Teach Yourself
CorelDRAW 8 in 24 Hours
Many CorelDRAW illustrators start by creating rough sketches of their drawings with shapes and then refining them to create the exact image they want to produce. For example, the sailboat and waves in Figure 10.1 were created by starting with simple triangles.
You've already seen that you can resize shapes using sizing handles. But you can also edit shapes by moving nodes or by using the Knife or Erase tools.
You can do much more with shapes by converting them into curves. You can edit curve nodes in minute detail and define different types of curves to produce any shape you want.
When you click on a shape (an ellipse, a rectangle, or a polygon) with the Shape tool, nodes appear. Rectangles have four nodes, one for each corner. Polygons have a node for each side, and one for each point as you can see in Figure 10.2.
The triangle converted into a curve and edited to define the curve.
Pentagons have five nodes.
You started to explore editing shape nodes in Hour 3. Rectangle and polygon nodes are used to edit the appearance of the shape. Ellipses, however, are a special case. Ellipses have an infinite number of sides (theoretically, an ellipse is just points). Ellipses have just one node. You can move this node to create an arc. To do that, drag clockwise or counter-clockwise on the node, as shown in Figure 10.3.
Drag the single node on an ellipse to create a pie-slice shape.
You can move the nodes on rectangles and polygons to change the shape of the polygon. Dragging down on the corner handles of a rectangle "rounds" the corners, as you can see in Figure 10.4. Or you can drag up on a bottom corner node to round a rectangle.
Of course, if you can settle for the amount of rounding that comes automatically with a rounded rectangle shape, that's quicker. But by moving corner nodes, you can assign the exact amount of rounding you want to a corner.
Use the Shape tool to drag down and round nodes on the corners of a rectangle.
You can custom-transform polygons into stars by dragging on the side or corner nodes. In Figure 10.5, I'm transforming a pentagon into a kind of warped star by dragging on one of the side handles.
When you drag on a side node in a shape, all side nodes move symmetrically--this is true for point nodes as well.
The Knife tool is one of the more descriptively named weapons in the toolbar. It can cut objects in two! The basic routine is that you click twice on an object to make "incision points," and those points become a line that divides your object into two, new objects.
The Knife and Eraser tools are on the Shape tool flyout. You select them by clicking on the Shape tool and holding down the mouse button while you click on either the Knife (the second tool) or the Eraser (the third tool).
Just A Minute: The fourth tool on the Shape tool flyout is the Free Transform tool. This tool (new to CorelDRAW 8) is outside the scope of this lesson, but it enables you to rotate selected objects. The Free Transform tool works like Rotation handles (that you get when you click twice on an object), but you can assign a center of rotation by clicking on any node or point on the screen. To experiment with the Free Transform tool, click on an object with the Pick tool, click somewhere outside the object on your screen, and drag the rotation bar to rotate the object.
As usual with CorelDRAW, you can accomplish a task in many ways. Any shape you create with the Knife tool can also be designed by editing a shape. But sometimes, the Knife tool is easier to use. For example, cutting off the top of a triangle is an easy way to create a trapezoid. Or if you want two shapes to "fit together" and be complementary, you can use the Knife tool to cut one shape in half.
To use the Knife tool to cut a shape into two or more parts:
Dissecting a triangle with the Knife tool.
Just A Minute: When you select the Knife tool, the Auto-Close on Cut button is automatically selected in the Property bar. This is the button you want if you are cutting up shapes. The (also available) Leave as One Object button is not that useful if you want to cut up objects with the Knife tool. With the Auto-Close on Cut button selected, you create two shapes from one with the Knife tool. Turning this button off changes the Knife tool so that it cuts the object but creates a nonclosed curve (a line) instead of a new shape.
The Eraser tool is also located on the Shapes flyout and works like an eraser on a pencil. You can erase any pixel within an object, down to the smallest dot. The Eraser Property bar has a spin box that you can use to change the width of the eraser.
After you select the Eraser tool, you can delete pixels you don't want. In Figure 10.7, I'm deleting lines in the middle of a polygon/star.
The Eraser tool is often handy when you want to clean up the middle of a polygon/star.
Just A Minute: If you accidentally erase more than you want to, click on the Undo button in the toolbar.
As you have seen, you can edit shapes by moving shape nodes, by using the Knife tool, or by erasing with the Eraser tool. To have total control over a shape, however, you need to convert it into a curve.
When you select a shape node with the Shape tool, a To Curve button appears on the Property bar. Click on that button to transform your shape into a curve. You can convert all the nodes in a shape to a curve by selecting the shape with the Pick tool and then choosing Arrange | Convert to Curves from the menu bar.
