Corel DRAW! Tutorials -- Contoured Text

 

Creating Contoured Text with Corel DRAW!

This tutorial will show you how to create Contoured Text in Corel DRAW! I used Corel DRAW! 7.0 for Windows. Some things may be done differently with other versions.



I've had a number of people write and ask how the title on the Corel DRAW! box is done. You know the look. It has black text surrounded by a gold gradient. The process is quite simple and, using it, you can achieve some really cool effects.

Open a new graphic. Choose the Text tool and enter some text. I used the Bedrock font at 200 points (see figure 3.1).

figure 3.1

Choose Effects, Contour which will bring up the Contour roll-up (see figure 3.2).

figure 3.2

Choose a color for the outline and the fill of the contour. Use a color for the fill that's different than the color of the text. This will make it easier to select the contour object later.

Choose the other tab in the contour roll-up and set the type to outside, the offset to 0.07 and the steps to 1.

Select the Pick tool to highlight the text and activate the Apply button in the contour roll-up.

Click Apply. This will give you an outline, or contour, around the text (see figure 3.3).

figure 3.3

Choose Arrange, Separate. This will break the contour away from the text and enable you to apply effects directly to the contour object.

De-select the text by left-clicking outside of the current selection.

Select the contour by left-clicking on it with the Pick tool.

NOTE: If you have trouble selecting the contour and find that you keep selecting the text, send the text to the back after selecting it. This will make selecting the contour much easier. You can move the contour to the back after selecting it.

With the contour selected it's time to lay some effects on it.

Click the Fill tool icon and select the Fountain Fill Dialog option. This will bring up the Fountain Fill Dialog box (see figure 3.4)

figure 3.4

Set the left end point to a pastel blue and add another white point and a brown point next to each other somewhere towards the middle. Set the Angle to -90.0 degrees. Click OK.

You should now have something like figure 3.5.

figure 3.5

You can add a border around the contour by selecting the Outline tool and selecting a size for the outline. I chose a slim outline as seen in figure 3.6.

figure 3.6

You can apply many different effects this way, including the gold outline seen on the Corel DRAW! box.

Figure 3.7 demonstrates a bitmap fill applied to the text.

figure 3.7

Play around with this and see what you can come up with and, above all, have fun.

Export the final image as a web-ready JPG or GIF and make sure you keep a copy of the vector drawing i.e. save the image as a CDR file so you can go back and make changes easily later on.

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Corel DRAW! Tutorials -- 3D Buttons

Creating 3D Buttons with Corel DRAW!

This tutorial will show you how to create 3D buttons in Corel DRAW! I used Corel DRAW! 7.0 for Windows. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

The buttons you'll draw during this tutorial were inspired by my stereo. I originally created these buttons for the first Earth Orbit Consulting web site. I subsequently went on to create the first GrafX Design online tutorial describing how I had created these buttons with Paint Shop Pro. To show you how some graphics can be created with a vector program as easily as they can be with a paint program, I'm re-creating that first tutorial here.

This technique involves a little more effort than the first Corel DRAW! tutorial though it's still rather simple.

Open a new graphic. Choose the ellipse tool and, while holding down the Ctrl key to constrain the ratio, draw a circle about 2.5 inches in diameter at the left of the page.

Select the pick tool and, with the circle selected, hit Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v to copy and paste the circle. Use the right cursor key to move the copy to the right of the page. (see figure 2.1).

figure 2.1

Select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle between the two circles. Make sure that the corners of the rectangle meet with the circles (see figure 2.2)

figure 2.2

Use the pick tool to draw a marquee around both circles and the rectangle. Click the intersection icon. This will only create the intersection of the left-most circle and the rectangle (see figure 2.3).

figure 2.3

Use the pick tool to draw another marquee around the right-most circle and the rectangle. Click the intersect icon again. You should now have two intersections with the rectangle. Choose the circles, one at a time, and delete them. This should leave you with something like figure 2.4.

figure 2.4

Use the pick tool to select the left-most curve and fill this object with a light gray. Select the right-most curve and fill this object with a dark gray (see figure 2.5).

figure 2.5

Select the fill tool and choose the gradient tool from the flyout menu. This will bring up the Fountain Fill dialog box. Under Color blend, select Custom. This will change the Fountain Fill dialog box so that it resembles figure 2.6.

figure 2.6

Add another point to the blend by double-clicking above the rectangular blend window. Change the middle point (the one you just added) to a light gray by clicking on the Current pulldown menu (it's just above the custom blend window). Change the color at both of the outside points to dark gray. Set the Angle to 90 and adjust the middle point so that your blend resembles the one in figure 2.6. Click OK.

