[newbie] Sharing anchor points across paths/shapes? + Pen visual feedback? + Show all paths?

Hey all, as stated I'm a newbie at Illustrator. Any help's appreciated. My questions:
1) Is it possible to have anchor points be part of more than 1 path? I want to have 2 adjacent filled paths that share anchor points, so that if I move the common edge anchors, both shapes are affected. Kinda like in Flash, I suppose.
My guess is this is impossible though? Then how do people working with Illustrator a lot tackle this problem? I mean adjusting 2 shapes with several common anchor points (not shared, just in the same position), for adjacent shapes.
2) Is it possible to set the Pen tool to give visual feedback like in Photoshop when moving the mouse to a new position to add a new anchor point? What Photoshop does is show the path segment that would be created if you were to click at the current mouse position, whenever you move the mouse. Illustrator doesn't show this with me right now, so I'm left to guess what the exact path segment will look like when I click (less convenient imo).
3) Is there a way to always show all paths on the current layer, even if they are not selected? And I do NOT mean Outline mode, I'm aware of that. The problem I'm facing is that - when working with multiple paths - I want to see them all when adding a new path, so I can easily align anchor points and what not with the other paths, but I do NOT want to hide the image I'm tracing (which would happend in Outline mode).
Thanks in advance.
Victor

You might get what you re after using Live Paint. Here I have drawn an oval and a wavy line — two paths. After converting to a Live Paint object I can selectively fill and stroke any closed area or and segment.
No.
Put the object or image you are tracing on a Template layer. Or Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) click on the eye next to a layer name to change only that layer’s view mode.

Similar Messages

FAQ: Why isn't the anchor point centered in shape layers?

[UPDATE: In After Effects CC (12.1) and later, you can center the anchor point within the visible content of a layer. ]
Short answer
Because in shape layers you can have two distinct kinds of anchor points - the anchor point in the main transform properties, as in any other layer type, and also an anchor point in the specific transform properties for each shape. When you create shapes by dragging with the shape tools, it's the anchor point for the shape group that will be centered. If you want to animate the whole layer from the main transform properties, you may need to shift the anchor point so it matches the visual center of your content.
Long answer
Shape layers are a unique type of content in After Effects.
In fact, they introduce a bit of the object/group hierarchy model in Adobe Illustrator, rather than follow the typical layer model in After Effects.
In other words, while you can definitely use them to quickly create a vector shape and then animate that shape as any other layer in After Effects, you also get the ability to create, edit and animate multiple shapes (each with its' own set of visual appearances) nested in a single shape layer.
This allows all kinds of cool animation opportunities, but it also means that a shape layer is not your typical After Effects layer.
So, when you create a shape by dragging with the shape tool, there actually is an anchor point that is perfectly centered - that's the anchor point in the transform property group for that shape group. If you double click a shape, you'll see a bounding box. This a visual representation of the transform properties for the shape group, and the anchor point specific to this group will default to the middle of that bounding box.
However, the main anchor point for the whole shape layer may not be centered relative to the shape content. This is normal behavior - Note that if After Effects tried to center the layer anchor point relative to the first shape group you create, it would be immediately wrong when you add more shape groups to the layer. Or when you animate shape groups around.
Now, as many other things in After Effects, shape layers are designed to let you go as deep as you want. Ideally, you may want to try animating the transform properties for each shape group, since there's when things get really powerful. However, if you want to consider shape layers as a one shape per layer entity and animate in that way, you can of course do that. Bear in mind that you may need to center the anchor point yourself relative to the visual center of the content. If you don't do this, the shape layer's content will be offset from motion paths, or behave in a different way from what you may expect when animating scale or rotation.
To do this, make sure you're not selecting a nested shape group but the shape layer itself, then you can do the following:
Use the Pan Behind tool as with any other layer (this may not give what you want if you do it after creating a motion path, since it will modify position values).
Drag the hot text for the Anchor Point property in the Timeline panel, as if it was a slider. You can then re-thread the content relative to the motion path. You can also achieve this by Option- (Mac OS) or Alt- (Windows) dragging with the Pan Behind tool.
For more information on shape layers, see Drawing, painting and paths in After Effects Help.

