Laurie McCanna's CorelDraw Tricks #5

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns Patterns as Windows WallpaperIn order to use a bitmap as Windows wallpaper, you'll need to open the file in Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, or another paint program, and save it as a .bmp (bmp or jpg in Windows 95) file if it isn't in that format already. The file must also be saved to the Windows directory in Windows 3.1. To load a background, in Windows 95, right mouse click on the desktop and select Properties/Background. Then, from Windows Program Manager, select Main/Control Panel/Desktop/and scroll through the wallpaper files until you find the one you want to use. Make sure that the Tile radio button is selected. Patterns in CorelDraw:I'll bet you didn't know that you can use bitmap pattern files in CorelDraw.

Open the fill roll-up. Click on the two color pattern fill icon (the checkerboard icon). Click on the current fill displayed in the roll-up. This will open a flyout menu. Select File/Import Pattern. Corel will then translate your file into a black and white bitmap. Corel isn't very subtle in its dithering between the color and black and white here. You might want to translate your file into black and white first before you try to import it into CorelDraw. Open your file in Photoshop. Chose Mode/Grayscale, and then Mode/Bitmap. Then you can try importing the file into Corel. Patterns in Corel PhotoPaint 5, 6, or 7Make sure that the fill roll-up is visible. Click on the LOAD button at the bottom of the fill roll-up. Select your file. Open a new file to fill with the pattern. Use the paint bucket tool to fill the file with a pattern. Follow this link if you would like to play with layers and modes and patterns in Photoshop.

How To Create Text That Fills a Shape in CorelDRAWCorelDRAW allows you to have text that flows to fill the confines of any type of shape. Even custom shapes that you draw from scratch. It's really easy, too!

Here's How: Draw a shape--any shape. Select the Text tool. (Shortcut F8) Hold the cursor over the edge of the shape, but just inside. The cursor will change into an I-beam with a small box containing the letters 'AB' next to it. Click once and, poof! Your shape becomes a text container. Start typing or paste some text.Tips: The type container behaves just like any other paragraph text frame, which means you can use tabs, drop caps, and even link multiple type frames. While the shape is a text frame, it's also still a shape that can have line and fill properties applied to it. Set line and fill to none if you don't want the shaped text frame to be visible. To select only the text frame or only the shape (for changing line and fill properties) use the Ctrl key as you click. Otherwise, changes will be applied to both objects. This is a great way to make text the follows the circular shape of a CD label. On step 3, if you hold your cursor just ouside the edge of the shape, you can attach text to the outer border of the shape. The cursor becomes an I-beam next to an 'A' on a curve.

Tracing a Logo with Bezier CurvesSoftware Used: CorelDRAW 9 This tutorial is inspired by a post in the graphics software forum. The logo was created in AutoCAD and then exported to WMF format. The member wanted to fill the logo with solid colors and save it as a WMF in order to retain the sharp edges and small file size inherent in vector images. Several suggestions from forum members proved unsuccessful, so I asked the member to send me the file so that I could take a look.

At first glance it looks like there should be no problem, but on closer inspection it became clear what the problem was. The exported file consisted of many disconnected line segments. You can see this in the image below where I've pulled apart the various segments.

At this point, I thought it would be a simple matter of connecting the individual line segments and converting them to closed object that could be filled, but in fact it was not that simple. After quite some time trying to do this I realized that what I thought were lines were actually curves and, therefore, could not be connected and converted to a closed object. Now I was beginning to think it would be simpler to redraw the entire logo from scratch using the bezier curve tool, and that's what I set out to do. I've seen this subject come up from time to time in various discussion groups, and I thought it would make a useful tutorial. Most people don't believe me when I tell them they would be better off hand tracing a logo instead of trying to use a tracing program, and I hope this lesson proves to you just how easy it can be.1.) To prepare for recreating the logo, I changed all the outlines to black so they would be easier to see. Next I inserted a new layer and locked the bottom layer so I wouldn't inadvertently select the logo.2.) Next I went through my font collection to see if I had anything that would be a close match. Indeed, I did have a close match, but it wasn't quite exact so I decided it would be faster to draw the shapes from scratch than trying to manipulate the font to get an exact match.

3.) I started by zooming in as close as I could get, selected the Bezier curve tool, and set the line color to red (clicking with the right mouse button on the red color swatch sets the default line color for new objects).

4.) I enabled snap to objects on the view menu, and proceeded to place points all the way around the shapes.

You'll notice that I only placed points at the beginning and ending points of a curve. I'll be going back to the curved segments later and node-editing them to create the curved segments. Here you can see the results of tracing the letter G in the logo.

5.) The next step is to zoom in on each curve and edit the nodes to create the curve. Using the shape tool, I'm able to select the two nodes

at either end of the curve. On the property bar, I select the button to convert line to curve.

6.) Now when I select a node, you'll notice it has control handles. These handles control the curve of the line. I can manipulate the handles until it closely matches the line of my original image below.

At this stage it's helpful to go to the object manager and drag the original image above the new image to see how close the two match. You can also manipulate the curved section by clicking and dragging it with the shape tool instead of using the control handles. This is often easier, especially with snap to object enabled. Then the control handles can be used to fine tune the shape.

This process is repeated for each curved section of the traced shapes. In a few areas it was necessary to add nodes and nudge nodes around once I was zoomed in close. In the area shown below, you can see where the line appeared to be a straight intersection when I was zoomed out, but when zoomed in it was apparent that this was a curved intersection.

Using this method the entire tracing process took about 30 minutes. 7.) The original logo has a registered ® symbol. To recreate this, I simply used the Windows character map to copy the registered symbol in Arial font, pasted it into DRAW, sized it, and converted it to curves. 8.) Now that I've got all the shapes traced, I can go ahead an hide my original layer that I was using as a tracing template by clicking the eye icon in the object manager.9.) Now all that's left is to solid fill the shapes. But first, we have to fine tune a few of the letters. The b, e, and a all have center portions that need to be cut out. To do this I select the outer portion of each letter and fill it with a solid color. (For now I used a color other than red so I could still see my outlines. Yellow worked well.)

Then I selected both the outside and the inside outline, and use the trim button to punch out the center. The center sections become a separate object and can be deleted. 10.) Finally, I select all the letters and change the fill to blue and remove the outline, then select the star-a, fill it red, and remove the outline.

The finished logo! When exported from CorelDRAW to WMF format the file was a mere 9KB in size. And it's a vector format so it can be enlarged or reduced to any degree with no loss in quality.

Hi folks, Here's a trick I picked up at CorelWorld. I've used it a lot since I learned about it and I have been meaning to post it here. This only works in version 9, by the way... If you have several lines of artistic text and you decide you would rather have it as separate lines of artisitc text, just go to Arrange -> Break Apart. Each line becomes a separate artistic text object. Now you can select a line of artistic text and use the break apart command again to break it down into individual words. Select an individual word and use break apart to separate it into individual letters. Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW© 1998 by Foster D. Coburn III. All Rights Reserved. One of the most common questions asked by CorelDRAW users is how to use the Corel OCR-TRACE utility to convert bitmap artwork into vector artwork. The simple answer is to avoid OCR-TRACE. This article will teach you the easiest way even though you might think it is not. These instructions should work in CorelDRAW 3 through CorelDRAW 8. Part of the problem with tracing bitmaps is the quality of the original artwork. Our clients don't seem to understand that the quality of the finished product is highly dependent on the quality of the artwork that we receive. So it is your job as the artist to explain this to the client. Show them examples of good artwork and bad artwork. Explain how good artwork can save you time and thus save money for the client. And while they are saving money, they will also receive higher quality. This applies no matter what method you will be using to convert their artwork from a bitmap to a vector. But we all know that clients just love to hand us a business card from which we are to extract their logo. So I looked over my desk and found a business card with a logo that was quite small and scanned it in so that I'm working with something similar to what you might have. In my case, it is an ARA business card and we'll recreate the ARA logo. Note: For those who aren't familiar with the ARA, they are an organization that deals with the awards and promotional products. A large majority of their members are also CorelDRAW users. If the artwork is 2-color (black and white), make sure to scan in black and white. This keeps the file size smaller and the extra grayscale or color data would provide no benefit. Scan at the highest optical resolution of your scanner. For most desktop scanners this is between 300 and 600 dpi. Don't use interpolated resolutions as they won't help you gain any quality. I've purposely scanned the ARA logo at a fairly low resolution so that the quality isn't that great. An example of my scan is shown in Figure 1.

