Hiding Edges
All paths that are drawn actually don’t show up on the rendered image unless a stroke is added to them. Strokes are covered in Chapter 13, “Filling Shapes and Using Strokes,” but there are times when you’ll want to hide an edge or include an extra edge so that you have more control over the curvature at the end of a pointed object.
Tip
Hidden edges can also be used to connect objects together so they can be moved by dragging one part of the object. For example, it is often helpful to have the eyes of a character connected so they can move as a single unit.
To hide an edge, select the Hide Edge tool (H), which is actually found in the Fill section of the Tools palette, and click on the path to hide. This removes any stroke from the selected path between its adjacent points.
To control the curvature at the tip of an object using hidden edges, follow these steps:
1. | Open the Twin lizards.anme file from the Chapter 12 folder on the CD. This file includes two simple lizard shapes side by side. Each path has a simple stroke with a Line Width of 1 applied to it. The lizard’s tail is pointed using the Peak modifier. |
2. | Select the Delete Edges tool (D) and click on the two edges making up the end of the left lizard’s tail. |
3. | Select the Add Points tool (A) and drag from each end point to create two overlapping paths with three points each. |
4. | Use the Translate Points tool (T) to select the first new point on one of the lines and drag it over the top of the first new point on the other line and press the Spacebar while the mouse button is still held down to weld the two points together. |
5. | Select the last two points and move them to define the curvature of the tail. |
6. | Select the Hide Edges tool (H) and click on the extending paths to make them hidden from the shape. |
The two paths that extend beyond the end of the tail are used to control the curvature of the tail, as you can see in Figure 12.4. The lizard on the right uses the Peak command, but the lizard’s tail on the left has more curvature at its tip.
Tip
This same technique of adding an extra edge at the end of a path can also be used with a variable width path.