Lesson 1
Creating Simple Objects
In this
lesson we'll start with a brief overview of vector graphics and what they are.
After a short discussion on opening and saving documents in Microsoft
Expression Code Name Acrylic Graphic Designer v4.0d [872]Expression
3, [SA1] we'll move on to create simple
objects using the shape tools and learn to apply strokes and fills to these
objects. This lessons assumes that you are either familiar with Expression's
interface or that you have become familiar with the interface by reading the
Expression Interface Primer.
Reminder to Mac users: When the term Ctrl is used herein, substitute the Command key. [SA2]
What are vector graphics?
Vector
graphics are lines and curves defined as mathematical objects. Each path or shape
that you create in Expression is an individual object which can be manipulated
by editing the nodes attached to the path or shape. These objects can be moved,
reshaped and resized without losing quality. Graphics software which create
vector graphics are referred to as vector-based or object-oriented drawing or
illustration programs. In this lesson we well work with shapes. We'll discuss
paths in a future lesson when we explore Expression drawing tools. Let's get
busy and find out why Expression, in my humble opinion, is the best drawing
program on the market today.
Expression
is primarily a vector drawing program with bitmap capabilities. Vector graphics
are opened in Expression using the File > Open item on the menu bar. Expression
supports all previous versions of Expression, Illustrator 9 and earlier (.ai
files), EPS, WMF, and EMF Bitmap graphics, on the other hand, are imported into
an opened Expression document using the File > Insert Bitmap option.
Bitmap file formats that can be imported are PSD, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP
(windows only). You can also open recently opened documents using the list of
recently opened documents at the bottom of the File menu (Expression saves a
list of 10 recently opened documents for easy access).
Expression
will only save vector graphic files in it's own .xpr file format. For crash
recovery purposes, Expression periodically saves modified documents into rescue
files. Thus, in the event of a crash, the next time you open Expression, it
will open with a copy of the document you worked on before the crash. When
saving documents you have a choice of File > Save to save changes to
an existing document, File > Save As for saving new documents or File
> Save a Copy to save a previously saved document under a new file name.
In the event that you've saved a document but were unhappy with the changes
you've made, you can revert back to the previously saved document using File
> Revert to Saved. To save bitmap documents, use File > Save as
Bitmap and choose from one of the available file formats.
If you
haven't done so already, open a new document by choosing File > New
from the menu bar or by using the Ctrl-N shortcut. Set your view preference. I
like the 'actual size' option which you can choose by using the shortcut Home
key on your keyboard or by choosing View > Actual Size from the menu
bar. You may prefer 'center view' in which case you would use the Shift-Home
shortcut key. Expression does not remember your preference so you'll have to do
this each time you open a new document.
Let's take a
quick look at the ToolBox palette before moving on to creating simple shapes.
The ToolBox
[SA3] Expression sports an impressive
arsenal of tools for creating vector objects. As you'd suspect, these tools live
in the ToolBox which should be the top palette on the left side of the
Expression interface unless you've move it to a new location. The tools you'll
use most often are the Object Select tool (first tool in the top row) and the
Node tool (first tool in the bottom row). The Object Select tool allows you to
move objects without disturbing the object's shape. The Node tool, which can
also be used as an object selection tool, allows you to edit individual nodes
on a path.
Hold your
mouse pointer over any tool and a tool tip will appear to tell you the name of
the tool, followed by the letter of the keyboard shortcut for that tool.
The tools
you see on the ToolBox are only a few of the tools available. A slash in the
corner of a tool button means that other tools are available below the
displayed tool. As you can see from the graphic above, only the Hand, Zoom and
Text tools occupy a space by themselves. To access hidden tools, press on a
tool button and hold momentarily until the drop down list of available tools
appear, and then scroll down to the desired tool and release the mouse when
you've reached the tool you want. For this lesson we will work primarily with
the shape tools, all of which live under the Rectangle tool (5th tool in the
top row).
Creating Simple Shapes
In addition
to a few new shape tools, Expression now supports the ability to create shapes
in precise dimensions. Clicking on the document window with any shape tool
brings up that tool's specification box, unless you choose to disable this feature
in Preferences (discussed a little later in this lesson). Each specification
box will display input boxes appropriate to the tool chosen. Figure 1 below
shows the Rectangle Specification box.
Figure 1 - Rectangle Specification Box.