THANK YOU SO MUCH :-)
I didn't knew this shortcut as I didn't have to use it anyway.
but it's weird because all the other tools like even the circular gradient tool have their point visible.
Anyway, I guess you can press H with any tools.
Again, thank you, I should have ask it before. ;-)

In Flash CS4, how do you select multiple anchor points across separate layers?

I am talking about anchor points on a line, not a keyframe. They are also called "handles". I can select the anchor points as "white" quickly, but I can't get them to be "solid"without doing it layer by layer, which is tedious. What I want is way to select lines that are in different layers and get the points I selected in a way similar to the regular selection tool or free transform tool. I have been trying to do this all day and I can't find a good way to do this, and I would appreciate any help.
Here is an image of what I'm trying to do, but more easily. The lines are on separate layers, but when I select them with the subselection tool I have to go layer by layer selecting the points. I'm trying to look for a very quick way of doing it. When I do select all with the subselection tool on, the anchor points are only "white" and not "solid" as shown below.

Now you're post was a while ago and I still need a solution, but I have to say this. I didn't mean to be rude to you; it’s just that it doesn’t answer my question I specified in the original post. I know your intentions are good, but it frustrates me when someone doesn’t fully read a post and offers a solution, it sometimes gives a false impression that the problem is taken care of. Example of being "helpful": http://forums.adobe.com/message/2540277 Yes I know there is a “Yes, my question has been answered,” but you know they don’t always select it, and other people know that as well. But you are right; I should probably act a little bit nicer and reiterate what I’ve already said before, I’ll probably get more help from it. It just seems to be a simple feature that seems to be needed to be in the program. I didn't mean it takes forever to move, it takes forever to select multiple anchor points across, let's say 10 layers, so that's 10 different lines on 10 layers. You have to select each layer and then select the anchor points. If there is an away to select anchor points across all layers in one go please tell me. Maybe I was wrong, but I could’ve sworn I’ve seen ideas that were posted on here get taken into Adobe as a suggestion, but yes I submitted it as a suggestion to Adobe, but I wanted to confirm that there was no way of doing it first since it seems kind unbelievable because the regular selection tool works across multiple layers.

Can't select anchor points of some shapes in Photoshop CC 2014

I have a multi-layered file with a number of shape objects. When I go to the direct selection tool and try to click on an anchor point the points simply do not show up. Is there some property that I am not aware of that prevents selection?

Can you upload the psd file. The Path palette shows a very small triangle path on the right edge of the canvas up some from the bottom of the document. With the direct path tool active and the shape layer targeted even if no point is selected I would expect the see the path outline shown in the Path Palette for the shape layer to be shown in the image window also I see none. Can you see the path outline? Are you on a Mac I'm on a PC using cc2014 with todays update
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PS CC - how do I select individual anchor points of a shape?

In PS CS 6 it used to be possible to draw a shape, like a rectangle, and then use the direct selection tool to select and move one corne of the rectangle. However, in PS CC this does not work anymore. When I try to use the direct selection tool, all anchor points remain selected and so I can't move a single point, just all of them at once. What might I be doing wrong? Did something change in the CC version?
Thanks!

I seem to be able to use the Direct Selection tool to edit points, e.g., on a rectangular shape, to select one only and move it around.
When I select the shape layer then choose the Direct Selection tool (white arrow), the path shows.
When I click on the path all the points show, with "hollow" handles.
When I click on only one point it turns black, then I can move it with another click and drag. In fact, just one click, hold until the point turns black, then drag seems to work.
Of course, you've got to be VERY accurate where you click.
And Trevor, I seem to be able to drag a box around several points, then move them. What am I doing right, accidentally or on purpose? Is there some kind of bug being invoked in certain documents maybe that I'm not seeing in my testing here?
-Noel

In illustrator, is there a way to reduce anchors points in a segment path without altering the path?

