04. Dealing with shapes and forms

After understanding layers, we will now look at the various shapes we will use most fundamentally. It provides various basic shapes such as circles, squares, and stars, and you can also draw the shape you want.

Shape editing

You can add various shapes through insert or draw new shapes using the pen tool. All vector elements are made up of Points and are connected by lines called Paths. If you want to edit the Shape, select the layer and press Enter or double-click it.

transform

When you enter edit mode, you will see Points that can be adjusted. You can also add a new point by hovering the mouse cursor over the path. You can also change it to a curved path by double-clicking the point. The curvature of a curved path can be changed by adjusting the lines on both sides.

rotation

You can select a layer and drag it by pressing Command+Shift+R, or rotate it by adjusting the values in the Inspector. You can also adjust the rotating center point by moving the central cross.

scissors

Use this when you want to delete a Path from a Shape. Select Layer > Path > Scissors from the menu or select it from the toolbar.

boolean control

Boolean control (Boolean is a word that represents true and false) is a function that determines how layers are displayed when combined. When two or more layers overlap, you can specify which parts to show and which parts to hide.

• Union: Combines overlapping layers.
• Subtract: Subtracts another layer from the layer below it.
• Intersect: Shows where two layers overlap.
• Difference: Displays areas where two layers do not overlap.

The layer to which Boolean is applied becomes a Combined Shape. This layer belongs to the substructure, where you can additionally edit the Boolean.

mask

This is a function to hide a layer within another layer. All shapes can be masked. Select the shape, right-click, and select Mask or press Control+Commnad+M. The layer above is contained in the lowest layer in the layer list. If you only want certain layers to be masked, you can group them.

Ignoring the mask

You can separate all layers so they don't go into the mask. Group only the layers to be masked separately, or select the layers that do not belong to the mask and select Ignore Underlying Mask.

alpha mask

You can apply transparency by changing the mask mode. If the underlying mask layer is a gradient with transparency, change the mask mode to Alpha to apply transparency.