Gear maker

You are right the mask doesn't leave any marks on the drawing. Instead make a copy of the mask and position it above the masked image. Then have the fill be empty and add whatever stroke to the copy. I believe this is what you are requesting.

eunoia, Palatino is right. Deleting the center of the 3 nodes allows add to work well on the characters. I didn't try to figure out what went wrong with that node. styxx modified.afdesign

Without seeing the actual drawing it's hard to say. Can you attach the drawing? It could be a blending issue. Or a transparency tool use. Many possibilities.

It depends on if you need to keep the image purely vector or not. If you zoom way in on the image painted by the brush you will see that the brush leaves a pixelated image. Because it's being made from a png file which is a pixel file. There is no right or wrong way depending upon the requirements you have or want. Good luck on your skull. It looks like fun.

I would guess that the shape from AI is all in one layer. Have you tried doing a divide to get the curves in separate layers. Then you can pick and copy the individual pieces.

Breaking a curve can make definite changes. If the break is done to one of the overlapping nodes (in your case they are not what I am calling overlapping nodes until they are broken), the order of the nodes will probably change. Assuming the nodes are all from the same shape... I believe the end node (marked in red) will be on top, the beginning node will be on the bottom and any other nodes will be between. The few times I've had to figure out the order it seems like that's what has happened. So in the video if the triangle was drawn in a clockwise direction, if you break the lower left node, and just grab it and do a move the red end node will move, so the top node belongs to the straight line. Now instead if you break the lower left node and do a click then a grab with shift ctrl down the node on the curved line will move. The bottom node belongs to the curved line and moves in this case. Now switching to the right node you will see the opposite because the top node will belong to the curved line because the triangle was drawn in a clockwise direction the red end node belongs to the straight line and the bottom node belongs to the curved. Does that explain what you are seeing? One issue I have had that still surprises me is that when a curve is broken and one end node is moved out, if that node is then dropped back onto the other end the curve is healed, no longer broken. The history shows it was broken but it's no longer broken, history doe not show it's healed. This causes me problems because I'll break one node in a stack, then try to move it, and a different one than I planned moves, so I move it back. I then try to move a different one but my curve is no longer broken. Not only does history show it's no longer broken, also the break curve icon is still grayed out showing it thinks it's broken. I'm not sure if that's what you are showing in your video. or what. Hopefully something from this answers you question.

Hmmm is right. When I have either, one of the nodes selected or nothing selected then doing a shift drag (marquee style) selects all nodes inside that drag. It adds the nodes inside the drag to whatever is already selected. That's the way it is supposed to work. You should be able to shift drag over and over with no change. Where as a ctrl drag removes the nodes in that drag from any others selected. If a shift drag is deselecting nodes what is a ctrl drag doing?

Actually Old Bruce wasn't holding down ctrl with the shift. Which causes all nodes to be selected, he was then deselecting the top node by clicking on it. I was just showing how it could be done simpler.

I find it easier to left click on the node to select the top node. Then hold down both shift and ctrl while dragging over the node. This selects the bottom node(s) and deselects the top node all in one motion.

marc, I have only found one suggestion and it works with the arrows, but may not work with everything. in the Move tool turn on the Transform Objects Separately. Select all the arrows. Then holding down cmd drag the left center handle and pull it to the right until it is reversed and the same size as it was. My video doesn't seem to be loading correctly, all black. So I hope my description works.

You may be able to use the conical gradient for what you are after. Actually you may find the conical version of the Transparency Tool better for what you are doing. It will be some work as you'll have to set up points for each "tooth". Actually a few points for each tooth where you want the fade to begin and end for each side. I did just a couple teeth in the example. cog-tooth-fade-edges example1.afdesign

skoz, just a guess do you have snapping turned on to the grid and have a large grid that just isn't being displayed. What do your snapping settings look like? If you shut off snapping does this stop?

Scott, right off the top of my head I can't give you any good examples. But I have to say that I have only needed it a few times in several years of using AD. So I have never thought about which should be the default. I guess it depends on how you tend to draw. Like if I am drawing distorted star I usually start with the star shape and distort that. Where if I were drawing the star from the pen tool I would have to change the winding. If the opposite were the default I don't know if I would have had to change it more or less. Which again may be due to my style of drawing. If it's a serious issue you could request it to be changed, though I would guess after several years without a lot of complaints it wouldn't be changed. Mike

Yes it can. Catch 22? What I do frequently to get rid of it is to extend the object that is lowest on the layer panel a little into the object that covers it. Because it's behind you should be able to do it without it affecting your image. Another way is to place a darker object behind your drawing so that there isn't white trying to show through. I hope that helps.

Go to the menu Layer > Fill Mode > Winding (non-zero)