoshop Pen Tool Tutorial

So when I was first futzing around with Photoshop, I absolutely hated the pen tool because I couldn't get a handle on how to use it. It was seriously my #1 enemy there for a few weeks. One of the things that helped me get used to using the pen tool in a way that didn't want to make me punch a physical embodiment of Photoshop was this tutorial here by Psdtuts. It's a guide to the pen tool that comes with a Photoshop project file (or an image, I can't remember which) that you can practice the pen tool on. The image that comes up in the file is just an outline of PSDTUTS with instructions on how to use the pen tool to trace the letters, complete with instructions on what keyboard shortcuts to use. I thought it was really helpful and kept coming back to it to practice on over the summer. The pen tool is also used a lot in After Effects, so I figured this would be a useful tutorial to post.

Psdtuts also has a lot of other tutorials here on all sorts of topics (3D, design, etc.) that are pretty interesting. I learned Photoshop the roundabout way- I went straight to the tutorials without knowing anything about the program and started with the most basic ones. For me, I like having a goal in mind rather than just clicking on tools and stuff, so having the tutorials give me a goal and teach me the tools at the same time was awesome. But maybe that's just me and my scenic route of learning programs.

1 comment :

  1. I was following PSDtuts for time being until I got frustrated and left using Pen Tool. Now after reading your tutorial, I think I should give it a try again. Thank you. Graphics designing is not everybody's cup of tea.

    Regards,
    Zelna
    After Effects Templates

    ReplyDelete