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LBT140

Creating Clipart with Inkscape

In this tutorial we will learn some of the “ins & outs” of vector graphic creation by tracing an image of a book found online and turning the finished product into an editable clip art object to be used in Microsoft Office.

“Library Book”

Open your favorite web browser and navigate to http://www.google.com On the Google home page, select Images (1). Once the page refreshes, type the word book in the search field (2) and click the Search button (3).

From within the resulting images, click the clipart image of the book pictured to the left (should be the 4th or 5th image in the list).

Once the webpage containing the selected image of the book loads in your browser window, select the Full-size Image link located in the right-most frame of the window.

Next, right-click anywhere within the large image of the book and select Copy Image from within the contextual pop-up window. Depending on the browser you are using, the correct menu option might be simply listed as Copy.

Finding the Original Image Online:

Notes:

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Getting Started in Inkscape: Minimize your web browser window and start the Inkscape program. Once the program has fully loaded, maximize the window to fill your screen as shown below.

Even though you have maximized the Inkscape window, the stage probably still appears to be a little too distant to work with. In the lower-right corner of the window, locate the

Zoom setting, indicated by the letter Z. By using either the up or down arrows to the right of the field or simply by highlighting the current percentage, typing a new one and pressing Enter, set the Zoom level to 80%. Next, right-click in the center of the stage (white area of the screen) and select Paste from within the contextual pop-up menu. Click and drag the image of the book until it appears centered on the screen as seen below.

Layer illustrations obtained from http://www.sketchpad.net/

The Power of Layers: A common feature among higher-end drawing programs is the built in capacity for layers. The “physical” equivalent to layers would be the stacking of clear sheets of acetate with each sheet holding a different piece of the composite image. This practice was used heavily in traditional, animated cartoon making. By using Layers (as shown below) artists can exercise a tremendous amount of freedom for later editing and customization of a graphic’s component since they exist on separate planes and do not actually come in contact with one another.

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A Good Time to Save:

To view the individual layers in Inkscape, go to the Layers menu and select Layers… This action will reveal the Layers panel just to the right of the stage. By default, Layer 1 contains the image of the book you just pasted. As you begin to create your composite

image it will become very helpful to name each layer according to its contents. To rename Layer 1, click the words Layer 1 and type the new name; in this case Original. Then press the Enter or Return key on your keyboard. To the left of the layer’s name, you will notice two icons. The eye icon allows you to toggle the visibility of an individual layer. The lock icon gives you

the ability to “lock” and thereby prevent accidental changes from occurring in a given layer. Since we will be tracing the image of the book, you will want to lock this layer to avoid accidentally bumping it around the stage.

If you haven’t done so already, now is the perfect time to save your work. To do this, open the File menu in the upper-left corner of the window and select Save. The hotkey combination Ctrl+S or command+S (on a Mac) works just as well.

Before you can begin tracing, you will need to create a New Layer in which your initial shape can reside. Create this new layer by clicking the Create a new layer button in the Layers Panel. Name the new layer Pages and click the Add button.

Creating a New Layer:

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As discussed in this week’s lecture notes, vector shapes (like those that comprise the editable Microsoft clipart) consist of many individual nodes that mathematically determine the lines and curves between them. Now it’s time to set the nodes that will form the “pages” shape of our book. To do this select the Node or Bezier (bez-yay) Curve Tool from the tools menu on the left side of the Inkscape window. In a vector shape, nodes are placed at each point at which the line that creates the shape changes direction. To effectively trace the pages of your book, you will need to create six nodes at the points highlighted in the image above. With the Bezier Curve Tool selected, click on each of these points as demonstrated in the sequence below. To close the shape, click directly on the first node you created.

Setting the Nodes that Make the Shape:

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With vector art, the lines and curves between nodes are referred to as paths. Now it is time to edit our paths and make them follow the contours of the book’s pages. Select the Edit paths by nodes tool. Next, click once on the center of the first path we created in the previous step (magnified in the image to the right). This action will select the entire shape. Click again to select only the path we wish to change (pictured below). Finally, click and drag the center of the selected path until it conforms to the contour of the page underneath

(pictured below). Repeat these steps for each of the segments that need to be edited.

Editing Paths:

Now is a good time to save!

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Lock it, Hide it, Do it Again We are now ready to create another component of our composite clip art. Before moving on, go back to the Layers panel and lock the Pages layer (1). Next hide the layer from view by clicking the eye icon (2) the left of the lock. Referring back to the instructions found on page 3 if necessary, create a new layer and name it Cover.

Drawing the cover of the book will require the creation of six nodes as well (pictured left). Repeating the same steps outline on page 4, create the nodes to outline the cover of the book (sequence below).

