* Can shapes drawn with the pen tool be "smoothed" (rounded)?

[Wade Garrison]

I'm looking to draw a bunch of stylized apples in vector form. I've tried
doing it with the pen tool, but I'm not very good with it, and it seems the
pen is better suited for straight lines and not curves.

Is there a way for me to drop anchor points, and then tell Illustrator to
"smooth" the path to a certain degree or percentage, so that the rigid
straight lines and sharp angles become curved following the general
direction the anchors are taking? So it looks more free flowing?

Or even a freeform pen that would later compensate for the mouse's
jaggedness with a smoothing effect of its own?

If not, what other program should I be using to do this?

[steggy]

Wade Garrison wrote:

>
> I'm looking to draw a bunch of stylized apples in vector form. I've tried
> doing it with the pen tool, but I'm not very good with it, and it seems the
> pen is better suited for straight lines and not curves.

No Warren, with the pen you can make sharp and exact curves.
I think you need to find a tutorial, it is hard to explain
just in words. A quick search on "bezier curves" gave me
this. Perhaps a start to grab what it is:

[url]http://www.moshplant.com/direct-or/bezier/[/url]

>
> Is there a way for me to drop anchor points, and then tell Illustrator to
> "smooth" the path to a certain degree or percentage, so that the rigid
> straight lines and sharp angles become curved following the general
> direction the anchors are taking? So it looks more free flowing?
>
> Or even a freeform pen that would later compensate for the mouse's
> jaggedness with a smoothing effect of its own?
>
> If not, what other program should I be using to do this?

Like has been said: a helping piece of software is Adobe
Streamline, but I never use it, it too rough for my taste. I
agree it can be a pain, it is pretty precise work, but you
can do it:)


--
steg

[steggy]

steggy wrote:

>
> Wade Garrison wrote:

> >
> > I'm looking to draw a bunch of stylized apples in vector form. I've tried
> > doing it with the pen tool, but I'm not very good with it, and it seems the
> > pen is better suited for straight lines and not curves.

>
> No Warren, with the pen you can make sharp and exact curves.
> I think you need to find a tutorial, it is hard to explain
> just in words. A quick search on "bezier curves" gave me
> this. Perhaps a start to grab what it is:
>
> [url]http://www.moshplant.com/direct-or/bezier/[/url]

> >
> > Is there a way for me to drop anchor points, and then tell Illustrator to
> > "smooth" the path to a certain degree or percentage, so that the rigid
> > straight lines and sharp angles become curved following the general
> > direction the anchors are taking? So it looks more free flowing?
> >
> > Or even a freeform pen that would later compensate for the mouse's
> > jaggedness with a smoothing effect of its own?
> >
> > If not, what other program should I be using to do this?

>
> Like has been said: a helping piece of software is Adobe
> Streamline, but I never use it, it too rough for my taste. I
> agree it can be a pain, it is pretty precise work, but you
> can do it:)
>
> --
> steg

Sorry Wade I renamed you to Warren:))

Actually try this for starters:

Choose the pen tool. Click somewhere on your empty page. Let
go. Click on a spot a few inches away, hold the mouse. Drag
the mouse and you will see a curve popping up. It has all to
do with the distance and the angle of your second click and
the amount of dragging.
The handles you see arising on the endpoints can be used to
adjust the curve.
Experiment, it is cool.
--
steg