Teach Yourself
CorelDRAW 8 in 24 Hours
Adding perspective allows you to transform objects to create a three-dimensional
look. The artistic text in Figure 14.1 appears to be coming off the page and toward
the viewer. You can apply perspective with three different effects: Extrusion, Envelopes,
and the Perspective effect itself. In this hour, you learn to work with vanishing
points, which make any object appear to display three dimensions; such objects have
perspective.
Figure 14.1
Perspective applies a different point of view to your objects.
You apply perspective by moving specially empowered handles that appear when you apply the Perspective effect. These perspective handles enable you to stretch your selected object as if it were enclosed in a rubber band.
As you drag the perspective handles, a vanishing point is created. This vanishing point represents the spot at which your object would hypothetically disappear into a point if it extended that far. In Figure 14.2, you can see the vanishing point for the artistic text. That vanishing point is quite a distance from the object on the Drawing window but off the Drawing page.
You can move the vanishing point for an object to change the degree of perspective. Moving the vanishing point closer to the object increases the degree of the effect. After you apply perspective to an object, you can edit the vanishing point by selecting the object with the Shape tool.
If you drag the vanishing point very close to the object, the degree of perspective will be quite extreme, as you can see in Figure 14.3. Dragging the vanishing point far from the object creates a subtle effect.
Just A Minute: You can clear perspective from an object by selecting that object and then selecting Effects | Clear Perspective from the menu bar.
The location of the vanishing point determines the degree of perspective.
Moving the vanishing point close to an object creates an extreme effect.
The perspective handles move the vanishing point.
Just A Minute: By holding Ctrl down as you drag on a perspective handle, you are constricted to pulling straight down.
After you have assigned perspective to an object, you can edit that perspective by moving the vanishing point. If you deselect your object, you can reselect it with the Shape tool to see the vanishing point.
You can create 3D vanishing points by moving perspective handles.
If you make an insane mess of your object, you can always select Effects | Clear Perspective from the menu bar.
The Envelope effect allows you even more control over vanishing points and perspective. Envelopes provide a frame for whatever object is inside of them. So, for example, you can take artistic text, put it in a triangular-shaped envelope, and squish the text to fit the triangle. You can apply four different types of envelopes to an object: Straight Line, Single Arc, Double Arc, and Unconstrained. Examples of all four are on display in Figure 14.6.
Display the Envelope rollup by selecting View | Rollup | Envelope from the menu bar. Figure 14.7 identifies the buttons on the Envelope rollup and the Envelope Property bar that select the different types of envelopes.
The Envelope effect comes with four ways to apply perspective.
You can assign envelope effects from either the rollup or the Property bar.
When you apply a straight line envelope, you are restricted to straight lines between each perspective handle. When you apply a single arc envelope, you can have a curved line serve as an envelope. Double arc envelopes allow complex curves in between handles. And unconstrained envelopes are just what they sound like; they can be reshaped in any form.
Just A Minute: By holding Shift down as you drag on a perspective handle, you force your envelope to be symmetrical.
The single and double arc modes enable you to assign curved lines to the envelope shape. They work in a similar way, except that the double arc mode enables you to create more complex shapes. The really interesting stuff happens when you use the unconstrained mode or you use an existing object as an envelope.
You can use the Envelope effect to mold an object to a preset shape. This can be a shape from a nice list of geometric shapes and popular symbols available from the Envelope rollup, or you can define your own shape and use that to enclose your object. These techniques are often used to shape artistic text.
The Envelope rollup comes stocked with popular shapes that you can use to envelop text.
Not every envelope looks good with every text object. Sometimes placing artistic text in an envelope distorts it so badly that it is unreadable. It is often hard to predict whether your artistic text will look good in a defined envelope, so some trial and error is usually necessary.
To get rid of an envelope, select the object that has been placed in an envelope, and then select Effects | Clear Envelope. You can apply more than one envelope to a single object. Each time you choose Effects | Clear Envelope, you delete one envelope, but you can delete more than one by repeating that process.
You can also use an object that you create from a shape or closed curve as a mold for an envelope.
You can select existing shapes to create envelopes.
Just A Minute: Even after you apply an envelope effect to text, you can edit the text content by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T with the text selected.
Extrusion is another way of adding perspective to a selected object. Extrusion effects give text, curves, or shapes a 3D look.
Extrusion combines 3D effects with shading to create a whole range of wild effects. These are ideal for flashy, colorful, attention-getting text. Extrusion is a form of adding perspective. Extruded effects have vanishing points that you can edit, just like objects to which you apply perspective.
Although extrusion can be applied to any vector object in CorelDRAW, it's usually used on text to add flair to a message, such as the text in Figure 14.10.
Extruded text.
The Extrusion effect is potentially one of the most complex things you can work with in CorelDRAW. However, you can have a lot of fun with this effect without applying every single element available in the rollup.
When you select text and then apply the Extrusion effect, you can define a vanishing point for the effect, rotate the extruded object, apply lighting from various angles, edit colors, and add beveling. This is done through four different tabs in the Extrude rollup.
Extruded objects can be rotated in 3D.
Moving the light source defines shading in the extruded object.
As you can see, you have almost unlimited effects that you can apply with extrusion, and not all of them look great. In the previous exercise, you applied five different effects through the Extrusion rollup, but normally you will want to be a bit more restrained. A little extrusion goes a long way.
Perspective, Envelopes, and Extrusion are three ways to apply 3D effects to objects in CorelDRAW 8. Perspective is relatively restrained and subtle. Envelopes provide more dramatic effects, and extrusion is over the top.
Both perspective and extrusion are defined by the location of a vanishing point, an imaginary spot where your object would disappear if it extended all the way to that point. You can change the impact of these effects by moving the vanishing point.
The poster in Figure 14.13 includes an envelope effect applied to a musical symbol, and extruded text. Give it a try.
This poster includes extruded text and envelope effects.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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