Now you need to import the bitmap into CorelDRAW. Those of you using CorelDRAW 3 through 7 will need to create a new layer and place the bitmap onto this new layer. With the bitmap selected, right-click on a lighter color in the color palette. I've used Red. Now anything that was Black in the logo will be Red. This makes it much easier to see what you will be creating. Users of CorelDRAW 8 can lock the object so that it won't be accidentally moved while users of older versions will need to lock the layer that you created for the bitmap and then switch to a different layer. In CorelDRAW 8, right-click on the bitmap and select Lock Object from the pop-up menu. Your screen should now look similar to Figure 2.

Now we're ready to start recreating. Since this logo is primarily text, I'd start by trying to find a font that matches. The letters ARA initially appear to be a font called Revue so I loaded that font and typed the letters AR. The last A is simply a reversal of the first so I'll add that later. My guess at a font was close, but not perfect as you can see in Figure 3. I've switched to wireframe view so that I can see the outlines of the text in relation to the bitmap.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Since this font is close, I'd probably convert it to curves and shape the curves until they were just right. But I'm going to recreate it from scratch as that is the more difficult method for recreating artwork. Before I start the actual creation, I want to add guidelines anywhere where there are straight lines in our artwork. This will help me to make sure that lines will be straight in these areas and that they align across the whole logo. Figure 4 shows the file after I've brought in several guidelines.

Now the last part is the part where most users give up. Choose the Bezier tool (it is the second tool on the Freehand tool flyout). This will allow you to create a node at each point you click. If you simply click, a straight line will be created between the previous node and the current node. But you can also click and drag to shape the curve as you draw. If you've never used this tool before, it will take you some time before you are comfortable using it. For a half an hour, do nothing but draw shapes with the Bezier tool. At that point, you should feel much better about using it. Now it is just a case of redrawing the character shapes using the Bezier tool. While this may seem time consuming, it is much quicker and more accurate in the long run. Tracing the logo automically will create a bunch of extra nodes that will need to be cleaned up. This clean up process will take much longer than recreation if you have a good grasp of the Bezier tool. After the initial drawing of the logo, there will undoubtedly be a few mistakes. So switch to the Shape tool and make any necessary changes. It took me about 10 minutes to recreate the main part of the logo. Then I needed to recreate the small text that spells out "Awards and Recognition Association". A quick look at the text and I guessed that it was Times Roman Bold Italic. I typed in the text and tried various sizes until it matched exactly. I then adjusted the line spacing until it matched. This took another 2-3 minutes total. My finished logo is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Obviously you'll run into logos and other artwork that are much more complex that this one. But the process is always the same and the time savings over the auto-trace method will always be there.

Creating GEL TextBy Gary W. Priester

The Mac® OS X GEL look is still hot even though it was introduced quite some time ago. Creating GEL buttons has already been covered here and covered very well so I thought it would be fun to see if we could create the GEL look in text. Before we get started, however, we need to set a few common parameters. I will be using CorelDRAW® 11 and so some features may be different or may have migrated to different menus, as they often do between versions of CorelDRAW.

As I am creating this tutorial to be seen on the Web, I am going to use Corel's RGB palette, which many of you will remember was the default palette before version 7. The colors are brighter and will produce a better looking effect.

(Figure 1) In the Tools drop down menu, select Color Management… From the Style drop down list, select Optimized for the Web. This sets the color space to RGB.

(Figure 2) From the Layout menu, select Page Setup… In the Page Setup dialog, change the Resolution to 96 dpi (Windows®) or 72 dpi (Macintosh®). These two settings are screen resolution and are the proper 1:1 resolution for viewing on the Web. Even if you plan to output your image for commercial printing, use these two settings to avoid confusion. You can change the resolution before you output your files.

For this tutorial we shall create a GEL symbol for the at character (@). As CorelDRAWing this symbol is a lot harder than it looks, we'll use an Avant Garde @ symbol for a guide.

Figure 5

(Figure 3) Using the Text Tool, click on the page and key in @ in Avant Garde (the CorelDRAW default font). On the Property Bar, change the size to 130 and press Enter to apply the change.

(Figure 4) Press and hold the Freehand Tool to open the Curve Flyout menu. Select the Pen Tool (the fourth from the right). Click and add a series of connected lines as shown here in red. The idea is to place each anchor point in-between the outlines of the @ and to place the control points on logical points from which to create curved line segments. When you have clicked the last control point, double click to let CorelDRAW know you are finished.

(Figure 5) Select the Shape Tool. Click on the outline to select it. Marquee select all the control points by dragging a rectangle around all the points with the Shape Tool. On the Property Bar (the context-sensitive menu at the top of the screen) press the Convert Line to Curve icon. Drag a line segment and pull it like a rubber band until it more or less conforms to the shape of the @ symbol.

(Figure 6) Continue until all the line segments are now gently curves and more or less follow the shape of the @.

(Figure 7) We can fine tune the control points by adjusting the Bezier control handles. Select the outline with the Shape Tool. Click on a control point. Note that two lines with small boxes on the ends appear coming out of each side of the point. These are Bezier control handles with which we can adjust the segments of the outline. You can drag these in or out to make the curve segment longer or shorter and you can rotate them to adjust the angle of the curve segment. Experiment until you get the curve as smooth as possible. The smoothest curves will have both Bezier handles in a straight line. The angle of the handles will also be more or less parallel to the curve.

TIP: Moving the handles can be tricky and inexact if you are not real comfortable using the mouse. Zoom in close. Select a point and then use the arrow keys on your key pad to move the handles. You may also need to set the nudge amount on the Property Bar to 1px. (CorelDRAW's default idea of a nudge is sometimes closer to a shove)!

(Figure 8) You might need an extra control point at the top of the "a" shape. Double click with the Shape Tool to add the point. Continue to fine tune the shape until you have gotten it as close to the shape of the @ symbol as possible. Name and save your CorelDRAWing and take a short eye break.

(Figure 9) Delete the Avant Garde @ symbol. Select the outline. Click and hold on the Outline Tool to open the Outline Flyout. Select the Outline Pen options (the first icon). Change the line width to 16 points. Click the two middle Corner and Line Caps radio buttons to round the ends and the corners. Press OK.

With the outline still selected, select Convert Outline to Object from the Arrange menu.

(Figure 10). From the View menu, select Wireframe or Simple Wireframe. You will notice the original outline has been left behind. As we don't need it anymore, delete it. Return to the View menu and select Enhanced to return to the anti-aliased display mode.

(Figure 11) Select the Interactive Fill Tool icon. From the drop down list of Fill Types on the Property Bar, select Conical. The Interactive Conical Fill controls will appear on the screen. You can drag the ends of the fill path to rotate the fill. You can also double click on the circular portion of the fill path to add more colors. For what we are going to do, just leave everything as is. Click the white box at the end of the fill path, then click the red color on the screen palette. Repeat this for the other end so you now have a red to red conical fill. To the left

of the Fill Type drop down list is the Edit Fill icon. Click it to open the Fountain Fill dialog. Select the counter clockwise fill option (indicated with the red ellipse) and press OK to apply the change.

(Figure 12) Make two copies of the rainbow filled shape and set them to one side. We'll need them later on. Change the fill of the original @ to black by selecting the shape then pressing the black color on the screen palette. You can also drag and drop colors from the screen palette onto the object.