The X and Y
Base Point, the first two input boxes in all specification boxes, will always contain
the x and y coordinates of the location where you clicked in the document
window. You can change these coordinates when you want the lower left corner of
the shape to be in a different location than where you clicked, assuming the
'Based at' specification in the last item in the specification box is set to
'Corner.' Otherwise, if the 'Based at' item is set to center, the x and y base
point will be the center of the rectangle instead. Let's do an exercise so you
fully understand this concept.
|
Exercise
1: Open a document if you haven't already done so. Go to File
> Preferences and choose Tools from the drop down box at the top of
the Preferences dialog box. If there is no check mark in the 7th item in the
General Options section labeled 'Obj. tools click shows input dialog,' check
this item and press the OK button to close the dialog box. Choose
the Rectangle tool in the ToolBox by clicking on it. Set your rulers to
inches using the drop down menu in the upper left corner of the document
window where the rulers meet. Move your mouse over the document and notice
the lines that appear on the rulers and how they move as the mouse moves.
Move the mouse until the lines on the rulers are as close to the 3 inch mark
on the top ruler and the 6 inch mark on the left hand ruler and then click on
the document at that location. This will launch the Rectangle Specification
box[SA4] . Notice
the x and y coordinates and how they match the location of the point where
you clicked on the document. Now look at the last item in the Rectangle
Specification box and if 'Corner' is not the selected option, choose it from
the drop down box. Click on the OK button and a rectangle shape appears on
the document. Notice that the lower left corner of the rectangle is placed at
the 3 inch mark on the horizontal, and at the 6 inch mark on the vertical
ruler. (Hover your cursor over the lower left corner of the rectangle and
notice the marks on the rulers to confirm this.) Click the Delete key on your
keyboard to delete the rectangle and let's change the 'Based at' option to
center. Click on
the document again at the same location to display the specification box and
change the 'Based at' option to Center. Close the dialog box by clicking the
OK button and notice that the center of the rectangle is now at the
coordinates you specified. Go ahead
and delete the rectangle if you'd like. We'll create a new one in the next
exercise. For now, let's return to our discussion on the specification box
options. |
The next two
input boxes on the specification box allow you to enter the width and height of
an object, and each specification box will contain the default width and height
dimensions for the particular shape tool you choose. All dimensions are stated
according to your ruler settings. Because your rulers are set to inches, the
dimensions in your specification dialog box are stated in inches. Setting your
rulers to points would cause the specification box to display values in points.
You can enter different units of measure than what is displayed, however. For
example, if your rulers are set to inches, you can still type '400pt' as a
value in a value text box and Expression will create the rectangle in points.
The
specification boxes take a little getting used to. If you want to disable the
specification boxes, go to Preferences > Tools and uncheck the item
labeled 'Obj. tools click shows input dialog' in the General options section.
Disabling the specification box feature simply means that you will create
objects by dragging with the shape tools instead of entering dimensions in the
specification box. By the end of this lesson you'll know which method works
best for you. Let's move on to examine the shape tools available to us.
From top to bottom, the shape
tools include the Rectangle tool, the Ellipse tool, the Star tool and the Line
tool. If you use the shape tools often, you'll want to learn the shortcut keys
for selecting other tools and we'll practice this in the next exercise. Let's
examine each of the shape tools.
Rectangle
Tool: The
Rectangle tool is not new, but the ability to create rounded corner rectangles
is. When you choose the Rectangle tool, a slider appears at the right end of
the top row of the Toolbox which allows you to set the roundness of the corners
of a square or rectangle. Moving the slider all the way to the left end of the
slider produces square corners. The corners become rounder as you move the
slider to the right. Moving the slider all the way to the right will draw ovals
and circles. You must, however, choose your setting before creating the
rectangle or square. The slider has no effect on the shape once the shape has
been created. If you choose to use the specification box for this tool, you can
enter the roundness specification in the input box labeled, appropriately,
'Roundness.' Let's create another rectangle, this time with rounded corners.
We'll practice moving and deselecting objects as well.
|
Exercise
2: With the Rectangle tool still active, move the slider
on the right end of the ToolBox to the right until the tool tip says 20%. If
you want exactly 20% but can't get that value by moving the slider, double
click on the slider and enter the value in the resulting dialog box. (There's
almost always more than one way to do things in Expression.) Place your
mouse anywhere on the document and drag out a rectangle approximately 3
inches long and 1 inch deep. The rectangle now has rounded corners. Each
rectangle you create will have 20% rounded corners until you change it. Why
didn't the specification box appear this time? If you simply click on the
document with a shape tool, the specification box appears. Clicking and
dragging creates the rectangle without the specification box. The Shift
key is a modifier key for the shape tools. Hold down the shift key and drag
another rectangle shape. Notice that the only shape you can draw with the
rectangle tool now is a square shape. No matter how hard you try, the top and
bottom sides of the shape will always be equal in measurement to the left and
right sides of the shape when the Shift key is pressed before dragging. Notice
also that as you drag new shapes, previously drawn shapes become deselected.
Only the last shape you create is active. To select a different object,
choose the Object Select tool and click on another object to select it.
