Johanna's Place |
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Tutorial:
Customize the Shapes Library Title:
Add your Custom Shape to the Custom Shapes Library Author:
Johanna |
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To make your own shape, start with Create a New Image - Canvas White/Single Colour, 450 pixels W by 300 pixels H. Click OK. Using the Path Tool, click on the Path Drawing Tool to activate it. Click on the Color box and choose Black. In Mode, make sure it's set at 2D Object. If you have trouble creating a shape, here is the interface .ufo file (22KB-zipped) that you can save to your hard drive to drag into your Custom Shapes after you unzip it. Just open it and skip down to the FUN PART. |
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 Click on Shape/Custom Shape
and scroll down until you see a shape you like. Select it and click OK.
Make it. Now repeat using another shape. Do this till you've created a
brand new shape that you'd like to have in your Custom Shapes. You can
even use the Continue Draw function while doing this, but that's
another
tutorial.
(Note: To see another tutorial on making custom shapes, go here. My tutorial is focused on saving your fancy custom shape to the Easy Pallet/Custom shapes window that you see to the right.) Once you have your final shapes set up just the way you like them, right click and choose Merge All. |
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On the Tool Panel, click Standard Selection Tool/Magic Wand. Make sure the settings are: Mode
- Make New Selection Now click on the white area of your picture. You'll see there's now an outline around the whole thing. Right click on the white background and choose Invert. Inverting the white part makes it so your new black shape is selected as all one piece and separate from the white background. On the Menu Bar, go to Edit/Trace/Selection Marquee. Accept the defaults and click OK. The Attributes Bar will now tell you you're in Horizontal Deform mode. Open the Drop-down menu and choose 3D Round. You now have a brand new Path Shape! But now for the FUN PART of this little tutorial... Right click on your new black path shape and choose Duplicate from the menu. Drag the duplicate to a blank area in the PI workspace so that it opens in it's own window. Open the Easy Pallet Click on the Object Libraries button. From the List, choose Shape Library. Right click on it and choose New Group from the menu. In the Pop up window, type in myshapes, then OK. Click on your new myshapes category once. This will highlight it and tell PI where your target is.
Drag your new path shape (or the one I made available to you) into the myshapes thumbnails window. A window will pop up. Give your shape a name and double check to make sure that the Object Type is Path Object and that the Tab Group is myshapes. You're done so go test it... ...Close the windows and open a New Image. Using the Path Tool, click on the Path Drawing Tool to activate it. Click on Shape/Custom Shape.
There are two drop-down menus at the bottom of the window. The Gallery should be Shapes Library. The Tab Group should be myshapes. Select your new shape and click OK. Now Play with it!
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