CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 62 pptx

You can achieve effects that range from flat, technical illustrations to highly polished metallic surfaces—which actually can work on their own without the need for lighting the object—a

You can achieve effects that range from flat, technical illustrations to highly polished metallic surfaces—which actually can work on their own without the need for lighting the object—and it all depends on the choices you make on the Color control window:

● Using an object’s fill The Use Object Fill option is the most straightforward to use, but it does not automatically create any sort of shading—if you choose to use the default object fill and the object is filled with a uniform color, it’s usually a good idea to give the control object an outline width whose color contrasts against the object fill color When Use Object Fill is selected, the Drape Fills option also becomes available (and is selected automatically) Drape Fills is discussed shortly; here is an example of a fountain-filled control object, with and without Drape Fills

● Choosing your own solid fill Choose Use Solid Color to set any uniform color to the extrude portion of your effect, regardless of the fill type currently applied to your object The secondary color option becomes available only when Use Color Shading

is selected

If an object has no outline width/color applied, it might be difficult to see the edges between the original and extruded portions Applying an outline to your original object might help define the edges of overall composition.

● Using color shading Choose Use Color Shading to add depth by using your object’s color as the From color and using black (by default) as the To color If the object to which you’ve applied your extrude effect is already filled with a fountain fill, Use Color Shading is selected automatically Visual separation between the extrude group objects and the suggestion of depth is easy to create using color shading

574 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide

Radial fountain fill control object, with Use Object Fill Radial fountain fill control object,with Use Object Fill, Drape Fills

● Draping your object’s fill over the extrude effect Draping, as used in

CorelDRAW’s extrude effect, means, “treat each extrude group object’s fill as a

unique item.” Say, for example, you have a patterned piece of cloth and you drape it

over a coffee table: you will see discontinuity in the pattern as each angle of the

folds of cloth travels in different directions in 3D space Similarly, draping creates

discontinuity in a pattern and fountain fill you apply to both the control object and

the extrude group of objects, as shown in Figure 19-7 At left, with Drape Fills

enabled, the polka dot shape (with some lighting applied) truly looks dimensional,

even though the two-color bitmap fill doesn’t change perspective (bitmap fills do not

take on the rotation angle of extrude objects; they’re always face forward) At right,

with Drape Fills turned off, the pattern proceeds across the object and the extrude

group of objects in a continuous pattern, as though it’s projected on the surface of

the shape instead of being the surface of the shape.

Drape fills can be artistically ineffective when your control object has a lot of nodes

and curve segments If an extrude yields a lot of facets, consider using a shading

other than Drape Fills.

● Using bevel color This option becomes available only if you’ve applied the Bevel

effect to an extruded shape Bevel options are located on the Bevels selector in the

property bar (covered in the next section) This is an important option to enable

when your object and its child extrude group have a fountain or bitmap pattern fill

Enabling Drape Fills does to the bevel edges what Drape Fills does to the extrude

group—it breaks up the pattern continuity, which in turn makes the overall object

more realistic in appearance

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Extrude color applied with

Use Solid Color option Extrude color applied withUse Color Shading option

To detach an extrude effect, right-click the extrude group and choose Break Extrude Group Apart This breaks the link between your original and its effect portion, making it a separate group that can be further broken down using the Ungroup command ( CTRL+U ) The result is that the control object adopts the perspective of the extrude effect; you can independently edit all objects for color and outline properties, and do some editing to manually increase the realism of your composition—some examples are shown at the end of this chapter This is a destructive edit, be forewarned, and the only way to reverse the process is via the Undo docker or by pressing CTRL+Z

Speak of the Bevel!

Bevels in the real world are the flattened edges where two planes meet on furniture to give it

an ornamental look, to make the furniture safer for kids romping around the living room, and to make furniture more expensive Similarly, the Bevel option in CorelDRAW’s extrude effect creates new objects, in perspective, that join the face and sides of an extrude object Bevel effects are built to put a cap on the front end of the control object Therefore, if an extrude is defined using a style that projects from front to back, the bevel is created as a group of objects facing you However, if you choose the Small Front style, the bevel will go

to the back face of the object, and without rotating the object the bevel will be hidden from view Bevel shape is based on the angle and depth defined using the Extrusion Bevels button, shown here:

576 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide

FIGURE 19-7 The Drape Fills options can make or break the realism you’re trying to

illustrate

With Drape Fills Pattern is discontinuous (looks realistic). Without Drape FillsPattern is continuous (looks hokey).