Choose the Rectangle tool and draw another rectangle and all other objects
become deselected. When
you're learning the Expression program, it's to your advantage to learn the
shortcut keys for choosing tools. Click the letter S key (lower case, not a
capitol S) on your keyboard to select the Object Select tool and notice that
a 'bounding box' appears around the last rectangle you created. (We will
discuss the bounding box a little later in the lesson.) Click on the first
rectangle you created, by clicking on edge of the rectangle, and it is now
the active object. Click on the edge of the first rectangle again and move
the rectangle to a new location. Now click the letter R key, which is the
shortcut key for the Rectangle tool, and the Rectangle tool is now the active
tool. Watch the ToolBox as you alternate between pressing the S and R
shortcut keys to see how it tells you which tool is the active tool. Press
the letter R key and drag a new rectangle. Press the
letter S key again for the Object Select tool. This time, click and drag from
the upper left corner of the document window to the lower right corner and
release the mouse to select all objects on the document window. Click on one
of the selected object and move it. Notice that all of the objects move
because all of the objects are selected. Now click anywhere on the document
window to deselect all objects. Unlike other drawing programs, you don't have
to encase an entire object to select it. With the Object Select tool, drag a
marquee around only part of one of your rectangles to selected it. Click the
letter R key again for the Rectangle tool. Drag out another rectangle but
this time, before releasing the mouse, hold down the Ctrl key and continue to
drag. Holding down the Ctrl key before releasing the mouse allows you to
rotate the rectangle. Notice how the upper right corner of the rectangle is
anchored, allowing rotation from that point. But what if you want a square,
instead of a rectangle, and to rotate the square? You do what I call the
finger dance. First, before clicking on the document, hold down the Shift key
and start to drag the square. When the square is the size you want, release
the Shift key (but don't release the mouse) and hold down the Ctrl key and
drag to rotate the square, which again rotates from the upper left corner. If
you find the finger dance too complicated, you can always use the
specification box method and enter the degree of rotation in the Rotation
box. (Entering a positive number in the 'Rotation' text box will rotate the
rectangle or square counterclockwise. A negative number will rotate the
rectangle or square clockwise.) Now click
away from the rectangle to deselect the shape. The object is deselected,
unless you activated the specification box feature in Preferences in which
case you'll get a specification box instead. If you choose to use the
specification box feature, you will benefit by remembering the shortcut key
for the Object Select tool. Whew!
That was a lot of information for one exercise! If you think you'll use the
shape tools often, spend some time practicing this exercise until you are
comfortable with it before moving on. You have an entire week to complete
this lesson. |
Ellipse
Tool: With the
Ellipse tool you have the ability to choose whether to draw an ellipse from the
bounding box (the upper left hand corner of the object), or from the center.
Choose the Ellipse and notice the two buttons at the end of the top row of the
ToolBox, which was previous occupied by the slider when the Rectangle tool was
selected. The first button, labeled 'From Bounding Box' draws from the point at
which you click on the document window to where you drag and release the mouse.
The second button draws from the point at which you click outward from the
center. If you choose to use the specification box, these options are available
as the last item in that box. Notice also the button below the two buttons just
mentioned. This button gives you easy access to the Arc Modes which were
previously only available from the Objects menu on the menu bar. We'll discuss
Arc Modes a little later. First, another exercise is in order and I promise not
to overload you with information this time!
|
Exercise
2: If you just worked through the last exercise, either the
Rectangle tool or the Object Select tool is active. If the Object Select tool
is active, click the letter R key on your keyboard to switch back to the
Rectangle tool. Look at the Rectangle tool in the ToolBox and click the
letter R key on your keyboard repeatedly and notice how this shortcut key
cycles through the shape tools. Continue tapping the letter R key until you
reach the circle icon which represents the Ellipse tool. With the
Ellipse tool now active, click on the document and drag down and to the right
to create a circle or oval shape. Press the letter S key for the Object
Select tool, click on an edge of the circle and drag it to a new location and
release the mouse. Now click the letter R key again and notice that you are
back to the Ellipse tool. Pressing the letter R key once returns you to the
shape tool you were using before selecting another tool. Clicking on the
letter R key a second time will take you to the next shape tool in the list.
Again, just continue to press the letter R shortcut key until you reach the
tool you need. Pretty slick! Click the
first button on the right end of the ToolBox, labeled 'From Bounding Box' and
drag down and to the right to create a circle shape. Notice that the circle
draws from the upper left corner where you clicked and began to drag, and
that an x appears at that point until you release the mouse. Click the other
button, labeled 'From Center' and drag another circle. This time your circle
is drawn from the center. Regardless of the button you choose, holding the
Shift key before dragging creates a perfect circle. Without holding the Shift
key, you can create oval shapes. You can't rotate a circle like you can a
rectangle so holding the Ctrl key has no effect. |
Arc modes are
a little hard to explain. Basically, it's a feature that allows you to alter
the shape of an oval or circle by cutting sections from them. If you click on
the Arc mode button on the right end of the ToolBox and hold for a second
you'll see three options; With Chord, Pie Mode and Open Arc. These modes are
only available to the Ellipse tool. Play along with me as I explain the
different modes.
