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Quick Shapes

 

Use the Lasso tool ( L ) or Polygonal Lasso tool to rough-in a shape.  After making your selection, open the Paths panel (Window>Paths), press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and click the Make Work Path From Selection icon at the bottom of the panel. Choose a suitable Tolerance from the ensuing dialog and click OK to create the path. Grab the Direct Selection tool (nested under the Path Selection [ A ]   tool in the Toolbox) and edit the path as necessary to achieve the proper geometry and smoothness. Control-click (PC: Right-click) the path and select Define Custom Shape, name it, and click OK.

3 Comments

  1. Michelle said on — June 27, 2009 @ 7:41 am

    Great tip! I can’t wait to get home and try this one out! The tip of the day is my favorite feature of this site – So many good little tidbits that I didn’t know!! Thank you!!

  2. Michelle said on — June 28, 2009 @ 7:30 am

    Thank you so much for this tip! I can’t tell you how much this is helping me right now! I have a job of extracting karate portraits from a flat background and putting them on custom backgrounds. This tip has cut my work time in half. What a great way to use a fast selection tool and not lose the quality you can achieve with the pen tool! Way to go!!

  3. Notable NAPP Links for the Week of June 21, 2009 | My Home Sweet Home Pingback on — June 28, 2009 @ 10:30 pm

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Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

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