The Pen Tool is driving me CRAZY!!!

Not using roto bezier. I have some basic frame by frame masking that I need to do. When I click and drag a point to a new position, after I release the mouse, the point moves to a random position FAR from where I dropped it. To rub salt in the wound, I have to Undo (Ctrl+Z) 2-3 times to get it back to the original position (before I moved it). This happens randomly but very often. I've determined that It's not my (wired optical) mouse. This behavior happens with two other wireless mice as well. I am using version CS5 on a Dell Precision machine with a Quadro FX 4800 card and have been dealing with this issue for 2 years now. Any insight is appreciated! Thanks.
Ed

Well, I'll be damned. OpenGL was turned off when I checked. This behavior has continued through about 4-5 driver updates. Lo and behold, the latest driver (released 7/3/2013) seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks Mylenium!

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How To Use The Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign CS6 | Creative Suite Podcast: Designers | Adobe TV

In this episode of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast Terry White shows how to use the Pen Tool to create Art, Frames and to trace images in Photoshop CS6. If you've never used the Pen Tool before, this is your video!
http://adobe.ly/STegFg

With the pen tool in Indesign, is there a way of making the points not join if you want to make a few single lines?

Photoshop CC - Making the Pen Tool on a new layer?

So I've never had this problem in previous versions of PS. When selecting the Pen Tool and drawing on the document usually leads to it making a new shape layer. However for some reason this option is greyed out in CC. As a workaround I've had to draw a shape box, then draw with the pen tool and delete the shape box afterwards. Is there a reason for this, a bug or something I'm missing?
Thanks

It should not be grayed out Pixels are grayed out.

Help with using the pen tool

I have a few different problems with the pen tool.
1. When using the pen tool I keep finding that the shape I'm doing is slightly overlapping where I've already gone with the pen tool.
If I try and go over that area again the path I've just drawn then jumps and ruins the shape I was creating.
How can I stop this from happening?
2. Also is there a limit to the amount of paths you can create and add text to? I created two paths and typed on them fine but when I added a third path it refused to type. The cursor didn't change to show I could type and if I did click on the path line and try to type jumped to my other path and typed there. All paths were on different layers and none were overlapping, but it is 3 circles inside each other that get smaller if this makes a difference.
How can I type on the third path?
3. When I have done a path and clicked stroke it is only a thin line. How can I make this line thicker?
Thanks.

Ok, the first example would be something like this. Pretending the lines go elsewhere, say I've drawn a path with the pen tool, gone round the bottom box and that then goes round the two lines going down. So if I go down the one on the left side it hits the previous path I did, but to go up the line on the right side I'd need to go across there. But if I make a point where the two lines meet to do this it then throws the line off elsewhere.
I did have snap vector tools on but it does that without it on.
The next one I was creating a car speedometer so it has lines on the outside, dots inside of that and then, where I've done the blue circle, would be the third path where I then write the numbers in. But I can never write on that third path.
And finally, the pen tool and I think it dd have Shape Dynamics set. I've changed a couple of things and it looks a bit better now so I think that should be ok. Thanks
I know I haven't shown the panels but I haven't got any for the first as it won't go right so I deleted what I was doing. And each thing I've done is on a different layer for the speedometer, all just paths created with the circle tool with the text on.

Using the Pen Tool in Flash

I'm in the process of teaching myself the components of the CS4 Design Premium package using the Adobe Classroom in a Book series. I'm currently going through the Flash CIAB and i've started using the pen tool. The task involves creating a wave like design across the stage. Whilst this in itself is simple, the final instruction is to click on the first anchor point to close the shape. In the illustration, the closed shape seems to automatically extend around the stage, however when I click on the first anchor point, the line automatically connects between the two points in a straight line.
Am I doing something wrong? The next step is to fill this area, but with the straight line effect that I am getting, this becomes impossible. I should point out that the instruction states that the pen tool line should extend off the stage. I have done this, but even then on clicking on the first anchor point the shape is closed incorrectly.
If you have any suggestions as to why this may be, I would be greatly appreciative.
Chris

Thanks Ned,
I think I worked out the problem; I think that part of the instruction was missing. When I looked at the picture again, I noticed that there were anchor points around the stage, so I guess that was what I missed. I was simply creating the wavy line across the stage, and then clicking on the first anchor point to close the shape. I resolved the problem by creating three anchor points around the stage and then closing the image by clicking on the first anchor.
Thanks again for your help Ned.
Chris

What happened to the 'Shape Mode' shortcut keys on the Pen Tool?