NOTE: The custom blend starts out with only a beginning and an ending point. You can add more points to create your custom blend by double-clicking above the blend window. These points can also be moved by clicking and dragging.

Select the button with the pick tool and, using the outline tool flyout menu, set the outline to none.

Use Arrange, Transform, Scale and Mirror to resize the button.

At this point you might want to save the button (see figure 2.7).

figure 2.7

I exported the button as a JPG with the following settings in the Bitmap Export dialog box. The really important settings to remember are the Maintain aspect ratio and Super-sampling.

figure 2.8

Use the text tool to add some text to your button. I used the Bedrock font. You may choose to copy and paste the text with a different color to add a highlight (see figure 2.9).

figure 2.9

Export the final button as a web-ready JPG and make sure you keep a copy of the vector drawing i.e. save the image as a CDR file so you can go back and make changes easily later on.
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Corel DRAW! Tutorials -- Creating Complex Shapes

Creating Complex Shapes with Corel DRAW!

This tutorial will show you how to create complex shapes in Corel DRAW! I used Corel DRAW! 7.0 for Windows. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

It's fairly easy to create simple shapes with a vector drawing program such as Corel DRAW!. There are built-in tools for creating circles, ellipses, squares, rectangles and polygons, etc... You may wonder, though, how to create more complex shapes. The tools to help with this are there, as well, they're just not as obvious.

In this tutorial I'll demonstrate how to center objects, how to "combine" more than one shape to cut one shape from another and how to "weld" several shapes into one. I'll also show you how to duplicate objects while changing their size and how to rotate an object with its center of rotation changed so as to duplicate shapes around a single point that you determine.

Before we begin, let's take a look at the shape we'll be creating (see figure 5.1).

figure 5.1

You may recognize this shape as the shape that's used to signify radioactivity. I had this shape in mind for a new design that I wanted to use here at GrafX Design. You'll see it showing up here-and-there at the bottom of various pages.

At first glance you may not see how this shape can be created with circles and triangles. Take a look at figure 5.2, though, and you'll note that the radioactive symbol is made up of an outer circle (shown in blue), an inner circle (in red) and three triangles (in yellow).

figure 5.2

Start out by opening a new image.

NOTE: If you don't see the rulers at the top and left of the main window--choose View, Rulers. This will turn the rulers on.

To help with the exact placement of the different objects that make up the final shape you can set the guidelines. Simply click-and-drag down from the ruler at the top to create a horizontal guideline, and click-and-drag from the ruler at the left to create a vertical guideline (see figure 5.3).

figure 5.3

You want the quidelines to dissect the image in the center so set the vertical guideline at 4.25 inches (half of 8.5 inches, the width of the page) and set the horizontal guideline at 5.50 inches (half of 11 inches, the length of the page). You can see the coordinates of the guidelines change, as you move them, in the lower left of the screen.

Now you're ready to begin drawing.

Select the Ellipse tool and, while holding down the CTRL key to constrain the ellipse to a circle, draw a circle about 2.5 inches in diameter.

Choose Arrange, Align and Distribute. This will bring up the Align and Distribute dialog box. Choose the Align tab, select Center of Page and click OK. Your circle should now be centered over the guidelines.

Choose Arrange, Transform, Scale and Mirror to bring up the Scale and Mirror dialog box (see figure 5.4).

figure 5.4

Make sure there's a checkmark in the Proportional checkbox and enter 80% beside the H in the Scale window (with Proportional checked you won't need to set both the H, horizontal, and the V, vertical. Click on the Apply to Duplicate button.

Change the 80% to 20% and click the Apply to Duplicate button again. You should now have 3 centered circles (see figure 5.5). Select the Pick tool and click away from the circles to de-select them.

figure 5.5

Click on the outside circle, to select it, and then SHIFT-click the second circle to select it as well.

Choose Arrange, Combine. Nothing seems to have happened, but the inner circle has been cut away from the outer circle leaving a donut shape with a large hole in it. If you select a fill color now you'll see that this is true because the second circle doesn't fill in (see figure 5.6).

figure 5.6

What you've just done is you've created a new shape from two separate shapes.