The 'With
Chord' option allows you to create a straight edge along one side of a circle
or oval shape. To create any of the Arc mode options requires the use of the
Node tool. Below is an example of the With Chord option.
Figure 2 - With Chord option applied to a circle.
The 'With
Chord' option is the default option for the Ellipse tool so I will assume that
it is the active Mode for you. Hold your mouse over the Arc Mode tools and look
at the tool tip. If it doesn't say 'With Chord,' hold and drag on the Arc Mode
button and choose the top button is the resulting list of Arc Mode buttons.
With the Ellipse tool, drag out a circle shape. It doesn't have to be a
perfectly round circle. Look closely at the circle and notice the red arrow at
the top. This arrow is the only point from which you can create a straight
edge. Click the letter A key on your keyboard to activate the Node tool. With
the Node tool, click the red arrow on the circle shape and drag along the edge
of the circle, either clockwise or counter clockwise. Notice the line that
follows your mouse as you drag. Release the mouse and the portion of the circle
between the red arrow and point at which you released the mouse disappears.
This is the 'With Chord' option.
The 'Pie
Mode' cuts pie shaped wedges from a circle. Press the R key to return to the
Ellipse tool and drag another circle. Notice the line from the red circle to
the center of the circle this time. Go back to the Node tool (letter A shortcut
key), click on the red arrow at the top of the circle and drag as you did
before. If you drag clockwise, a pie shape piece is cut from the circle. If you
drag counter clockwise, everything but the pie shape disappears. Below is an
example of Pie Mode:
Figure 3 - Pie Mode option applied to a circle.
The 'Open
Arc' option allows you to remove a section of the circle without altering the
overall shape of the circle. Choose the Ellipse tool (by now you know which
shortcut key you need), choose the 'Open Arc' option and once again drag out a
circle shape. Use the letter A shortcut key (for the Node tool) and drag from
the red arrow either clockwise or counter clockwise. Again, if you drag clockwise,
a section of the circle from the red arrow to the point at which you release
the mouse disappears. Drag counter clockwise and only the section from the red
arrow to the point at which you released the mouse remains. Below is an example
of Open Arc:
Figure 4 - Open Arc option applied to a circle.
The only
real difference between the 'With Chord' option and the 'Open Arc' option is
the 'Chord,' or the visible line, as you probably guessed (compare figures 2
and 4). Also, think of dragging in a counter clockwise direction as sort of a
shortcut. If you drag counter clockwise, you are obtaining the same shape as
you would if you had dragged clockwise and released the mouse at the same point
along the edge of the circle. Try this if it will help you to understand what's
happening here. Create a circle and drag counter clockwise, releasing the mouse
about 1/3 the overall distance of the circle. Create another circle and drag
clockwise, releasing the mouse at the same point. The resulting shapes are
identical. This is true for all Arc Modes.
Before we
move on to the Star tool, switch back to the Node tool (letter A shortcut key).
Click and drag from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the
document window and release the mouse to select all objects. I had you do this
to show you that the Node tool is also a selection tool, in addition to a node
editing tool, so when the Node tool is active you don't have to go after the
Object Select tool (shortcut letter S key) to select objects.
Star Tool: The Star tool creates stars and
polygon shapes. The Star tool gives you several setting options at the right
end of the Toolbox. Using the shortcut key which you've memorized by now,
switch to the Star tool to see the option buttons. The first button on the top
row of the Toolbox is the Break at Joints button (mislabeled 'Break at joins').
With this button depressed, a stroke is applied from point to point on a star
shape instead of being stretched along the entire outside edge of the star. I
know we haven't discussed strokes yet, but we will soon so bear with me. This
button must be pressed before dragging the shape; it will have no effect after
the shape is created.
To the right
of the Break at Joints button is the Number of Points meter. This lets you set
the number of points for the star shape, but again you must set a value before
creating the star. Star shapes can have from 3 to 99 points.
The sliders
below the Break at Joints button and Number of Points meter are the Inner
Depth/Star Variation sliders. The top slider determines the distance from the
outer points of the star toward the center. With a low setting (moving the
slider all the way to the left) you can create polygon shapes. All the say to
the right will give you spikes. In figure 5 below, the first star is drawn with
a 20% setting in the top slider and the second star was drawn with an 80%
setting:
Figure 5 - Star shape with 20% and 50% Inner Depth
settings.