For the longest time I've used both the Shape and Pen Tools for drawing vectors in Photoshop, but with CS6 I noticed a lot of weird behaviours. The one that is really getting to me is the lack of 'Shape Mode' shortcut keys when using the Pen Tool. When on the 'Shape Tool', fo example Cirle or Rectange, you can press the Shift to change the Shape Mode to 'Add', Alt to change it to 'Subtract' or both together to get 'Intersect'. This functionality used to exist on the Pen Tool too, but in CS6 I can't seem to get it working.
A collegue suggested to move over to Illustrator for all my Vector needs, and I know that this a good advice. However the lack of quick/integrated changing between 'Shape Modes' in either product (now) makes drawing things alot slower (for me).
Am I missing something, or is this feature now ommited in Photoshop CS6. If it is does anyone know if its possible to script something to allow this kind of behviour in Photoshop or Illustrator?
cheers,
Jon

The modifier keys "Alt|Opt", "Ctrl|Cmd" and "Shift" work differently depending on the tool being used but the individual keys seem to provide somewhat related functions.
For example the "Shift" key tends to be a constraining key Rectangle tools are constrained to square ellipse tools to Circles. However if there is an Active selection when you hold down the skey when you drag out a new selection it does not reset the current selection instead the new selection is not constrained and is added to the current selection. Shift constrains Transform tool to current aspect ratio, Shift constrains Line tools to vertical, horizontal or 45 degree angles. Pen tool like line tool shift constrains the angle.
The "Alt|Opt" key changes the way tools operate. Transforms are from the center not from the side or corner being dragged. Selection tools like the rectangle and ellipse will cause the intal drag out be from the center however it there is a Active selection dragging out a new selection will be subtracted from the current selection. This key changes the Pen tool from draw mode to anchor point adjusting.
The "Shift" and "Alt|Opt" modifier keys can be used together to have an operation be both constrain and from the center.
The "Ctrl|Cmd" key seems to change the way a tool works on a control anchor point. The Pen Tool changes from Pen Draw mode to Direct Selection tool to facilitate moving the point. Transform can be distorted a single corner point can be moved and distort the rectangle bounding box.
These keys may have other functions I don't know about. Photoshop has many features so many I don't know if any one person know and uses all of them. For the rest of us they seem to be Photoshop hidden secrets.

Photoshop CS4 Crash Using the Pen Tool

We have experienced an issue where creating a line/path using the Pen tool in Photoshop CS4 caused a system-wide freeze, regardless of operating system, other software installed, etc....
Not even a kernal panic, but just a complete freeze.
We found that it only occurred on our white, 24-inch iMacs (2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo). I tried it on 5 different white iMacs, with various builds of Tiger or Leopard, and they all froze up completely.
We had a plain 10.5.8 image on one of the white iMacs, with nothing extra except Photoshop CS4, and it froze up completely using the Pen Tool on a new document as well.
Oddly enough, the workaround was having Photoshop CS4 run using Rosetta, and then the Pen Tool works fine. It is odd considering the iMacs have Intel processors, and not PowerPC that would need Rosetta.
I have not found anyone else with hardware specific issues like this. So, I thought i should share our (hopefully) temporary workaround.

