Simple program to learn meshes

**Ron Duke** · 13 July 2016, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by mwenz

Which is why I asked about mesh fills, Ron.

The least expensive application for mesh fills--unless InkScape has mesh fills (because it's free)--is DrawPlus.

Thanks Mike. Are there things you can do with mesh that can in no way be done in Xara?

**mwenz** · 13 July 2016, 11:03 PM

Yes, at least in the sense of using a single object. Whether they are faster than overlaying multiple objects and fading them into each other is a different issue. But they do simplify certain constructs in another sense.

**Gare** · 13 July 2016, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by mwenz

Yes, at least in the sense of using a single object.

My point precisely in my post two or three ago. I maintain, and will take up any moderately easy challenge to do with Xara and its current feature set, what Illusatrator or DrawPlus can do with a mesh fill.

-g

**Utiliy** · 14 July 2016, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by Ron Duke

I'd like to learn more about mesh as I've heard it discussed/requested before here on the forum.

Thanks Mike.

ron

I too love to learn about mesh. Please help me too.

**Albacore** · 14 July 2016, 10:56 AM

Since it's only the Mesh Tool that you are interested in and I have only really used this tool in Illustrator here are my comments about it. I did this drawing from a Computer Arts article on the mesh tool and this picture was one that showed good practise. It wasn't a tutorial as such it was more on the power of this tool and why you should use it. Well it took me quite a time to do this drawing as I brought it into Illy as a scanned JPEG. I went around all the shape using the Pen Tool which was fine and then I started to colour in with a basic colour. When I was doing the features in the drawing each one was on a new layer to make the Mesh do able. As I said this method of colouring is slow and requires you to think about how you want to use the colour as you're always going back and adding more and more points on your mesh. It took me ages to figure how the background was done and it is not quite right in perspective but by that time I was sick of the drawing. In fact it was so bad that I stopped using Illy for about 3 months after doing the drawing, If Ron you want to ask any questions I will happily reply.

**Gare** · 14 July 2016, 01:12 PM

That is most impressive work, Peter, and tracing or using reference materials doesn't disguise the hard work!

-g

**Ron Duke** · 14 July 2016, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Albacore

Since it's only the Mesh Tool that you are interested in and I have only really used this tool in Illustrator here are my comments about it. I did this drawing from a Computer Arts article on the mesh tool and this picture was one that showed good practise. It wasn't a tutorial as such it was more on the power of this tool and why you should use it. Well it took me quite a time to do this drawing as I brought it into Illy as a scanned JPEG. I went around all the shape using the Pen Tool which was fine and then I started to colour in with a basic colour. When I was doing the features in the drawing each one was on a new layer to make the Mesh do able. As I said this method of colouring is slow and requires you to think about how you want to use the colour as you're always going back and adding more and more points on your mesh. It took me ages to figure how the background was done and it is not quite right in perspective but by that time I was sick of the drawing. In fact it was so bad that I stopped using Illy for about 3 months after doing the drawing, If Ron you want to ask any questions I will happily reply.

WOW!! Peter, you did a GREAT job! Thanks so much for sharing that!
With you description of the time and effort I'm not sure using a mesh tool would significantly provide enough of an advantage over using just Xara.
I think in the end, if one learns the available tools and techniques of Xara, one can achieve the same results. I could be wrong, but I don't think so, from what I've read so far.

Thanks to all.

**Gare** · 14 July 2016, 09:26 PM

I wasn't going to butt in after Ron's thoughtful comment, but Peter's phenomenal, and right-on-the-point example illustration makes me want to emphasize just a little bit one of the things he mentioned.

It's slow-going. You do indeed have to plan carefully where which color is going where with a mesh fill, where you want to subdivide, exactly where you want to move the control points for each point that makes up the mesh.

I figure I can hold my own with graphics software; I have a lot of time, and I carry a large stick. But to me mesh fillls are logically opaque; I don't know which end to blow into one.

So if I sounded as though I was building a large case against this feature in post posts, it's only because I don't have a handle on them and already know how to approximate the effect with blends, feathering, and different types of transparencies...and a lot of shapes.

Peter, you made a believer out of me. But I'm still going to have to worship from a seat toward the back for now!

:)

-g

**Ron Duke** · 14 July 2016, 09:49 PM

Well, Gary could do it much better, but I did this in about 15 minutes with just Xara.

**Gare** · 14 July 2016, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Ron Duke

Well, Gary could do it much better, but I did this in about 15 minutes with just Xara.

In a pig's eye I could do better, Ron!

15 minutes, you say?!

Please bear with me here: I have soemthing important to share for once...

"Holistic" has been bent around sideways as a term in modern culture. You hear about "Holistic Healing", and some Zen Space Adventures (sorry!), but holisitic really means the comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.

In much simpler, and relevant artistic terms, because that definition tore my head off for around a week:

Holistic research, as applied to art done by artists, is the act of "stepping outside the box". To solve a graphics problem by stepping outside of the system, finding the tools, and then stepping back inside the box with the tool, to solve the problem.

And everyone can argue with me now.

My point, Ron, is that you have an interest in the mesh tool as an aid or time-enhancer for when you draw something. But I put it to you that you might have the solutions for artwork that you need, and you're stepping outside your own box for something you might not need to solve a problem in your art, but the mesh fill tool looks cool, anyhow.

And it does. And Peter proved some of the power of a mesg warp tool just today in a previous post.

Oh, and let me call problems "challenges" because the word "problem" has a negative connotation.

Of all the courses I took (or skipped, or failed) in college, the one I benefitted from the most was Basic Design, taught by Curtis Crystal, an archetypal huippie. He tought me to think outside of the box before the phrase was coined, and he taught me that all Art is a Process. You describe your goal to yourself (your challenge, your problem), then you decide what tools you will need, and if you need to build some tools of your own (even if they are mental), then you do so, and then you solve artistic problem with your own tools.

That's why I think Creature House Expressions is such a novel program. It lets you build your own tools from the tools within the program. How much more personal can you get with your craft?

Ron, you take a look at that 15 minute apple.

What's it missing?

Nothing, I'd gamble.

You have a handle on your own process, you came, you saw, you concord.

I'm sorry: Concord is a grape, not an apple.

My Best,

Gare