D2 Tutorial 5- Amie

How to use the shape builder tool to combine or subtract shapes.

First make your shapes.

Now you will want to select both shapes using the selection tool.

Click on the shape builder tool and if you want to subtract part of the shape then hold Alt (Windows) or Option key (Mac) and hover your mouse over the area you want to delete and click. PRESTO!

Now if you want to join individual parts of the shapes and make them one shape then click and drag the cursor to the shapes you want to join. To combine all the shapes just hold the shift key down and drag the selection box around the whole shape.

This can also be used to remove parts of other shapes you don't want.

The shape builder also works to join text together that has been outlined. Type your text, then set the tracking to like -100 under the character link and then create outlines. Now we are going to combine the text. You don't want to use the shift click method because it might include parts you don't want so just select each letter individually with the drag select option. 

You could just do this by grouping or un-grouping, but with the shape builder you can actually separate or join parts of the text.

TA DAA!!!