Good tip, Gary.
Allison
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Good tip, Gary.
Allison
@Gare - My first reaction to your post was OUCH. I felt like I was trying to do The Limbo under a bar that was only 1 foot off the ground. Then I calmed down, had a cup of coffee, and decided that I had to try again.
I know you will not like the text because I just used extruded text instead of the full 3D with text facing in different directions. I know it is more artistic than mine, but I went with what pleased me.
I did take my time, in fact, I worked on this for several hours. I have leaned a lot during this process and feel that this image is far superior to where I started. While in the dental office earlier today, there was a pole outside the window that had vines wrapped around it. I tried to study that instead of going to the Dollar Store :D
I wanted the vine to look fairly real (think about my gardening days when I was young) and wanted a somewhat realistic color and I wanted it to decrease in size as it moved from left to right. I also wanted the leaves to be farther apart and smaller as it progressed from start to end.
I learned a lot. When I used the intersect there were little gaps created (about one or two pixels) and stretching did not get the job done so I had to take a copy of the text, draw some shapes and clip the text to develop pieces to cover up the flaws. I also took another copy and used a copy of the original line for the vine to clip the text to create appropriate shapes to use as shadows over the text for the vine. Then as I places each leaf, I adjusted the gradient fill to match the direction of the shadow. Hoping these steps are following the suggestions from you and Big Frank.
I hope this final one comes closer to matching what you were trying to point out. I also had to throw in a copy with a different background to kind of kick off the St. Patrick's theme for the month of March.
All of that said, I will welcome the feedback. My real goal here is not to be the artist that some of you guys are but rather to continue to develop my skills and learn how to use the tool better.
Attachment 94927Attachment 94928
Nice work Dave, here's my attempt and an exercise I did in dragging the shapes you cannot break in DPG7. I've found that, for some reason or another, if you intersect an O in the text the shape breaks but on a solid letter, N say, if you want to weave then you have to drag the shape with the shape tool. Hope I've made myself clear. :D
Stygg
Stygg and Dave,
You guys really rise to a challenge. nice work despite some of what might be software limitations.
Now, not to dampen anyone's spirits, because you've put serious brainpower and an investment of time into this: is the finished illustration expressing a visual idea?
I ask this because all too often I see feats of technical prowess done with computer graphics, but without an idea driving it.
Remember: you begin with a concept. And if you aren't sure you have one, you don't.
P.S.-It might not be apparent, but I'm trying to teach Art here, no discourage anyone.
-g
I understand and agree completely. I also understand and agree completely with your prior post. At the time you put it there I was more caught up in the "how to" than the "what" and got kind of frustrated. Even though I feel I am weak artistically, struggling with the "how to" escalates the frustration. One of the great things to me in this forum is the sharing that goes on from both the artistic and technical aspects. I promise I will be more patient in the future.
I did have a vision in my head (might not necessarily be the right one but I did have one). Growing up in a rural area, we had vines growing in a lot of places (like trellises, fences, around poles, and such. My vision (which seemed to be a minor one) was that the vines are wrapped around the object (in this case the text but could have been a pole) much more tightly than what others have done. As an example, looking at the left side of the D, I tried to illustrate that wrap. Funny thing was that the vines I saw wrapped around that pole while I was in the dentist office was what I was envisioning.
That aside, my other quest here is to learn how to achieve my vision (even if it is tainted). Once I got past some of the technical hurdles it was then easier to concentrate of things like coloring the leaves, creating and positioning the shadows, and achieving my vision.
One of the things I learned during this exercise (after I slowed down and thought through some things :D) was to make some copies of stuff before I got too far into the task. As an example, I made multiple copies of the text, copies of the base line for the vine, and copies of the vine. That way I could use some copies when doing the intersect operations. I did intersections of the text and vine both with the vine in front of the text and with the vine behind the text. I used some of those for the shapes of the shadow of the vine and some for to cover up the vine with text. I did find that sometimes when you did the "intersect" with the text there was a buffer of a pixel or two on the edges. Sometimes I could not get the object to cover the text cleanly so I cam up with another method. I took a copy of the text by itself and drew a shape on top of it a little larger than what I thought I actually needed. Then when I did the "intersect" I had a piece that would fit smoothly over the text/vine that I could then use to hide the vine a little more smoothly.
One last thing, I too had times when I could not break the shapes. Every time that happened it turned out to be that I had not converted the text or vine to an editable shape first.
Hope this helps you.
I did a different take on the intertwined vine text. I put the letters in a vertical arrangement and the vine is growing up through them. I wound up with a kind of cartoony contrast with the crisp vector vine and the extruded text and I decided I kind of liked that.
I used the eraser tool a lot on this one. I think it's great to have other methods but if you have the eraser tool it just seems to be so simple and easy. I've attached my .xar file for anyone who would like to take it apart for learning purposes.
I think everyone should look at your file if only for a good, solid design idea, Frances.
The "atmosphere" in your composition is a little contrary, however, it works.
In other words, the theme of Spring is open and outdoorsy, yet the lettering is casting a soft shadow on what appears to be a wall, ostensibly indoors.
That said, though, it works! It hold my eye and invites me.
I'd like to see more emotionally evocative pieces posted here after we learn a Xara technique. Dave has explained previously where he's coming from and it's a delight to see him expressing things graphically.
-g
@Gare - Thanks for that comment. I was not sure that I was letting anyone know that I was getting pretty close to my vision which was mildly out of sync with the rest of you.
@Angelize - I really like the flavor of multiple vines and the flowers. I had thought about the flowers but was not brave enough to try to go that far. As I look at your composition, I think that the addition of the off shoots is what really brings it into the "real world".
As Gare suggested, I am downloading your file and looking at it for those pieces that I would like to extend what I finally ended up with. Who knows, I might even come up with still another version.
Most important to me is the "growing" and "leaning" through out all of this. And one of the more important things for me is to explore other techniques rather than just looking at the screen sometimes and wondering "how the heck do I do that".
That's the essence of it, Dave. I'll leave graphics gymnastics and "pyrotechniques" for the sake of showing off to others who have the talent, but right here is how to bring a good idea to life on a page.
-g