A complete system freeze means a kernel or driver level bug, or a hardware problem.
Rosetta won't process as fast - meaning that the processor is less taxed, and it may call the drivers differently.
Upgrading to MacOS 10.6 might avoid driver problems (that were in 10.5), but hardware issues would remain.
But first you might try disabling OpenGL drawing in preferences (avoiding the most problematic drivers, and reducing the load in the graphics hardware).

After Effects CS6 11.0.2 crashes when using the pen tool (Mac OS X 10.8.2)

I'm using After Effects CS6 11.0.2 on Mac OS X 10.8.2. Whenever I use the pen tool to add a vertex, the application crashes. I've submitted several crash reports to apple (they get sent to apple automatically when the app relaunches).
My specs:
iMac
21.5-inch, Mid 2010
Processor 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3
Memory 12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
Anybody else having this problem or have a solution?

So I have discovered it only crashes when adding a vertex when I'm editing the max a few frames in. When I add vertices on the first frame of the comp I don't have any trouble. I've tried unchecking the box that says preserve constant vertex count, and it still happens.

FW CS4 crashes when using the pen tool for many points

Good morning,
Every time I try to create a mask with the pen tool that
requires a good
amount of points, FW crashes. I've had this happen with CS3
as well, but
with CS4 , it crashes with many less points than CS3 - has
any one
experienced this, and more to the point, any solutions?
Aloha,
Jerry
http://MauiWebDesigns.com

"FatCat" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:gkga3u$gtc$[email protected]..
> Hi Al,
>
>> I find I use CS3 for all tasks except for the few
that require the new
>> features in CS4. Both DW and Fireworks CS4 are giant
grey hawgs :-)
>
> I knew I should have stuck with CS3!
>
> My Bridge quit working, and I figured that was Nature's
way of telling me
> to upgrade. I spent all of a weekend trying to download
the software
> (akamai means smart - what a misnomer!), then when it
finally downloaded
> the installation was corrupt - did that three times -
took all night to
> download, with a lot of stalls and freezes.
>
> Then on Monday I call customer service and they tell me
that that download
> is too large - why offer it, then?
>
> Anyway, I bought the DVD, got it a few days later,
installed it and Bridge
> still didn't work! Turns out that my anti-virus somehow
kept it from
> working! I don't know why, since it was working
previously. Anyway, now I
> have CS4, but it doesn't work as well as CS3, as you'd
warned me - shoulda
> listened to Uncle Al! ;o) It only cost me $600 plus the
lost weekend and
> the hassles of using a glitchy program - live and learn!
>
> However, I'm an eternal optimist - haven't lost hope
that this will get
> fixed.
I'm optimistic too. I think it will start to sort itself out
when Intel's
new 24-Core 128-bit processors hit the market in conjunction
with Windows 8
and OS X Cervelat.
Al

Better ways to work with the pen tool

I'm finding the pen tool a real aggravation to use... first off you cannot hardly see the points once a path is completed. Even blowing the artwork up really big doesn't help much.
Then its really easy to loose the ability to move individual points... at least I've found that at one point I can select and move the points easily with keyboard and somehow I loose that ability and seems to difficult to regain it. Instead I'm moving the whole path.
I wondered if any of the plugins out there might be dedicated to making the pen tool points easier to manipulate and edit. Just making them easily visible would probably be enough.

Jacob Bugge wrote:
Harry,
The Direct Selection Tool is the one to use for moving Anchor Points after the path has been drawn. Always work on paths without anything selected when you start; this is one place where Smart Guides are your friends because they let you see highlights of what you may select.
If you Click an Anchor Point, you will see that it is shown as a filled square; the other (non selected) Anchor Points are shown as hollow squares; you can select additional Anchor Points by ShiftClicking them.
With the desired Anchor Point(s) chosen, you may ClickDrag (either of them), or use the Arrow keys, or Object>Transform>Move, to move it/them.
You can also ClickDrag across the desired Anchor Point(s), starting from an empty spot with no fill (normally outside the path).
If I'm following you above... I do not see that behavior here. I speaking particularly of your third and fourth points.
You are talking about doing point 3 and 4 with direct select right?
To make it simple I'll just work with one point on a closed path :... I first click on an empty part of art board, then click a single point. At that point all the points light up and show there handles. The clicked one is a solid red dot, the others are a hollow dot with red stroke.
Now according to what I got of your comments, I should be able to move that single selected point with the arrow keys.... but I cannot.
Far as point 4, same thing applies... It is good to know that I can select multiple points that way, but after selecting ... the keyboard arrows do nothing to the selected points. But at least I can quickly pull mutiple points around with the mouse... so thanks for that bit.
Are you able to select a point on a closed path, and control it with arrow keys?
Is there some circumstance I may have initiated inadvertantly that would prevent the arrow keys moving points around.
I pretty sure there was while early on where I was moving individual points with keyboard but cannot get it to happen now.

