Is there a secret to creating complex custom shapes... no way in hell, have some of the grunge shapes, been drawn around with a pen tool....

I know that using the select tool you can make a path from an image, then convert it to a custom shape..... but so far ive only been able to make that work on simple shapes..... where theres only on outside edge.... not multiple edges... so is there a secret to this?

What I do is make the image incredibly large as possible up to 2500 then convert it to a brush (make sure your symbol or image has lots of contrast and sharp edges you can use the Threshold option under Image>Adjustments so it's simple black and white).

Then create a new blank document after you've turned it into a brush.

Place the brush onto the document, make sure it's fully opaque (not at 50% or something).

Then left click the layer holding down the Control key. (This will select the entire object and it's transparent borders as opposed to select all which highlights the square canvas shape)

Then click Paths and Convert it to a path using the Roof shaped (Circle with Upside Down V) symbol under the paths menu then convert to custom shape (Edit>Convert).

There's no limit to it's complexity, just how much you can handle on your actual computer.. Be sure to back stuff up incase of crashes (Personally my photoshop used to crash a ton before I got a new computer especially with large high res documents).

Let me know if you have any other questions or if I misunderstood, It sounds like you've got the similar process down but I developed the brush technique because it creates only one solid mass on top of a transparent layer making it much easier then using the magic wand or whatever.

Thanks for the indepth explination. it`ll help me out greatly. custom shapes seem a really overlooked aspect of photoshop.

Perhaps you should do a tutorial. Im sure it would help a lot of people.