Why convert shape nodes to curves? You have seen that when you edit a node in a shape, you also affect other nodes in the shape. That can be handy when you convert a pentagon into a starfish. But what if you want to edit a single node and only have your editing affect that one node? For this, you need to convert the shape into a curve.
Curve nodes can also be edited much more powerfully than Shape nodes. Curve nodes can be of different types and can be fine-tuned to create complex shapes, as you will see in the next section of this hour.
Before you can edit curves, you select nodes. Earlier you learned to select nodes using the Shape tool. With the Shape tool selected, you can click on individual nodes to select them. If you hold down Shift while you click, you can select more than one node at a time.
You can also select all nodes in an object. This is handy when you want to convert every node in a shape to a curve.
After I convert all nodes in this shape to curves; I can fine-tune curve radii and shapes.
Just A Minute: If you created your object as a shape, you don't have to convert it to a curve; the nodes are already all set to edit.
When you select an object with the Shape tool, you can add nodes by clicking anywhere on the shape and then clicking on the + (plus) symbol in the Property bar. You can delete nodes by clicking on a node and then clicking on the - (minus) symbol in the Property bar.
You can delete extraneous nodes in a curve (ones that don't contribute anything to the curve's shape) by selecting all nodes in the curve and clicking on the Auto-Reduce button in the Property bar.
After you learn to edit individual nodes, you'll appreciate the usefulness of getting rid of unnecessary nodes that clutter up your drawing. In Figure 10.9, I've converted a star to a curve, and I'm using Auto-Delete to get ride of unneeded nodes.
Deleting unneeded nodes with Auto-Delete will not affect the shape of a curve. Here Auto-Delete will get rid of five of the nodes cluttering up my drawing.
CorelDRAW offers three types of curve nodes: Cusp nodes, Smooth nodes, and Symmetrical nodes, which are illustrated in Figure 10.10.
Use Symmetrical nodes to create curves that are equal on each side. Smooth nodes are best for creating rounded curves that are not symmetrical. And Cusp nodes are best for creating pointed curves. All this will make more sense as you experiment with curves and learn to edit control points.
When you select a single curve node with the Shape tool, you see two control points. Node curves are determined by the type of curve (Cusp, Smooth, or Symmetrical) and by the distance and location of the control points. When you pull away from a node on a control point, you increase the effect of the curve. In Figure 10.11, I'm stretching one of the two control points on a Cusp node to increase the intensity or sharpness of the curve.
Cusp and Smooth nodes enable you to edit line segments on either side independently.
Pulling out on a control point increases the effect of a curve.
Similarly, dragging in on a control point lessons the impact of a defined curve.
Curves themselves are also regulated by the location of control points. In Figure 10.12, I am sharpening the angle of a curve by dragging on a control point.
Adjust curve angles by dragging control points along a circular radius.
A couple clicks with the Knife tool and an Isosceles triangle becomes a right-angle triangle.
Control handles become active on either end of a line when you convert the line into a curve.
You need to experiment with node editing. The sail exercise you just completed introduced you to curving lines. You can edit any line on any curve by manipulating nodes and control points.
Don't start with editing control points. Normally, you create a rough shape for your object using the Shape tool or the Freehand Drawing tool. Next, you can further edit the curve by moving nodes with the Shape tool. Finally, fine-tune your illustration by manipulating control points to shape your curves.
Some buttons on the Node Property bar are beyond the scope of this book, but here is a brief description of them:
CorelDRAW provides almost unlimited control over the appearance of a curve. So don't start with the most detailed tools; start by drawing rough shapes and curves. If you were building a skyscraper, you wouldn't start with sandpaper. Similarly, don't start a drawing by editing control points.
If you create a rough drawing using Shape tools (for example, a 12-pointed star), you can convert that shape to a curve by selecting the shape and choosing Arrange | Convert to Curves from the menu bar.
After you rough out your drawing with shapes or freehand tools, then touch up your illustration by selecting a type of curve (Cusp, Smooth, or Symmetrical) and adjusting control points to shape those curves.
Use your newly acquired ability to edit shapes, as well as some techniques you picked up in previous lessons to create the sailing lessons illustration Paul prepared for this workshop. Paul's drawing is shown in Figure 10.15, but feel free to modify it to fit your own skill level.
Paul's illustration transforms a polygon into the sun and another polygon into sun rays, and uses the knife and erase tools to transform polygons into the sail.
Here are the basic steps to create the illustration:
Dragging an internal node can turn a star inside out.
The five sun rays are the result of creating a 12-point polygon/star and deleting seven of the star nodes.
The triangle converted into a curve with extra nodes auto-deleted and a cusp node control point edited to define the curve.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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