Double-click the Polygon tool to bring up the Options dialog box. Set the shape to polygon and the number of points/sides to 3.

Place the cursor in the middle of the circles and click-and-drag up and to the left to create a triangle. It should be big enough to span the distance between the small circle and the new circular shape (see figure 5.7).

figure 5.7

Choose Layout, Snap to Guidelines.

You may want to zoom in to about 400% to help with the following steps.

Select the Pick tool and use it to select the triangle shape. Move the shape into position with its bottom corner at the center of the circles (see figure 5.8).

figure 5.8

With the Pick tool still selected, click on the triangle again to get the rotation arrows. Move the center of revolution to the same point as the bottom of the triangle (see figure 5.9).

figure 5.9

The center of revolution is a small circle with a dot in it. It will originally show up in the center of the triangle. You can click-and-drag it into place. Since the snap-to-guidelines is set it will snap into place in the center of the guidelines.

You should still have the Scale and Mirror dialog box open. Choose Rotation. Set the Angle to 120 deg. and click the Apply to Duplicate button to create a second triangle. Click the Apply to Duplicate button once more to create a third triangle (see figure 5.10).

figure 5.10

Click anywhere to clear the selection and then click-and-drag a marquee around all of the shapes to select all of the objects.

Near the top-right of the screen you should see the Weld icon (see figure 5.11).

figure 5.11

Clicking on this icon will complete the image (see figure 5.12).

figure 5.12

Make sure you keep a copy of the vector drawing i.e. save the image as a CDR file so you can go back and make changes easily later on.

Of course, this final image was only really half of the design I had envisioned. To complete the design I exported the image as an EPS file and opened it in Photoshop. I then added some texture using Auto/FX. I played with the color, contrast and brightness, and lighting until I had the exact texture I wanted. I also added an Inner Bevel using Alien Skin's Eye Candy. Finally, I added a custom radial gradient behind the shape. There was still something missing, though, so to finish up I went back to Corel DRAW! and I created some text along a circular path and exported that, too. I then opened the text in Photoshop and cut-and-pasted it over the radioactive image to arrive at the completed design you see below (figure 5.13).

figure 5.13

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Corel DRAW! Tutorials -- Animated Logos

Creating Animated Logos with Corel DRAW!

Animated GIFs

This tutorial will demonstrate how you can create an Animated GIF logo. I used Corel DRAW! 7.0 for Windows for this technique. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

Putting a New Spin on Your Logo

I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably the last person to jump on the "Animated GIF" bandwagon. To be honest, I didn't really see the potential for animated GIFs. Most of the early images I saw were kind of cheesy. On top of that, I prefer keeping my images' download time to a minimum, and animated GIFs can get rather large very quickly.

Recently, though, I've seen the light. Done right, animated GIFs can be pretty cool. And, with today's GIF animation software, animated image file size can be kept quite reasonable. Animated GIFs can be real attention-getters on banner ads, can really add to the appeal of a static logo, and they can certainly add some pizzazz to a web page.

Animated 3D text has become so popular on the web, in fact, that there are now several dedicated programs available for you to choose from. These programs, produced by software companies such as Xara and Ulead, make the creation of animated 3D text as simple as point-and-click.

What if you need to do more than animate simple text? Normally you might think of resorting to a dedicated 3D-rendering program. These programs can be expensive, though, and they often have pretty steep learning curves. So what can you do? Well, you can use Corel DRAW! to create the frames for your animated masterpiece. That's right! Corel DRAW! has all the features necessary to help you create a 3D animated logo.

Here's how you can use the extrusion features to give depth to, light, and spin your creation...

Open a new graphic in Corel DRAW! (I'm using version 7, but the method should translate well to other versions).

I'll be creating a simple logo using the first letters of GrafX Design, my design company.

First I entered the text using the Text tool. I then selected the text by clicking on the Pick tool. This enabled me to change the font and the size of the text. I chose Braggadocio at 72 points.

Because I didn't want to create just simple text, but rather I wanted a logo, I decided to cut the text out of a simple oval shape. To do that, I selected the Ellipse tool and dragged an oval shape around the text.

To line these elements up, marquee-select them all with the Pick tool and choose Arrange, Align and Distribute. In the Align and distribute dialog box, check Center of Page and click OK.

With the elements still selected, click the Combine button on the property bar. This will combine, or cutout, the text from the oval.

