How to create and modify a double-ellipse

Question

I’m using Photoshop CS6.Someone else created a lovely intersecting double ellipse in Photoshop to use as a banner border, which I “stole” from one of their PSD files - but I can’t work out how they created it - or how to modify it, other than by using the transform tool.I’ve uploaded it to double ellipse.psd. Their banner is visible when you open the file, and is in the layer group “Elipse Banner”. My attempt is in the hidden layer group “My attempt”. If you hide the “Elipse Banner” group and unhide the other group, you’ll see my attempt.How can I create a double ellipse banner like theirs from scratch? Theirs has an almost rectangular shape (but with smooth curves, not straight lines), whereas my attempt is much more elliptical. I managed to make the tops of my ellipses meet, like theirs does, using the direct selection tool - but I can’t work out for the life of me how to get that almost rectangular shape, wihich is vital in a mult-line banner, as otherwise the text will overlap the banner. I don’t want any straight lines and I don’t want to lose the symmetry..	 	I would like to increase the gaps between the two ellipses in their banner, without losing the nice symmetry. Is this possible and if so, how can I do it?Many thanksDave

Conrad_C · Answer

To get the “almost rectangular shape” you can either draw an ellipse and adjust it to be more like a rectangle, or you can draw a rectangle with rounded corners and adjust that. In the demo below, I match one of the examples starting from an ellipse shape.

In the demo, notice that to match the subtle curves I only do two things to the four default points on the ellipse, using the Direct Selection tool:

Reposition the path’s anchor points.
Adjust each point’s control handles.

For someone new to this, it can be difficult to understand the details about how to make the right adjustments. What makes it easy is training in editing vector paths. That skill originated outside of and before Photoshop, in vector drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator which was originally released in 1987. So you may want to review videos or books about how to edit anchor points and handles on a Bézier curve. Those lessons are often titled something about “using the Pen tool.”

One of the most important lessons from having that training is that subtle curves are easier to control with fewer points. The interesting thing about the example you’re using is that they used probably a lot more points than they needed to. As I show in the demo, the shape they did is achievable with just the four original ellipse points, as long as the points and control handles are adjusted optimally.

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