In illustrator, is there a way to reduce anchors points in a segment path without altering the path?
Is there a better and more efficient way to reduce anchors points than using the pen-minus tool?
Thanks.

That's what the Simplify command is for. It tries to reduce the number of segments while you judge the results and adjust the parameters accordingly.
Of course, if any given curve were possible with just two anchors, then all paths could have just two anchors. So obviously, fewer segments is not always possible.
As with many other things, though, you need to realize this: Automatic functions have no human discernment whatsoever. That's just as true in the matter of optimizing paths as it is in auto-tracing. The program routine which tries to figure out which anchors can go and which anchors must stay has absolutely no idea of what the path is actually a drawing of. Only you know that. So the bottom line remains the same: Optimizing paths correctly should be done with deliberate discernment, not just left up to dumb automated routines.
Illustrators draw paths deliberately--one anchor at a time--for good reason.
JET

Selecting path / anchor point

Hi guys!
I am just browsing around the trial Ai CS5 version and there is something, which I do not really understand...
When I use Selection Tool {V}, it works pretty fine, but when using Direct Selection Tool {A}, I can not select the path or anchor points. When I hover over them, the underlying path or anchor point highlights, but after click, nothing happens. When I move mouse out of the clicked object, the highlight simply disappears. There must be some kind of bug, because in the Layers Panel, there is the selection highlighted and after hitting arrow keys, the points, which I selected are moving - depending on which arrow I am actually pressing.
So in the nutshell: When I am trying to select single point or just path, the selection is not visible, but the points are still visible.
Thank you for your help!

You are welcome, Christian.
It happens to many.
I believe it may be caused by the fact that H is surrounded by other keys used with Ctrl/Cmd; a mishit may go unnoticed (I wonder whether this term will pass the nanny filter) when the right key is hit afterwards.

CS5: Coloring Anchor Points

Hi there. I'm clearly missing some simple beginner thing. I'm working on a tutorial, and the directions I'm at are these:
Step 16:
Select the bottom shape and use the Mesh Tool (U) to add an anchor point in the left corner, exactly in the middle of the bottom shape as shown.
Paint all the bottom anchor points of this shape with R:0, G:0, B:0. And paint the top anchors points with R:135, G:96, B:66.
Here's the Tutorial if you want the visual reference: http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustration/how-to-make-a-magic-book-using-adobe-ill ustrator/
I'm creating a book, and this is at the base, so it was basically two rectangles with a half circle in the middle as a spine. I used the mesh tool to create a line that bisects the shape. I have to assume meshes behave differently, because I couldn't Divide the paths to make separate segments, and changing the fill of the shape ignores the mesh line. So I'm assuming right now a Mesh path isn't counted as a normal path. But it's telling me to paint all the anchor points, and in two different colors... How on earth do I do that?
I click the gradient tool, it doesn't seem to do anything but paste a gradient slider over things, that doesn't affect the fill color.
Grabbing the shape and changing it's color in the Color panel changes the entire shape's fill...
Selecting the group and trying to make it a gradient from the Gradient panel does nothing, it doesn't even register as a thing that can be filled.
So what exactly are those directions asking me to do?
Thanks so much!

Looks like the instructions is missing key information for people that aren't very accustomed to using Illustrator.
To add a fill to a gradient mesh point you need to first select the Direct Selection Tool, which is the A key, and then click on each point of the gradient mesh you want to change. To make this process quicker, click and drag across the points you want to include while holding the shift key. This way you don't have to select each point precisely and can be a little looser with what you're selecting. But keep in mind that any points you surround with the direct selection tool will be selected so depending on the shapes in your file dragging across them may not be the best option.
Then with the points selected you can go into your Color pallet and change the color of just those points. You'll know the points are selected because they'll be filled in with a solid color while non-selected points will be "hollow" which is just a fancy way of saying they'll be filled with white.