Press and hold the Interactive Tool icon to open the Interactive Tools Flyout menu. Select the Contour Tool (the nested squares). If the shape is not selected, select it with the Contour Tool. On the Property Bar press the To Center icon. Change the Contour Offset amount to 1pix.

NOTE: Your shape may have an unfortunate wedge going though it. Mine did. If yours does not then skip this part. Select the shape and from the Arrange menu, select Break Curve Apart. Now marquee select the entire shape. The status bar at the bottom of the screen will tell you how many shapes are selected. You should only have 2. If it shows more, cut the counter (the inside of the "a" shape) to the clipboard (Edit > Cut). Marquee select most of but not all of the shape. If you see a small portion selected, delete it. Paste the shape from the clipboard back onto the shape, select both and from the Arrange menu, select Combine. Your contour should now be successful.

(Figure 13) Select the contour with the Pick Tool (the arrow). Open the Bitmaps menu and select Convert to Bitmap. Use the settings shown above. Press OK to create the bitmap.

(Figure 14) Center the bitmap over the rainbow-filled @ shape. Open the Interactive Tools Flyout menu and select the Transparency Tool

(the wineglass icon). From the Property Bar, select Uniform (the default) and from the Transparency Operation drop down list, select Subtract. Change the slider setting to 30%.

(Figure 15) Select both the rainbow-filled shape and the transparent bitmap. Convert these two items to bitmap (Bitmaps menu) using the settings shown).

(Figure 16) Locate one of the duplicate @ shapes which I asked you to set aside. Change the fill to white and apply a black outline. Apply a 1-step, To Inside contour with a 4pix offset amount.

From the Arrange menu, select Break Contour Group Apart. Open the Arrange menu again and select Ungroup. Delete the wider shape (shown in dashed blue line).

(Figure 17) With the shape selected, press the + key to make an in-place duplicate. Move the duplicate 12 pixels to the right and 12 pixels down.

TIP: With nothing selected, change the Nudge amount on the Property bar to 1px. Now use the arrow keys on your computer keypad to move the duplicate shape the precise amount. (You could also set the nudge amount to 12px. Just remember to set it back to a lower amount when you are done).

(Figure 18) Select both shapes and then press the Trim icon on the Property Bar. The cutter shape remains and while nothing seems to have changed, if you drag the underneath shape away, you'll see the top shape has been trimmed out of the bottom shape as shown in blue.

(Figure 19) Duplicate the whole shape by pressing the + key. Move the duplicate shape up and to the left 12 pixels in each direction.

(Figure 20) Select the trimmed out shape and cut it to the clipboard (Edit > Cut). Select the two shapes. On the Property Bar, press Back Minus Front. This is a new path command that does the same function as Trim except it removes the top, or trimmer shape. Paste the shape we just cut to the clipboard back onto the page (Edit > Paste). Save your work and take a short eye break.

(Figure 21) Position the two cutout shapes as shown. Select the top shape and then select the Interactive Fill Tool. From the drop down menu on the Property Bar, select Conical. Make the starting and ending colors Baby Blue. Click the Edit Fill icon which is just to the left of the drop down list of Fill Types, to open the Fountain Fill dialog. Click the Clockwise Fill icon and press OK to close the dialog.

TIP: If you let the cursor rest for a moment over the color squares on the screen palette (or any of the buttons and icons), the color name, or tool or button name, will appear in a balloon under the cursor.

Select the bottom shape and repeat this step except use Spring Green for the start and end colors. The idea here is to create two rainbow gradients, one lighter and one slightly darker which we will use for highlights and reflections.

(Figure 22) Position the top highlight shape over the bitmap as shown. With the highlight shape selected, select Break Curve Apart from the Arrange menu. You will now have a series of separate shapes.

(Figure 23) Using the Freehand or the Pen Tool, CorelDRAW a single diagonal line through the bitmap image as shown. Select the top left most shape. Select the Interactive Transparency Tool and from the drop down list of Transparency Types, pick Circular. Select Add from the Transparency Operations drop down list. Drag the dashed arrow portion of the fill until the center of the circle is over the area where the diagonal line passes though the top of the @ shape. Click on the outside color, which is now white and change this to black by clicking the black square on the screen palette. Click on the inside color square and change the black to white. We have just made the center opaque and the outside transparent which is the opposite of the default setting.

NOTE: Black represents 100% transparency and white represents 0% or no transparency. You can also click the start or ending square and move the slider on the Property Bar to adjust the amount of transparency. Shades of gray represent various amounts of transparency.

(Figure 24) Select the next shape (directly over the "a"). From the Effects menu, select Copy Effect… Lens From… A large black arrow cursor will appear. Click the first highlight shape to which you applied transparency. Adjust the transparency so the lightest portion is centered on the red diagonal line and the diameter is similar in size to the first circular transparency.

(Figure 25) Repeat this last step and copy the lens effect to the other shapes. When you are finished, select all the highlight elements and group them.

(Figure 26) Position the bottom shape, which we will call the reflection, as shown. Break the Curve Apart. Apply a Circular, Multiply transparency reversing the starting and ending transparency percentages and centering the darkest portion of the circular transparency on the red diagonal line.

(Figure 27) Copy the lens effect to the other shapes and adjust the center and diameter of the transparency. Group all the reflection elements. Save your work and take a short eye break. We're almost done.

(Figure 28) Locate the other duplicate you made of the vector @ shape. CorelDRAW a rectangle around the @ to the size shown. Set the fill and outline to none.

Select both the rectangle and the rainbow-filled @. Convert these to Bitmap but do not select the Transparent Background option.

(Figure 29) With the bitmap selected, select Bitmaps > Blur > Gaussian. Apply a 7 pixel Gaussian Blur.

(Figure 30) Position the blurred bitmap over the other elements. Apply a Uniform, Subtract 50% Transparency. Move the blurred bitmap until the shape appears to the right and down from the shapes beneath it.

If the @ were indeed filled with rainbow-colored GEL and we placed the @ on a white sheet of paper and let light shine though it, we would get the same diffused color effect as we have achieved by placing the transparent blurred bitmap on top.

Vector Gradient Fills 2: CorelDraw Fountain Fill Text and Outlines 

Text filled with a gradient fill when selected with the Selection tool.  

Individual characters filled when selected with the Shape tool.

Text with a fountain fill in CorelDraw is easy. Select the object and follow the steps we worked through on the previous page. Text is no different from any other object as it is in some other programs, which is a nice feature, since your text remains editable even with a fountain fill. However, the entire word is treated as one object and the fill runs continuously through the object.

You can also select your text, and choose Arrange>Convert to Curves to create individual objects from each character. Since the text has been converted to a graphic object, however, you cannot edit it as text after performing this conversion.

This image shows the selection just after the second character was filled.

    

Top: Text with an outline. Middle: Text outline converted to object and moved away from text. Bottom: Former outline, now object is filled with a fountain fill.

Converted outline with fountain fill and a new outline applied.

Neat trickFinally, there is one feature that is not well known in CorelDraw. You cannot fill an outline with a fountain fill. You

can however choose Arrange>Convert Outline to Object from the main menu. Just as it sounds, it takes the outline and turns it into an object, separate from the object it used to outline. While it can make some great effects on objects, it is really powerful when you take one extra step and use it on text. Create your text. Apply a fairly thick outline – I have used a 20px outline for 140pt text for the example shown here. (The original text was 140pts but I made it smaller on export to fit.) Increase your letter spacing if necessary, since the outline tends to join letters together. (See Text as Design for text manipulation techniques). Now let's start the magic. Choose Arrange>Convert Outline to Object. The outline becomes a separate object. The sample at the left shows the text with regular outline first, with the outline moved away from the text in the second sample. Fill with the fountain fill you desire ... neat effect. If you really want to push the technique, start with your characters spread further apart, and apply an outline to the original outline. You may find the result is better when you specify a wide outline. Then open the Outline Pen window through the Outline Pen tool, and check Behind Fill, located at the bottom left of the window. This sends the outline behind the object and can be easier to control the effect. At the left, I have included a magnified version of the outline on an outline effect. Of course, you could also have the original text behind filled with yet another color. It is when you see effects like this, and how easy and accurate the methods are, that you begin to realize why designers insist on having both raster and vector programs at their disposal. Now, lets take a look at creating blends for even more color blending power.

