Using the Magnet Tool

After drawing an object, you may find that you spend a lot of time tweaking the placement of multiple individual points. This can be time consuming, so if you need to move a lot of points at once, you’ll want to consider using the Magnet tool.

The Magnet tool (X) selects and moves all points within a defined radius, but the points nearest the center of the defined radius will move the greatest degree and points farther from the center move to a lesser extent, based on their distance from the center. The result is a smooth shifting of the selected points.

Using the Options bar, you can change the radius of the Magnet tool. Figure 11.15 shows the Magnet tool being used to modify the base of a guitar.

Figure 11.15. The Magnet tool.

[View full size image]

To use the Magnet tool, follow these steps:

1.	Open the Tree.anme file from the Chapter 11 folder on the included CD. This file includes a single tree, but if you want to add multiple trees to the current project, then it is a good idea to alter this original tree so it doesn’t look exactly like its duplicate.
2.	Select the Tree 3 layer and click the Duplicate Layer button in the Layers palette to create a clone of the original tree. Select the Translate Layer tool (1) and move the tree to the right of the original.
3.	Select the Magnet tool (X) and change the Magnet Radius value in the Options bar to 0.2. Then drag on the various tree limbs to reorient them to be different from the original tree, as shown in Figure 11.16. With the variation added to the new tree, the tree object can be added to the same project without looking like the same tree. Figure 11.16. Unique trees with the Magnet tool. [View full size image]