Illustrator The Dreaded Pen Tool

[Dernhelm]

Hello all! I'm a long time Photoshop user and PhotoshopGurus 'lurker,' but I just have, have, HAVE to get some tips on:

How to start becoming proficient with Illustrator's Pen Tool. *defeated sigh*

I know... most of you are going to tell me to just USE it. I'm trying!! I really am. But do you have any tips or suggestions to make the 'transition' from Photoshop's pen tool to Illustrator's a little less stressful?? Any excellent tutorial sites you could suggest would be helpful as well.....

Thanks!

 

[winterhawke]

There's actually very little difference between the ps pen and the Ill pen tools. I prefer the Ill pen because of the warp feature (warp tool ) and the smoothing tool. (click on the pencil--it's in the middle of that tool bar) photoshop doesn't have a smoothing feature. The only thing missing is the freeform tool (in Ill) but the pencil tool takes it's place. Color wise, it's all about fill stroke and gradient meshes. The gradient meshes are the hardest things to master, but you can create those in photoshop, place them into your shape and create clipping masks and group them.

 

[SCync]

I'm with winterhawke for most of the post, but I'll disagree with the idea of doing the shading in PS and dumping it in to AI. My suggestion isi to learn how to use AI meshes and stick with them. It ain't nuclear physics, and the transfer options, as well as the final reults, will be so much more robust.

 

[Dernhelm]

[stuned] You know, it's amazing how the simple things just slip right by me sometimes.....

I had a whole lot of free time on my hands last Friday and I was finally able to sit down and 'play' with Illustrator properly. I don't know why the pen tool seemed to frustrate me before-- there isn't much difference at all (if any) between Ill and PS. I'll chalk it up to being intimidated by the new 'vector' environment

Thanks for tips on gradient meshes; I'll go get learning!