Marking Out Shapes

The Mark Out Shapes tool allows you to create a shape by clicking to define the locations of the shape's points. As you add points, each new point is connected to the previous point by a line segment. The line segment's curve, or lack thereof, depends on the type of shape you're drawing: Bézier, B-Spline, or Polyline. The Mark Out Shapes tool is only available in vector paint operators.

This example shows a closed, filled color shape being drawn using the Mark Out Shapes tool. Notice that the fill color starts to appear as soon as the outline begins to define a "fillable" area.

TipThe Mark Out Shape tool is useful for creating precise paint strokes that are more easily editable than stroke shapes created with the paint brush tool. Just make sure to draw an open, stroke-only shape: this allows you to create paint strokes of any shape type.

To mark out a shape

Edit the vector paint operator in which you want to mark out a shape, as described in Editing and Previewing Paint Operators.
Set the new shape properties as described in Setting the Shape Type.
If you are drawing a stroke shape or a filled shape with an outline, set the paint brush properties as described in Setting Paint Brush Properties.
Choose foreground and background colors as described in Choosing Colors with the Fx Color Selector.
From the Fx Viewer paint menu, choose Draw Mark Out Shape Tool.

Alternatively, you can position the mouse pointer over the Fx viewer and press P.
In the Fx Viewer image area, click to create an initial control point.
Continue clicking around the outline of the shape you wish to draw.

Each click creates an additional control point connected to the previous point by a Bézier curve, B-Spline, or polyline (depending on how you set the new shape properties in step 2).
To complete the shape, do one of the following:
- Click on the initial control point to close the shape. This will close the shape regardless of whether the new shape properties specified an open shape.
  
  or
- Press Space to activate the Select Shape tool. The shape that you just drew is automatically selected.
You can now edit the shape as described in Blurring Color Shape Edges.