Interweaving vines with 3D text

[Gare]

Argh! Frances, please uninstall Ariel from your system! :)
Go to Font Squirrel and get Nick Curtis’ “Wooden Nickel” (a homage to Bernard Condensed it looks like). I feel if we’re in this to educate, we use artistic fonts, eh? :)



Dave, to make a blend between two open paths as I did, you first create a wide path, such as 16 pixels in width. Zoom way in and then Ctrl+K the original. Then apply a 2 pixel width to the copy and give it a color that contrasts with the original…so you can see it, a secondary reason. Then with the Blend tool and both paths selected, you drag from the broad one to the slender one. It takes patience. But once you have the blend, you can increase the blend steps and set profile distribution using the Infobar options.

Also, when you want to choose one or the other control object in the blend, with the Selector tool, Ctrl+click the broader path. If you want the slender one but it’s hard to manually select, you press Tab to cycle to the other control path.

And I am actively soliciting tips and tricks for just about any month of the Xara Xone. so if ya got longer stuff than these invaluable nuggets, or even ones you haven't posted yet, talk to me.

-g

[angelize]

Sorry about the Arial font (you really hate that font don't you) I told you that it was a quick rough example

Here is a better example I changed the font It's now one called Vivian and put a bit more time in on the vine and the eraser work. The bottom layer of the sandwich makes it easier to get nice clean edges on the extrusions where the vine passes behind. It was only a few areas where the vine passes through a hole in an extrusion that I had to zoom in and use a small nib.

To shade the vine and (parts of the leaves) I cloned the vine and gave the clone a lighter shade of green for a highlight and feathered it. I used the profile sliders for the feathering tool to adjust the feathered edge and then I nudged it up and to the left and then I cloned the clone and gave it a pale green for the highlights and further feathered profiled and nudged it and then I selected all three vine layers and applied a clipview. I Used the same process on the leaves.

[Gare]

Sorry about the Arial font (you really hate that font don't you).

No:

• A font is an inanimate object, not worthy of hating.

• "Hate" largely is too strong an emotion to feel on an online forum.

• Sans serif, Gothic typefaces have an appropriate use. Sadly, one of them is not illustrative. They're terrific for making warning signs, and listing ingredients on packaging, and the New York City Sanitation Department used Helvetica (the inspiration for Arial) to label garbage trucks in the 1970s, as though you need a label to identify a garbage truck. Usually, the smell is a tip-off.

Comparatively speaking, Arial reads much better than Helvetica when used as a Web font. It was more or less designed as an optimized screen font back in 1982, and took 10 people to design it! In 2005, Robin Nicholas (the lead artist on the font) said "It was designed as a generic sans serif; almost a bland sans serif." Based on Monotype's "Grotesque" family, I don't know offhand a designer who swoons over Arial for its aesthetics.

You want the real deal for a totally utilitarian font? You go to the Berthold Foundry ad use Akzidenz-Grotesk. This typeface was the inspiration for all san serif Gothic fonts to follow, circa 1890s.

This belongs on the fonts and Typography thread, doesn't it?

:)

-g

[dcahall]

OK - I have used the techniques that both of you (Frances and Gary) suggested to "give it a go." Look forward to your comments.

Once again, it has been a learning experience.

[Gare]

@Dave—

You're a fast learner, sport!

Now, the main difference between the blend trick I showed and what you did, is that your lines are perfectly centered between one another.

If you offset one or the other, you can achieve a nice lighting effect, (although with both lines in exactly the same place, you have a good beginning of a "Neon Effect").



I put the steps in the attached file.

"Nuance" is Everything in Good Art.

:)

My Best,

Gary

[dcahall]

Thanks Gare - I thought I had done that because I did see that when I was trying different things. I also see a couple of other mistakes that I am going to try to correct and I will repost the updated image.

I cannot tell you how much fun I am having here thanks to people like you. I do feel I am leaning. I am beginning to see that the Xara tool is more powerful for drawing than I was giving it credit for. This community is wonderful for sharing.

[dcahall]

OK - I made a correction (removed a couple of leaves that I missed the first time). Still have one small area of the vine over top of the D that needs to be corrected but was not able to fix that. I have to blow it up before you really notice the flaw. I am thinking about trying to use the clone tool to fix that.


Here is a 2nd enlarged copy that points out what I thought I saw. I had attempted to do what you are saying. I tried to edit the vine but had converted it a bitmap copy and could not edit it. I fully understand what you are saying and had attempted to do that.


BTW: I did a screen capture and then tried to use clip tool and could not get it to cut out part of my screen capture. I had the image up, used the clip tool to highlight what I wanted to clip but could never get it to clip. Do not understand what I was doing wrong.

@Gare, @Frances - I cannot thank you enough for your guidance in this endeavor. I hope others might find this interesting enough to build on it and do some other stuff along this line.

[wizard509]

Nice job Dave. This has been a most interesting thread.

[BeanPole]

Yes! I too have enjoyed this thread!

[dcahall]

@wizard509, @BeanPole: Glad you have enjoyed. It has sure taught me a lot even though every time I look at the image I see something else that needs to be corrected. Oh well, the learning process is the most valuable part for me at this sime.

@Gary (or should I use Gare): I messed with the Clip tool some more and got it to work correctly. Not sure what I was doing wrong before but think I have it under control now