You can change the color of the oval logo by left-clicking a color on the color palette. I choose a light blue color (see figure 9.1).

figure 9.1

Now that the logo design is complete (as simple as it is), it's time to extrude the image, light it, and start creating the separate frames you'll need in order to complete the animation.

Choose Effects, Extrude to bring up the Extrude dialog box (see figure 9.2). This is where you'll do most of the work needed to create the frames of your spinning animation.

figure 9.2

In this dialog box you'll see 5 tabs. The first three, Extrude, Rotate, and Lighting are the ones you'll need to use to create the frames for your animation.

The first thing you should do is extrude the logo. This process gives your logo some depth, i.e. it adds the 3rd dimension to your image.

Click on the first tab if it's not already active. You can now set the basic shape, viewpoint, and depth of your image. I set the shape to "Small Back," the viewpoint to "VP Locked To Object," and the depth to 2.0. You can play around with the various choices until you get the look you're after. When you're done, click Apply.

The next thing you will do is create the lighting.

Click the third tab. Turn on the first light by clicking the first lightbulb icon (or Light switch 1).

You can now position the light by dragging the small black icon around the 3D grid. You must place the icon on an intersection. I chose the upper-right corner. Once you've chosen the position for your light, click Apply.

At this point you won't really see much difference in your image. It's coming, though.

Click on the 2nd tab. This option enables you to rotate the logo in 3D space. You'll notice the Corel symbol that's visible in the middle of the dialog box (see figure 9.3).

figure 9.3

This symbol can be dragged around with the mouse, and its position will correspond to the position of your image in 3D space once you click Apply. Changing the position in this manner is a lot of fun. However, you'll need to be more exacting when creating your frames. Below and to the right of the Corel symbol is a small, bent-cornered, rectangular icon. Clicking on this icon will replace the Corel symbol with a set of coordinates, or rotation values. The first controls the rotation about the x-axis, the second about the y-axis and the third about the z-axis. Because I'll be spinning my logo around the y-axis, I'll only need to change the values for number 2.

Before you start to apply the rotation values you should save the first frame. Obviously the first frame doesn't need to be rotated.

Before saving the first frame, though, create a white (or some other color, if you prefer) bounding box around your logo image. You'll need to do this because of the way Corel DRAW! saves an image. When Corel DRAW! saves an image it doesn't keep all of the white space you see around the onscreen representation. Instead, all of that white space is cropped off. It's best to have all of the frames of your animation the same size, and adding the bounding box will assure that this is the case.

Select the Rectangle tool and draw a box around your image. It doesn't have to be much bigger than the image but it should give you a little extra elbowroom.

On the color palette, left-click the color that you want the box to be. This hides your logo, of course. Press CTRL-Page Down until the box moves to the back and your logo is again visible.

To center everything again, marquee-select all of the objects and then select Arrange, Align and Distribute. Place a check mark in the Center of Page box and click OK.

To save the first frame of your animation, choose File, Export. In the Export dialog box, choose a folder in which to store the image, give your file a name, and choose a file type. I like to use the BMP file format, (because it's 24-bit and it's a format most animation programs recognize) and let the animation program handle the palette. I also like to name the frames in sequence. I started this sequence as GD00.BMP.

Click Export to bring up the Bitmap Export dialog box.

Set the colors to 16 Million Colors. Set the Size to Custom and place a checkmark in the Maintain Aspect Ratio box. You can leave the Resolution at anywhere from 72 dpi to 96 dpi because the animation is intended for screen viewing. I always like to set Anti-aliasing to Super-sampling. Once you have entered all of the settings, click OK to save the image.

Now you're ready to rotate the logo.

By adding the bounding box you de-selected the logo. Simply use the Pick tool to re-select the logo.

Back at the Extrude dialog box, click Edit and enter 10 in the 2nd spin control. Click Apply to apply the rotation. You could rotate the logo by a value of 1 rather than 10 each time, and this would result in an extremely smooth animation. However, it would also result in an unacceptably large final file size.

The 2nd frame (see figure 9.4) is ready to be saved. Not so bad, eh?

figure 9.4

Choose File, Export and name the second frame. I named mine GD01.BMP. You'll need to select the Maintain Aspect Ratio and Super-sampling boxes again.

That completes the 2nd frame.

Back at the Export dialog box, click Edit and enter 20 in the 2nd spin control. Export this frame.