Vector Gradient Fills 2: CorelDraw Blends 

Two identical objects are blended with the Interactive Blend tool for the same result as a fountain fill would provide.

A blend is simply taking one object and blending it to another. In it's simplest form, as shown at the left, it is exactly the same as a fountain fill when complete. Here, we have a gold and brown rectangle of the same dimension, exactly in line horizontally. The blend tool is used to join the objects in a gradual color transition ... exactly like a fountain fill.This simple example is excellent for practice, even though it would make more sense to use a fountain fill for this exact look. Draw two rectangles and fill each with a different color. Remove any outline. (Blends usually look best without outlines, though some dramatic effects can be created – we are focusing here on using blends as an extra option for a fountain fill look, so will stay away from outlines.)

Choose the Interactive Blend tool from the toolbox (you may have to expand the flyout menu to reach the tool – see here for placement in toolbox). Click and drag from one object to the other. The process that the screen will go

through is illustrated at the left. In the first sample, note how the cursor carries a stop symbol. The Blend tool has found nothing it can blend with yet. In the second sample, the stop symbol has disappeared and a second square snaps to the center of the new object. This is telling you that these objects can be blended. (We will learn a little later how to map blend points.). Soon after the Blend tool finds an object to blend with, the display changes to the look in the third sample. This shows the blend steps. Finally, the fourth sample is the completed blend. Again, this is not a place I would use a blend, but it is the best introduction to the way the tool works.  

Different sized objects, as well as any shapes, can be blended for unlimited effects.

The power of blends really shows when you blend objects of different shapes or sizes, as in the orange and brown example at the left. Not only do you achieve a fountain fill color blend effect, you can also add perspective and true dimension with just a mouse click. To accomplish this look, position objects as shown here and follow the instructions from the previous sample. Another thing to note here is that the front object can be selected and edited or moved after a blend. The graphic shown here is the same as the one on the left, with the color changed and the control graphic shifted to the right. The blend automatically reflects the changes. To move the entire blended object, click in the middle of the blend area and the entire blend group will be selected. Try a few different shapes and edits to get used to how the blends work. We are not going deeply into blends this time, since it would take an entire tutorial to cover them properly. However, it is important to understand the basic blends before we move even a little further.

   

Same blend but with the number of steps changed from 5 in the left sample to 15 for the right.  

Edit the blend stepsUse the Property bar, which is just below the main menu, to control the number of steps, or how smooth the transition is between objects. Enter a value and hit RETURN to have the new value apply to a selected blended object, or to change the default if no blended object is selected. You can also use the up and down value selectors to change the number of steps between blends.

 

   

Using the Map Nodes feature to specify which node from each object will be blended.

Custom BlendsFinally, we will peek at blending nodes. This is a very complicated subject that we cannot investigate fully this time, but I wanted to give you a slight introduction. We can control which point on each object are blended with the Map Nodes command. You will find this by clicking on the Miscellaneous Blend Options icon in the Property bar, as shown highlighted by yellow here. The menu you see below the Property bar is presented.

 

Click on Map Nodes and your cursor will change to a curved arrow and the first object in your blend will have small squares at every node. Click on the node you wish to blend from this object. The second object will be automatically selected as you can see in the second sample at the left. Click on the node you wish to blend on this object, and the blend is completed. For this sample, I have outlined the blend objects so you can track the blend. Note how the top left corner of the front rectangle is now blended to the top right corner of the second rectangle. The final, largest sample here shows the blend without the outline. And that's it for this time with blends. Play a little, try to incorporate them into your next project to build your comfort level. Between fountain fills and blends, your work will come to life.

Vector Gradient Fills 2: Flash Gradient Fills

  Flash is the last program we will cover for this round of gradient fills. If you are new to Flash, and wisely decide to devote time to checking out other Flash examples on the Web, you will quickly notice that the sites that really catch your attention often make very good use of gradient fills. Most also capitalize on the easy transparency capabilities that are build into the gradient fill options. A note of caution though – gradient fills do affect file size. If you are working hard to keep your file size minimal, only use gradients when they will have the most impact. You can really bloat a file with many small areas of gradient fill. Not that you should abandon them – I don't mean that at all, because gradients can bring a screen to life. Just use gradients with the knowledge that there will be a cost, so they should definitely be advancing the design.

   

Color button leads to custom colors and gradient fills

Custom and default gradient fills can be selected from the Fill Color window.

Click on the New button to create a new gradient fill. Choose Radial or Linear.

Color is controlled with color pointers as shown on top of the Gradient Definition Bar. The key at the far left is the Pointer Well.  

Create a simple gradientGradients fills are applied like solid fills in Flash. Choose the Paint Bucket tool from the Toolbox, as shown depressed here. The Fill Color button, shown highlighted in yellow here, is used to define all fills. Click on the Fill Color button to open the Fill Color window as shown, at the the left. Preset and custom gradients appear at the bottom of the Fill Color window and are shown at left. To fill an object with one of these colors, simply click on the desired fill.

To create a gradient fill, click on the Color window button at the top of the Fill Color window, shown highlighted in yellow in the illustration at the left. This opens the Color window, where we will build our gradient fills.The custom fills that we saw in the Color window are repeated here. These will form the base for any gradient we create. Choose the one that is closest to the fill you wish to create. If nothing is close, choose the simple black and white gradient, as it is easiest to edit.

To create a new fill, click on the New button. The currently selected Gradient fill will be duplicated and a new icon created for your new custom gradient. Choose Linear or Radial from the drop down menu above the New button. All color is controlled by pointers above the Color Definition bar. The selected pointer is depressed, as shown at the left. The right pointer key is down, while the left pointer and the color well are up. Any change you make to color will apply to the selected pointer. The Pointer Well, the pointer to the far left, can be used to store a color which you will need often. Like the other pointers, it must be depressed to receive color. This well does not affect the gradient fill. To use, simply drag the Pointer over any other pointer and release. The color will be transferred to the active pointer. To add a color point, simply click in the Color Definition Bar at the point you would like to add color. The new pointer will be assigned color that appears at that location. To delete a pointer, click and drag it up or down until it disappears. (You can also drag it to the side, but it is easy to drop it just at the edge and have it affect the end color in the gradient.) Preview your gradient fill in the Preview window, shown in the upper left corner of the illustration at the left. Color can be chosen in any of three ways. 1. Specify RGB numbers (or hex values if you prefer – activate the Hex option just below the RGB numbers). 2. Click on the Solid Colors pop-up menu and choose a color. 3. Choose a color from the Hue bar at the right of the screen. You can load new colors into the Hue bar by clicking in the desired area in the Color window, just to the left of the Hue bar.

 

 

Create transparencyFlash offers wonderfully easy transparency control. You can change the transparency of any color pointer, which can provide very interesting effects. I have included a sample of this effect. The gradient fill is on a layer above the text, and has varied transparency assigned to the color points. Follow along the bottom edge of the green rectangle to see the transparency changes. And transparency could not be easier. Activate the pointer you wish to affect and drag the Alpha slider, at the far right of the Color window, to the desired value, which is shown below the slider. 100% is solid color, and 0 is completely see through. When you are happy with your gradient, click on the Change button in the Color window. Your icon changes to represent the new gradient, and the new fill will appear in the Fill Color window, ready for use with the Paint Bucket tool.If you wish to delete a gradient from the Color window, simply select the gradient icon and click on the Delete key.

