Interweaving vines with 3D text

[Gare]

As you can see, Dave (and all) I promoted this discussion out of the Image Retouching thread. It didn't help the flow of this month's video discussion and at the same time, the technique is too interesting and the concept too intriguing to get buried in the monthly tutes.

you can use the clone tool to make the vine appear to go in front of and in back of the lettering; you can also use the Eraser tool if you're working with XDP, and you can also clipview the vines, as I've done in the attached file.

Dave, to answer your question about dimensionalizing the vine, use a pressure profile (on the Line Gallery). The other thing you can do to make it look more dimensional is to shade it. I blended a 2px wide line with a 16 px one behind it, using different shades of olive.

You don't need to work between different layers, Dave, unless you want to. You create a leaf and then press Ctrl+Shift+B a number of times to send a copy to the back of the stack of shapes on the current layer.

Feel free to check out and improve upon my begging of the attached file.

Oh, and begin with an inspired font! Ariel doesn't cut it artistically. I used "Floral Caps" Use the lowercase characters if you want to extrude the letters-uppercase are far too ornamental and complex! <click here>.



My Best,

gary

[dcahall]

OK - Now that is what I am talking about.........I go to check out that pressure profile.

I had put my leaves at different levels the same way you did. They were all drawn on the top layer then I just moved them backward when I wanted them to be behind something else.

Yep, that is a neat font. I just used the arial before because I was just trying to launch the idea.

As for the vine, I had the glowing tube in your book in the back of my mind but did not take the time to go that route yet because I was somewhat fixated on the "shrinking" part. I need to go off and play with the pressure profile for a little while and understand how to apply it.

Might take me a day or tool (some other commitments) but I am going to try again. I am not 100% happy about the way the 3D tool angles the letters moving from the left to right. I might consider doing each letter independently with the same settings but I will have to play with that as well.

I will also mess around with the eraser tool a little as well and see how I like that method as compared to the clone method.

[Gare]

Dave—

What I did with my text was convert it to editable shapes, ungroup the shapes, and then with all four selected, I applied the Extrude tool effect. And with all four still selected, I "group changed" the rotation and the lighting.

You can do that.



-g

[dcahall]

Yes, I thought of that after I posted the reply. I am having a little problem getting the blend to work like you did. I am sure doing something wrong but will keep playing until I understand it.

BTW: The profiles I see in the line gallery produce some long tails and apply them to both ends. Are there some other lines profiles I should download? And, I downloaded the font. I really like it.

[angelize]

Hi Dave and Gary I haven't been ignoring this discussion I've just been busy today. I use what I call the sandwich method to do this. I put together a rough mini tutorial to show you how I use the eraser tool (this could also be done by intersect or even an opacity mask)

This is quite roughly done and the vine needs shading but I think you should get the idea of how I sandwich the letters in between two copies of the vine and erase away the parts I don't need. I use a graphics tablet and set the eraser to use the pressure sensitivity.

[dcahall]

Thanks Frances - Do you really need the underneath vine?

I was thinking about putting the leaves there independently but then I guess our method allows me to visualize the entire vine all at once.

[Gare]

Argh! Frances, please uninstall Ariel from your system! :)
Go to Font Squirrel and get Nick Curtis’ “Wooden Nickel” (a homage to Bernard Condensed it looks like). I feel if we’re in this to educate, we use artistic fonts, eh? :)



Dave, to make a blend between two open paths as I did, you first create a wide path, such as 16 pixels in width. Zoom way in and then Ctrl+K the original. Then apply a 2 pixel width to the copy and give it a color that contrasts with the original…so you can see it, a secondary reason. Then with the Blend tool and both paths selected, you drag from the broad one to the slender one. It takes patience. But once you have the blend, you can increase the blend steps and set profile distribution using the Infobar options.

Also, when you want to choose one or the other control object in the blend, with the Selector tool, Ctrl+click the broader path. If you want the slender one but it’s hard to manually select, you press Tab to cycle to the other control path.

And I am actively soliciting tips and tricks for just about any month of the Xara Xone. so if ya got longer stuff than these invaluable nuggets, or even ones you haven't posted yet, talk to me.

-g

[angelize]

Sorry about the Arial font (you really hate that font don't you) I told you that it was a quick rough example

Here is a better example I changed the font It's now one called Vivian and put a bit more time in on the vine and the eraser work. The bottom layer of the sandwich makes it easier to get nice clean edges on the extrusions where the vine passes behind. It was only a few areas where the vine passes through a hole in an extrusion that I had to zoom in and use a small nib.

To shade the vine and (parts of the leaves) I cloned the vine and gave the clone a lighter shade of green for a highlight and feathered it. I used the profile sliders for the feathering tool to adjust the feathered edge and then I nudged it up and to the left and then I cloned the clone and gave it a pale green for the highlights and further feathered profiled and nudged it and then I selected all three vine layers and applied a clipview. I Used the same process on the leaves.

[Gare]

@Dave—

You're a fast learner, sport!

Now, the main difference between the blend trick I showed and what you did, is that your lines are perfectly centered between one another.

If you offset one or the other, you can achieve a nice lighting effect, (although with both lines in exactly the same place, you have a good beginning of a "Neon Effect").



I put the steps in the attached file.

"Nuance" is Everything in Good Art.

:)

My Best,

Gary