How to Use the Shaper Tool in Adobe Illustrator

1.2 How to Use the Shaper Tool in Adobe Illustrator

[SOUND] Hello everybody I'm Simona and we are here in our coffee break course on Envato Tuts+ about the new shaper tool in Illustrator CC. Now this is the newest tool with the latest release. So make sure you have the latest release, and here let me show you what version I am using in Adobe Illustrator CC. I am working with the 2015.2.1 release. If you have the 2015.1 release, you will not find the Shaper tool so make sure you have the latest version. Now the shaper tool is a fun way to create shapes. Now shapes, as you know, are the basic building blocks of design. They're used in logos, they're used in any other designs. And usually that's how we start. We have squares, rectangles, circles, ellipses, lines, and so on. And this is where the shaper tool can really help us to quickly draw some geometrical shapes. It's a lot of fun if you have a tablet and a graphic pen or if you're working on a touch screen or you have a tablet that you're working with. But if you just have a mouse you can still use it. Remember you used the pencil tool and you're making a line and it all gets wiggly? Well, that's what the shaper tool looks like when you start. So here let me draw something really quick. Let's create a triangle. You can see me sketching out a triangle. But when I let go, the shaper tool created a perfectly fine geometric shape for me, the triangle. Now let me show you just the basic shapes that you can create with the shaper tool. Of course next we have a square, so on my attempt of creating a square, it's quite pathetic, but, as you can see with the shaper tool, I have a perfectly good square right now. Then, of course, I want the rectangle, and it will create a rectangle for me. Then, we can also create a 45 degree tipped square or a 45 degree tipped rectangle. And you can see that the aligning both exactly in 45 degrees. After that, of course, we can create an ellipse and then, of course, the circle. And then, again, I can create an ellipse, 45 degree or even the other way, it works both directions. And then we can even create a hexagon. So if I create a hexagon and my attempt is really bad, it will make the perfect hexagon for me. This one is with the top flat, and of course we can create it the other way around. And this is our hexagon with the tip on the top. And, last button at least, we have the inverted triangle and then we have some lines. A horizontal line, a vertical line and a 45 degree angle line. And these are the shapes that the shaper tool can create for you. But of course this is not all that the shaper tool can do. So let me show you, let's create a triangle again. Let's create a fairly big one then we create one that is slightly smaller. And then another one on top that's even a little bit smaller and then a smaller one. Now the shaper tool also can select the shapes that you've just created. You do not have to switch to the direct selection tool or the selection tool. You can just click on the object and you can move it, either via your pen or mouse or the arrows on the keyboard. At the same time you can also scale it. You can make it bigger, proportionately or unproportionately, and you can select the other one and make it bigger as well and move the position. Now this is where the fun part starts. We want to combine all of those shapes. So with none of the shapes selected and only the shaper tool active, just start creating a wiggly line in the middle. And now you can see it combined all those triangles into a shape. Now, the shaper tool creates shapes, and they are live shapes. That means it's not like the pathfinder tool, that once you've merged or divided a shape it's done. You have to go back, either redo it or undo, the shaper tool is live. And you can select each shape again and you can change it. For example, you can make it smaller or you can make it bigger and it will resize everything with it. You can see here you can move it around and you can even color it. All you have to do is double-click it and then you get the grayed out pattern here. And then you'll apply a color to it. And if you select away, you see now it is a green tree. And just with triangles that we've created with the shaper tool and that we've merged together with the shaper tool. Now of course there are many more other things you can do with the shaper tool. Now of course instead of just merging shapes with the shaper tool we can do also the opposite. We can subtract them. So let me show you. Again we select the shaper tool. And now let me create a circle. What if you wanted to create a moon, a crescent moon? We have our first shape here, a circle, and then we are going to create a bigger one. Now we want to select both shapes and we can do this with the shaper tool. So we click on one shape, then press the shift key on the keyboard, and select the other. Now, in order to cut away the outer part, all we have to is create a wiggly or wavy line, as if we're indicating we're cutting this part away. Of course, the same we want to do with this part. And now you can see we've created a crescent moon. When we hover over, we can see that