A 50%
setting in the top slider, and a 0% setting in the bottom slider, is the
setting for a perfect star shape.
The bottom
slider is hard to describe. It gives you random inner depth shapes, meaning
that the inner distance from each point in a star will be different. What in
the world would you use this feature for, you might be asking. I suspect that
Creature House had cartooning in mind when they added this feature. In Figure 6
below, I have created a 15 point star with both sliders set at 50%, creating a
cartoon speech balloon effect:
Figure 6 - Speech balloon effect.
Another,
less obvious star tool feature is the twirl feature. Like the rectangle tool,
holding down the Ctrl key at the end of a drag anchors the star and allows you to
twirl the points. Try this: give the star tool a 15 point setting, with a 50%
inner depth and 0% variation and drag a star shape without releasing the mouse
when you've reached the desired size. Press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the
star shape in a clockwise direction. Notice that the points begin to twirl. You
can twirl in either direction. Figure 7 is a 15 point star with a
counter-clockwise twirl.
Figure 7 - Star twirled counter-clockwise.
Like the
other shape tools, each settings available on the ToolBox for the Star tool is
also available from the Star Specification box. The Rotation input box twirls a
star counter-clockwise with a positive value and clockwise with a negative
value.
Line Tool: The Line tool is straight
forward and it too has a specification box. From the specification box you can
set the beginning and ending x and y coordinates. To drag a line, simply click
on the document where you want your line to begin, drag to the position where
you want the line to end, and release the mouse.
Notice I
left you alone to experiment with the Star and Line tools. By now you know the
shortcut keys and how to create shapes. Now, create a rectangle shape on your
document and select it so we can give it some strokes and fills. An object must
be selected before you can apply a stroke or fill to it.
The Paint
Style Palette
The Paint Style palette is where
much of the fun lives. It houses all sorts of features, some of which are not
readily apparent. Like all other palettes, running your mouse along various
parts of the palette displays tool tips to identify each feature. Run your
mouse over the very top row of buttons and you will see that these buttons are
"stroke" buttons. From left to right, the buttons are as follows:
No
Stroke - Click
this button if you don't want a stroke applied to your object.
PS Stroke: This is the plain stroke button. Nothing fancy, just a plain
stroke.
Gradient Stroke: This is the button you'd choose to apply a gradient
stroke.
SK Stroke: Let the fun begin! This is the Skeletal Stroke button.
Make sure your shape
object is selected and click each of the stroke buttons to see how it affects
the object. (Remember that an object must be selected before a stroke or fill
can be applied to it.) Click on the No Stroke button and the stroke around your
object disappears. Try the Gradient button and notice that not only did the
stroke change to a colored gradient, but that the color section of the Paint
Style palette is replaced with a list of gradients. We'll discuss the color
section shortly.
Under the
stroke buttons you'll find the stroke width meter. This meter determines the
width of your stroke for every type of stroke except the No Stroke attribute,
obviously. There are several ways to change the stroke width value. Consult the
meters section of the Expression Interface Primer for the various ways to
change meter values and enter a value of 3 using the method you prefer. The new
value is applied to your object and your shape is now surrounded by a 3 point
stroke width.
Under the
stroke buttons you'll find the Fill buttons. Run your mouse over these buttons
and notice that once again the tool tips tell you the name of each button. By
default, the No Fill button is the active fill attribute for a new document.
The Fill buttons are identified as follows:
No
Fill: Click on
this button if you don't want a fill applied to your object.
Solid Fill: Click this button to apply a solid color fill to your
object.
Gradient Fill: Click this button to apply a gradient to your object.
Pattern Fill: Click this button to apply a pattern to your object.
With your
object still selected, click on each of the Fill buttons to see how it affects
the object. When you click on the Solid Fill button your object is filled with
a solid black color. Notice that when you clicked on the Pattern Fill button
that the color section of the Paint Style palette is replaced with a list of
patterns to choose from. Click on the pattern names in the pattern list to
choose them and notice that the object updates immediately to reflect the new
pattern. The Image Fill is similar to patterns and we'll discuss the difference
in more detail in lesson 2. Let's take a look at the color section of the Paint
Style palette and see how to change the fill color of the selected object. Make
sure the Solid Fill button is the active button in the fill section to display
the color wheel in the color section. A button becomes 'active' when you click
on it. You can tell when a button is active because it appears depressed.
The color
section of the Paint Style palette is where you change the color of both
strokes and fills. The default color model in Expression is the HSL value picker
which is the model displayed in the snapshot of the Paint Style palette at the
beginning of this section. Other color models are available and you access them
using the small button to the left of the eye dropper icon in the bottom row of
the Paint Style palette. If the HSL color model isn't currently the active
color model, change it now.