Is it possible to select multiple anchor points in CS6?

Hi,
I'm trying to select multiple anchor points of shapes across different layers by dragging over them, but nothing is getting selected.
I use CC at work, and I've done it there, but I use CS6 at home and can't seem to do it.
Thanks!

I doN'T think it is possible to work on two different path at once. I think you would need to merge the two shape layers and work on the resultant merged path. You can target more then one shape layer and select some of the path and change them however the stay separate path and all the point the the selected shape layers are highlighted
CS6 top CC bottom note the difference is the path palettes CS6 shows no paths in the path palette when more then a single shape layer is targeted where CC shows all path involved as separate paths.

Change Stoke Weight PER Anchor Point

I was wondering if in a future release of Illustrator if it would be possible to be able to have the option to change the weight (or thickness) on an anchor point by anchor point basis. Picture a straight segment (line) made up of two anchor points (drawn with the pen tool).
I would like the ability to click on the first anchor point and change the weight (stroke / thickness) of that anchor point to 1 pt then click on the second anchor point and change it's stoke to 5 pts. I would like the line segment to be 1 pt thin at the beginning and for it to gradually get thicker until it reaches a 5 pt thickness at the second anchor point.
In addition to that I would like to be able to do this with all of the Illustrator drawing tools, for example: Using the square tool, to be able to start the whole square at 1 pt stoke thickness... but then be able to select one of it's corner anchor points and change that one point to 3 pt thickness and have the attached segments get progressively thinner going down to the other 1 pt anchor points.
I hope I've explained that well enough. If you need examples please let me know.
Cindy Colby
[email protected]

Cindy,
That request comes up here all the time. It really isn't workable. You'll soon find that you don't want the thickness settings to be locked to the positions of anchorpoints, because you're not going to want the
thicknesses to be locked to the
shape of the spine path.
So on-object variable thickness control would end up requiring yet another set of handles along the path, just for controlling thickness. I serously question the real-world value of this.
Look, you want to be able to vary the thickness of a stroke. You can already do that with an Art Brush. Example:
1. Rectangle Tool. Draw a square.
2. Rotate Tool. Rotate it 45 degrees.
3. Remove Anchorpoint Tool. Click the left anchorpoint to remove it.
4. Drag the resulting triangle to the Brushes Palette. Define an Artbrush.
Now draw a path of any shape. Apply the Brush. You now have a "stroke" that increases thickness along the path.
But you want it lighter or heavier weight overall. Adjust the stroke weight in the Stroke dialog.
You want it going in the opposite direction. Change the direction of the path, change the direction of the Brush, change the direction of the Brush as it is applied to just that path (doubleClick its listing in the Appearance Palette), or make a pair of Brushes from the beginning (as I often do).
But you said you want the start of the path to be 1 pt, not zero, and then to be 5 pt. at the end. Fine. Instead of a triangle, create your ArtBrush from a trapezoid instead of a triangle.
Now... apply that trapezoid Brush to an ess curve. Works fine. Starts at 1 pt.; increases weigth to 5 pt. at the other end. But now you decide you want it to start at 5 pt., shrink to 1 pt. at the middle of the ess, then increase to 5 pt. toward the end.
Now, you could easily build a Brush that does that, too, but consider this:
So you use one of the methods explained above to make a "reverse" of the trapezoid Brush. You cut the ess path at the middle, where you want the thin to occur, and reverse the direction of one half.
Now you encounter one of the key problems with all these half-baked suggestions for on-object stroke weight adjustment handles: The place where the "thin" changes directions has a kink in it. Do you want that kink? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. How will you control the "smoothness" of the change of direction of the stroke weight curve? Your tidy interface is going to have to get more complicated. It's going to have to include some kind of "direction handles" at each of the weight-change key points.
Now I ask you: What feature in AI already gives you that control? Answer: ArtBrushes.
Now consider the real-world practicality of all this. What do you want to use this for? Drawing calligraphy-like flourishes? You try that with any more than one or two intermediate thickness keys along a given curve, and you'll find the smoothness of the result is quite difficult to control. An ArtBrush thoughtfully-built from a simple geometric primitive is easier to control.
Or do you want to use it to give your cartoon line drawings more of a hand-drawn look that is more convincing than the almost always unsatisfying results of Calligraphic Brushes? Do you really want to adjust handles on each and every path you draw in a cartoon? Try some of my simple geometric ArtBrushes and see if you
really need more than two or three variants to get the look that you want.
The idea sounds great on the surface, but if you give careful thought to the actual implementation, you'll find it isn't as workable as you first think. And for the vast majority of
practical uses, simple ArtBrushes already facilitate it.
Some here have even mocked-up elaborate fake "interfaces" for a separate window in which to tediously describe a "profile" of a varying stroke that would then later be added to paths; all the while failing to realize that is essentially what ArtBrushes
already are--except you don't need a separate dialog to do it; you can do it right there on the artboard, and then update the ArtBrush.
I fully expect that if Adobe spent development time in pursuit of a separate dedicated interface and feature set for this, the end result would be as awkward to actually use as the on-path handles for pathType objects, and as tedious and time-wasteful as all the tweaks and twiddles in LiveTrace.
All that's really needed is a few thoughtful improvements to the already-existing Brushes feature set. How about an "isolation mode" (or edit window) for Brushes, instead of having to drag an existing Brush onto the artboard, edit it, and then drag it back to update it? Then do some work on improving the mitering of Brushes where they encounter corners and sharp bends in the spine path.
The usefulness of other Brushes (particularly Pattern Brushes) would benefit hugely from just a few similarly modest improvements, too.
JET

