00:01:47 all the way over to the right and click okay,
00:01:50 and now if I draw the path, even if
00:01:53 the preview's looking pretty chunky,
00:01:55 I should expect to see smoother results.
00:01:58 And sure enough, as soon as I release the mouse button
00:02:01 I see a very smooth shape indeed.
00:02:04 Now, the one unfortunate problem with it
00:02:06 is that it's an open path outline instead of a closed one.
00:02:09 Notice if I press the A key to switch to my wide arrow tool
00:02:13 and I click on one of these points up here
00:02:15 at the top of the heart, the two points
00:02:18 are not joined together by default.
00:02:20 Now you can join them, just by moving
00:02:23 one directly on the other like so,
00:02:25 and then marquee-ing those two points
00:02:27 in order to make sure thy're both selected
00:02:29 and then just going up to this option right here
00:02:31 connect selected endpoints, and that'll
00:02:33 go ahead and fuse those endpoints together,
00:02:36 in order to create a closed path outline like so.
00:02:39 So that's one way to work, the other is to
00:02:41 redraw the shape, subject to a different setting.
00:02:44 And to demonstrate that, I'll press the backspace key
00:02:46 a couple of times here on a PC, that would be the delete key
00:02:50 on the Mac, in order to get rid of that shape,
00:02:52 and I'll switch back to my pencil tool once again
00:02:55 and I'll press the enter key, or the return key
00:02:57 on the Mac, to bring up the dialogue box.
00:02:59 Now this dialogue box has been in a high state
00:03:01 of transition, so you may see different stuff.
00:03:04 But currently we have this checkbox
00:03:06 "Close paths when ends are within", however many pixels,
00:03:10 by default it's set to fifteen, so in other words
00:03:13 you need to make sure that you end your
00:03:15 path outline within fifteen screen pixels
00:03:18 of where you begin it, and so I'm
00:03:20 gonna go ahead and turn that checkbox on
00:03:21 and click okay, and now I'll go ahead
00:03:24 and draw the shape once again,
00:03:26 but I want you to note the cursor
00:03:27 see how the pencil has a little asterisk next to it?
00:03:30 That tells you that you're creating
00:03:31 a new path outline, like so, but notice
00:03:35 as soon as we arrive at the very first point
00:03:38 inside of the shape up here at the top,
00:03:41 that we're gonna see a circle next to the cursor,
00:03:44 which tells us that we're gonna close the path outline.
00:03:46 Now the one problem with it, at this point
00:03:48 is that it's rounded off, so the closed points tend to be
00:03:53 what are known as smooth points, as opposed to corners.
00:03:56 If what you want is a corner, then try beginning
00:03:59 the draw at a different location.
00:04:02 So for example, I'll just go ahead and
00:04:03 press the backspace key there, and again
00:04:05 that's the delete key on a Mac,
00:04:06 and then I'll draw the hump of the heart,
00:04:09 and then I'll come back around
00:04:11 and draw the center of it, like so,
00:04:14 and then I'll go ahead and connect those endpoints
00:04:16 In order to create a nice, clean, smooth, fluid shape
00:04:19 complete with corners at the top, and the bottom.
00:04:23 Alright, now I'm gonna make my shape a little bigger
00:04:26 by clicking on the word transform up here
00:04:28 in the control panel, or again if you don't see it
00:04:30 click the X, Y, W, or H and I'm gonna make sure
00:04:34 that both the values are linked together,
00:04:36 that is both the width and height values,
00:04:38 and then I'll change the width
00:04:40 value to, let's say 500 points.
00:04:43 And next, I'll go ahead and give the shape
00:04:45 a thicker line weight by taking that
00:04:48 stroke value up to eight points,
00:04:49 and I'll click on the fill icon, which is the first stroke
00:04:51 up here in the control panel, and I'll change the color
00:04:54 to the shade of red, Rx237 Gx28 Bx36
00:04:59 in order to create this final effect here.
00:05:02 And that folks is the basics of how you use
00:05:04 the best free-form drawing tool in the business,
00:05:07 the new and improved pencil tool here inside Illustrator.