Path isn't going all the way around, intersecting at odd places

[marigolden]

Basically, it is all a tangled mess and I have no idea where I went wrong. Why didn't it make a neat shape instead of with all these crisscrossed sections?

A few shots of the problem areas-
https://imgur.com/a/q4Sei5N

[Blighty]

You seem to have both a selection and a path. From the images I can't tell what went wrong. More info will be required.

What are you trying to achieve?
Which did you create first, the path or the selection? Was one created from the other?
How did you create the selection/path?
What steps did you do? Detailed, in order that you did them.

[Ofnuts]

No idea either. I assume you did a Color/Fuzzy select on the grey and the "Select>To Path"? Given the shape it would quite fast to do the path by hand (on one half, there are script to mirror paths).

Can you share the original picture (possibly cropped to the problem part)? Could be worth reporting as a bug.

[marigolden]

(10-15-2019, 06:40 AM)Blighty Wrote: You seem to have both a selection and a path. From the images I can't tell what went wrong. More info will be required.

What are you trying to achieve?
Which did you create first, the path or the selection? Was one created from the other?
How did you create the selection/path?
What steps did you do? Detailed, in order that you did them.

I was trying to trace a path around the white part and color it orange What do you mean the selection? Do you mean the picture? I uploaded the picture then traced a path around that area. I pressed the path tool, clicked around, enter, but it looked all messed up. I'm not sure what happened, but I deleted that path yet it still showed up on one of the layers. So I had to transport the other paths on that layer to a different layer by going to the path menu and right clicking the path and hit Select>from path. Then repaint it. There were 2 so I did that twice to put them each on their own layer. Then with those rescued was able to delete the other layer. Now I wonder if I couldn't kept that path I thought was the problem and just put it on a different layer and delete the layer that was actually the problem..but, whatever.

[Blighty]

(10-16-2019, 02:13 AM)marigolden Wrote: I was trying to trace a path around the white part and color it orange What do you mean the selection?

A selection is a "fence" enclosing some pixels. The selection is indicated by a moving dotted line (marching ants). Only pixels within the selection (and on the active layer) will be altered (eg coloured orange). A selection is not tied to a layer. You can use one layer to make a selection, then use the selection on another layer.

The first 7 tools in the toolbox are selection tools. They are Rectangle Select; Ellipse Select; Free Select; Fuzzy Select; Select by Color; Scissor Select; Foreground Select.
For now, I would recommend using these tools to make selections. Don't use paths for now.

Referring to the image in your first post:
You say you traced the area with the Path Tool. You have too many nodes, a hundred or more. You probably only need 8 nodes to trace that shape with a path. In other words, you are not using paths correctly. That is why I suggest not using paths for now. First get a better understanding of paths. A path is also independant of layers.
Rather stay with the 7 selection tools for now. Try the Fuzzy Select tool to select the area you want to colour orange.

[marigolden]

(10-16-2019, 05:48 AM)Blighty Wrote:

(10-16-2019, 02:13 AM)marigolden Wrote: I was trying to trace a path around the white part and color it orange What do you mean the selection?

A selection is a "fence" enclosing some pixels. The selection is indicated by a moving dotted line (marching ants). Only pixels within the selection (and on the active layer) will be altered (eg coloured orange). A selection is not tied to a layer. You can use one layer to make a selection, then use the selection on another layer.

The first 7 tools in the toolbox are selection tools. They are Rectangle Select; Ellipse Select; Free Select; Fuzzy Select; Select by Color; Scissor Select; Foreground Select.
For now, I would recommend using these tools to make selections. Don't use paths for now.

Referring to the image in your first post:
You say you traced the area with the Path Tool. You have too many nodes, a hundred or more. You probably only need 8 nodes to trace that shape with a path. In other words, you are not using paths correctly. That is why I suggest not using paths for now. First get a better understanding of paths. A path is also independant of layers.
Rather stay with the 7 selection tools for now. Try the Fuzzy Select tool to select the area you want to colour orange.

Thanks for suggesting that, I since have learned how to use the fuzzy tool and it helps with a lot of situatons particularly for the cartoons. However with other pictures it's not feasible to use. The reason I use so many nodes is because when I try to use the path adjusting feature it doesn't create a smooth shape between the nodes, it becomes scalloped looking and creates these white line indents between the nodes..for reference I drew these 2 circles and you can see the difference
https://imgur.com/a/ni0Tnxq

[Ofnuts]

(10-30-2019, 10:35 PM)marigolden Wrote: The reason I use so many nodes is because when I try to use the path adjusting feature it doesn't create a smooth shape between the nodes, it becomes scalloped looking and creates these white line indents between the nodes..for reference I drew these 2 circles and you can see the difference
https://imgur.com/a/ni0Tnxq

This is likely because the handles are not in the right direction. Basically you have the situation of the point "A4" in the schematics in this post, but with a smaller loop.

To fix that zoom until you see the tangent handle, drag one away from the anchor, hold the click, press the shift key and continue dragging: this will make the other handle assume a symmetric position. Then, still dragging the handle, rotate the handles 180° around the anchor.

In any case, the golden rule is: for a smooth curve, the two handles and the anchor should be aligned, and in many cases the two handles should be symmetric.

[Blighty]

(10-30-2019, 10:35 PM)marigolden Wrote: The reason I use so many nodes is because when I try to use the path adjusting feature it doesn't create a smooth shape between the nodes, it becomes scalloped looking and creates these white line indents between the nodes.

I did a quick example.
I took the image from your first post and traced the shape with a path using just 8 nodes.

To see the path on a white background - click the eye on the image layer (your original) to turn it off.

Look at the path to see the nodes. Click on a node to see the handles.

[marigolden]

Thank you both for these instructions. I wish you both had a tutorial channel so I could see it visually in steps!