First things first, fire up Figma and start a new design file. Just hit 'New File' on the Figma dashboard. Easy peasy.

Next, find the shape tool in the toolbar at the top. You can use shortcuts too: "O" for oval, "R" for rectangle. Super handy!

Now, click and drag on the canvas to draw some basic shapes like rectangles, circles, and polygons. These will be your building blocks for custom shapes.

Position your shapes so they overlap where needed. For example, place a circle over a rectangle to get a shape with both curved and straight edges. Fun, right?

Select multiple shapes and use Boolean operations (Union, Subtract, Intersect, Exclude) from the top toolbar. This will help you combine or subtract shapes to form your custom shape.

Grab the Pen tool (shortcut key: "P") to add or tweak anchor points and paths on your shape. This is where you fine-tune your design.

Once you're happy with your custom shape, group all the parts together by selecting them and hitting Cmd+G (Mac) or Ctrl+G (Windows). Give it a name so you can find it easily later.

Turn your custom shape into a reusable component. Right-click the grouped shape and select 'Create Component.' This makes it super easy to reuse in different designs.

Drag and drop your custom shape component from the Assets panel into your design file. You can tweak its size, color, and position as needed.

Any changes you make to the main component will update all instances of the custom shape. Just double-click the main component in the Assets panel, make your adjustments, and save. Boom! Updates everywhere.

Following these steps lets you create and use custom shapes in Figma, making your design projects more flexible and creative.