How do I edit a single handled anchor point

I find myself with a corner that only has one handle (screen shot below), to which, I want to add a second handle. I could convert it to a smooth curve but this averages things out and moves my existing handle's position.
I want to add the second handle without affecting the path, to do this the new handle would be aligned to the vertical path. I would then be able to edit the second handle as desired, and the whole process would leave the existing curved path untouched.

froodster,
To keep the left segment unchanged, you may:
1) Cut the path by Clicking the Anchor Point with the Scissors Tool;
2) With the straight path (still) selected Click the Anchor Point with the Convert Anchor Point Tool, then ClickDrag it to drag out the new Handle;
3) Select both paths (you may ClickDrag across the Anchor Point with the Direct Selection Tool) and Ctrl/Cmd to Join, ticking Corner (or all will be in vain).

How to align an anchor point with an object?

I have a shape I made with the pen tool, and now I want to align one anchor point of the shape with the middle of a rectangle. How can I do this? It doesn't seem like I can do what I do for objects, which is select both objects, click the object I want to align to, and hit align. If I'm not describing this properly let me know and I can try to clarify.

...another way...
1. grab the Rectangle Tool
2. move your mouse on top of the Anchor you wish to align
3. draw a rectangle wider than the shape, centered on the Anchor
     - click and drag to draw a rectangle (don't release yet),
     - then press Alt to make it centered on top of the anchor,
     - release the mouse, then the Alt key.
4. select both your shape and the rectangle
5. press Ctrl+G to group them
6. select both, the newly created group and the rectangle
7. align your shapes
8. ungroup and delete your temporary rectangle
9. to align vertically, make your temp rectangle wider and taller than your shape.

Why when I switch between a centre-aligned stroke and fill do my anchor points move?

