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webmaster_NFOG
Participant
March 15, 2019
Question

Bush stroke, flipping horizontal and shapes

  • March 15, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1372 views

Hello,

So I'm self taught in Illustrator and Photoshop but have mostly worked in Illustrator, wanting to draw more I can see how Photoshop is far better but I'm so used to working in Illustrator that I'm going mad! So I've got 3 questions!!

1. I have made a shape, in this case a face, and I want to change the stroke to brush stroke, it's easy enough in Illustrator but I can't figure it out in Photoshop!!! I have just realised that Photoshop makes a difference between Shape and Path! So the face is shape...

After that I want to add a shape to the cheek and then cut it where the jaw line goes, in Illustrator I would use shape build tool all day long (love that tool) but there seems to be NO similar tool in Photoshop?

And thirdly, when I made the right eye and eyebrow and copied it and flipped it horizontal, it changed the shape of the eye!! At least on the black eye line, on the right hand side the path line is on the outside and on the left one it's on the inside! How can I flip shapes I've made without them loosing there shape, like in Illustrator.

If I can figure this out I will be forever happy and turn over to Photoshop for eternity : )

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2 replies

Semaphoric
Community Expert
SemaphoricCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2019

Although Photoshop does not have a Shape Builder, there is a add-on panel you can get on the Adobe Exchange, Pathfinder​ by Toshiyuki Takahashi​. It works very much like Illustrator's Pathfinder, with a few differences due to the different structures of Photoshop and Illustrator documents (as you've noticed ). You make two separate Shape layers, select them both, and run the Pathfinder:

    

    M
    Community Expert
    mark@headTrixCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 15, 2019

    Illustrator is a vector illustration tool, and it sounds like you are more comfortable in Illustrator. The pen tools work the same, but Photoshop is a bitmap based application. Yes they have added Vector tools, and shapes, and even the text is Vector based, but its still not a vector tool. So to my knowledge its not possible to change the stroke or the bath to a brush shape. There also is no shape builder tool in Photoshop. You have to either remove points and reshape the image, or with a bitmap image and using the selection tools you can either add or subtract from a selection using an oval to cut out a segment, but this is not going to help you with your path.

    the flipping issue does seem a bit weird. Maybe try this: Right click on the eye that looks good, and select Convert to Smart Object.

    Then duplicate that layer (Command J or Control J on PC)  then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal (or press command T and then right click inside the transformation to select flip horizontal) - see if that helps fix the issue.

    Good luck! You can always use Illustrator to draw and then maybe colorize it in Photoshop?

    hope this helps!
    cheers!
    mark

    headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting
    W
    webmaster_NFOGAuthor
    Participant
    March 17, 2019

    Thank you so much for taking your time to answer, another question: I'm trying to export a bunch of layers of mountains and lakes and houses, but when I export them from Illustrator I can't edit them in Photoshop? Can't use handlebars or change color. The only way that seems possible is by copy and pasting it from Illustrator Photoshop layer by layer and choosing Shape Layer. This seems mad but maybe it's the only way to do it?

    M
    Community Expert
    mark@headTrixCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 18, 2019

    Hi Lars,

    You are welcome for my first response! Hope it helped.

    So if you want to try placing your Illustrator file into Photoshop, and you want to keep all the paths?

    Then pretty much copy and paste is the only way. It's not a very common way to work to create Vectors in Illustrator and then bring them into Photoshop to edit. If you wanted to color them in Photoshop that would make more sense. And you can do that by importing or pasting into Illustrator as a smart object, so you can color it in Photoshop, but double-click the layer to open it back up in Illustrator if you had to adjust the path.

    Hope that helps!

    best,

    mark

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