  And that's all there is to the mechanics of Flash gradient fills. Of course, that is just the very beginning. Whenever you have this much potential for variation, a long road of experimentation will follow. Try to stretch your gradient knowledge, though. Work in some transparency to your fills. Before long, you will be naturally reaching for this simple tool that can add so much to your images ... especially when they are moving.

The Color Wheel: A Glass ActBy Gary W. Priester This is not the trendy Apple Aqua Gel look that has been covered so expertly by Tim Carden in his recent articles, but rather my own old-fashioned heavy, beveled, green plate-glass look. We'll also be using the brighter RGB colors instead of the more muted CMYK (simulated printer colors).

In CorelDRAW™ 10, select Color Management from the Tools menu. From the Style drop-down list at the lower left corner of the Color Management dialog, select Optimized for the Web. In earlier versions, disable Simulate Printer Colors.

Since we have people from all over the world reading these articles, we'll be using pixels as our units of measure since they're the international unit of measure for the Web. In the Grid and Ruler Setup (double-click the screen rulers) set the units to Pixels.

If you're creating your image for the Web, or just to be viewed on your computer screen, set the Resolution (Layout > Page Setup) to 96 dpi, Windows screen resolution. If you plan to output your design to a color or commercial printer, you'll want to set the resolution in the 300 – 600 dpi range.

Using the Text Tool, key in "GARY" (or some other name of your choice). Highlight the text and select GlaserSteD from the Fonts drop-down list. From the Font Size List, select 72. Type is measured in points and there are 72 points to an inch, so these letters should be about an inch tall.

Click the text with the Shape Tool to select it, then drag the arrow icon at the bottom right of the text to the right a little to increase the space between letters. If you need a precise amount, click the blue italic F icon on the Property Bar, and from the Paragraph tabbed section of the Format Text dialog, changing the Character spacing to 20.

Apply a Linear Fill from top to bottom using the colors shown here. If you do not know the color names by heart, let your cursor rest over the color names for a second or two, and a tool tip will appear with the name of the color. With the exception of black (you do know where that is, don’t you?) all the colors are in the general vicinity of turquoise.

Tip: To apply a Linear Fill, you can select Linear from the Fill Type drop-down list (when the Interactive Fill Tool is selected). However, there's an even easier way: select the Interactive Fill Tool, click at the top of the text, hold down the CTRL key to constrain the text to a vertical path, and drag to the bottom. CorelDRAW will automatically create a Linear Fill.

To add colors to the fill path, you can either drag the colors from the screen palette and drop them onto the fill path, or in CorelDRAW 10, you can double-click the fill path arrow to add new color stations and then drag-and-drop the colors onto the color stations.

Select the text with the Pick Tool (the arrow) and drag a vertical guideline through the center of the text for reference. With the text selected, select the Interactive Extrude Tool from the Interactive Tools flyout menu on the main toolbar, and drag straight down from the center of the text. The familiar interactive fill path arrow appears. Drag the bottom of the fill path down about 50 pixels below the text.

Select the extruded text. On the Property Bar, click the color wheel icon (Color). Click the third icon on the right (Use Color Shading) and change the From color to Dark Green and the To color to Turquoise. This greatly simplifies the extrusion shape and creates the appearance of the sides of the text having a sand-blasted, dull finish.

Select the extruded text with the Pick Tool. From the Arrange menu select Break Extrude Group Apart. This turns off the live effect and creates two separate objects (the extrusion and the text). In versions prior to CorelDRAW 10, you'll need to convert the extrusion to curves and then ungroup. The exact method will vary from version to version, but basically we want the text and the extrusion to be separate objects.

Note: The Extrusion, Blend, Envelope and many other special effects are called dynamic or live effects. This means that until you disable the effect by converting it to curves or using the Break (effect name) Group Apart, these effects remain editable. Even after the file has been saved and reopened a year later, you can still modify the effect. But to apply another effect, as we will be doing in the next step, you need to turn off the live effect.

Select the text. Notice that after breaking the extrude group apart, the text still remains editable. The name of the font will appear on the status bar at the bottom of the screen. With the text selected, select the Interactive Contour Tool from the Interactive Tools flyout menu. Drag from the corner of the G toward the center of the G. This intuitive feedback tells the Interactive Contour Tool that we wish the contour effect to be applied to the inside of the selected object, or in this case, the selected text object.

On the Property Bar, change the number of Contour Steps to 1 and if necessary, change the Contour Offset to 2 px (pixels). Select the contoured text and from the Arrange menu, select Break Contour Group Apart. We now have three separate groups, the text, the contour, and the extrusion. Name and save your file and take a short eye break.

We could use the Extrude > Use Bevel and Show Bevel Only commands to add a 3D bevel to the text. However, because the multi-faceted, vector method CorelDRAW uses for bevels produces a noticeable series of tiny facets which I don't personally care for, I prefer to use a smooth Interactive Conical Fill to achieve a similar effect.

Select the text and break the text into individual characters by using the Break Shapes command from the Arrange menu. (You can use this same command to break a sentence into individual editable words, or a paragraph into individual, editable sentences. It’s one of the more powerful and unique text features in CorelDRAW).

Select the outer shape of the G and change the Fill Type from Linear to Conical. Drag one end of the conical fill path half circle as shown in the illustration above. This simulates the diffused light effect that is seen in heavy plate glass that has beveled edges. We applied this effect to a single character because we'll want the effect to be centered on each character instead of the entire word.

Select the A in GARY, and from the Edit pull down menu, select Copy Properties From… (the ellipses … after the command indicates there are more options to follow). Check the Fill box in the flyout menu and press OK. With the oversized arrow icon that appears, click the G with the conical fill. The fill is copied from the G to the A. Select the R and press CTRL + R, as in repeat, to repeat the last step and to apply same fill to the R. Use this same method to copy the fill to the Y.

Note: I grayed out the contour so you could concentrate on the conical fill. You can leave the extrusion as is.

If we add a Radial-fill to a rectangle we can create a glow behind the text. Center a rectangle 300 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall behind the text. Apply a Radial Fill, changing the inside color to Sea Green and the outside color to Black. Center the fill behind the text.

We could leave the text as is and we’d have a pretty cool effect. But we can use the splendid bitmap creation tools to make the text even more dramatic.

Make a duplicate copy of the text, extrusion and background rectangle. Select the duplicate and select Make Bitmap Copy from the Bitmaps drop-down menu. Change the color to RGB, the Resolution to 300 dpi, and check the Anti-aliased check box to smooth the resulting bitmap. (True, 300 dpi is overkill for the Web, but it will retain all the detail of the image.)

Uncheck Transparent Background and Apply ICC Profile if these options are checked. Press OK to create the bitmap copy.

Select the bitmap and from the Bitmaps pull down menu, select Blur > Zoom. Move the slider to 50, or enter 50 in the Amount text entry box, and press OK to apply the zoom blur.

(Press the + key to make a duplicate of the object. Select the bitmap, then the Interactive Transparency Tool from the Interactive Tools flyout menu, and from the Transparency Type drop-down list on the Property Bar, select Uniform. From the Transparency Operation drop-down list, select If Lighter.

Move the Starting Transparency slider all the way to the left (or key in 0 in the Starting Transparency text entry box). This adds a bit of sparkle and magic to the glass text.

Finally, make an in-place duplicate of the blurred bitmap (the + key) and change the Interactive Transparency type to Add and the amount to 70%.

And there you have it. That’s my technique for creating thick, green glass text. You can use this technique to create titles for your Web page, or for titles for a special report you are working on.

Of course it helps if there is a reason to use the glass text effect. If you’re a glass company the technique is most appropriate. If the name of your company is Glass Ceiling Recruiting, Ltd. this effect is equally appropriate. Ditto if your name is Glass. If you are preparing a report entitled, “Building adobe walls”, I'd consider using another technique.

