Interweaving vines with 3D text

[dcahall]

OK - Now that is what I am talking about.........I go to check out that pressure profile.

I had put my leaves at different levels the same way you did. They were all drawn on the top layer then I just moved them backward when I wanted them to be behind something else.

Yep, that is a neat font. I just used the arial before because I was just trying to launch the idea.

As for the vine, I had the glowing tube in your book in the back of my mind but did not take the time to go that route yet because I was somewhat fixated on the "shrinking" part. I need to go off and play with the pressure profile for a little while and understand how to apply it.

Might take me a day or tool (some other commitments) but I am going to try again. I am not 100% happy about the way the 3D tool angles the letters moving from the left to right. I might consider doing each letter independently with the same settings but I will have to play with that as well.

I will also mess around with the eraser tool a little as well and see how I like that method as compared to the clone method.

[Gare]

Dave—

What I did with my text was convert it to editable shapes, ungroup the shapes, and then with all four selected, I applied the Extrude tool effect. And with all four still selected, I "group changed" the rotation and the lighting.

You can do that.



-g

[dcahall]

Yes, I thought of that after I posted the reply. I am having a little problem getting the blend to work like you did. I am sure doing something wrong but will keep playing until I understand it.

BTW: The profiles I see in the line gallery produce some long tails and apply them to both ends. Are there some other lines profiles I should download? And, I downloaded the font. I really like it.

[angelize]

Hi Dave and Gary I haven't been ignoring this discussion I've just been busy today. I use what I call the sandwich method to do this. I put together a rough mini tutorial to show you how I use the eraser tool (this could also be done by intersect or even an opacity mask)

This is quite roughly done and the vine needs shading but I think you should get the idea of how I sandwich the letters in between two copies of the vine and erase away the parts I don't need. I use a graphics tablet and set the eraser to use the pressure sensitivity.

[dcahall]

Thanks Frances - Do you really need the underneath vine?

I was thinking about putting the leaves there independently but then I guess our method allows me to visualize the entire vine all at once.

[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

[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.