both shapes are still there, even the other one which is cut away. And we can, of course, alter it as well. So if I select the shape and then I click this arrow here, it is expanding it. And I can select the shape that is visible to us or I can select the other shape and I can move it around. For example, I can make our crescent moon just a tiny bit smaller. And, if we even needed to, we can even shrink it down. If I press the shift key, it will shrink it proportionally. And then, in order to exit it, just click the arrow again. And then we could give it a color or I can just select it with the selection tool and move it into a different position. Of course, combine two shapes and give them two different colors. So let me show you that as well. So again, we select the shaper tool here. By they way, the shortcut for this is Shift-N. And let's create another triangle. Then, let's create a square. And we also can, with the shaper tool, rotate it if we wanted to. And let's move it over the tip here and then I press the Shift key and select the other shape. And I'm gonna cut away the outside here, so, again, I start making squiggly lines indicating I want to cut this away. Then I click on the top part that I want to color and let's give it a white color and then I click on the bottom part. And then I want to color this in a different kind of color, so let me show you some more options. Let's make it pink. And now we've created two shapes. We've created, so to speak, a pink mountain, the top part covered in snow and the bottom part in pink. Again, if you're not happy with the shape and you want to have it smaller or you want to rotate it or move it into a different direction you can do this easily because, again, both shapes are live shapes. You can be quite creative and create all sorts of shapes. So let me show you. Here, let's create a circle again and then a horizontal line. Now I'll select this line and then I'll move it into the position into the middle of the circle. Then I will select both of the shapes and I want to cut away the top part of the circle. Again, with the shaper tool active, all I have to do is create a wiggly line and that will indicate I want to cut this part away. Now let's create another shape, another circle. I'll select it and then move it into the bottom part here. I want to select both shapes. So I can actually use the selection tool to select them and then switch back to the shaper tool. And now I want to cut away the whole circle. But I want to cut away this part here as well. So what I have to do is, is I have to make sure I swiggle onto that part as well. And, as you can see, it cut these things away now. Of course, I can give it a different color and if my first circle was too much, too big, too small, or the wrong position, I can just alter it, and change it, and make a different shape out of it. One more thing I would like to show you with the shaper tool. Now let's just focus on lines. So I will create a few lines here, and some in the other direction. And now we can combine them all together. Now if I want to cut everything away here, I have to select each and every single line. So let me do this, then I switch back to the shaper tool and then I will make my squiggly line, it means that I'm cutting away those parts. It's important that they are like wavy or squiggly and not straight. And now, of course, if I select this I have lines. I don't have a fill, I cannot change the fill, I can only fill the stroke. Now, if I wanted here to give it a fill, it will not give it a fill, we will only have a stroke. But, again this is a live object. Now let me show you what we can actually do to fill in our shapes here. As you remember, in Illustrator we have the live paint pocket. Now all we have to do is select the live paint bucket, pick the color of the fill you like. For this example, let's say an orange. And then I am going to click on the rectangle here that I want to fill and it will fill it with the color. Now isn't this neat? And then if I want to have a different color, I fill it with a different color. Again, we still have a shaper tool object. Now if I actually want to change the position of the lines, since we are still in the shaper tool here, I can actually do this. I can move it around. I can move it outward and I can move it inward. We won't be able to change the color of the fill, but we could easily apply another color via the paint bucket tool or we can expand the whole shape. As you remember, any kind of live object here in Adobe Illustrator needs to be expanded if you want to make it permanent. So we can just select it and go to Object > Expand. You'll get the pop up. Let's leave the stroke as-is and press OK. Now we have an expanded shape. If we go and ungroup it and then ungroup it again you have the shapes and you have the fills and since we're not expanded the stroke you still have the grid. Now this is it with the shaper tool. It is the latest new tool in Adobe Illustrator and I'm pretty sure that the people from Adobe will give it many updates and it will even get better and more awesome. But this is it for now, and thank you for watching the coffee break course here on Envato Tuts+.