Teach Yourself
CorelDRAW 8 in 24 Hours
In the previous hour, you started to experiment with the PowerClip, Lens, and Interactive Transparency effects that distort objects to which they are applied.
In this hour, you explore a couple effects that change objects based on duplicating them and distorting the clones.
The blend effect enables you to fill the space between two different objects with a set of new objects that change, step-by-step, from the first object to the second. Not only do the size and shape of blended images evolve from one object to another, but the color as well. Figure 13.1 shows artistic text blending from one size, rotation, and color to another.
Blends convert one object to another, step-by-step.
The contour effect enables you to create concentric lines inside or outside of a selected object. This is a quick, easy way to draw concentric circles. Figure 13.2 shows the three ways you can apply contours: a defined number of lines inside the original object, a defined number of lines outside the original object, or as many lines as it takes to get to the center of the entire selected object.
The contour effect also has a feature that enables you to transform colors from an inside to an outside color, as you create contours. The concentric circles in Figure 13.2 transform from a dark color to a light color.
Use contours to draw concentric circles.
Blends are an amazingly intelligent effect, and as such it's often hard to predict the exact effect you will create using them. If you are blending one object into another with a similar size and shape, the results are fairly straight-forward. In Figure 13.3, I'm blending one oval into another, with slight color differences between the two objects. The results are a smooth, almost gradient evolution from one color to the other.
Blends between similar objects are smooth and gradient.
However, blends between objects that are very different in size, shape, and color produce some wild transitional shapes, as you can see in Figure 13.4.
Blending a bright square and a dark star produces some unusual transitional shapes.
Aside from the shapes that you blend into each other, you can control the effect of a blend by defining the number of steps (transformations) to take place, and assigning rotation to the intermediate objects created by the blend effect.
Just A Minute: When you select Effects | Blend from the menu bar, the Blend rollup appears in your CorelDRAW window. You can also make the rollup appear by pressing Ctrl+B.
The more "steps" in a blend, the more transitional effects you create. A three-step blend has relatively dramatic changes between each intermediate object in the blend, whereas a 30-step blend has relatively imperceptible changes between intermediate objects.
Just A Minute: After you create a blend, you can edit the effect by changing the settings in the Blend rollup or by editing either the starting or ending object. For example, when you edit the fill color of the square you used in the previous To Do exercise, the whole blend will change. Or you can edit (or remove) outlines from either the start or finish objects, or both. Resizing either the starting or ending object changes all the intermediate objects generated by the blend.
The blend effect can generate intermediate objects along a defined path. To do this, you first draw a line and then blend two objects from the start to the finish of that line.
If you have two objects you want to blend into each other and a drawn path, you're ready to blend along that path.
Blends can travel along custom-defined paths.
You can hide the line that forms the blend path by simply assigning no outline to it. In Figure 13.6, I've assigned different colors to the first and last circles, and made the last circle larger.
The Blend rollup has three other tabs and more features than will fit in this hour. But one effect that you can experiment with easily is acceleration, found in the second tab from the left in the rollup. This effect changes the effect of a blend from a smooth, gradual, equal transition to a distorted transition so that most of the changes happen either toward the beginning or the end of the blend.
The blend options available in the rollup are pretty much duplicated by the Blend Property bar that appears when you define a blend. Blends are so flexible and have so many options that this book could be filled with nothing but blending! But a good way to experiment is to just take the blend you created in the two To Do exercises so far and try applying the different effects in the Property bar or rollup.
When you change one of the two blended objects in a blend, the intermediate objects react and transform interactively.
At the beginning of this hour, you saw how you can use contours to create concentric circles. That's one quick, handy use of the Contour tool.
You can also use contours to create 3D and beveled effects. In Figure 13.7, contours around the edges of a rectangle create a picture frame effect.
Contours can create a variety of outline effects, including a 3D beveled look.
The most basic application of contours is to create lines around or inside a selected object. You can define how many lines and what distance they should be from each other.
The thickness and color of the generated contour lines is determined by the thickness and color of the original lines. You can define line properties the same way you define any outline color and thickness: right-click on the color palette to assign outline color and select outline color from the Outline flyout.
You can define a set number of contour lines inside or outside your selected object. Or you can define contours that completely fill your object (if your object is a closed curve).
Just A Minute: The number of steps in a contour means the number of new spirals to be created. The Offset spin box regulates the spacing between the contours.
The functions of the Contour rollup are duplicated by a Property bar that appears when you assign a contour effect. The Steps spin box in the Property Bar is shown in Figure 3.8.
Your contours should look similar to the ones in Figure 13.2, that you looked at near the beginning of this hour.
Contour Offset and Steps can be defined in the Contour rollup. The settings also appear in the Property bar as soon as the effect is applied.
After you create contours, you can define color gradation between your original outline (or fill) color, and a contour outline (or fill) color. In this way, contours act a bit like blends--the color blends from the original to the contour color.
Contour color changes are defined in the Color Wheel tab in the Contours rollup. You can also select these colors from drop-down lists in the Property bar.
The transition between object outlines and contour outlines functions interactively. In other words, you can change either an object outline color or the contour color, and the contours will evolve from the assigned outline color to the assigned contour.
Contours can transform from the original outline (or fill) color to a new color.
In Figure 13.10, I changed the outline color for my framed rectangle to a light color and my contour outline color to black. The intermediate, generated contour lines transform gradually from my light color to black.
Contour outlines can transform from one color to another.
Both the blend and contour effects apply gradual changes to selected objects. The blend effect requires two different objects that are "blended" into each other by generating a series of intermediate objects.
The contour effect is useful for creating 3D type outlines as well as concentric circles. It is applied by defining a number of steps, as well as the distance between steps.
In this workshop, you review some of the techniques you learned in Hours 11, 12, and 13. Some of the effects in this workshop are a bit of a challenge, but please feel free to modify them to fit your current skill level. As long as you use the effects listed in each step, you'll reinforce your effects skills. The goal is to create something similar to the model illustration that our resident artist Paul Mikulecky cooked up. Paul combined bitmap images, PowerClips, lenses, and contours to create the compass in Figure 13.11.
Paul's illustration combines PowerClips, bitmap images, contours, transparency and lenses.
The five-step contour applied to the background rectangle creates a beveled-looking frame from the illustration.
The clock face combines a symbol converted to a bitmap, a contoured circle, and a lens.
The beveling effect in the wood background is created by duplicating and rotating filled circles filtered with interactive transparency.
A yellow circle blended into a gold or orange one creates a gold handle for the watch or compass.
The watch/compass lens is created with a Tinted Grayscale Lens effect.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}