curved, dotted lines???

I wanted to make some lines that are dotted, but I don't want to make them all straight. I want to have them bent and curved in some places. Is there an efficient way to do this in Photoshop?

Ok, here's one way. In this example I make a dashed line but all you have to do is slightly change the shape of your brush to make it a dotted line.


(click on thumbs to view full size)

1. Use your Pen Tool to draw the path of your dotted/dashed line

2. Pick a brush to use, a square brush will work good for this.
- Adjust it's size to fit your image and adjust it's Spacing so it's not producing a smooth brush stroke but instead it's making a series a squares

3. Now squish the brush so it's no longer making squares, but dashes

4. This is the important one. Go to the Shape Dynamics of your brush settings, and under Angle Jitter you'll want to leave it's slider set to 0% but change the Control method to DIRECTION (this is what makes the dashes follow the curvature of the path)

5. Finally, go to your path in the Path Palette, right-click and choose Stroke Path. And that should do it.

Nice work on the extra effort, there, Outpatient.

Though the best solution is Illustrator, this works OK. Not everybody owns Illustrator.

[QUOTE=Utopian23]Nice work on the extra effort, there, Outpatient.

Though the best solution is Illustrator, this works OK. Not everybody owns Illustrator.[/QUOTE]

Thanks.

And yes that's true...and yes that's also true. ;)

3jorn makes everything look good in Illustrator with his dotted/dashed lines. Ask him if you want to find out how to do it in Illustrator.

I do have Illustrator....is it easier when done in that?

hihi thanks Allanon.
Didn't even know that it was possible to do with photoshop that's why I have always made them with illustrator.
You got your answer allready...but if you want ot know how to do them with illustrator I can tell you...

yeah, I would like to know the process with Illustrator too. I have both and I like to keep my options open...

Well it's super simple in illustrator.
First draw your any shape ->
http://www.3jorn.inet.tk/misc/tutorial1.gif

Press Alt + A to choose everything.
(if you want everything :P)
Put a V in the dashed line.
Change the number from 12 -> in my case 2...I think it looks best like that.
http://www.3jorn.inet.tk/misc/tutorial2.gif

And you got the über cool image... :P
http://www.3jorn.inet.tk/misc/tutorial3.gif

thanks for all the help guys.