Don’t forget to close the shape by clicking directly on the first node you created. Another good time to save. Following the same steps outlined on page 5 (Editing Paths), use the Edit paths by nodes tool, click twice on the small path that forms the spine of the book. Then click and drag it until the path is in alignment with the image of the book. (pictured right).

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Lock it, Hide it, Do it Again

Lock and hide your Cover layer. Create a new layer entitled, Page Depth. To create the new shape on the Page Depth layer, you will once again need to create 6 nodes (pictured right). To do so, follow the sequence below.

Don’t forget to close the shape by clicking directly on the first node you created.

Use the Edit paths by nodes tool, to edit the paths so they conform to image. Save your work! (Ctrl+S or command+S)

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Lock it, Hide it, Do it Again

Lock and hide your Page Depth layer. Create a new layer entitled, Page Depth Details. For this layer, 3 nodes will be needed for each of the curved, triangular shapes found within the page depth area. When finished, this layer should include three separate, closed shapes. You may wish to zoom in for a closer look during this part of the creation process. Using the

Ctrl+Mouse Wheel technique will come in handy here.

Lock it, Hide it, Do it Again

Lock and hide your Page Depth Details layer. Create a new layer entitled, Lines of Text. Tracing the lines of text on the pages of the book will require a slightly different technique with the Bezier Curve Tool . With the Bezier Curve Tool selected, follow the three step process below for the creation of each line.

In each of the previous steps, you created a shape with the Bezier Curve Tool and then closed that shape by clicking on the first node created. Since what you are drawing now are simple lines and not shapes, there is no way to close them as you have done previously. The right-click at the end of your sequence, tells the program that you are done drawing, allowing you to start again somewhere else. Repeat this process until you have traced all of the lines on both pages. Using the Edit paths by nodes tool, edit each of the paths so they fall in line with the lines in the book.

Lock and hide the Page Depth Details layer. Save your work!

Notes:

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The color wheel allows for the selection of literally millions of colors. Clicking and dragging your mouse around the outer-circle provides a method for choosing the desired color, while clicking and dragging within the inner-triangle allows for the selection of various shades of the chosen

color.

Just Like a Coloring Book Now it’s time to color! But first, you must choose a layer and a shape to start with. From within the Layers panel, scroll down to the bottom of the list using the small scrollbar to the right. Locate the Pages layers. Unlock it and make it visible again by clicking the respective lock and eye icons. From with the toolbar on the left-hand side of the Inkscape window, choose the Select and transform objects tool. Click the edge of the Pages shape you drew earlier. The shape should now be highlighted as

demonstrated to the left. In the lower-left corner of the Inkscape window is an area indicating the Fill and Stroke color of the selected shape. Double-click anywhere in this area to display the Fill & Stroke panel, now located just above the Layers panel. Fill refers to the color inside a given shape, whereas as Stroke refers to a shapes outline.

In the Fill and Stroke panel, select the Fill tab (1). Click the Flat Color icon (2) and select the Wheel tab (3). Locate the circle selector(4) within and drag it to the white corner of the triangle. This will fill the page shape on the stage with the color white.

Using the Fill and Stroke Color Wheel

Lock it & Do it Again

The Layers Panel has now been moved beneath the Fill & Stroke Panel. Lock the Pages layer and scroll up the layers list. Locate the Cover layer, unlock it and make it visible again. Click the cover shape on the stage using the Select and transform objects tool. Repeating the steps above, fill the cover shape with the color of your choosing.

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Re-ordering Layers If your stage looks similar to the image on the right, that’s OK. The only problem here is that the layers are in the wrong stacking order (the cover is on top of the pages). To fix this, select the Cover layer (1) from within the Layers Panel and click the Lower the current layer button (2).

Lock it & Do it Again

Lock the Cover layer and scroll up to the Page Depth layer. Now unlock and make visible the Page Depth Layer. Repeat the procedures found on page 9 (Just like a Coloring Book), giving the Page Depth shape a gray color.

Save your work!

Lock it & Do it Again

Lock the Page Depth layer and scroll up to the Page Depth Details layer. Unlock and make visible the Page Depth Details layer. Give each of the triangular detail shapes a dark gray color.

Lock it & Do it Again (last time) Lock the Page Depth Details layer and scroll up to the Lines of Text layer. Unlock and make visible the Lines of Text layer. You may wish to add a line of separation between the pages using the Bezier Curves tool. (Don’t forget to right-click to end your line [pg. 8])Once this line is added, lock the layer.

Delete the Original Image & Save

In the Layers panel, scroll down to the Original layer and click on it to select (1). Next, click the Delete current layer button (2). Save!!!

Congratulations!! Your vectorized book is complete. In the next tutorial, you will convert this file into a .wmf to be loaded and used in the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery.