 | A
little while back, I sort of mentioned in the Renderosity Vector Forum
(Renderosity.com)
that I would do a tutorial for Expression 3, because people seemed interested
in that program. Expression is a vector graphic program from Creature
House that can emulate natural media very well. It does this by
using strokes (like custom brushes), which are almost infinitely controllable.
The user can define their own strokes as well, by for example scanning
in a natural water-colour brush-stroke on paper, and defining that as
a stroke. You can download a 30-day trial version of Expression 3 from
the Creature House web-site to see how cool it is for yourself. The
entire user manual in pdf form is available for download as well. I
haven't been using this program as regularly as I would like, so if
I get any details wrong, apologies in advance...This tutorial jumps
about a bit and waffles on, but it will take you through the basic
tools & steps to create a simple still life (left) in Expression. I
will try to explain some of the aspects of the program, and the use
of vectors, to the best of my abilities. So here goes: |
 1:
Layers: Expression allows you to work in layers, I find the
best way to organise my images is to use a different layer for different
elements. In this case I wanted a background, a coffee cup, a mouse
(computer) and a packet of Cigarettes (smoking is bad
for you people, but this is in the picture because of the friend who
inspired the idea for the image) At left you can see a view of the
layers for the image...By double-clicking on the layers identifier
colour you can set it's attributes and presentation, giving you a choice
of
paths view, wireframe, preview or default view; (more on these later).
Here you can see all but the top layer are "locked" meaning I can't
work on (or accidently stuff-up) the locked layers, only the top one! |
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