Earlier today I posted a tutorial titled "Frame Tutorial". It focused on creating a somewhat realistic picture frame. I realized after it was posted that I might just as well illustrate the technique of do-it-yourself virtual matting.
These days it is very expensive to send out your pictures for real framing. This virtual method is cheap and is fun. You can do it quickly or take your time. There is really no limit on how detailed you can get. In this example I tried to keep it simple...
Let's get started!
The first step is to put a filled shape behind your illustration. (Mine is a pen&ink sketch of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia). I adjust the size of the shape to establish the overall size of the matting relative to the illustration. I chose a grey colour for my matting at this time. Also I decided I wanted the illustration in the middle of the matting so I used xara's alignment tool to center the two objects vertically and horizontally.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/1.jpg
For step two I had to cut the hole in the matting. I cloned (ctrl k) the "mat" and holding down the shift key I resized it smaller. The shift key constrained the resizing so all objects continued to be centered. I resized it until the size of opening in the mat, as represented by the shape I was adjusting, would be what I wanted.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/2.jpg
Step three involved subtracting the shape created in step two from the larger shape that was behind the illustration. When the two were selected, the menu operation "arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes" was performed. The result had to be brought to front (ctrl f). At this point there were two objects - the illustration and a shape with a "hole" in it.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/3.jpg
The fourth step saw a bevel and a shadow applied to the matting. I used a "flat" bevel because that is the most common type of cut you see on real matting. I adjusted the contrast - adding more. I applied a small amount of shadow to make it look like the matting was floating slightly above the illustration. I was only concerned with the shadow inside the "hole" because I knew I'd be covering the outer shadow with a frame.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/4.jpg
The fifth step involved changing the matting's "core" colour. Traditional matting board by Bainbridge and others always used to have a light coloured core. These days, coloured cores are available but for my virtual matting I felt a nice cream coloured core would look nice with the grey "paper" surface. As well, a creamy colour would hopefully still be visible against the white background in my illustration. To change the colour of the bevel edge was as easy as dragging a colour from the colour bar and "dropping" it on the beveled edge.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/5.jpg
Step six saw me decide to add a simple red frame. The method used was covered in the previous tutorial mentioned above. I drew a shape over the beveled map and gave that new shape no fill and a thick linewidth. In this case the linewidth was set to the visual thickness I wanted the frame profile to be.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/6.jpg
In step seven the red-lined shape had the arrange menu's "convert line to shape" operation applied to it. That made it possible to apply a bevel giving the frame a 3d look. In this case I just wanted a simple frame and applying a "rounded" bevel type was suitable (If a more complicated frame profile is desired see the other tutorial mentioned above). I also applied a modest shadow to the red frame to enhance the 3d effect and add to the realism.
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/7.jpg
For the final image I added a bitmap fill to the background and added a shadow behind the frame. I think the result is reasonably realistic - more importantly it was fun to create. It gives new life to my old sketch too!
http://www.designstop.com/misc/frametutorial2/8.jpg
Regards, Ross
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