● Using bevels The Use Bevel option causes the bevel effect to become active and

makes available the remaining options in the control window Bevel effects can be

used only after an extrude effect has been applied

● Showing bevels only You might want not the extruded side but only the bevel

effect of an object to be visible; this is a quick and easy way to make a fancy,

engraved headline from artistic text Choose the Show Bevel Only check box, and

the extrude for the selected object is hidden, but can be restored at any future time

by unchecking this box You can rotate an object that has a Bevel effect, but the

extrude parts are hidden

● Setting bevel shapes The Bevel Depth and Bevel Angle options can be defined by

entering values in the corresponding fields on the Bevel pop-up on the property bar;

you can also click-drag in the proxy window to interactively define the angle and

depth Bevel Depth can be set between 0.001 inch and 1,980 inches Bevel Angle

may be set to a maximum of 89° Shallow angles of less than 30° often provide the

best visual results At significant depths, you might get self-intersections in the bevel

because control objects that have sharp curves along the path segments are difficult

for the bevel effect to reconcile mathematically If you see a “bad” self-intersecting

area, try reducing the Bevel Depth and/or changing the angle Figure 19-8 shows the

results of applying a bevel effect with and without an extrude effect involved

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Bevel Depth Bevel Angle

578 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide

Simplifying an Extrude

If you’ve created an extrude group you really like but clearly you can see that it’s made up of scores of shapes and you’re experiencing a problem working with the file

due to the sheer number of objects, you can perform some editing.

At the heart of any extrude group, as with any dimensional piece of artwork, lies color at any given point, and a geometry that supports colors You’d be surprised at how few objects that use fountain fills or even uniform fills can be used to substitute for the scores of shaded objects that make up a bevel and the extrude side of an extrude group Open Simplified.cdr (Figure 19-9); the extrude group at left is made up

of 105 individual objects At right, the extruded circle missing a notch is represented almost identically by using 7 objects Actually, the gradient on the object at right is smoother because its shading is represented by a fountain fill and not by dozens of individually colored shapes

To edit an extrude group such as this one, you first make a duplicate Then you pressCTRL+Kto break apart the duplicate so it’s no longer a dynamic extrude effect but is now a collection of objects With your choice of pen tools, you trace over the perimeter of a group of objects used in the extrude, and then assign it a fountain fill using multiple steps (covered in Chapter 15) It helps to move groups of extrude objects to a new layer, because when you ungroup them to keep only certain shapes,

you’ll wind up with a lot of unwanted objects However, editing an extrude group

down to its essentials and replacing objects is not time-consuming if you’re experienced in drawing new shapes, and this practice also puts a little more of your artistic ingenuity into the process of creating great designs

FIGURE 19-8 The shape of a bevel is determined by Bevel Depth and Bevel Angle

Original extrude

Extrude effect with bevel applied Show Bevel Onlyoption selected

Using Vector Extrude Presets

You might spend an hour or two creating the exact extrude effect you’ve envisioned, and

naturally it would be nice to save the parameters you’ve defined to later apply them to other

objects When the Extrude tool is active, you have an area on the property bar for applying

factory-designed presets as well as for saving and ditching presets, as shown in Figure 19-10

Extrude presets are used the same way as all other CorelDRAW presets You can save

and reapply them to any object that qualifies for the effect (in other words, no artistic media,

bitmaps, or objects that have an incompatible effect already in place) If you’ve never used

extrude presets or any other preset options before, do not pass “Go,” collect your wits, and

move on to the following tutorial

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FIGURE 19-9 Simplify an extrude group to make it look more the way you want it, and to

make it easier to print and export

Working with Extrude Preset Options

1. If you’ve already designed an extrude group, make sure the object you’re going to save as an extrude preset looks good, because when you save it, CorelDRAW builds

a full-color preview thumbnail

2. If you’re just starting and want to try out a factory preset, select an object and then choose the Extrude tool

3. Using the property bar, choose an extrude effect from the extrude Presets list The properties of the extrude effect are immediately applied, and its properties are shown

on the property bar

580 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide

FIGURE 19-10 Use these options to save your extrude properties as presets

Click to delete selected extrude preset in list.

