June 2012 Tips and Tricks - Using Text as a Shape

[Soquili]

Darn, I thought I made enough space.

You are correct Gary, much more "white" space should be visible.

[Gare]

Every day when I go, I'm struck by scores of impressions, that I think I subconsciously horde for later reference.

An awful lot of times when I draw, if it looks right, then it is right.

I should be so lucky with the State Lottery

-g

[Soquili]

Fortunately with XDPX changes can be made easily. Scraping paint off the side of a truck is not my idea of a fun projects.

[Gare]

Perfect, Bill!

Oh, when's the last time you saw a logo painted on anything?

I wish I knew more about the methods and techniques of printing on plastic! It's become a black box technology—none of us who have and creds in traditional ink-on-paper know how to calculate how much "give", coverage and other stuff that goes into Reflex Printing.

-g

[Soquili]

I live in a back woods part of the world. Still see sign painters and window painters performing their art. Although things have been progressing quickly. A plasma billboard was setup about 3 weeks ago in the next town west of where I live.

[Antspants]

Thanks Gary, learn't some stuff with this tutorial.

Not sure if the 'book' one is quite right?

[Antspants]

El camión

[Gare]

Two things you want to do with the book, and I apologize for not providing explicit directions.

The thumb should (obviously) be on top of the page text. This can be done using two different ways. If you have Xara Designer 8 (either Pro or standard), you can use the Eraser tool. If you want to use non-destructive editing, draw a path outside the text, but notched where the thumb is, and then use it as a ClipView, no fill no outline.

Also, lighting is an issue. You don't want the illustration to be bright when the scene is dimly illuminated. Now, you don't want to use Transparency on the vector drawing because of all the blend steps in it. Instead, you make a bitmap copy with Alpha of the text with the Clipview, and then try Stained Glass transparency mode at about 80% opacity.

Off Topic: Overlay blending mode (Photoshop and other bitmap editors have this mode) is usually the best mode to blend an illustration "into" an underlying object, but Stained Glass in Xara is a close second-best.



The file for this screen cap is attached if you want a second go at it.



Again, sorry for leaving out these steps!

[Antspants]

Danke Gary.

I used the shape tool around the thumb and selected the mould+new shape and subtract. Used stained glass transparency on the mould to dim the image.

[Gare]

I think if anyone looked at your image without reading this thread, they'd never suspect the text was added after the photo was taken.

You did good!

My Best,

Gary