Pen tool?

Hi.. i recently discovered the pen tool after a year and a half of trying to make curved lines... (yes i know)... point is... when i am using the pen tool it doesn't just make a line it makes a fill between the 2 anchor points... a shape... not a line...

is there a way to change the settings or something so it just makes a curved line... a certain thickness?

I am going to assume you are using a version of Adobe Photoshop? The Pen Tool can be handy if you know how to use it properly. Obviously you will be interested, so i thought i might go and link a tutorial to the most efficient way to using this pen tool...

Click Here!

If i had more time i would tell you how i could create a circle and add a border onto it. Maybe if you have not found out in the next couple of days i'll find the time to help you out more.

Let me know if the above link was good. Any questions? just ask and i'm sure someone will get back to you as soon as they can.

sorry i must have not been clear... i want to know how to draw smooth curved lines... not shapes.... for example:

i want the line that connects the anchor points to be my final product i dont want it to fill in color in between all the anchor points... in that video he makes the number 5... i need the outline of the number 5 only... not the fill.

i'm trying to make vines if that helps at all.
thanks,
nick

Sorry about that, i only watched a few moments of the video and obviously not enough to know what was on it.

I am sorry about that.

There are two things which you might mean so I will suggest both.

You could but a stroke on the 5 but have the fill opacity on 0 percent in the layers pallette. The layer effects are at the bottom of the layers palette, and stroke should be in there.

Is this what you mean?

The other thing you might of ment was, do you just want the 'clipping path' of the shape, and not the 'Shape layer'.

In this case you must change the pen tool from 'Shape layer' to 'Path'
If you are in the pen tool those options should be at the top of the menu.

i couln't find stroke.. i found overall layer opacity and fill opacity and i messed with those for a while but nothin happened that i needed.

Can you see the symbol that looks like an 'f' at the bottom of the layers palette? That is where the layer effects are? It should be there. You can have a stroke, but turn the layer opacity right down to get just your stroke effect.

Hey i looked at it and worked with it for a while... all i got was this...
the left side is what i got and the right side is what i want:

http://www.metascapestudios.com/notandright.jpg

i forgot to take out the black on the left side but i know how to... my point is ... you see how if you put 2 anchorpoints it makes 2 lines.. i need just the line from the 1st anchor point to the secont anchor point.. .even if you use the stroke method like you said it creates a 2nd line from the second anchor back to the first one... i just need from a-b... not a-b-a...

the right side shows what i want.. i used the paint brush to make that... basicly i want that but i want the lines to be smooth: ie: making it with the pen tool.

also act like the right side pic isn't a connected line...

thanks,
nick

It looks like you might need to join the path up. If you hold the pen over the end point you should see a '0' shape appear.

I can't really guess what you have done, but it looks like you need to join the path.

no i can't reconect it though... im making vines and vines do not reconect .. there going up a wall and i cant have them go up the wall and then back down.