In this course, author Nigel French covers the ins and outs of creating professional designs and artwork using crisp, scalable vector graphics in Photoshop. The course demonstrates the fundamentals of drawing and manipulating shapes; achieving various artistic effects using blend modes, layer effects, and Smart Filters; and combining shape layers with pixel-based imagery and photographs. The course also showcases practical applications for shape layers, including posters, logos, and web buttons, and includes tutorials on building custom shapes and making modifications with vector masks.

Topics include:

• Converting shapes to paths and paths to shapes
• Moving, deleting, copying, and rasterizing shape layers
• Drawing pen paths
• Inverting a path
• Combining shapes
• Adding strokes to shape layers
• Creating shape layers from type
• Creating custom shapes from Illustrator symbols
• Building a photo grid
• Combining vector masks and layer masks
• Converting a shape layer to a selection, vector mask, or layer mask
• Working with paths and clipping paths