Have you ever wanted to move letters in your text without having to open and individual text box or possible create a new way to weld the text together? Today's tutorial will help you learn how.
Start of course with your empty artboard. Click on the Text icon and then click anywhere on the artboard to start typing. I am going to use the word "Thanksgiving" using the font: Good Vibrations.
In order for you to rearrange or move each letter individually now that you have typed out your text you will need to right-click and select ungroup from the options.
Once you ungroup this is what you will see. Each individual letter will be able to work as its own shape. Because you have done this you will no longer be able to use the text style panel. You have now created its own separate shape. Of course there is always the undo and you can start where you left off before you ungrouped it.
I want the capital T to be a little closer to the rest of the text. So, I select it by clicking on it . Then you can either drag it to the location you would like it or use your arrow keys to shift it around.
I am ready to weld my text together I am going to be cutting it out of vinyl and what it to all be one smooth shape. First, select the entire word and then, you can weld a shape by clicking on the upper left Modify Panel button, and then select "weld".
As you can see the "ing" in Thanksgiving is not connected to the rest of the word. SO we are going to create a little tail that will weld nicely with the rest of its group.
I started by selecting the "i" and copy and pasted it, it has the perfect tail, so we will use it as a guide for the tail on the opposite side.
I am going to mirror the "i" horizontally so it can be situated in the appropriate direction. You will select the "i" and then right-click and choose"Mirror Horizontally."
I will now need to slice the tail portion off of the "i" so that I am working only with that part I want. Using the knife tool I cut right in the middle of the "i"
Because I now have two separate pieces, I am deleting the part of the "i" that I do not need. While the "i with out the tail" is selected right-click and select delete. Or you can select it and hit delete on your keyboard.
Now you have just your tail to work with!
Move it into position and weld to the text. I really like where this is placed I just feel it is a little high to connect to the "v". SO this is where understanding how to edit point will come in handy.
In the upper left corner you will find the "edit points" arrow. With your new created "i" selected click on the edit points arrow. You will see a bunch of little squares appear. These are called anchor points. By clicking and dragging on these points you can alter the way any of your shapes look.
I'm happy with the way the tail will look and now I will weld it all to the rest of my text. Take a look below for the finished project.
Shapes:
leaf_flourish_C00601_23067
Font:
Good Vibrations
