Traced objects not filling...

[Coleen]

Exactly Guy. I DO want to know how they did it. I "thought" I understood this. I am having the same problem again! It is driving me ABSOLUTELY nuts! This time I enlarged it to 4000% and I found where somehow I had accidentally started a new line - so I tried to join the two lines. I went around the line centimeter by centimeter, at 4000%, found the "break" and selected both lines. Then I tried "join shapes" - no fill. Then I did an undo and tired "add shapes" - same thing - no fill! WTF? What am I doing wrong? Attached is the line. I truly do NOT want some one to do this for me - I want to know what I am doing wrong! Thanks in advance! (And thanks again for all the help I get here!)[
ATTACH]86252[/ATTACH]

[Coleen]

Oops - foound the "break" however, it STILL does NOT work when I join the two lines! Grrrrr! This is an excercize in frustration! I do NOT want to have to "color" this in using the Pen tool. Why doesn't Zara just have a "Fill selected shape" tool? If it does...where is it and can someone please explain to me how to use it? TIA.

[handrawn]

one think you can try, once the outline is joined up, is on the arrange menu 'convert line to shape' and then 'break shape' - that should give you a filled shape where the enclosed line is not filling automatically

EDIT - actually it will give you two one on top of the other

[graphicsfactory]

There is no need for a "fill selected shape" tool. Once you create a shape, if the default fill is none, your shape will be empty. However, if your default is a flat fill, the shape will instantly fill in with the current color. Whatever the current default is, is what the shape will instantly fill with. To change the current fill state of the shape, simply choose what you like while the shape is selected. If this is NOT happening, you have not created a shape yet. In other words, you have not closed the path. To confirm this, select the object and look at the layers pallet. If it says "shape" there is no reason you couldn't fill it. However, if it says line, you will NOT see the fill until the line is closed to form the shape, regardless of what you see on the screen. To close the path, you must find the break or breaks. To find the breaks, simply select any control point and push the "end" key on your keyboard. The selected control point will change to the first break in the path. Select THAT control point and overlap it with the next control point (which should be the other end of the path). When you see the "+" sign your path will close to form a shape. If the "+" sign does not appear when one point is over the other, it is likely that you have two separate lines. Again, you can confirm this in the layers pallet. You can then joint these two lines by selecting BOTH of them, then selecting the end control point of one of the lines and again overlap an end point of the other line. You should then see the "+" sign. In THIS case you will still need to find the open break of the line and CLOSE THAT TOO. Repeat until all the lines are joined and the break is closed to form the a shape.

[handrawn]

hi Mike - have you looked at the file?

[handrawn]

you have two gaps in that green outline coleen - that is why it would not automatically fill - the second gap is not obvious because the lines are overlapping

[angelize]

Hello Colleen you have two separate tracings in this file. In the first one you have converted your line to a shape and in the second the line is broken in two places. In the following video I've demonstrated a way to easily find and correct the broken lines. I hope this is helpful.

Edit: I see others have responded while I was waiting for youtube processing, but I think this may still be helpful.

[Big Frank]

Here you are...

[handrawn]

strange it -reports as one line but when I closed the obvious gap at the top, and then the second one needs to be closed down near the underside neck fur [identified by using home and end keys in shape tool] ....

[handrawn]

nice one frank - now can you explain why it is not two lines in the first place?