Blending contoured shapes on a curve...

[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

[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>

[jclements]

I have not had time to investigate, but did you check the center of rotation for each of the line segments? Perhaps one of them is different than the other. It may be possible it could have an impact on the blend.

[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>

[Ross Macintosh]

With the recent posts in the Xara Gallery featuring Escher-inspired designs I thought I'd revive this thread. Some of our newer forum participants might not of seen the interesting effects explored in this thread.

Regards, Ross

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

[Turan]

Have not tried yet - intend to tonight.

Turan

[drew]

re-awaking a very enlightening thread... Ü i am tasked with recreating a ribbon at the bottom of a logo, and i am just a beginner at this, but i love to learn. I was just wondering if anyone can let me know i am on the right track or not: The original ribbon looks like the RibbonBlurred attachment, and you can see the Ribbon2 attachment as a working sheet to get a workable ribbon.

I am trying to avoid hand-drawing it as i see it never getting to the quality i need. By following the blending examples, using a high number of steps to even it out, and a bit of filling for texture, i seem to be getting close (or at least i think so). I am only doing half so that i can flip a clone and mirror it precisely. Are my efforts on the right track? thanks, drew..

ps: sorry about the oversized image.. i seem to have forgotten how to insert an inline image (unless you can only do it via a url as per the Insert Image button..)

[drew]

i have managed to get the ribbon down to the attached, and wondered what folks thought. What an amazing experience as the rather crude skillset of mine advances. I had to place a small rectangle over the merge point of the mirrored sides to hide the darkened shade. While it isn't perfect, the join is more subtle.. Thanks for any feedback, drew..

[Mart]

I was supposed to spend the day decorating a room ...then I came across this thread! Goodbye room decorating, hello this graphic (and a couple of others)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boots44/tb/spiral.jpg

[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