Now if we click away to deselect this, the next thing we want to do is use some of the Photoshop graphic element to affect the type with runaround. What I mean by that is the curve of the shoulders on this side and ultimately this side are going to push the text away, so there is a nice rounded gap here that very much makes the text sit with the image as part of the overall layout design. Now there are a few ways you can do that. We are going to do it inside Photoshop because ultimately the path that we create we will use for another function in the future.
So once again we are going to edit original on the Photoshop graphic here in the background. So I just go ahead and select it, hold down the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac, and double-click to open it in Photoshop. Just like we did before, press the F key to fit it in the main background, so that leaves us free to scroll around that anytime.
Now what we are going to do first is zoom up a lot closer on the image, so using the standard shortcut you now know from InDesign and Photoshop, let's zoom up fairly close on the upper-left hand side of the hat here at the top. We are going to build a puff that will give us a shape to run around.
Now in the Tools Palette you do have a Bezier Pen Tool here, which is the one we are going to use, again, identical to the other two programs, Illustrator and InDesign, but this one varies in the way that it draws paths inside Photoshop. If you look in the Control Palette at the top, there are actually three icons here for the type of shape that can be drawn.
Now you can either fill pixels with color and really with the Pen Tool it doesn't really matters. So only when you are using a Shape Tool that is more obvious, but these two functions are very important. The first one will create what's called a Shape Layer and that is simply a brand-new layer filled with color and the path that you draw masks out that shape. That's not what we are aiming for here, we simply want nothing more than a Bezier path that we can save with the file and InDesign will recognize allowing us to run the text around it.
So make sure that you do have the second icon selected, which is simply a path. Now what we are going to do with this, if you have never used the tool before, we just scroll down, we're using that Spacebar Tool there to do that. We will start by creating one point just outside here on the outside of the file, just a click, that's all you need.
Then what we will do is in this join here around the side of the hat, this sort of corner point there, just click-and-drag a little way and you will see that you drag a handle. Now the handle that you drag is leaving a curved path behind it and the idea was to make sure that curved path roughly matches the pixels that you see in the background. So it's not going to be a long handle that points down here to the right which pushes that curve out to the left.
Now we want to follow this process down the outside of the hat. The next problem we encounter is if we maybe came down to this next join and again click-and-drag, you will notice that the path above it kind of pushes the inside of this one in too far. We really want to stop that one having a handle on this side which is part of the curve, leaving it as it was there and start afresh with a new curve out. So we are going to use a different shortcut here.
Just undo the last step that you did and instead, hold down the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac and click in that point and you will see it removes the next handle. That means if we now come down here and draw the next curve, you see that it is not defined on that previous point by that handle. We have got rid of it, we are now free to draw all the shape that need. So concentrate on the previous curve, don't worry about this handle here. Get that shape right and again let's hold down the Alt key, click to chop off that point, scroll down a bit further, and let's do the same.
So we are just building up a series of points around the outside here. Keep on going until you hit a smoother area and then we won't need to crop it out. All we've got to do then is follow around the outside. So just build it up as a series of smooth curve points and when you reach a corner junction such as this, by all means bring it down into the corner, maybe coming to this point right here. Again, hold down the Alt key and trim that out.
Now what we are going to do is just continue working our way around and you can build this really anywhere you want to, but you do want to keep it fairly accurate as we are going to be using this for a real cut out later on. When we are doing this for text wrap, the path has to be approximate and fairly close but not 100% accurate, but to save time later on, we concentrate on drawing the path correctly now. You will certainly get a better cut out later and you will also learn how to use this tool very effectively as well. So it's worth giving your time to practice on this and that remind that anything that you do inside this program, the knowledge that you learn on using this tool would transfer into all the other Adobe applications.
So continue working away around, just adding those points as and where you think they are necessary and just use a lot of little curves. You don't have to try and get everything with a corner point or click a million times just to cut around the outside. You will see that you can actually use a limited number of points, especially when you get down here to the shoulders because the curve will give you a much greater distance to cover. So it's very easy to reach the left hand side of the file here.
Now when you reach the bottom-left hand side, just click in the bottom there to define a corner point and then scroll all the way across until you find the right hand shoulder and you can see the visible area again. Once again, just click and then start building the path up around the other side. Now we just continue working up here, again at those points as necessary. This is one of the main reasons you work closely, a zoomed up on a file like this. Most people tackle a cut out like this on a file viewed Fit in Window or maybe just actual size. It's very important for accuracy that you do work magnified up on this to make sure that your path looks good and sharp when you finally cut the object out.
So again, keep working around all the way through the collar here, up around the inside of the ears. You will see that it becomes faster and more fluid as you draw and get used to the tools and you will be able to create paths like this in a much shorter space of time, but I am doing this live, you can see it's going at a real speed. This is the tool I have been using for many years now but it doesn't take long to get used to it. I just chop out those corners as and when you don't need them. So look away up around the side of the hat here until it's not too important.
Now we can continue around the top-right hand side and we will almost be done. So just keep working away up here, drag a corner point as and when you need it. The same rule as we started out here, let's just drag a curve, chop each one off as and when, same here. Then we are pretty much there, we can close that up with one single point. Now I chopped that one out as well, we do need to make sure the path is complete. So I come all the way back across to the left hand side. Then as you move the cursor over the very first point that you drew and click, that now closes the path. You will see it deselects as soon as you are done.
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