Well, I started on the buttons...and then fizzled.  I couldn't really get into it, so I will simply share the two sets that I put together.  They are 'gel' buttons geared to media player applications, so obviously of limited use.  It was a worthwhile exercise, with use of layers and thinking about how layers should be organized.  Use at your own discretion I was just messing around.  I threw in a feather that I did when I was messing around for good measure.

 

I have found myself doing a bunch of arrows.

I'll package all of the arrows together once I finish the desktop background I am using them for.  There are actually 20 arrows in the image on the left, don't see 'em?  Count again.

So I was sitting around, taking a break from work on the buttons (forthcoming I assure you), and I decided to have a look at some of the paint effects that are built into Expression Design.  Up to now, I have been using Paint.net.  It is an invaluable tool for image editing and adjusting things, even if all you are going to do with the picture is import into another program. If you don't have it, get it at www.getpaint.net.

I began by going into the user's guide (First Item on the Help menu), and went from there.  It is useful but I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what the effects do to a larger image than what is provided in the help section.  Turns out I was right, you really do need to test this stuff out on a larger image.

I have put together I rather large Office document containing the images that resulted.  If you like, download it and take a look.

Also I am working on a personal banner and logo...forthcoming as well.

Well, aside from working at the WAG, I haven't been doing much.  Just trying to win.

I've been doing some artsy stuff I guess, a little in Expression Design, but nothing to brag about or show off.  Just putting together some things that I will compile later on into something bigger.  I have a few wallpapers in mind, but I don't have everything ready yet so no sharing.

I have begun mapping out my next project, though.  And it is a little more ambitious than the last.  It's a Button Pack (obviously for us in Expression Blend or Web projects), and I am planning on 50+ buttons in the pack.  This is much more than the 10 splatters I went with on the last one.  I am thinking that each if the buttons will be presented with an un-pressed and pressed state, for those who might use it.  I am hoping that I can push this one through in about a week.  That's why I am writing this now, I would like to have it ready by Friday (or next Monday at the latest).

In other news...buy The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy.  I just finished it yesterday and I was rather impressed.  And to think, it was his career launching book!  He has remained true to his style, and his level of detail and realism is incredible.  One caveat, you may want to buy a used copy, as some CIA employees would not like you to contribute to his success.  I met a retired one, Ledbedder I think his is, and heard his lecture soon after.  He said that some of what Clancy writes could only really be known to such detail if he has some kind of source within the organization, which means someone on the inside is breaking the law for this man.  The moral of his story "Don't give this man your money, but do read his book."  Thus, buy a used copy or get it at the library.

 

Okay, so I have been busy in my boredom.  Click here to be taken to the download of the free splatter brushes that I have been working on for the past few days.  They are a combination of tracings from scanned hand drawn images, and other pictures than I found around.  They are all hand traced using the paintbrush tool.

They are in the .design format so you will need to actually have Expression Design installed to be able to use them.  Please let me know if you ever use them for anything.  I would like to see whatever they end up in or on. 

Download Now!

Just finished with some experimentation with the cloning tool in ED.   I think I like it, though not for what I used it for.  I ended up doing some 'Warhol-esque' stuff with it, just demonstrating to myself how it works after I saw a really boring video tute on it.

Some clarifications concerning cloning:

1.) Cloning is not the same as copying in this case.  Yes, it makes an exact copy, but that copy is completely subordinate to the original, meaning when you change the master, the others change as well.  With a regular path, copied and pasted, you would have to go through path by path to edit them.  This could be a very useful tool when designing some patterns, or even brushes.  Anything that might need a regular pattern (which sort of screams graphic design, hence it's inclusion in the software).

2.) Twins don't have to look the same.  I am an identical twin, we have the same DNA but different fingerprints, skin tones, attitudes, and hair styles.  In the same way clones do not have to be  the same as the original, not exactly.  You can individually edit bits and pieces by changing brush strokes, color, and other little things like that.  One of the only things you can't do is add effects to the clones.  You can still add them to the original (like a drop shadow), but the clones do not inherit this and you can't add it to clones individually. 

On that note, you can get around this problem with some clever cloning, blurring and color changes, but I'll let you figure that out for yourself.

So without further ado, the piece:

And how its done:  First you'll need your paths, pictures, etc. that you want to clone (and I'll always make sure to differentiate between copying and cloning).  Select them all together. 

If you would like to, create a single unified path through Object->Compound Path -> Make.

Then select Edit->Clone, and place the newly created clone wherever you wish.

A warning, if you have any detail work in your vector image, i.e. different stroke widths, fills, or other little differences, you probably will not want to create the compound path.  It will generalize all of these individual paths to conform to a single one.  In this piece, I tried it.  The result was that all of the finer details were defaulted to the stroke width of my border.

Now go design something!

Just a short one today.  I've been online downloading photos for use in some ideas I have for the future and I thought I would share the link.  Its at www.stockvault.net.  They have thousands of photos for free download.  They are all released under a common license (much like open-source).

 

I'll be updating on some of the artwork that comes out of these downloads.  Working on a desktop background right now.  And thinking about a Channel8 icon pack.  I'll be putting together some detailed tutorials together as I go.

Here's a sampling of the latest (done last night and today):

 

Well, today marks my second foray into the capabilities of Expression Design.  Granted I haven't even scratched the surface yet, but I am excited.  This piece took me about an hour, and unlike the last one, is likely to actually be finished.

I began by importing an image.  This time it wasn't hand drawn, but very well could have been.  I took it from a comic book that I have had sitting around for a couple of years.  I don't even know what it was, but I saved the picture for possible inspiration for artwork sometime in the future (now).

So, begin by importing the image to be traced.  Here you have to be a little flexible, especially if you are using a color filled image.  With straight pencil and ink a opacity of about 10 or 15 percent is okay for tracing, but with color you will have to leave it a little higher.  I went with 20 on the image layer.  

Then lock the image layer so you aren't drawing on that one.  Add another on top of it, but make sure that the opacity on the new layer is at 100 percent so that you can see your drawn lines well.

For this image I selected the paintbrush tool (just above the pen tool at left of screen).  You will then have to zoom in and out (get used to doing this if you are tracing anything by hand) and go through one line at a time.  This is much easier with than with the pen tool, or the b-spline option, both of which require a little more finesse and planning to use efficiently.

I have included another copy of the image as it was beginning to take shape, with the background turned off.  I had initially done this with a bush width  of three, but found it looked better with a width of 1, but that is entirely up to you.

That begun, it was a simple task, though a bit time consuming ( took me about 45 minutes all told) to finish the tracing and end up with a complete image.  See below.

 

 

 

 

And without the background.

I will be going back in to close all of the paths and generally clean up my new vector image.  I will also be adding some of the 'shading' in with the b-spline tool that was mentioned before, as I think this looks to be especially suited to the job...more to come when that is finished.

I do have to say, with all the brush options that I haven't really tried, and the other things that I see can be done, this is a very good program and can probably do a lot more than the designers seem to advertise.

So, after reading a few of the tutorials for Expression Design, and seeing a lot of stuff that looks pretty good, I decided I would finally sit down and see what I could actually do with the program.  And this is what I came up with.  I traced an old piece that I had taped to the side of my bookshelf using the pen tool.

Overall, I find the pen tool a little clumsy for tracing, but once you get used to the way it works, and the methods for creating new lines, i.e. double click on the last anchor point and then start your new line or quickly change tools and back, it becomes a fairly simple task to create a halfway decent image.  This one is far from complete and I may never come back to finish it, or even to close all the lines, but it was enlightening to see what I could do.

I look forward to pushing the limits of what can be done with the program.  Next up, the paint tool. 

Just a note: in the blog by Will from the Expression Design team, he says that the b-spline tool is good for tracing.  I would like to say that it does not work with detail work, but can be made to work if your artwork is planned correctly.  Obviously his method of importing the image, making it transparent and then adding a layer on top of it works.  I deleted the layer with the original on it after I felt it was semi-complete.