I would like your expert help on creating the attached graphic in xara designer pro

[yellowbird]

Hi. I want to recreate the attached graphic in designer pro. (Not the gray background or crosshatch lines, those are there because it is a pay for graphic.) I tried some simple things with text adjusting kerning, baseline, adding shadowing - which of course didn't work. With the letters below I created a black copy and converted it to editable shape so I could angle the back of the legs and change the angle of the front round part to the top of the color letter. I tried to use beveling on the color part of the R, but wasn't able to achieve a look like the original. I'm sure a combination of tools/effects might work, but my usage of these is pretty basic. So far it's been trial and error for me. Would greatly appreciate any help and ideas!!
(once I get the graphic designed, I plan to try and animate it)

Nancy

[Acorn]

Nancy, colour and position each as a separate letter.
Next apply a thin 3D extrusion and adjust the lighting to tint the top part of the extrusion.
Do note each extrusion is canted at a different angle; the I is almost square on.
The paint bushes behind are simply rectangles the same colour.
Finally, apply a Black, crisp Shadow to the collection.

The simplest animation would be paint block and letter with the same timed Reveal animation of Slide in from top.
Set Each Colour to a different Delay.

As the letters will be moving, you need to set them to be PNG.
The amination Xara renders will require the graphics to all start at the top of the page.

A more advanced approach would be to design everything to be SVG and SPANs and animate with anime.js.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

Following on from Acorns points, some different approaches:
The font is almost Arial Black.
Set them out individually.
Give them named colours.
Convert to editable shapes.
Ungroup twice.
Apply an internal mitre countour.
Apply a shadow. (I didn't, I used copies of the text offset and blended for the text)

Do the same for the bar's behind the text. (Not sure why the original has two bars for the 'N')
Surround each shape with a transparent rectangle.
Create bitmap transparent png.

Position in final position.
Set Slide in from Top animation.
Give each bitmap a speed & seperate delay.

.xars attached.

DEMO

[Acorn]

Egg, nicely done.

Why Bitmap though?
Keep the letters as Text and Copy Attributes allows you to change the lettering easily.

The N is two bars if you imagine each letter is a paint brush and you are holding the bottom.

If you paint with a diagonal brush, the paint builds up and runs - up & down and left & right.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

Cheers Acorn. The reason for changing the text to bitmaps was I was wanting to use the Bevel tool at a later date. Not in the first post.

The N is two bars if you imagine each letter is a paint brush and you are holding the bottom

I suppose so but I never saw it as such and to be pedantic neither would the P and R be as wide

Here is an animation which has false bevels which aren't easy to create in vector only. Could do with more work.

DEMO

[Acorn]

Again thank you Egg.

For the moment, I am sticking with straight Xara as my proof of concept:

Xara - Painted Acorn.xar

Next step - tartan Paint!

Acorn

[yellowbird]

Thanks Acorn and Egg! Wow you are so quick on designing. Thanks for all the instructions and examples. I agree with Acorn on the N. I'm sure I'll have more questions. Thanks again!

Nancy

[handrawn]

Next step - tartan Paint!

Looking forward to that

[Egg Bramhill]

Your wish is my command HD:

Tartan Paint

[Egg Bramhill]

You're welcome Nancy.