Interlocking RingsSoftware Used: CorelDraw 9 A visitor to the site recently asked me how to make interlocking rings such as those in the Olympic

Games' logo. The request was for CorelDraw 8, but I couldn't stop there, so I decided to show you a variation of the tutorial for CorelDraw 9. The difference is, we're going to use the artistic media brushes in Draw 9 to give our rings a rounded, 3D appearance. You don't have to use this technique for circular rings... use it for text and other shapes to give the illusion of dimension.If you haven't already, download and install the free tubular brushes on this site before beginning this tutorial.

1.) Select the ellipse tool and hold the Ctrl key down as you drag to create a circle.

2.) Select the Artistic Media tool. Then, in the property bar, choose the Brush tool option. 3.) Set the width to 0.25" and choose one of the tubular brushes from the brush stroke list. It may take a few moments for the stroke to render.

4.) Switch to the pick tool, select the circle and hit the + (plus) sign on the keyboard twice. This creates two duplicates of the ring right on top of each other. 5.) Hold the Ctrl key down and drag the top duplicate to the right as shown. The Ctrl key confines the movements so the two circles remain aligned.

6.) Double click the pick tool to select all objects. 7.) Choose align from the property bar, switch to the distribute tab, and check the box to distribute horizontally to the center, as shown below.

Your rings should appear something like the image below. If the spacing isn't quite right, move the rings and adjust the alignment again.

NOTE: When selecting a ring, it's important that you select the entire group. If you look at the object manager you will see that each ring is made up of a control ellipse and an artistic media Group. When you select the ring, be sure both items are selected for each ring. If you click along the outer edge of the ring, it's easier to select the entire group.

8.) Select the middle ring, switch to the artistic media tool, and choose a different tubular brush from the brush stroke list. 9.) Select the far right ring, switch to the artistic media tool, and choose a different tubular brush from the brush stroke list. Now each ring should be a different color.

10.) We need to make sure our PowerClip options are set properly in order for the next step to work. Go to Tools > Options > Workspace >

Edit and remove the check from the box labeled "Auto-center new PowerClip contents". 11.) Select the ellipse tool and draw an ellipse where you want the left circle to overlap the middle one. Duplicate it and drag the second circle where the middle and right rings should overlap. Don't worry about the fill or outline for now.

12.) Select the ring on the left and hit the + key on your keyboard to duplicate it. 13.) While it's still selected, go to Effects > PowerClip > Place Inside container. 14.) Your cursor will become a thick black arrow. Point the arrow to the edge of the first circle you created above and click once. The left ring will be clipped inside the circle. 15.) Next duplicate the middle ring byt hitting the + key and repeat the PowerClip so it overlaps the right ring.

16.) Select both PowerClipped circles and right click on the X in the color palette to change the outline to none. 17.) The interlocking rings are complete! It's a good idea to select all of them and group them to prevent them from being moved independently.Four Ways to 3D Hearts: Part 1

Software Used: CorelDRAW 9.This tutorial is divided into six parts covering four techniques for creating 3D Hearts in CorelDraw. It starts with the basic heart shape, and also covers creating custom object spraylists for the artistic media tool.Part 1: The basic shape1.) First we need to create the basic heart shape. Start with a circle. Right click on the circle and choose convert to curves. Now you should have a circular shape with four nodes: top, bottom, left, and right.

2.) Use the shape tool to select the bottom node, then go to the property bar and convert it to a cusp node.

<-- Convert to cusp node.Do the same for the top node.

3.) Drag a marquee around the top and bottom nodes, then drag down so the top node is fairly even with the two side nodes. You should now have a shape like the one shown. Not quite heart shaped, is it? Let's fix that...

4.) Select the top node with the shape tool. Drag the two control points upward to form a V shape. Try to keep the two handles symmetrical.Do the same for the bottom node. You may need to move the bottom node up slightly.

5.) Make sure the top and bottom nodes are aligned vertically, and the three nodes across the top are aligned horizontally. If you need to, you can select two or more nodes by dragging a marquee around them, or by click-shift-clicking, and then align them with the align nodes button on the property bar.

<-- align selected nodesContinue to edit nodes to tweak the shape until you have a heart shape you're happy with. You can use the arrow keys to move nodes and control points more precisely. Here's how mine turned out.We'll be using this heart quite a lot in the next steps, so now would be a good time to save your basic heart shape to a file.

Part 2: 3D Heart with Blends1.) For the first 3D heart, we'll start by making a duplicate of the basic heart shape. Make top heart smaller than the original and center align the two hearts by selecting both hearts and clicking the the align button on the property bar.

2.) Select the larger heart, then select the interactive fill tool. From the property bar, choose fountain fill for the fill type.  

3.) Drag the black box to the upper left corner of the heart, and drag the white box to the lower right for a diagonal fill.

4.) From the color palette, click and drag the Faded Pink swatch and drop it on the black square of the interactive fill. Then drag the Ruby Red swatch and drop it on the white square. (Hold your cursor over a swatch and the color will pop-up in a tool tip.) 

Remove the outline from the large heart.5.) Select the smaller heart and set the fill to red and the line to none.

6.) Now choose the interactive blend tool.

Change the step value in the property bar to about 20. Click on the smaller heart and drag toward the larger heart, then let go. Voila! Your heart now has some dimension.

You can create some rather wild effects using variations of fill colors and directions. Because the blend and fill tools are interactive, you can continually change the fill properties of the control objects and the drawing will update as you work. Below are some examples using various fill colors. I've left the fill indicators in place so you can see the colors and directions used in the fill.

Here's that last example without the fill directions and colors showing. Pretty wild, huh?In the next part we'll use our basic 3D heart to create a new object spray for the artistic media tool.

Four Ways to 3D Hearts: Part 3

Software Used: CorelDRAW 9.This tutorial is divided into six parts covering four techniques for creating 3D Hearts in CorelDraw, starting with the basic heart shape. This part covers creating custom object spraylists for the artistic media tool. If you came to this page from a search, it's a good idea to start from part one, the basic shape.

Part 4: 3D Heart with Transparency1.) Duplicate the basic heart outline using the plus sign on the keyboard. This places the duplicate directly over the original.2.) Fill the top heart with a linear fountain fill going from soft pink in the upper left hand corner to ruby red in the lower left. Adjust the fill direction as shown.

Send this object to the back by pressing shift-page down, or by dragging it below the other heart in the object manger.3.) Fill the other heart (now on top) with solid red. Set the outlines for both to none.

4.) Select the solid red heart. Then select the interactive transparency tool. Set the transparency to fountain, and radial in the property bar.

5.) The center swatch will be black and the outer swatch white. We need to reverse this, so drag the white swatch from the palette to the center swatch, and then drag the black swatch from the palette to the outer swatch.Adjust the size of the transparent area by dragging the outer swatch so that most of the circular outline is enclosed within the boundaries of the heart as shown.

  It's starting to get some dimension now but we're not quite finished. It's a good idea to group the two hearts so you don't move one of them inadvertently. 6.) Create a small circle in the upper left section of the heart, like I have.

7.) In the property bar select the Pie button.

8.) Drag the end points of the pie shape until the shape is slightly smaller than a half circle. The pie will transform to an arc.

9.) Right click the arc and choose convert to curves. Then select the curve and click the Auto Close curve button on the property bar.

<-- Auto close curve

10.) Select the shape tool. Drag a marquee around the shape with the shape tool and click the button on the property bar to convert lines

to curves. <-- Convert line to curve 11.) With the shape tool, click and drag the straight section of the new shape to form a crescent moon shape. Fill this shape with white and remove the outline.

12.) Select the transparency tool. In the property bar choose fountain and linear transparency. Arrange the black and white swatches as I have to create the highlight for the heart. Set the transparency midpoint to about 30.

