Hi folks! In this episode, we take a look at Illustrator’s Anchor Point Tool. Creating long sweeping curves with only the pen tool is a great skill to have, but other tools can produce the same results, sometimes faster, and are especially handy if you’re still getting acquainted with the pen tool. Tucked away under the pen tool, the anchor point tool is primarily used for converting smooth anchor points into corner points and vice versa, but it’s ‘hidden’ features are even more impressive.

00:00 Welcome

00:13 Anchor point tool basics.

01:12 Reshape segments.

02:19 Perpendicular curved segments

1. With the Curve.ai file open and active, navigate to the centre of the artboard where you will find a blue text bubble template. Zoom into the template if required so that it occupies most of the Image Window.

2. Switch to the Pen Tool by pressing the P key. Ensure that the Fill is set to None, and the Stroke is set to Black. With the cursor positioned over the bottom-most point of the blue template left-click and release the left mouse button to add the first point. Work clockwise around the template, adding corner anchor points using the same left-click technique on the inner portions of the bubble template. Finally, left-click on the first anchor point created to complete the path.

3.With the path now complete you will be able to add the curves to each of the segments. Switch to the Anchor Point Tool by pressing SHIFT+C. Hover your cursor midway between any anchor points that requires a curved segment to reveal the Reshape cursor icon. You can curve the segment by dragging it away from its original position, the further you drag the longer the curve will become.

This process adds handles to the existing anchor points, each of which can also be adjusted with the Anchor Point Tool. If you don’t achieve the curve you are looking for, go to Edit▶Undo and try once more but this time hold down SHIFT as you drag to constrain the handles in the perpendicular direction, which results in a curve that is more circular than elliptical.

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#ConvertAnchor #Vector #Illustrator

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