Quickie Pen tool Tutorial!

[Kazuya]

Alrighty, for right now, I will post up a text conversation of me teaching GJ how to do the pen tool (without vector shape!)

Its so easy, like I said, you'll shoot yourself. A visual example will come later on, I just want to pop this up, and hopefully you all will follow!

<3



Vi: its so fucking simple you'd shoot yourself over it
Vi: er or not
Vi: XD
Vi: You want me to teach you real quick?
Goku Jr: teach me please
Vi: got photoshop open?
Goku Jr: yep
Vi: um, just curious, what version?
Goku Jr: CS
Vi: ok
Vi: lets just start a new document, whatever size, maybe like, 300x300
Goku Jr: k
Vi: press d to reset your pallete to black and white, with black as your top color
Goku Jr: k
Vi: Alrighty. Now, do you have the paths pallette out?
Vi: if not, go to windows> paths
Goku Jr: ok
Vi: Alright. Now, you see on the paths pallette, it has that little paper icon thingy?
Vi: click the paper icon thingy
Goku Jr: make a new path?
Vi: the difference is between creating a path and just popping the pen tool on the paper is, if you don't create the new path first before applying the pen tool, you make a vector shape, which fills with color. we don't want that.
Vi: yea make a new path
Goku Jr: ok
Vi: Alright, now just go to your layers pallette, make a new layer.
Vi: then over to your tool palette, and click on your pen tool icon
Goku Jr: k
Vi: take the pen tool, and make two points on the layer. anywhere you want
Goku Jr: k
Vi: it should have a straight line between your two points
Goku Jr: yep
Vi: to make it wavy, just go back to your tool pallette, click on the pen tool, and that little menu should pop up with a couple other options for the pen tool. Choose the one at the bottom, the one that looks like an upside down crooked V
Vi: That is the convert tool.
Vi: It takes a minute to get used to it, but its really awesome
Vi: just choose that, click on one of your points.
Vi: two arms should come out from that point. just move them around a little, and you should see your line start to curve
Goku Jr: k
Vi: did it curve?
Goku Jr: yep
Vi: ok. when you're satisfied with the curve, go over to your paths palette, and right click on the path
Vi: or wait
Vi: before you do that
Vi: go up to your brush tool
Vi: choose the type of brush you want, I usually would go for a soft brush, 2 px
Vi: this is important, lol
Vi: you'll see after i tell you the next step
Goku Jr: k
Vi: Alright, NOW go over to the paths pallette, and right click on your path. go down to stroke path, and then choose brush, and if you want, go to simulate pressure. that part is optional though, it'll just make the ends of the stroke fade out
Vi: and then click ok
Vi: Then after you do that, you can delete the path, and your stroke will be on that layar
Vi: *layer
Vi: its versatile as hell, though. You can mess with the brush settings, like, make the soft 2px scatter, similar to smudge settings, and it would give you a badass effect.
Vi: that's just the basics though, just play around with it, and see what you can come up with
Goku Jr: that was it?
Vi: yea
Goku Jr: *shoots*
Vi: told you it was easy
Vi: XD
Vi: but you can do that with multiple points and stuff
Goku Jr: thats cool

[Captain Silver]

Or you could post the tutorial for it. *goes and finds*

[Kazuya]

No, that's just how I figured it out. Oo. I just woke up, so here in a few, I'll bust out a visual one.