Step Three: Edit the Polygon Shape

We want to make the added path object a little bit more intricate than just a normal star. To do this, we need to add more nodes to the star so that its shape can be adjusted and transformed.

First, click Editing on the Attribute Toolbar, or select the Path Edit Tool. You will see that the star shape appears with blue nodes, indicating that it is a polygon path, while the text appears with red nodes, indicating that it is a basic path. When all the nodes on all of the paths appear, that means that all of the path objects are selected. Click on an empty part of the workspace to first deselect all the path objects. Then, click on the star to select it, and click on the Attribute Toolbar. Click somewhere along the side of the star. This will add a node on every line segment of the star; in PhotoImpact, this is called a "single-node set".

In Editing Mode, all objects selected (left), and single-node set added to the star (right)

Now that you have added a single-node set, you can tweak the star shape in some interesting ways. Make sure that Pick point is selected on the Attribute Toolbar, then click one of the nodes in the node set, and drag in any direction. In this example, we have dragged a node to the left to give the star a pinwheel shape, but you should feel free to experiment with it until you get a shape that you like.

Single-node set adjusted to transform the star shape into a pinwheel shape

The pinwheel shape looks good as it is, but for this project, we don't want it to look so symmetrical. When in Editing mode, select the polygon shape and click Convert on the Attribute Toolbar; this, in effect, "breaks" the symmetry of the polygon shape and turns it into a basic path object. After the conversion, you can see that the nodes have turned red (just like when the text object was converted to a path object), indicating that it is now a basic path object. This means that you are free to edit the nodes individually, instead of as a set. Here, we have selected a few individual nodes and dragged them outward to lengthen two segments of the pinwheel.

Polygon shape converted to basic path object and individual nodes adjusted