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We talked about simple shapes in the last tip.

Now let’s talk about the freeform shape tool.  This is a pretty cool tool. 

Here is a laptop that I did pretty quickly by using the freehand shape creator. 

 It is easy to use, let’s take a look by making a car.

First, open the SnagIt Image Editor and start a new file. 

Select the Shape tool and then the little L shaped freehand drawing tool in the properties box.  Now, start drawing a line…

Keep doing this until you have an approximate shape that you want.  Don’t worry if it is rough.  Rough is my middle name.  Well, actually, Skeeter is.  Here is the Galopi: 

Now click on the shape and pull the little yellow points at the edges and drag them to change the shape.

Here is my car with tires.  The shape is coming together. 

 I also copied the yellow body and made the copy black, then put the black layer behind the yellow layer and modified the yellow layer so that the windshield area is flat, showing the black windshield. 

Next I can add some other shapes on top of this one to act as windows and door frames, shadows, etc.  This can be a little tricky in SnagIt since it does not like you to draw over the top of another image.  When you try it selects the object, kind of a pain. 

What I do to compensate for this is that I draw a little offset to the object and then drag the object over top of the existing object I am trying to put my new piece over the top of.

Here is the nearly finished car:

I added black freehand shapes using opacity to make them look like darker colored yellow objects for the door, the stripe on the hood.  I used black freehand shapes for the stripe on the rear fender, headlight and the muffler.

I could keep fiddling with the shape to make it more of a sports car instead of a mutated station wagon / street racer if I wanted.  That is the great thing about the freehand shape tool, you can just keep playing around until the shape looks right.

   I think I will call this good for this tip.

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