The HSL
color model displays a draggable triangle and color wheel much like the ones in
other graphics programs. Place your mouse over the color wheel (to the right of
the triangle) and your cursor changes to a hand cursor. At this point you can
click and drag up or down on the wheel to change colors. Notice when you drag
on the color wheel how the colors in the triangle change also. The triangle is
the area where you select the exact color you want by clicking or dragging
within it. Let's change the color of the selected object in the document.
If your
object is not currently selected, select it with the Object Select tool. Make
sure that the Solid Fill button is active. Drag down on the color wheel until
the colors in the triangle display various shades of green. Click inside the
triangle and watch how the fill color of your circle changes to your newly
selected color. The triangle is draggable. Click and drag on the triangle and
watch how the colors in your object change to the new color after you release
your mouse. Notice also the oblong box to the right of the color wheel and that
as you drag on the triangle, the colors are immediately reflected in the box.
This rectangle is referred to as the Color Box.
I should
mention an important note about selecting objects with or without fills at this
point. Earlier I mentioned that to select an object with the Object Select
tool, you had you click on the edge of the object to move it. This was because
the objects we worked with at that point only had a stroke applied to it. When
a shape, or any other object for that matter, has only a stroke applied to it,
the center of the shape is considered empty and, consequently, has nothing
within the shape to 'grab onto' and drag. When the object is filled with any of
the fill attributes, you can click anywhere within the object to move it.
Now we know
how to change fill colors but what if we want to change the color of the
stroke? A common problem people have with changing colors is knowing when a
color will be applied to the stroke and when it will be applied to the fill.
Let's take a closer look at the Paint Style palette and see how to make that
determination.
Notice in
the snapshot below, the Stroke Preview box to the left of the stroke buttons
and the Fill Preview box to the left of the fill buttons:
Figure 8 - Paint Style palette with fill option
active.
In the image
above, the Fill Preview appears depressed and has a checkered background. This
means that the fill option is the active option and any color change will apply
to the fill. To change the color of the stroke, either click on the Stroke
Preview, or on either the Solid Stroke or Skeletal Stroke button, depending on
which type of stroke you're using. Try it now. With your object still selected,
click on the Stroke Preview and notice that the color section changes to black,
the current color applied to the stroke on the object. Choose another color and
notice that this time the color change is applied to the stroke instead of the
fill. Well great. Mystery solved. Let's move on to find out what the meter below
the fill buttons is for.
Notice the
little black button on the Paint Style palette to the left of the meter under
the row of Fill buttons. Mousing over this button reveals the tool tip 'Choose
Fringe Texture.' This is the Soft Edge/Emboss button. To the right of this
button is the Soft Edge/Emboss meter with a value of zero. Entering a positive
number in this meter applies a soft edge to an object. Entering a negative
number applies an Emboss effect. Let's experiment with the Soft Edge/Emboss
button in another exercise.
|
Exercise
3: You should have a rectangle object on your document
filled with a green color and a black stroke. Enter a positive value of 16 in
the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and notice how the rectangle object now has a blurred
appearance which extends beyond the edges of the rectangle, like this:
Now enter
a
negative value of -16 [SA6] in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and notice how the
rectangle object now appears beveled.
Another
thing that happens when we type in a negative number is that the Soft
Edge/Emboss button turns blue, indicating that the active effect for the
currently selected object is the embossed effect. Notice
that only the fill is embossed, not the stroke. The stroke isn't very
attractive anyway so let's remove it by clicking the No Stroke button:
The red
outline you see in the image above is the 'path' which is what a stroke attaches
to. A path is only visible on a selected object. Deselect the object to see
that the path is no longer visible. Select the rectangle again and enter a
positive value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and let's see what hidden
treasures lie beneath the Soft Edge/Emboss button. |
With a
positive value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter, you have the ability to add a
fringed edge to an object instead of a soft edge and you do this by clicking on
the little
black button [SA7] displaying the 'Choose Fringe
Texture' tool tip. Click on it now to get a new dialog box with a list of
fringed edges to choose from. This dialog box is displayed below:
|
Exercise
4: With the rectangle object selected, click on the Soft
Edge/Emboss button and choose a fringe by clicking on either the name of the
fringe file of the graphic display of the file to the left of the fringe file
name. I chose the 'bumpy,tif' file. In the Fringe Options drop down box,
choose the 'Repeating' option and click the OK button. Mine looks like this:
Click the
Soft Edge/Emboss button again you'll see that the current fringe on your
selected object is highlighted. Leave the current fringe but change the
Fringe Option to 'Stretch to fit' and click the OK button to dismiss the
dialog box. Notice that the fringe now stretches around the object instead of
repeating:
To return
to a soft edge instead of a fringe, click the Soft Edge/Emboss button again
and choose the 'No Fringe' item at the top of the list and, once again, click
the OK button. |
Fringed
edges are graphic files stored in Expression/Textures/Fringes sub-folder on
your hard drive. You can add more fringed edges to Expression by simply
creating more graphic files and dropping them in this sub-folder. You might
want to open some of the files already in this sub-folder for ideas on creating
new images. This is a subject not covered in this beginning class.