13.) Now we'll just add a drop shadow to make the heart pop off the page a bit. Select the interactive drop shadow tool, then click and drag on the heart to create a drop shadow. Change the perspective type to flat, and drag the shadow into place. Adjust the feathering and opacity if desired.On to the third 3D heart...

Part 5: 3D Heart with Gaussian Blur1.) Take your basic outline heart from part one and fill it with red. Duplicate it.

2.) Arrange the two hearts as I have. Drag a marquee around both of them and click trim on the property bar.

3.) Drag the trimmed heart section off to the side. Color it solid black with no outline.

4.) Duplicate the red heart again and arrange the two hearts as shown. 4.) Drag a marquee around both of them and click trim on the property bar. Color this trimmed section white and remove the outline. 5.) Send the red heart to the back of the stack. Line up the white and black filled sections above it.

6.) Select the white colored section. Go to Bitmaps -> Convert to bitmap. Make sure anti-aliasing and transparent background are checked. Click OK.7.) Next go to Bitmaps -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. The radius setting will depend on the size of your heart. I used 6.Repeat the last two steps for the black sections.8.) Arrange the blurred sections above the red heart as I've shown them.

9.) Select the transparency tool and adjust the transparency slightly. I used 10 for the white section and 50 for the black section.10.) Select the white and black bitmaps, group them, and send them behind the red heart.

11.) Select the group of two bitmaps, go to Effects -> Powerclip -> Place inside container. Click the arrow on the red heart. The shaded sections are moved to the front and the edges are clipped by the red heart.

12.) Now remove the outline from the red heart and you're done.That's three down, one more to go...>>

Part 6: 3D Heart with ExtrusionThis method is what I used to create the conversation heart object sprays that I made available for download a couple of weeks ago.

1.) Select your basic heart shape from part one. Fill it with a solid color and no outline. I node edited my basic shape so it didn't have such an emphasized point at the bottom. Refer to part one for how to do this.

2.) Select the interactive extrusion tool, then click and drag on the heart in the direction you want the depth to go.

3.) In the property bar, change the extrusion type to the middle button on the bottom row.

4.) You may need to move the vanishing point in your drawing to adjust for the change.

4.) Now lets adjust the lighting so we can see the dimension. Click the lighting button on the property bar. I used two lights. Light 1 is in the top left front at an intensity of 100. Light 2 is the bottom right back with an intensity of 65.

5.) Add a bevel by clicking the bevel button on the property bar. I used a depth of .03" and an angle of 15 degrees.

6.) You may need to adjust the vanishing point again after adding the lighting and bevel.That's the basic 3d heart. You can duplicate it and change the color by selecting it and clicking a different color in the color palette.

To make the conversation hearts, I added text the same way I did in the Soap Suds Logo tutorial.7.) Create artistic text in a bold font, all caps, and duplicate it twice.

8.) Make the top layer the same color as the heart. Position one copy of the text up and to the left and color it a darker shade (almost black). Position the other copy down and to the right and color it lighter (almost white).

Here's the finished conversation heart with text added.If you want to use the conversation heart to make an object spraylist, there are some steps you need to take first: 1. Select all the text and convert it to curves.2. Right click and separate the extruded heart shape.Follow the instructions in part three to create a new spraylist.

Part 3: Creating Object Sprays1.) Start with your basic 3D heart from the last part and create several duplicates. 2.) Edit the colors of the fills of each heart to create several variations. Refer to part two for instructions.You may need to use the Object Manager docker to select the control curves for editing. If you accidentally click the blend group and change the fill, the heart will turn solid. Just click undo and try again.

3.) When you have a set of colored hearts you're happy with, drag a marquee around each one, right click and choose separate, then right click again and choose group. The blend group must be separated before you can add the object to a spraylist, and grouping will make it easier to select each heart when we create the object spray.

4.) Select the artistic media tool, and then the sprayer from the property bar. From the drop-down list, select New Spraylist. Click on the first heart, then click the add to spraylist button on the property bar.

Select the second heart, click add to spraylist, and continue until you have added all six hearts. You will see the drop-down list on the property bar update each time you add another object. When you've added all six hearts, click the save button next to the drop down list. Give your file a name, but don't change the folder location from the default. Now drag a line across your page and watch if fill up with hearts! You can adjust the size and spacing of the objects via the property bar.

Zip File Help:To extract the files you will need an unzipping tool such as Winzip, or Drag & Zip. Consult your software help file for specific instructions on unzipping files. Also see What's the Best Zip/Unzip Tool? and Unzipping Files from About.com's Shareware/Freeware Guide. Loading the sprays into CorelDRAW 9:Unzip the files to X:\Corel\Graphics9\Draw\CustomMediaStrokes where X is the drive where CorelDRAW 9 was installed. The next time you start CorelDRAW, the new sprays will be available from the Artistic Media Object Sprayer drop-down list.

Creating a Basket Weave Fill in CorelDRAW© 1999 by Ruth Huking. All Rights Reserved.

This tutorial guides you through the creation of a basket weave fill in CorelDRAW 7. You'll find that these techniques will also work in many other versions. For this tutorial you may want to add several colors to your palette, or you can substitute your own: Murkey Green, CMYK 0-0-20-80, a Light Green CMYK 10-0-30-20, a Medium Green CMYK 10-0-55-30, a Dark Green CMYK 10-0-55-60 and a Beige CMYK 0-10-30-7. Begin a new CorelDRAW file and add the following guidelines: VERTICAL GUIDELINES AT: 1 1/4", 2 1/8", 6 3/8" and 7 1/4"HORIZONTAL GUIDELINES AT: 2 1/2", 3 3/8", 7 5/8" and 8 1/2" You will see that the guidelines created two squares. Enable Snap to Guidelines (icon found on Property Bar when no objects are selected) and draw a rectangle around the SMALLER of the two squares with a black outline of 0.04 inches and NO FILL. This is just a guide to indicate where your pattern will go and it will be removed later. Click on the Graph Paper Tool. On the Property bar, make the number of cells 20 HIGH and 20 WIDE. With the Graph Tool, draw a graph on the OUTSIDE square of guidelines. The Snap to Guidelines setting should still be enabled. Fill the graph with white and put it to the back (Arrange | Order | To Back).

With the graph still "selected", rotate 45 degrees as shown at right. The Guidelines are shown to help you understand their relationship to the graph. Ungroup the graph.

Following the pattern shown at left, fill each square with the appropriate color. If you make a mistake, refill the square with white. It is important that you do not use the X to remove the fill.

CAREFULLY following the pattern at right, Weld (use the icon on the Property Bar) each two squares together to make rectangles.

Following the image at left, change each Light Green rectangle slanting to the right to a TWO COLORED FILL (don't forget the Interactive Fill Tool) Do one rectangle first. Select the TWO COLOR FILL. Click on the down arrow to see more patterns. Use one of the dotted line fills that are grouped towards the end of the TWO COLORED FILL, small size. Make the back color the Light Green and the front color the Dark Green. Then hold down the Shift Key and catch all the other ones and use Copy Properties From (Edit | Copy Properties From.) Change the left slanting rectangles to Medium Green and leave the remaining ones Murky Green. Take a break and come back in a few minutes. Sometimes it is hard to see the forest from the trees. Next, delete the black outline around your pattern. You will create the pattern over the inside square. Select Tools | Create | Pattern. Choose FULL COLOR PATTERN and follow the instructions. You will be putting it in the Full Color Pattern file so give it a name a little different than just Basket, as there already is a Basket fill. Follow the same instruction for making the second fill shown at right. You will only need the Light Green and the Medium Green. SAVE YOUR FILE. Now for practice draw a nice sized OVAL. Select the Interactive Fill Tool and select the Full Color Pattern Fill. Click the down arrow on the Property Bar to bring down the pop-up menu. Scroll down to the end and your basket fills should be there. You will have three sizes to choose from. I used large fills on the outside of the smaller basket and a medium fill for the inside view at the top of the basket. On the larger basket I used a large fill for the bottom but scaled the pattern with object under Tiling. I did the same thing with the inside view using a medium fill. If for some reason your pattern isn't there, click LOAD and the Pattern File should come up. Select your Basket Fill from there. This pattern will rotate 45 and 90 degrees and still look good! Now all you have to do is draw some baskets! Below you will see two examples.

