In this lesson you'll learn about the Eraser tool, the Scissors tool and the Knife tool.
Sometimes these kind of confuse students so after this lesson you should
understand how they work and be able to use them in your projects whether it's a
logo or illustration etc. So go ahead and open up a new document. I just drew out a
circle, a rectangle, rounded rectangle and a star here just for examples, but as long as you
have some kind of shape that you draw out with one of the shape tools over here. Then if you
notice we have the Eraser tool. You double-click on it. It's got a couple of options.
Kind of like a Brush tool that you can customize if you double click on it. Then we have the
Scissors tool which doesn't have any options on it and then the Knife tool as well.
So how do these work? Well the Eraser tool is a little bit different in
Illustrator compared to Photoshop. So in Photoshop you really shouldn't use the
Eraser tool anyway, right. We should mask but in Illustrator the Eraser tool, it
doesn't just erase pixels like it does in Photoshop. It's actually just getting rid
of you, know, a fill or a stroke and then replacing it with another fill or stroke.
I'll show you what I mean.
So this doesn't have to be selected. I can just click and drag and you'll
notice, I'm going to select it so you can see where the points and paths are. It's added
an anchor point there, one there, there there, there and so on and also paths
in between. So it's created a pretty smooth rounded corner here. So that's what the
Eraser tool does. It doesn't get rid of pixels, it just reshapes some of these
shapes like so. So notice if I click and drag over here, it doesn't do anything
because this is selected. So I have to deselect. So I'm going to deselect and not have anything
selected out here. Then the Eraser tool and then I can actually start editing these
different shapes. But if you'll notice, if something is selected and I choose the
Eraser tool, then I can't erase any of the other shapes. It has to be the one that we
have selected,. A quick tip about the Eraser tool. You can press the left and the
right brackets on the keyboard to resize it just like as if we are using the
Eraser tool in Photoshop so it can resize it without
having to double click on it, change settings or size there. You can also hold
SHIFT for straight lines. So let's just say I created a circle here and I'm
going to create a logo and I just want this top part up here, like a semi-circle.
What you could do instead of having to split them, you can actually go to the Eraser tool and
then I'm going to make it smaller, then hold SHIFT, and click and drag and it will maintain that angle
where now it's a straight line. Now we have two shapes like so. Now the Scissors tool
works a little differently. So if I just click anywhere in the background with the Scissors Tool,
it comes up with an error. Please use scissor tools on a segment or an anchor
point but not an end point. What does that mean? Well if I had a line for
example, like that, and I go to the Scissors tool and I click right on the edge there, it's going
to come up with the same error. So if I click in the background, or if I click in the middle,
like the fill area of an object or if I click on an end point, it's not going to work.
We have to click on either a path here like so, or if you click on an anchor point,
it needs to be like this where it has a path on either side. So now that I use,
now that click there with the Scissors tool, just imagine we're just cutting this
line here. Now use the white arrow, the Direct Selection tool and I move and you'll
see now it's two objects. And down here, I'll move this over and you can see
with the Scissor tool we opened up that path. So that is not one path going through
like that, it's actually, just has the fill but there's a separate path over here.
The Knife tool is a little bit different.
Instead of just clicking on a path here or clicking on a path like this to
make it two lines, we actually click and drag. So I can click and drag over here
and now... something was selected so it's not going to work... Let me deselect.
Again with the Knife tool, I click and drag, now that's going to make that two
different shapes. So if I use the Direct Selection tool, I can move and deselect
first, and click and drag that off. Now I have two shapes, and I actually added that stroke path
in between as well. So if you use the Knife tool, you don't have to go all the way through a
shape as well. So let's just say I wanted to open this up up here. You can click and
drag and just about half way, like that, and then use the white Direct Selection
tool and I'm going pull that out like so, if you're doing some kind of shape. Almost like,
it looks like a whale or something, like the mouth of a whale. So those are
the tools under the Eraser menu there. So Eraser tool, Scissors tool and Knife tool.
Just to summarize the Eraser tool. You're just clicking, dragging, removing those areas
but it fills in the space with the path and then the Scissors tool you need to
just click once on a path and it can't be on an endpoint like on the end of a line.
It has to be along a path and if it is on an anchor point, it needs to be something like
this or it has a path on either side. And then the Knife tool, you can just click
and drag and create new shapes like so, or you can click a little bit into one
and then you can edit it after the fact, like that.
So that's how to use the Eraser tool as well as the Scissors tool and the Knife tool
I hope you learned a lot and I will see you in the next lesson.