When you
enter a negative value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter, clicking on the Soft
Edge/Emboss button (which is now blue) reveals a list of Reflection maps to
choose from. This calls for another exercise.
|
Exercise
5: Enter a negative value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter
once more. As before, the button changed to a blue button and if you mouse
over it when it's in the Emboss state, you will see a new tool tip displaying
the message 'Choose Reflection Map.' Click on this button and you'll get a
dialog box similar to the fringed edge dialog box only this time you get a
list of Reflection maps and an option to change the angle at which the
reflection map is applied. Choose a reflection map from the list and click
the OK button to dismiss the dialog box. I chose the 'handpainted.tif'[SA9] reflection map:
Notice
that the Soft Edge/Emboss button is now a silver ball instead of a blue
button. When you click on objects, the Soft Edge/Emboss button serves to tell
you type of Soft Edge/Emboss fill is applied to the object. To change
reflection maps, click the Soft Edge/Emboss button and choose a different
reflection map. Experiment with entering values in the 'Reflection map
rotation' box. To remove a reflection map and return to a simple emboss,
click the Soft Edge/Emboss again and choose the 'No Map' item at the top of
the list and click the OK button. |
Reflection
maps are graphic files stored in Expression
3/Images/Envmaps \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Expression\Code Name Acrylic Graphic Designer sub-folder
on your hard drive. You can add more reflection maps by simply creating more
graphic files and dropping them in this sub-folder. Sources for additional reflection
maps include Environment
Maps by Ann-S-Thesia and Sara's Reflection Maps[SA10] . You can, of course, create your own
reflection maps but this is an advanced subject not covered in this beginning
Expression 3 course. However, Sara has written an excellent Reflection Map Tutorial[SA11] and a tutorial for making your own reflection maps[SA12] that you'll undoubtedly want to
explore if this subject is of interest to you.
A final word
on reflection maps: At times you will notice that the edges of an object with a
reflection map applied with appear to have jagged edges. Correcting this flaw
would have a dramatic effect on the performance of the program so Creature
House suggests that you rasterize the object to eliminate the jagged edges. We
will discuss rasterizing objects in another lesson.
Transparency: There's a double slider between
the Stroke Preview and Fill Preview that allows you to change the transparency
of strokes and fills. Moving the bottom slider toward the left affects the
transparency of a fill and moving the top slider to the left affects the
transparency of a stroke. With your rectangle object selected, use the shortcut
key combination Ctrl-D to make a copy of the object. The copy should overlap
the original. Move the bottom transparency slider to approximately 50% and
notice that the top, active object now allows the object under it show through:
Click on the PS Stroke
button to give the top object a stroke. Move the top slider to the left, about
50%, and notice that the stroke now become transparent as well:
To move both
transparency sliders at the some time (assuming they are both at 50%) click in
the center where the two slider buttons meet and move them all the way to the
right to remove the transparency. Let's take a look at textures.
Textures: See the button to the right of
the transparency sliders? (It's faint so look close.) Click that button for a
list of textures. Choose a texture from the list by clicking on it and then
press the OK button to dismiss the texture dialog box and apply the texture to
the active rectangle object. Notice that texture is applied to both the stroke
and fill attributes of the object.
Once you
apply a texture to an object, the name of the texture is listed to the left of
the texture button on the Paint Style palette. If you decide to change the texture,
click on the texture name and choose another texture. With textures, there is
no item in the list to remove a texture like there in the Fringed Edge and
Reflection Map dialog boxes. To remove a texture, click the texture button.
Notice, in the
image above, that the top rectangle is transparent once the texture is applied.
In the texture dialog box you have a choice of choosing opaque or transparent.
You also have the option to scale the texture by choosing a predefined value in
the 'Texture Scaling' drop down box or by entering a custom value. Below is my
rectangle with texture scaling at 33% and texture mode set to opaque:
What if you
want texture on the fill but not on the stroke? My solution is to do this:
|
Exercise
6: First, delete the bottom rectangle; we don't need it
any more. Make a copy of the remaining rectangle, which should be the
rectangle with the texture applied. On the copy, click the Texture button to
remove the texture and click the Fill button to remove the fill. On the
original rectangle, click the No Stroke button to remove the stroke. Finally,
position the copy over the original rectangle. With the
copy still selected, adjust the stroke size using the Stroke Width meter on
the Paint Style palette. If you want to change the color, texture or emboss
of the original rectangle, select the original with either the Node tool or
the Object select tool and make the adjustments. Here's mine:
My
rectangle uses the Paper 4.bmp texture file with 'Texture Scaling' at 200%
and texture 'Mode' set to opaque. If you
have problems aligning the two rectangles, do this: select both rectangles by
dragging a marquee that captures at least part of both rectangle objects.
