Photoshop ®: Zigzag Custom Shapes

Zigzag Custom Shapes to buy and use in for Adobe Photoshop and Elements

examples from pack 1 - The same zigzag custom shape but applied to different color shapes, different backgrounds, different color designs, in different colros, shadows, multiple zigzag shapes in Photoshop

examples from pack 166 - the zigzag shape / divider designs - 16 different custom shapes for Photoshop and Elements

examples from pack 165 - 16 different lightning / zigzag custom shapes for Photoshop

examples from pack 89 - 16 different zigzag examples including square zigzag shapes, frame zigzag sgapes, rounded zigzag shapes, lightning shapes and more

examples from pack 1 - 16 different zigzag lightning shapes included in the set for Photoshop and Elements

Zigzag shapes tutorial in Photoshop - modifying the zigzag design

The zigzags can be modified by pen tools. Photoshop offers a selection of pen tools to manipulate the zigzag (though they are not in the same league as a true vector application such as Illustrator or FontLab or CorelDRAW) so you can add points, remove points, modify points - you can also use the pathfinder add and subtract and intersect commands to add and remove parts of the zigzag design which can be used to create some very unusual zigzags (such as frame zigzags etc)

example - zigzag before any changes using the pen tools

If you have a copy of Illustrator you can always copy the zigzag artwork over to Illustrator via the pasteboard and manipulate the zigzag shape there.

If the zigzag is a layer or path it can be modified without any impact to the quality of the design by using the various transformation tools that come with Photoshop such as applying scaling, shear, rotation, slant, perspective as well as using the warp features to arc or bulge the zigzag design.

Zigzag shapes in Photoshop Elements tutorial

In Elements, the zigzag artworks are only accessible via the top bar, they are not accessible via the artworks / effects side bar (there used to be a way of adding the designs to that section in version 5 but I have yet to find any information on how to add the designs there with the more recent versions).

The zigzag shapes can also be used as a cookie cutter - a quick and useful tool to create a frame or mask in Elements

Zigzag shapes - transformations in Photoshop Elements

Once you have the shapes file in Photoshop Elements (10, 9, 8 etc - they work with all the versions of Elements) you can apply the shape and then modify the design in a number of ways such as applying transformations to the design.

The example above shows the zigzag shape rotated. To rotate, just select the bottom bounding dot and you will see a cursor appear showing a rotate motion - move the shape to any angle between 0 and 360.

By selecting the corner points you can scale the zigzag custom shape and by default the scaling can be non proportional, hold down the shift to keep the same proportions for the zigzag shape.

You can also skew / apply perspective to the custom shape by clicking the skew button at the top of Elements (third icon below)

By selecting the corners you can (if the skew has been set) apply perspective to the shape. Using the middle points you can skew the zigzag shape.

Photoshop has a warping feature as well as puppet warp in CS5.

The above example shows the perspective transformation applied to a zigzag custom shape in Photoshop Elements. Added: December 29th 2011

Zigzag shapes re-colored in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

The zigzag examples on this page are portrayed as black and I get quite a few e-mails asking 'are shapes just black - how do I recolor the shapes?'. The zigzag shapes' color, as with all custom shapes, can be set via the Photoshop and Photoshop Elements' toolbox foreground color. To get a great range of colors with a shape it is best to apply the shape as a shape layer and then apply a gradient or style (such as a metallic style) or a pattern; or apply the shape as a selection and path and fill the shape with a gradient or effects or unusual patterns. Some examples of re-coloring one of the zigzag designs (from pack 166) can be seen below. Added December 30th 2011

Replacing shapes / loading zigzag shapes tutorial in Photoshop

The zigzag designs are all stored in native CSH format and can be loaded into Photoshop or elements by the file menu and open command, that is probably the easiest way to load the zigzag designs.

If you use the load option then the existing shapes are not removed and the zigzags will be just added to the bottom of the custom shapes palette. There are limits to the number of designs that can be added to the palette (just be aware of that if an error message appears).

You can also load the shapes via the shapes palette itself via the right side menu. The menu also offers the option to replace the existing shapes.

If you make changes to the zigzag shapes and save the designs to the palette, you can also use the save command in the palette to save the designs for future use. You can use the edit menu and preset manager command to load the shapes also, the preset manager also gives the additional feature of being able to save a single zigzag as well as all the designs currently in the loaded library)

Zigzag designs applied to t-shirts in Photoshop Elements

Create a basic t-shirt design (a very basic approach being a combination and subtraction of squares and circles) and use the design as a template for a t-shirt (ok, not a physical t-shirt but a pseudo one - you can always create an actual t-shirt design with the zigzag shapes on sites such as CafePress and Zazzle and many others).

Use the file open command to load the zigzag shapes, I'm using the zigzag shapes found in the shapes pack 165 above.

Select the custom shape tool and select the shapes palette and select the shape and the color of the shape via the elements toolbox foreground color.

Apply the zigzag design to the t-shirt, filling the entire t-shirt

The shape does not need to be black, it can be set to green, blue etc. As the shape is applied as a shape layer in Photoshop Elements (by default) then you can also go to the top options bar of Elements and select a style such as a metallic style for the zigzag design

The zigzag design can also be applied to a new document in Photoshop Elements and then use the edit menu define pattern command (you have to flatten the document beforehand). Now you can use a selection to fill the entire t-shirt design with the zigzag pattern.

You could also use the zigzag custom shape as a source for a brush and use the define brush command (also found in the elements' edit menu). Select the paint tool and change colors and sizes of the stroke and apply randomly.

Free zigzag custom shapes sampler / demo

Follow us on Twitter

Follow graphicxtras on google+

Follow graphicxtras on facebook

Date modified: April 28th, 2012

Creating plugins and presets since 1995. Privacy - no details sent to third parties. After buying the zigzag custom shapes, you receive the download link to the zigzag designs - a zip file containing the zigzag custom shapes, bonus material, documentation, serial number and gallery. Unique items, commercial use, royalty-free.