Ideas for the future of the shape builder tool

[handrawn]

what I particularly like is the ability to 'paint-in' fills - especially where the line art is [intentionally] 'wobbly' and there are [again intentional] gaps - I find it much more natural [and quicker] to 'paint-in' behind, and erase the odd overshoot, than to [IMO laboriously] hand trace and then shift the nodes around to make it fit - I guess it depends on whether you are a freehand artist or at least prepared to go that way

[Squeaky]

Agreed. For me hand drawing is the way forward for speed and also adding a little bit of an organic feel. Point by point tweaking is time consuming and seems to really aggravate my RSI :-)

I also noticed that there is a 'smooth region' short cut though I would love a smoothing pen as previously mentioned.

I'm really surprised not more is made of this tool on the new features page. It really is a major step forward for me.

[handrawn]

ah well.... there are three [at least] distinct camps - the 'technical' drawing types that need real point-to-point accuracy, and the website builders, and the freehanders... maybe the features page reflects the largest of these groups?

but I think that these tools can be used by all and Xara has done a great job in implementing them

EDIT: a voice over my shoulder says I left out the 'photo-manipulators'

[Nostaw]

I don't really like the paint tool for many reasons. It's destructive, the nodes and points are unpredictable and makes further editing of the shape a painful task.

A more non-destructive approach:
1Draw a line (brush of circles) > 2convert line to shapes > 3add shapes > 4increase shape size with outline tool using round profile > then 4decrease to "blur" the edging borders to create organic look.

Copy the line first and move it away as copy before converting line to shapes, this way you can make changes later on and repeat steps 2-4 to merge and blur the curve.

This way there's more control of the initial shape before blurring its edges. The resulting nodes and points are still too many and messy but still better if you need more control.

[handrawn]

oh thats so sloooooow [sorry ]

when I [and I think squeaky] say organic we are talking about workflow as much as 'look' - sure it's not going to please everyone

er - isn't further editing of the shape done with the same tool organically? - if you want to edit with nodes you'd start that way, right? - what exactly is destructive about it?

[Nostaw]

Drawing on the shape to remove bits or add bits will change the original shape, therefore is destructive. Unless there are 'subtract' and 'add' shapes where each group can be changed later on (as in many 3d programs where objects have Boolean properties) it will always be destructive. I think illustrator has a similar approach. Anyway going off topic here. I guess whatever works for you

[handrawn]

yes of course whatever works for you

I'll just say that using the shape tool to push out nodes also changes the original shape is therefore just as destructive [or not] - or am I missing something?

[Nostaw]

The shape tool in its current implementation is destructive. I was just suggesting an alternative non destructive approach, which does not exist in Xara.

[handrawn]

yes but the shape builder tool is an alternative way of changing a shape [or constructing one] - the shape is changed and that's that - this is nothing more [or less] destructive than in using the shape editor tool - right?

I think that if you consider shapes to be only constructable from nodes and any 'none-node' enhancements to be either 'destructive' or 'non-destructive' you might miss the point

vector drawing is [on one level] moving away from nodes entirely - there is a class of user who no more wants to get involved in node manipulation than does another class of programmers wish to have to code in binary - this is a step in that direction

I see your point - but I don't think that is what this tool is really for...

[handrawn]

as for a totally non destructive form of shape building - at what point do you set your baseline? - and you have a 'make vector copy' function to fix changes like you do in bitmaps?