Shape Exchange

[RygorX]

Hi guys,

Ive trawled through this thread more than once and for the life of me cannot find any information regarding a step by step guide to making (or editing) Pullshapes PDF's.

The explanation in the first post is not detailed enough for me to "get it"

If anyone can write a quick guide for Inkscape it would be greatly appreciated.. Each time I try to make one on my own they kill the pull shapes module in alchemy.

cheers

[eavan]

Ive trawled through this thread more than once and for the life of me cannot find any information regarding a step by step guide to making (or editing) Pullshapes PDF's.

The explanation in the first post is not detailed enough for me to "get it"

If anyone can write a quick guide for Inkscape it would be greatly appreciated.. Each time I try to make one on my own they kill the pull shapes module in alchemy.

I don't use Inkscape but I figured out how to create the pdf's by opening a working pdf in my vector editor and making sure that the new one had the same parameters, types of layers etc. I hope this helps.

[Kasper Hviid]

Here's a quick trick when using Illustrator to create shape .pdf's.

When drawing with Pull Shapes, each shape is placed with its center at the mouse cursor. This is okay for some shapes, but certain shapes will benefit from having their center somewhere else.

One solution I have found is to add some very small triangle to the shape:
(a) a normal shape, with automatic centering
(b) I have now added two triangles, which causes the objects center to be where I want it.

(Of course, the triangles should be a LOT smaller, since they shouldn't be visible when the shape is used.



Here you can see the subtle difference:



Another trick: If you want one shape to be picked more than the others, just make more copies of it.

[Kasper Hviid]

I have created an a shape for creating splattered airbrush strokes. It just contains some clusters of tiny triangles.

For best results, set spacing to minimum value, and size somewhat low.

It can be used for effects like this:

[eppo]

It's been a while... Since i discovered Alchemy and saw RygorX's request for some tutorial about howto-Pullshapes. So actually i did something like some time ago yet did not put it here... So my thanks to developers + what i did to get custom Pullshapes:

What i had at that time:
Alchemy v. Beta 008 (0.0.8.1)
Inkscape v. 0.48.1 r9760
Fedora 14

Open Alchemy and Inkscape. Keep Alchemy Shapes folder at hand.

1. Copy picture you would like to make as Pull Shape ( from any available source ).
2. Switch to Inkscape and Paste picture.
3. While picture is selected choose Path -> Trace Bitmap.
4. Use 'Edge detection' or 'Colors quantization' for quick and dirty results. Click Update Preview, play around with Threshold or Colors values each corresponding to chosen tracing method. If preview turns black while changing Colors number (and again you need to click Update Preview beforehand) you might want to check 'Invert image'.
Click OK when it's likely it...
5. Click and drag traced vector drawing from picture to page.
Positioning picture outside page area will help while tracing and saving PDF file.
6. Click on pasted picture, repeat Trace Bitmap. Use different settings and drag another vector drawing on page.
7. When done, choose File -> Save as, dig to Alchemy Pull Shapes folder, i use ~/Alchemy/shapes/test, save file as PDF.
For 'Portable Document Format options' use PDF version 1.4 and check 'Export area is page'. Uncheck other options.
8. Bring up Alchemy, select Create -> Pull Shapes (if not selected already), remember to click Reload and choose test Folder from drop down.

From now on if you dislike something or want to add another Pull Shape to same file simply switch back to Inkscape and repeat steps.
You might want to save Inkscape file aswell which would allow to keep picture and scans.

What could be done in Inkscape.

Whatever. Draw some shapes, menu Path -> Object to Path, Combine if needed and save PDF. Just make sure each Pull Shape consists of one Combined Path ( menu Path ->Combine). Which in turn limits your Pull Shape to just one color. However some traced vector paths have fill, so you could play with fill and stroke properties. Still remember that Alchemy is able to deal with fill ( via menu Style ) so if you leave fill for your Pull Shapes you are somehow limiting yourself.
You could combine traces with different scan settings to produce different results for your Pull Shape. Position one path on another, select them and Combine.
Easiest way to edit traced path is to Path -> Break Apart, then delete or change separated parts, then select them and Path -> Combine again.
Path Node editing could be quite an effort in Inkscape and you will have a lot of nodes in one huge traced Combined path.

Happy Tracing!

P.S. As to Shape sharing, i decided rather to not to since it was such a fun to make theese...
My Alchemy related stuff: http://sites.google.com/site/10zuz10/bildes/alchemy

[Gnaws]

I'm sorry, I don't get it. How can I create a PDF from my Illustrator files? Whenever I try to copy, paste, save as PDF from AI within PSD, Alchemy doesn't show ANY of my Pull Shapes because of the newly created Pull Shape folder.

[Gnaws]

nevermind - as previously stated, it's embarrassingly easy if you simply use Inkscape. For existing AI images, it works best if you export them as SVG before opening in Inkscape.

[Kasper Hviid]

I have created 3 more shapes:

STAIN: I scanned a lot of ink stains.
SOFT: Some blurry shapes
INK ART: Some ink ornaments that I drew a while back.

[Kasper Hviid]

[Kasper Hviid]