Blending contoured shapes on a curve...

[Ross Macintosh]

I don't know if anyone has tried this - you should! It is fun.

I drew an ellipse and rotated it about 45 degrees.
I drew a straight vertical line.
I applied an outside contour (4-step) to the line.
I cloned the contoured line and offset it.
I applied a simple blend from one to its clone.
Selecting both the blend & the ellipse, in the tools for blends I attached the blend to the "curve".

The result was the neat twisted ribbon effect. I touched up the graphic with some shadowing and highlights.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on January 06, 2001 at 04:45 PM.]

[Egg Bramhill]

but you can quickly get complicated effects with this tool

[Ross Macintosh]

I don't know where I'll ever use these techniques but they sure are fun.

I created another one but posted it in the gallery because it seemed so lonely over there and the thread on CD's is bumming me out.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Ross Macintosh]

The two lines, from which the blend were made in my bug post, were clones of each other. The centers of rotation should therefore have been identical.

As an aside: if you want to have some interesting fun with blends, try this friends. Before you apply the blend group one of your end objects with another object that has no line weight and no fill. By grouping to an "invisible object you modify the groups center of rotation. The results of applying a blend are not always as might be expected. I had expected some "spirograph" type effects from some I tried. The results were more complicated. Try it and have fun playing...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[mike engles]

Hello Ross

Try as I might I cannot reproduce your blend on a path. I wonder if you could post some more detail as a tutorial.
I do get a blend, but it always has the original object on top, which destroys the effect.

Thanks


Mike Engles

[Egg Bramhill]

Ross
Thanks for the great tip. I found I had to mess about with the overlaps on the ends to get a smooth transition. Attached another Escher diagram
Egg

[Ross Macintosh]

Good idea Egg. This thread is getting too long for those unfortunate souls without high-speed internet access. Perhaps we can all stick to the gallery for the posts that aren't tutorial or discussion oriented.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Ross Macintosh]

The following example was done with the blend tool. The blend was between two identical long skinny rectangles with curved corners. The blend was attached to a sine-like curve.

What I learned in this one was that even after it is attached to the curve (line) you can interactively edit the fills of the end objects from which the blend was created. I selected one of the original end shapes (ctrl-click + tab if necessary; you tab between either end and the line) and then edited it as a multicolour linear fill. Copying that completed object to the clipboard I was able to tab to the other end shape and paste attributes (ctrl-shift-A)making the two ends identical again. I finished up the graphic by applying a shadow to the blend, creating a background, and making a shadowed frame.

I had fun!
Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Ron Duke]

The following example was done with the blend tool. The blend was between two identical long skinny rectangles with curved corners. The blend was attached to a sine-like curve.

What I learned in this one was that even after it is attached to the curve (line) you can interactively edit the fills of the end objects from which the blend was created. I selected one of the original end shapes (ctrl-click + tab if necessary; you tab between either end and the line) and then edited it as a multicolour linear fill. Copying that completed object to the clipboard I was able to tab to the other end shape and paste attributes (ctrl-shift-A)making the two ends identical again. I finished up the graphic by applying a shadow to the blend, creating a background, and making a shadowed frame.

I had fun!
Regards, Ross

Hey Ross!

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

Hey Ross,
That's terrific! That is a much simpler way of creating chromed bent tubing like on a motorcycle exhaust pipe. Way to go!

ron

[Egg Bramhill]

Ross
Due to some of the questions being asked in this thread I've produced a tutorial but as it's got 4 gif files I've started another thread at Blending contoured shapes on a curve...2
Hope you don't mind.
As for the above posting I had'nt noticed that but I will try to replicare it
Egg