October flag - a shorter way?

[ajreed]

It's alright - I've cleared this with the boss [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

In Garys October tutorial flag construction thingy, part way through he creates 3 rectangles, cuts them to the clipboard, then later when done with the moulding of the three sections of the flag, individually saves each mould to the clipboard and restores its respective rectangle and applies the mold to it, eventually stitching the three moulded rectangles back together after a bit of stretching to overcome a Xara pecularity, all to get a whole flag plain object to which he then applies shading effects.

I found an alternative and quicker way. Forget the rectangles altogether, and complete the moulded flag. Combine the three parts, and click the obligatory convert to editable shapes. I then clone the flag, then 'add' the composite flag and get one clean flat image ready for shading experiments.

This saves creating and cutting the rectangles, copying and pasting the moulds, stretching, and the final stitching to get the overall flag shape.

My way results in a perfect copy of the flag ready to overlay the original flag with no further adjustment.

Now Gary says he tried that and ended up with the proverbial dogs breakfast (or dinner as we say in the UK) instead of a clean flat flag shape after the 'add'.

I admit my flag was of my creation, but it was still created in much the same way as Gary created his so I can't see that being any reason for the different performance at the 'add' stage.

Anybody else tried this? and what happened for you?

Alan

[ajreed]

It's alright - I've cleared this with the boss [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

In Garys October tutorial flag construction thingy, part way through he creates 3 rectangles, cuts them to the clipboard, then later when done with the moulding of the three sections of the flag, individually saves each mould to the clipboard and restores its respective rectangle and applies the mold to it, eventually stitching the three moulded rectangles back together after a bit of stretching to overcome a Xara pecularity, all to get a whole flag plain object to which he then applies shading effects.

I found an alternative and quicker way. Forget the rectangles altogether, and complete the moulded flag. Combine the three parts, and click the obligatory convert to editable shapes. I then clone the flag, then 'add' the composite flag and get one clean flat image ready for shading experiments.

This saves creating and cutting the rectangles, copying and pasting the moulds, stretching, and the final stitching to get the overall flag shape.

My way results in a perfect copy of the flag ready to overlay the original flag with no further adjustment.

Now Gary says he tried that and ended up with the proverbial dogs breakfast (or dinner as we say in the UK) instead of a clean flat flag shape after the 'add'.

I admit my flag was of my creation, but it was still created in much the same way as Gary created his so I can't see that being any reason for the different performance at the 'add' stage.

Anybody else tried this? and what happened for you?

Alan

[roman]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Mickie]

Alan when I tried your idea, I ended up with white spaces outlining the stripes of the flag at the "combine/add" stage...could be my alignment of the stripes, but it came out beautifully from the tutorial.

Is there a way to easily get rid of those spaces or does it come down to node editing? (ex. attached)

Mickie

[ajreed]

we're seeing a difference in the way the flag was constructed Mickie.

Mine was admittedly different to Garys. I'll go back and reread his tut and get back soon.

Alan

[ajreed]

Looking at the way Gary constructed his flag there is a fundamental difference from mine.

Whereas he used separate strips for what was to become the red and white stripes, I started with a big white rectangle onto which I superimposed the pieces of red and blue overlays.

At the end of the day, 'adding' what were individual pieces and you do run the risk of those microscopic cracks appearing between adjacent pieces.

My illustration below demonstrates this. On the top row we have Garys method, where the basic flag was created from individual strips, shown at (a) offset just to illustrate this point. At (b) they are aligned. Group them, set the mould and stretch them a bit gives us (c). Cloned again to make (d) which is then 'added'. We can see that what appeared to be one flag is still constructed of individual pieces, but now that 'adding' has turned it into one piece of cloth the stitch lines show. Obviously minor mathematical errors that reaffirm there is a limit to binary arithmatic accuracy when it comes to flowing analogue shapes.

The bottom row was my method. Start with a full rectangle of white cloth, and add the red strips on top shown offset at (a). Aligned at (b). Grouped, moulded and stretched gives us (c). Cloned and 'added' giving us (d). But as we started with one overall piece of cloth, and we've still basically got it, all my original red pieces exhibit no join errors, they just disappear within the larger white shape that underlays them all.

Ok - I know I used a lot more 'cloth' in my design, and Garys might be more representative of real flag construction - but hey - virtual cloth is so cheap over here in the UK [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I thought - hang the expense!!

Object lesson I think is - if planning to 'add', then beware 'perfect' butt joins seldom are.

Admittedly neither Gary nor I had 'adding' in mind for the final stages of our flags but its worth bearing in mind if you do know whats coming up.

Alan

[Ed Nadie]

Mickie, this is how I deal with extraneous line artifacts from added shapes, and it usually reduces the flaws to where they don't affect the results:

» set line width to none
» to view flaws more clearly, change quality to outline (wire frame)
» clone
» shift drag to make clone slightly smaller. (It may also help to drag without shift to remove nodes close to one side of an outline; also to shift drag in only one dimension. The idea is to move the unwanted lines off register.)
» add shapes

BTW, the flag you posted on Sept 20, My Flag, is a beautiful image ... I'm curious if you have any tips about how you created the rippling surface -- did you start with horizontal lines and manipulate them, or is it just pure drawing skill?

Ed Nadie

[gwpriester]

My reason for the three rectangles was for exactly the same reason Mickie noted. I too wound up with a ton of extra points the first time I tried it, which lead to the three rectangles to correspond to the three sections of the flag.

Alan's method makes a lot of sense and if I was on my game, I should have thought of it :-)

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

http://www.thuntek.net/gwp/flag.jpg

[Mickie]

Alan - that solves the mystery as in many things how you begin determines the course. I rarely have a "plan" at the beginning of a project. It's mostly a germ of an idea and then see where it goes...with many undoes along the way. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Ed - good tip...In general you are just overlaying a shape where there is a join of two shapes...at least I think that's what you are saying.

No great drawing ability with My Flag. I had a photograph to work with and I just drew over the shapes. Unfortunately my talent lies in composition not original drawing. I think I could have stood outside and watched a waving flag, then come inside and been unsure of exactly what I saw! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Mickie