Click to add selected

extrude effect as a preset.

Extrude Presets list

Target with applied preset

Sample extrude added to Presets list Preview of

selected preset

If you’re a longtime CorelDRAW user, you may have grown accustomed to applying extrude

effects using a docker; new users will probably find the interactive editing methods and the

options on the property bar to be more convenient to access, but the extrude docker is

available via Window | Dockers | Extrude The Extrude docker is organized into five areas:

Camera (referring to shape), Rotation, Light, Color, and Bevels, as shown here

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(Camera) Extrude

Rotation Light Color

Bevels

Although these options are organized differently from the property bar, all the options are there Using the docker method for extruding objects lets you choose extrude settings before applying them

Controlling Extrude Complexity Using Facet Size

When you apply the Use Color Shading option, the smooth curves and shading that are the visual result require complex calculations and produce a large number of extrude group objects to maintain curve smoothness The smoother the curve and shading, the better the display and print quality

When CorelDRAW creates an extrusion, the smoothness of curves and the number of

objects used to create shaded extrusion fills are controlled by a value called a facet Facet

size can be increased or decreased to control curve smoothing and object count This is what facet size is and does, so right now would be a good time to reveal where this option is

located, right?

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Copying and Cloning Extrude Effects

As with other effects in CorelDRAW, you can copy or clone from existing extrusions Neither operation requires the Extrude tool; both are accomplished by using menu commands

When copying an extrude effect, at least one extrude effect must be in view, and at least one object must be selected To copy an extrude effect, choose Effects | Copy Effect | Extrude From The cursor becomes a targeting cursor (the large right-facing arrow guy) Use this cursor to indicate to CorelDRAW the extrude portion of an existing extrude effect to copy all applied extrude properties If you’re using the Extrude tool, you can also copy the effect by clicking the Copy Extrude Properties button on the property bar and then clicking to target an existing extrusion

Cloning an extrude effect produces a slightly different result When an effect is applied through cloning, the master clone effect object controls the new effect Any changes made to the master are immediately applied to the clone To clone an extrude effect, you must have created at least one other extrude effect and have this object in view You must also have at least one object selected onscreen

To clone an extrude effect, choose Effects | Clone Effect | Extrude From Your cursor becomes a targeting cursor You then click the existing extrude effect you want

to clone by clicking directly on the extrude group portion of the effect The clone effect is not the same as Edit | Clone Effects | Clone Effect | Extrude From creates a clone object based on the shape of your choice, while Edit | Clone creates a daughter object without the need for an existing object to select from

In Options, you can also choose Save Facet Size With Document to avoid the need to

change the facet size each time your document is reopened Higher facet values cause

extrude curves to display and print less smoothly; lower values increase the smoothness of

extruded curves, but significantly increase display and printing times Figure 19-11 shows a

minimum facet size of 1" and a shape that has a lot of curved segments and lighting that

needs to be rendered using a correspondingly high number of extrude facets

In Figure 19-12 the Minimum Extrude Facet Size has been reduced to a fraction of an

inch; the little cocopelli guy looks extruded, the curved edges look smooth, and the

wireframe view shows why

Extruding shapes is something many artists who compete with you for jobs might not be

able to offer, especially if they don’t own CorelDRAW! However, it’s probably not a

career-enhancer to use the extrude effect (or any other effect) as a substitute for your own talent as

a designer Use extrude with good judgment Use it when you’re in a design rut and need

that certain something to perk up a piece, and don’t let yourself get branded as the Extrude

King or Queen (it even sounds rude!).

As a bonus for completing this chapter, you can download “Extrude examples.cdr,” a

page of novel uses in a design assignment for the extrude effect The text has been converted

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complexity of

curves, with Use

Color Shading

applied

Saves value

with document