The Beauty of the Blend© 1997 by Peter McCormick. All Rights Reserved.Blends have been around since the early beginnings of CorelDRAW. Many of us used to think the Blend effect was only for blending two objects together to create smooth transitions. On the contrary, Blends can be used for many other effects as well. In this session we will teach you some of the lesser known uses of the Blend Effect. Let’s begin by blending geometric shapes to create beautiful pattern. Follow the steps below:

Draw an ellipse approximately 1/2 inch wide by 2 inches tall. Give the ellipse a blue fill with a red outline. With the ellipse selected, click two times to reveal the rotation arrows. Click and drag the center of rotation thumbtack to the bottom of the ellipse (see Step 1 in Figure 1). Click on Arrange | Transform | Rotate to bring up the rotation dialog box. Enter the number 15 in the Angle parameters box. Click on the Apply to duplicate button 23 times. You should now have 24 ellipses in a circle. Marquee select all 24 ellipses and click on the Combine button on the property Bar. Your image should now look like step 2 in Figure 1. Repeat the steps above this time filling the original ellipse with pink with a blue outline (See Steps 3 and 4 in Figure 1). Scale the second combined pink and blue shape to approximately 1/2 the size of the red and blue shape. Select both shapes and click on the Align button on the Property Bar. When the Align dialog box appears, check the center boxes in both the horizontal and vertical rows. With then two shapes still selected, blend the them together using a 10 step blend. Your finished image should look like Step 5 in Figure 1.

Let's try another pattern this time with a twist. Draw an ellipse approximately 1/2 inch wide by 2 inches tall just as you did with the first pattern. Give the ellipse a pale green fill with a black outline. Repeat all the steps as before to create the combined pattern effect with the center of rotation at the bottom of the ellipse. Make a second pattern effect as you did above but this time give the second ellipse a red outline and No fill. Before you rotate the ellipse with a 15 degree rotation make sure the center of rotation thumbtack is in the center default position (not the bottom of the ellipse). Leaving the thumbtack in the center will lower the number of duplicate ellipse to 11 to complete the circle. You will end up with a total of 12 ellipses. Now combine these 12 ellipses as before. After combining the ellipses, scale the pattern to approximately 1/4 the size of the larger pattern. Using the image at the left center of figure 2 as a guide, place the smaller pattern behind the larger pattern and center them as before. With the two shapes selected enter the number 10 in the Steps parameters box as before but this time also enter the number 45 in the Rotation parameters box. Now click on the Acceleration tab (the second from the left) and move the Accelerate Objects slider all the way to the right. Now click on the Apply button. Your pattern should look like the pattern at the lower left of Figure 2. Now repeat the steps above but this time place the small patter in front of the large pattern and center them together using the Align dialog box as before. Now with the two shapes still selected, enter the number 180 in the Rotation parameters box. Click on the Acceleration tab and move the Accelerate Objects slider all the way to the left. Click on the Apply button to complete the pattern. Your pattern should look like the pattern at the lower right of Figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Now lets have some fun morphing. Figure 3 shows how one might approach an way to invoke the senses by blending the word Sweet to the Word sour. Before any blending took place a background was created using a gradient fill of 60% Gray to White. The added visual of Cherries and the Lemon strengthen the message. In this example a basic 5 step blend was used on the words Sweet and Sour.

I wondered what the image would look like if I blended the Cherries and the Lemon together. The results are shown in Figure 4. After I blended the objects I separated the blend and brought the lemon to the Front in the stacking order. If your blended words get covered up, simply select the blend group of words and bring them to the front using the Order command.

Our next project involves using a blend to create a flower petal which will become a flower, which will become a pot of flowers. Figure 5 show the steps involved to create the petal and flower. They are as follows: Draw two ellipses one inside the other. I’ve marked one A and the other B. (See Step 1 in Figure 5) Convert both ellipses to curves by selecting each one separately and then clicking on Arrange | Convert to Curves. A quicker way is to click on the Convert to Curves button on the Property Bar. Add enough new nodes to each ellipse to create the shapes shown in Step 2 of Figure 5. Color the larger shape white and the smaller shape purple (See Step 3). Blend the two shapes using a 20 step blend (See Step 4). Move the center of rotation thumbtack to the bottom of the blended petal (See Step 4). Open the Rotation roll-up by clicking on Arrange | Transform | Rotate. Enter the number 45 in the Angle parameters box and click on Apply to Duplicate 7 times to create the flower (See Step 5). Using the ellipse tool, create a small circle and fill it with a radial fill of Purple to White. Place it in the center of the flower. select all the petals and the radial filled circle and group them together using the Group button on the Property Bar. That’s it, you just created a flower. Now lets add more flowers and put them in a pot. Make three duplicates of the flower. Create a separate Color Style for each of the duplicate flowers individually. If you create a color style for the original flower and then make duplicates the duplicates behave like clones. When you change a color within the style it changes the colors of all the duplicate flowers as well. After creating separate color styles for each flower, color each flower a different color. Arrange them as if you were creating a flower arrangement. I applied an envelope to the two outside flowers to give the arrangement a more natural look.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Create a flower pot similar to the one in Figure 6 and fill it with a linear fountain fill of black to orange. Place the pot behind the flowers using the Arrange | Order | To Back command. Now we will add a shadow under the pot using a Blend effect. Draw two ellipses one inside the other. Make the inside ellipse the size of the base of the pot. Make the outer ellipse extend beyond the flowers (See Figure 6). Fill the inside ellipse with Black and the outer ellipse with the color of the background. Blend the two ellipses together using a 20 step Blend.

You're getting better with each project. Now lets create a coiled rope using the Interactive Blend tool. Draw two small circles on the page spacing them approximately 5 inches apart. Give them a fill of light yellow with a brown outline. Select the Interactive Blend tool in the toolbox. Using the Interactive Blend tool, click and drag from one circle to the other. Release the left mouse button to create a 20-step blend (the default number of steps). Type 200 in the Steps parameter box and click the ENTER key on the keyboard. You could have used the spin buttons, but typing the number is faster when going from 20 to 200.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Draw a symmetrical spiral with four revolutions. Right-click the 200-step blend and select the Current Effect Roll-up from the Object menu. The Blend roll-up will appear on the screen. Click the Path button and select New Path from the flyout menu. The cursor will change to a crooked arrow. Use the crooked arrow to click the spiral. Then click the Apply button at the bottom of the Blend roll-up. The blend will be placed on the spiral. Click on the Blend along Full Path check box in the Blend Roll-up. The blend will now travel the entire length of the spiral and should look like the finished one in Figure 7. When creating blends on path, the Path may show along with the object on the path. To eliminate the path from showing select the path with the Shape tool and right click on the X at the top of the color palette, effectively making the path invisible. Finally we will learn the technique of Blending just the outlines of objects to each other instead of the Object's fill. This exercise uses two symbols from the Symbols roll-up. Follow the steps below: To follow along, open the Symbols roll-up and scroll down to the Transportation category. Drag symbols number 114 and 122 onto the page. Give each symbol a 8 point outline with no fill. Use the default black outline color. Select the bicycle and press the Plus (+) key on the keyboard to place a duplicate directly on top of itself. Give the duplicate symbol a hairline outline and change the default color to white. Select the two outlines and blend them together using a 15 step blend. Your bicycle should now have a slight three dimensional look to it (See Figure 8).

Figure 8