Continue on until you hit the value 70. You'll notice that the image is now at 90 degrees (see figure 9.5).

figure 9.5

This occurs because Corel DRAW uses the values -100 to 100 for the rotation values and not, as you might expect, 0-360 degrees.

After saving the frame with the value at 70, start back down using negative values. Start with -60, then -50, etc, until you hit -10. Although, technically, using these values won't spin the logo so that you see the back of it, using these numbers will give your animation the appearance of spinning 360 degrees around the y-axis.

You should now have 14 frames numbering 00 through 13. You're ready to animate your logo!

It's time to fire up your animation program. I'm currently using Ulead's GIF Animator. I like it because it's relatively easy to use-it offers animation and optimization wizards, has good palette control, and accepts a fairly wide range of file formats.

After opening GIF Animator, I created the final animation, which can be seen below. Because the wizards work so well, I simply chose to use all of the defaults.

When the animation program opens, it offers you a chance to use the Animation Wizard. This wizard enables you to Add Images/Videos. From this first dialog box, you can add the images, or frames of your animation. Simply point to the folder where you stored the separate frames. There's a small quirk, though. The frames will not be in sequence unless you follow this simple rule: Choose the last file in the sequence and then, while holding down the shift key, click on the first filename in the sequence. Click OPEN. You can click through the remaining choices by choosing Next each time. The one place you might want to stray from the default is the Frame Duration. I like my animations to run more quickly than the default and usually choose 10/100's of a second rather than the 25/100's. In the last dialog box, choose Finish to close the wizard.

To see how your animation will appear, click on the Start Preview button. You'll see your animation for the first time. Pretty cool, eh?

If everything looks okay, you can choose File, Optimization Wizard. Again, you should be able to just let the wizard do its thing. My final, optimized, spinning logo weighs in at a pretty good 11K. If you're not happy with the final result, re-run the wizard and tweak some of the settings. Some of the biggest savings can be achieved by lowering the color depth. I saved the logo with 64 colors, but I probably could have gone lower without sacrificing too much of the image's quality. You should spend a little time getting to know the animation software. Most of the packages I've tried are fairly easy to use and come with pretty extensive online help.

That's it. I invite you to play around with some text and some different shapes in Corel DRAW!. Try adding a bevel (use the last tab in the Extrude dialog box), or adding a second and third light, etc. Extrude your images to different depths and try filling them with textures as well as solid colors. Pretty soon you'll be wowing the visitors at your web site with all manner of spinning and moving logos and buttons.

figure 9.6

NOTE: If you'd like more information on creating animated GIFs visit our Animated GIF pages.

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Corel DRAW! Tutorials -- Cracked Text

Creating a Cracked Text Effect with Corel DRAW!

This tutorial will demonstrate how you can create a Cracked Text effect. I used Corel DRAW! 8.0 for Windows for this technique. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

One of the things that's so cool about vector drawing programs is that certain effects that would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to re-create in a paint program are so easy to accomplish with a drawing program.

This next effect, "cracked text", is no exception. This wouldn't be easy to do in a paint program but you can follow along and get this one done in just minutes with Corel DRAW!

To get started, open a new file and use the Text Tool to enter some text. I entered the word "Cracked" in 100 point using Arial Black (see figure 8.1).

figure 8.1

You might want to zoom-in a little to work on the image. To do so, just select the Zoom Tool and click on the image workspace until the text fills the screen.

Select the Eraser Tool. It's in the second space from the top of the toolbar. If you don't see it hold the mouse down for a moment until the flyout menu appears.

Use the up or down arrows to adjust the size of the tool. How big or small should it be? Why just the right size for the cracks, of course. All kidding aside, it really depends on the size of your text and how big you'd like the cracks to be. With the 100 point text that I used I set the tool to 0.05 inches.

Now click-and-drag the tool over the text in short jagged moves so that it breaks up the letters (see figure 8.2).

figure 8.2

Continue until you've created cracks in all of the letters (see figure 8.3).

figure 8.3

Now, here's where the cool tricks that Corel DRAW can do come in!

Choose Effects, Extrude.

In the Extrude dialog box set the Depth to 5 and click Apply.

Choose the Lighting icon and click on at least one light. Place it where you'd like the light to come from. I chose the upper-right corner.

Click on the Rotational icon and position the text the way you want it appear.

My final image can be seen in figure 8.4.

figure 8.4

Have some fun with this. You might even want to try it on images other than text.




That's it.... Be sure to check out some of our other Corel DRAW! tutorials.

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