Subtitles of the Movie

Welcome to this lesson on Vector Objects. I have a photograph open first to show you the opposite of vector objects. This is a high-dynamic range photograph, which means I took a series of photographs with my camera on a tripod of this scene and then manipulated them to create a composite image using wide-dynamic range. It's of a tank bogie wheel and tracks of a static display located near here. This is a photograph and photographs are raster or bitmapped objects and if I zoom in on this, you can see the pixels starting to get larger and larger and larger. Each one of these pixels are independent of the others and this is what defines the image. If I select this pixel, it's got an X and Y location within the image and it's got a color. When I put millions of them together, I get the photograph. They are not connected in any other way to each other and so if I edit that one pixel without taking care to protect the others, I can overwrite them. Let's choose the Paintbrush here and I'll show you that. I'm just working still in the background layer and if I paint over this, there's no way to avoid destroying what is underneath it. I can not re-edit this. I can't edit the tank and I can't edit my line because those pixels, once laid down, are there. The only way around that would be to create a new raster layer on top, paint, do what you need to do with text or other objects and then you can obviously move those or toggle their visibility, but I can not edit this. And you'll see the difference when I get to a vector object. Let's go to a blank canvas here and let's create some. Rather than using the Selection Tools or Paintbrushes, what we'll use are preset shapes and the Pen Tool. Now, text is also really a vector object but for now I'm going to leave that alone. I'm going to select the Rectangle Tool here and look up at the top at my options now. I can choose to draw a rectangle or square, I can show the nodes, create on a vector layer. I can change the radius of the corner and if I increase those beyond zero, then the corner of the rectangle will be curved. I'll show you that in a minute. I can change its line style and the line width. And there are some other options here as well. Next thing I want to do is look at the Material Properties. The Stroke Property is the line that surrounds the shape. That's what color that will be and you've got the Fill Property here as well, which is what is filled inside. And I've selected black for my stroke and blue for a fill property and now I will just click and hold my mouse button down and draw this rectangle and it's like I'm making a selection. The further I drag my mouse out, the larger the rectangle gets in that direction. I have yet to draw actually anything yet. I'm still preparing to draw. When I let my mouse button go, that's when the rectangle will be drawn. And there it is. Now, the important thing to remember about vector objects is they're defined by points and lines. Each one of these rectangle corners is a point, which has a location and then the lines that connect them determine the shape. And then the lines also have a Stroke Property and the entire shape has the Fill Property. I can select my Pick Tool and change the shape of this object without damaging or destroying it. I can also rotate it. I can change its properties while it is selected on the fly. Very, very powerful. I can also create another vector object. Let's get into Draw Rectangle Mode here. On top of it, now, once I choose my Pick Tool, I can drag that around without destroying what's beneath it. You can see over here in the Layers Palette, if I click this Plus and expand my vector layer, I can access and see those two rectangles. If you double click them you can actually alter their properties, change their name, turn off a stroke or fill property, change their colors, stroke width and so forth. It's very, very powerful and convenient. The other way to draw vector shapes is using the Pen Tool. So if I select the tool, enter a drawing mode up here, I'm just going to draw lines and poly lines, same stroke width and let's change our properties here to show that. Now, if I draw that line, there you go. And it connects them until I choose to close the shape. There's so many different modes and sub-modes to the Pen Tool. It's going to be impossible to get into them right now. Basically, instead of creating a preset shape, you create the shape or the open or close that you want to. Bezier curves, let's apply that to make sure we're going to draw a new one. Bezier Curves allow us to create complex curved shapes. And then to close that I will select Close the Open Contour. Now, I can enter Edit Mode. I can actually drag the entire shape or I can select the individual, change that line color, the individual nodes. I can change their location to change the shape and I can also re-orient the curve around them. Very, very cool. Alright. I think I've run out of time here. That's an introduction to vector objects.