The lines I create with the pen tool are not showing up in After Effects.

I'm working on a project where I need straight lines. I've added the lines using the pen tool on solid layers, but they are not showing up before or after rendering. I can see where they are supposed to be when I isolate the layer they are on. I have the lines at one pixel, solid white and the layers are on top of everything else. I took a screen shot. Can anyone help me?

Well, I am still not 100% sure why the pen tool lines/masks are not showing up but I was able to work around it. I already had the stroke effect applied and set to all masks. Looking into this though, it seemed that they were only not showing up on the new solid layers I had created. I duplicated the layers the masks were working on instead and it seems to resolve the problem for now. Thanks for your help!

Using the Pen tool to create a shape with equal sides?

I am new to working with the Pen tool and started drawing a rounded button (I know I can easily do this with the rounded rectangle, I'm just practicing to learn the Pen), I draw the top horizontal line and start the curve going down the right side. How do I now continue drawing the lower curve so that it matches the one I already drew and replicate this on the other side? Is there an easy way to do this? Is there also a way for me to just copy this path and reuse it somehow?
Thanks.

I think you'll find this tutorial useful.
http://is.gd/A90Q5t

Smart guides and using the pen tool

This is concerning CS5 15.0.1, on 10.6.4.
If I am drawing a shape with the pen tool (bézier) and I turn on/off smart guides while at it, the pen tool looses the connection to the last point.
Who the heck @Adobe thought that would be helpful? Every time I have to reconnect to the last dot.
Anyone else here noticed that glitch?

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
FreeHand could do that some 10 Years ago!
FreeHand could do that 25 years ago—in fact, even before FreeHand existed. Unlike Illustrator, FreeHand provides three basic point types: Corner, Curve, and Connector. Connector Points ensure tangency between a curved and a straight segment. It's a feature of Fontographer, which was FreeHand's progenitor.
But that is far from the only basic superiority of FreeHand over Illustrator's hideous Bezier interface.
JET

Is there a hotkey to break the handles of points while you're using the pen tool?

When you use the pen tool, it smooths the points as you add them, but sometimes I don't want that, So far, the only way I've been able to combat this is by using the pen tool, pressing V to switch to the selection tool, clicking elsewhere to deselect the path, then pressing P to use the pen tool again, and then selecting the end point again.
This process is becoming very annoying over the course of long projects, and I'm hoping that someone will be able to solve it for my.
(I specifically want the hotkey for Mac, but it would be good if you could give the PC hotkey too for other people looking at this.)

Use the Alt-key to switch to the anchor-point-conversion tool temporarily. Use the command key to switch to the last used selection tool temporarily

How to create a wavy line with the Pen Tool?

Let me start by saying that I am a novice to Adobe CS4, including PS.
I am trying to follow this tutorial: http://www.rnel.net/tutorial/Photoshop/11541 but I can not even get the pen to draw wavvy line. I keep get a straight line. To say the least, I am only able to complete creating the file.
How do I create a wavvy line or lines using the Pen Tool?

Check out this page from the Help Files:
Draw curves with the Pen tool:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WS08E4D386-15E9-4dcd-91E6-DF4219CC6D24.html

The Pen Tool is driving me CRAZY!!!

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