Choose Arrange > Align > V. Centers and then Arrange >
Align > H. Centers from the menu bar. |
Textures are
graphic files stored in the Expression 3/Textures sub-folder on your hard
drive. To add more texture, simply place other texture graphics in this
sub-directory and they appear immediately in the texture list.
There's
still more to learn about the Paint Style palette and we will cover gradients,
patterns and image fills in lesson 2 as we work with the Text tool. Until then,
we will take a quick look at the bounding box and then I'll give you a homework
assignment. Leave your rectangle shapes on the document as we discuss the
bounding box.
I mentioned
early on that when you click on an object, the object becomes selected and is
surrounded by a bounding box. The bounding box allows you to resize and rotate objects.
Our rectangles might make great web buttons, but not at the size they are now.
Select both rectangles and notice the bounding box that surrounds them. Below
are my rectangle shapes displaying the bounding box:
Notice the
triangles in each corner of the bounding box. These are the Resize Handles. As
your mouse pointer moves over a Resize Handle, the pointer changes to a pointer
with double pointing arrows to indicate that clicking and dragging the handle
will resize the object. How objects resize depends on your setting in
Preferences. Choose File > Preferences from the menu bar and select
'Tools' in the drop down box at the top of the Preferences dialog box. In the
center of the General Options section is an item labeled "Resize Handles:
Scale from center." If there is a check mark in that box, remove it by
clicking on the check box. Click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box.
On your
document, with both rectangles selected, click on the resize handle in the
upper right hand corner and drag it up and to the right. Nothing appears to
happen and you drag but when you release the mouse, the bounding box become
larger and the rectangles expand to fill the new size of the bounding box.
Choose Edit > Undo Scale and let's expand the rectangles
proportionately in all directions.
The Shift
key is also a modifier key for the bounding box. Holding the Shift key and you
drag a resize handle causes the bounding box to expand proportionately in all
directions. Let's try it. Hold down the Shift key and drag the same resize
handle in the same direction as before. Well great, but we want our rectangle
smaller, not larger so choose Edit > Undo Scale again and let's make
our rectangles smaller. Hold down the Shift key and drag the same resize handle
but this time drag it down and to the left, toward the inside of the rectangle
shapes and releasing the mouse when you mouse pointer is in about the center of
the rectangle shapes. This is a much nicer size for, say, a web page button:
We removed
the check mark in the Preferences dialog box that caused the resize handles to
not resize from the center. Placing a checkmark in that box will cause an
object to scale proportionately in two direction from the center of the object.
For example, if you drag the upper right Resize Handle upwards, both the top
and bottom of the bounding box will scale proportionately from the center of
the object. Try this yourself and determine which method you prefer.
One final
note on the Resize Handles. When I mentioned that as you drag a Resize Handle,
nothing appears to happen. Normally, when you drag a Resize Handle you should
see an outline of the object to show you the position of the object before you
release the mouse. On
my system (WinXP) I sometimes get the outline, and sometimes I don't. [SA13] What you get may depend on your operating system. I suspect this is a
bug and it has been reported to Creature House.
The little
squiggles on each of the four sides of the bounding box are the Rotation
Handles. As your mouse pointer moves over a Rotation Handle, the pointer
changes to a pointer with rotating double pointing arrows to indicate that
clicking and dragging the rotation handle will rotate the object. With both of
the rectangle shapes selected, drag on the rotation handle on the right and
drag downward. Again, nothing appears to happen until you release the mouse and
then the objects rotate, like this:
Choose Edit
> Undo Rotate and drag the same resize handle upward this time. Any
rotation handle will rotate an object either clockwise or counter clockwise,
depending on the direction you drag the resize handle.
Homework Assignment
You didn't
really think I was going to let you leave class without a homework assignment,
did you? Your assignment is to practice creating simple objects using the
methods outlined in this lesson and apply strokes and fills to the objects
until you are comfortable with the Paint Style palette and selecting and
deselecting objects. These are areas you'll want to master if you intend to use
Expression 3 as a drawing tool. The remainder of these lessons will assume that
you have learned the techniques in this lesson. When, in a future lesson, I say
to apply a green color fill, you'll know how to do that, right? Good deal! See
you next week.
All material presented in this course is ©2003-2005
Annie
Ford[SA14]
Edited for Microsoft Expression Code Name Acrylic Graphic Designer 4.0d: shauryaanand