Hi there, I've been using Illustrator for many years and never noticed this happen before when I fill a shape - can anyone explain why this is happening?
I'm drawing a logo using a centre-aligned stroke, rounded rectangle and another stroked path merged together to make my logo outline....like this...
....and when I change my centre-aligned stroke from a stroke to a fill and back again (to make the shape solid black), the anchor points of my shape move.....after about 10 time so fswitching between fill and stroke, fill and stroke etc my paths look like this....
Why is this happening??? It doesn't do this when I use a stroke aligned to the outside or inside of the path - just when the storoke is aligned to the centre of the path? CAnanyone explain why this happens? what it going on here?
-thanks in advance!
-Pete Moore

No I don't mean 'outlining' a stroke - all I'm doing is changing a stroke'd box to a fill and back again using the 'Swap fill and stroke" button on the main pallet.
When my (rounded rectangle) path has a stroke applied to it, and it has the stroke aligned to the centre of the path, the anchor points of a rounded rectangle move slightly every time I swap from a filled shape to a stroked shape.
If I apply a stroke to a path (again - a rounded rectangle) that has the stroke aligned to the outside or inside of the path, then the anchor points do not move - however many times I swap between fill and stroke.
I've been wondering why when I re-apply a stroke to a filled object (and that stroke is alinged to the centre of the path) - I get slight movement with the anchor points (do it alot of times and it can really mess with rounded corners).
Draw a rounded square, apply a stroke to it (a center aligned stroke), click the 'swap fill and stroke' button (shift + x) a few times, watch the box move slightly every time you click.
-pete

Add Anchor Points by Distance?

I often need to add anchor points to a shape when I bring it into Cinema 4D to extrude and warp.
The Object>Path>Add Anchor Points just adds an additional anchor between existing anchor points, effectively doubling the density every time its run.
This isn't great for shapes with very long segments and very short segments. The short segments don't need subdividing, but the long segments need more subdivisions.
Is there a script or plug-in that can add anchor points based on distance? Such as: Add an extra anchor point to a path every 10 mm?

Navarro,
You may do it in this roundabout way:
1) Select the object and Select>Object>Direction Handles;
2) Ctrl/Cmd+X to Cut;
3) Press Delete;
4) Ctrl/Cmd+F to Paste in Front;
Now you have changed the path segments into separate paths;
5) For each (path segment) path apply Object>Path>Add Anchor Points as needed or maybe (depending on version) use the more versatile free Divide script, see below;
6) Select the paths and Ctrl/Cmd+J to join them (use Direct Selection in older versions).
With the rectangle shown, it would be changed into two long horizontal paths and two short vertical ones; you can select each pair and add Anchor Points, or maybe just leave the vertical ones as they are.
You may download the Divide script here:
http://park12.wakwak.com/~shp/lc/et/en_aics_script.html

Pathfinder Outline breaks up anchor points

OK first off I am relatively new to Illustrator, making the transition over from PS and finding everything extremely different and frustrating. Please bear with me but feel free to correct me if any of my terminology is wrong.
The problem I am having begins with trying to break up a complex series of overlapping shapes into very small, individual segments . Through searching, the only way I could find that does basically what I want, breaking up the complex shapes into the smallest possible segments is the Pathfinder: Outline tool.
The only problem with this is, which I didn't even realize at first until I zoomed in much closer, is that after using the Outline tool and then restroking my paths, is that this tool for some reason BREAKS UP AND SEPARATES a lot of the individual anchor points within the shape. What I mean is, where there was one anchor point previously, Outline breaks it into two points, which is perfect, but it then slightly SHIFTS the points away from each other. I'm not sure why it does this, but it leaves me with a bunch of broken/jagged lines where they should be smooth instead. I want the points broken into two, but why do they get shifted??
You can see the circled area in the attached photo for an example of what I mean. That straight line running on a downward slope is now jaggedly broken into two misaligned pieces because those two anchor points were now shifted. I want them to be broken into two but why can't they just have stayed on top of one another in order to keep all the straight lines intact??

Aside from generic precision issues (you know, math functions rounding values etc.) this could be some snapping or pixel grid issue, especially if your artwork is relatively small. Turning of snaps and that may help, but there wil lalways be some cases where this happens and you can't avoid it completely.
Mylenium

[newbie] Sharing anchor points across paths/shapes? + Pen visual feedback? + Show all paths?

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