Stroking Paths

[mops]

Hi Guys

Hope you've all had a great christmas!

Can anyone help me - i'm working on an advert and i'm trying to create a 'grid design' over the surface - i've followed part of a tutorial to get the look i want but it's just not working. I'm trying to use the pen tool to create the grid and then stroke it with a colour such as white - but no matter how i alter the brush settings it still keeps stroking the path in 'blobs' - can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong - i've tried altering the brush flow, the softness and hardness and nothing is working :confused: - i've even tried using the freeform pen tool as this gives me more flexibility with the grid and looks good until i try to stroke it............then i get the same effect - just blobs on the anchor points

.................. and you've guessed right - i'm very new to paths

thanks people in advance

mops

[The Repro Kid]

Howdy mops,
I'm not envisioning what you're describing. Can you post some screen shots? And a shot of the tutorial final result, or a link to the tutorial will help too. (I don't have too much work right now, so I have time to mess with this stuff.)

Brush settings? My brush settings are grayed out when I use my pen tool in photoshop, and the stroke option is grayed out also. PS defaults to drawing with vector masks when using the pen tool. Are you drawing on a path in the path palette or with vector masks on a layer? This sounds like some unconventional stuff, Pen tool to draw a simple grid makes a lot more sense in Illustrator.

Here's a screen shot of a grid I made in PS, but I used the brush tool, not the pen tool. I tried to make a grid pattern with the pen tool and wasn't getting anywhere either.

[GuyB]

Hi Mops,

I tried too to trace a grid with the pen tool... but could'nt find a way. Why don't you simply trace your grid in Illustrator (very easy) and place it in Photoshop ?

[The Repro Kid]

Duh, I finally remebered how to stroke a path, you have to access this from the path palette not the menu.

but I'm not getting blobs like mops describes.

And I like my grid created with the brush tool better. If it's just straight lines making them with the pen tool and then stroking them with the brush tool is extra steps, when I can just use the brush tool. But without this tutorial, I could be missing the reason for using the pen tool.

[mops]

Hi Repro

Thanks ever so much for your help

I've attached 2 files (not sure how the quality will look though - hope they're readable)

It's a tutorial that i'm following to fit in with an ad i have to create - i thought it looked ideal - but it's harder than it appeared initially

on the piece i've posted here - it asks you to create a sketch layer and using the brush tool sketch on some grid line - which is fine

then create another layer, using the sketch layer as a template and 'draw with the pen tool' grid lines

once this is done - hide the sketch layer, make the last layer active, select a small brush on white and stroke the path - this was coming out in large white blobs - so after trying everything i changed the 'tool' within the paths palette when applying the stroke and changed it from brush to 'pencil' - this now seems a bit better but it's still not looking right

the way i'm doing it looks as if i'm making do rather than using the pen tool correctly

phew! sorry to waffle ............. what i need to know is how i can stroke a path and it will look smooth and crisp - or is this only possible in illustrator?

thanks repro ................... youre website is pretty amazing by the way - very very impressive !

[mops]

Hi Repro / GuyB

thanks so much for your support this tutorial was supposed to save me time.......................2 days now i've been at it :rolleyes:

Guys which tool did you use - the pen or the freeform pen? and when you applied the stroke did you alter the settings in the paths palette from brush to pencil? i've just done this and it looks better but i still dont think i'm doing it completely right - the lines are not appearing very crisp - saying that the grid has been created over a face, so the lines are running diagonally and curved

i'm sure i'm not doing this right :o .............can you believe it, i've used ps for years and never bothered with the pen tool - i've stuck well within my comfort zone

thanks both

[The Repro Kid]

Hi Repro

... - this was coming out in large white blobs - so after trying everything i changed the 'tool' within the paths palette when applying the stroke and changed it from brush to 'pencil' - this now seems a bit better but it's still not looking right

the way i'm doing it looks as if i'm making do rather than using the pen tool correctly

phew! sorry to waffle ............. what i need to know is how i can stroke a path and it will look smooth and crisp - or is this only possible in illustrator?

thanks repro ................... youre website is pretty amazing by the way - very very impressive !

Mops, I don't think it's your handling of the pen tool, I think it may be the brush you're selecting. Before stroking a path or a sub path with the brush tool, select the brush tool, pull down the menu and choose a brush and size. Afterwards, when you select a path or subpath with the selection tool, and apply a stroke to it in the paths palette choosing brush as your stroke option, it will use the last brush you selected. For a crisp, hard line, choose a crisp, hard brush, these are the first brushes in the palette.

In the screenshot below, the circle was drawn with the ellipse tool, and the contour lines were drawn freehand with the freeform pen tool (note the wobble of the lines) Before selecting the subpaths I chose the brush tool and selected a new brush and color, then used the selection tool to select my subpaths, and then chose stroke, and used brush as the stroke option. Note the different brush strokes. It will stroke with whatever brush your brush tool last selected.

Thanks for the compliments on my web site. I just updated my web site about 15 minutes before I read your post. I added some very nice portrait retouching of some very nice models I've had the pleasure of knowing. My next move is add some nicer typesetting samples and finish up the retouching on the models, they're actually not quite finished.

I made my entire Production web site in Quark 6.5. (I also have an Underwater Photo site made with dreamweaver -- http://dmendoza.net/uwphoto/index.html ) Any layout artist not using quark to make their web pages doesn't know what they are missing. I'll never give up my quark, if only for it's web layout capabilities. I am trying to use ID as much as possible for print stuff just because I need the practice (no one I work for uses it). I still prefer laying out in Illustrator or Quark (ID is flippin' clunky! No smoothness at all in the work flow), but I'm using ID as much as possible because I gots to keep up with the times -- what, me, a dinosaur, only in my music tastes!

[Frode]

Make the path.
In the tool palette, choose the brush or pencil and make your adjustments in the Option bar. Then use the flyout menu in the Path Palette and choose Stroke Path.. Now your can choose any of the tools you want. I draw the attachment with a 3px brush stroke. If you are not satisfied with the stroke, you can add some effect too it. Maybe try to lock transparent pixels first.

Frode

Also look at the brush settings. If you choose 1px brush and hardness 100 %, you can get a smooth and nice line on a 72 ppi image.

[mops]

thanks frode - your image is exactly the effect i want - thanks a lot

guys - i've mastered the pen tool now but only thanks to you lot - so thanks guys for all your help and advice, mops