June 2012 Tips and Tricks - Using Text as a Shape

[Gare]

Hi Larry!

Look at my post #87 on making a grid for this cylindrical projection using curves and the Blend tool.

Your illustration is very, very good. But the perspective is warping a little to the left at top.

And I would love this to become a group discussion rather than me playing teacher.

AntsPants? Can you lend Wizard some advice here?

If you're busy, I'll be back in the morning with some specific stuff, Larry.

My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

Thanks Gare.

[Antspants]

Sorry just logged-on and seen this.

Larry you are a more experienced artist than me so I think you will 'get this' a lot quicker than I did. For me there was a conflict between what my inexperienced intuition was saying and the actual correct 'science' of the situation.

The letters need to stay 'straight' against the blended vertical lines and then need to stay aligned with the blended curves.

I have attached an image with some steps on how to make the perspective grid. I used 9 steps in the blends but it doesn't have to be that exact number, ie 8, 10 12 steps or whatever will still be okay.



Just to add, I haven't tried this yet (so will in a bit!) but was wondering if it might be better to break a longish sentence/catch phrase into individual words (ie when converted to a shape will be smaller so maybe easier to manipulate?).

Would changing each individual letter into a shape to be moulded be even more 'accurate'?............can see this being a nightmare to keep neat though.

[Gare]

@antspants—

A BIG thank-you, man. There's really nothing I can add that would contribute to your explanation!

You want to write a guest tutorial? 0 <--lack of smiley emoticon means I'm serious.

@Larry,

This is much more a math calculation thing that has to do with perspective, than it is artistic. Here's what to watch out for and why, when you use the Envelope mode: You are limited to precisely 4 control points to maneuver. And yet we're all solving this challenge using a gird, aren't we? This strongly suggests that Xara's Mould tool should allow us to add control points.

Regardless, you want to imagine the control point and handle as a real handle, and a fulcrum, around which you lever your changes to the shape of the Mould. In real life, when the fulcrum is too far away from the handle, your levering results are imprecise and unpredictable. I try to use a technique where I keep the handle close to the control point to begin with, and then begin to drag it away from its control point when I see a need for more pronounced change in the related side of the Mould.

Just keep in mind that when you pull the handle away from its control point, you're moving the horizontal aspect of the Mould's contents, and sometimes (like this time) that's something you don't want to do. Up and down with the handle, not necessarily away and toward its control point.

-g

[Antspants]

This is much more a math calculation thing that has to do with perspective, than it is artistic. Here's what to watch out for and why, when you use the Envelope mode: You are limited to precisely 4 control points to maneuver. And yet we're all solving this challenge using a gird, aren't we? This strongly suggests that Xara's Mould tool should allow us to add control points.

Because the text is converted to a shape you can use the shape tool after using the mould Tool but it won't let me add any more control points. You can mess around with the joins ie cusp/smooth and also you can convert the lines to shape but it all get very messy.

The main issue (as far as I can work out so far) is where you have a text area (converted to a shape ie a rectangle) that crosses through two or more vertical points (lines on the perspective grid). Each vertical line is at a slightly different angle to the horizontal curve and so there are instances where a single word (shape) actually may need to be split into smaller individual moulds:

Eg if you look at the 'Drink' at the end of the sentence 'High Impact Energy Drink', it simply can't line up perfectly as each 'tweek' has an effect on the rest of the mould.

In theory this is solved by making the word Drink in to a seperate mould so it can be tweeked individually..................................I tried and it looked pants!. So back to the drawing board for me on that theory.

Below is the latest effort complete with a copy which shows the grid overlay. It's almost there but still not happy with how the 'Drink' sits. I can't get to sit snug on the curve without effecting the rest of the mould. Have tried and tried.






Gary, i'm not confident enough on this topic to do a tutorial yet. Is it okay to keep trying different things until I feel that I have a better understanding?

[Gare]

What will help is:

Design your label. Then create a rectangle that's approximately the height and width of the visible front of the can in the image. Make it empty with a 2pt green outline you can find later.

Scale your design, and then clip it to the rectangle.

Use the Banner mode of the Perspective Mould tool on the group.

Use the Shape Edit tool to mould the four corners of the mould parent object to the four corners of the can.

Then, finally, Ctrl+click with the Selector tool on the green outline rectangle, and give it no outline width.

Check the Xara file I've attached.





And 100% of the reason my finished image above looks good is because I then converted everything to editable shapes, ungrouped, and then used selective transparency in Bleach and Stained Glass mode on some of the individual shapes.

This is do-able, keep persevering, I did it, and I'm not even a good illustrator!

My Best,

Gary

[Antspants]

Right, first attempt at the 'new' method and it looks ok.

I think I could try and improve it by moving things to sit nearer the left hand edge along with trying to shade the left edge better to create a better illusion of the curve of the can down the left side.

I'll give it a go and post back in an hour......................................or 12

[Gare]

antspants—

I see perhaps, whilst squinting, perhaps 1% error with your new Mould.

And by the way: I always create an invisible border that matches the space I have to fill. Consider this method not so much new, as the default method for easy perspective matching.

My Best,

Gary

[Antspants]

Added some more detail and a new logo, happy'ish with these now.

Thanks for all Your patience and help Gary, it must get tedious at times trying to help beginners like me...

[Gare]

If it truly took you 9,850,969 tries to arrive at the image above, antspants—

then you're way ahead of me, because it took me almost a year to work out how to develop a perspective technique.

No, it doesn't get tedious, because I usually anticipate what the reward will be for both myself as a teacher, and for the artist who is learning something new.

It would get very tedious if I simply showed something, and artists "got it" on the first try. I'd then believe I was doing something wrong.

-g

It's very, very nicely done. Now, take a look at a shadow in real life. There is fall-off at the end farthest from the object. I don't understand the visual reason why your shadow is more transparent at 3 o'clock.