The Fountain Fill Mode
A fountain fill is a fill that  changes gradually from one color to
the next. This type of fill is also called a "gradient"
or "graduated" fill. From the Fountain Fill dialog box it's
possible to create a vast array of fountains fills.
It is laid out into five sections: Type, Center Offset, Options, Color
Blend and Presets and the Preview window gives you an idea of what
the finished product will look like.
Types
The Type list is located in the upper-left corner of the dialog box.
Your selection of a fountain fill will, most of the time, begin in
this area. It is from here that you determine how the fountain fill
will move from one color to another. The Type section selects one
of five types of fountain fills. Clicking the name of the type opens
a list of the following choices:
Linear: this
selects a fountain fill that changes color in one direction.
Radial:
this selects a fountain fill that changes color in concentric circles
from the center of the object outward.
Conical:
this selects a fountain fill that radiates from the center of the
object like rays of light.
Square: this selects a
fountain fill that changes color in concentric squares from the center
of the object outward.
Rectangular: same as square
except it uniformly radiates to all corners of the rectangle. |
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Up, a display of four of the five fills: there would have been five,
but a Rectangular fill to a square it looked the same as the square-go
figure.
Center Offset
The Center Offset settings, located directly below the Type selection,
are used to reposition the center of a Radial, Conical, Square or
Rectangular fountain fill so that it no longer coincides with the
center of the object.
Negative values shift the center down and to the left; positive values
shift the center up and to the right. It's also possible to click
the mouse in the Preview window and drag the center to the desired
position. However, the Center Offset is necessary when you need to
make several fills with exactly the same offset values.
The Options Section
It allows you to adjust any of the settings to customize the appearance
of the fountain.
The Angle box determines the angle of either the
Linear or Conical Fountain fill. You can also change the angle by
dragging the line that appears when you click in the preview box
with the mouse button. Holding down the CTRL key while dragging
constrains the angle to multiples of 15 degrees.
The Steps value box determines the number of bands
used to display and print the fountain: at its maximum value, which
is 999, there isn't any degree of banding.
The Edge Pad (0%-49%)
controls the smoothness of the transition between the start and
end colors in the fountain fill: a setting of 0% (default) creates
the smoothest transition, while a maximum setting causes a very
abrupt change. The Edge Pad option is not available for Conical
Fountain fills and therefore is greyed out. Edge Pad settings control
the smoothness of a fountain fill's transition: the fill on the
left of the image has a setting of zero percent; the fill
on the right has a maximum (49%) setting(right)
Color Blend
It is where you select the colors you want to use in your fill. There
are two modes of operation in the Color Blend area: Two Color (default)
and Custom.
Two Color blends are fountain fills created using
two colors: the From color and the To color. The operation of the
Two Color blend is controlled by one of the three buttons to the right
of the From and To colors.
These buttons are:
Direct: this option determines
the intermediate fill colors from a straight line beginning at the
From color and continuing across the color wheel to the To color.
Counter-Clockwise: this option causes the fill's
intermediate colors to be selected by traveling counter-clockwise
around the color wheel between the From and To colors. If colors are
very close to each other, the path travels almost completely around
the wheel.
Clockwise: this option determines
the fill's intermediate colors by traveling clockwise around the color
wheel between the From and To colors.
Mid-Point Slider: this option is only available with
Direct selected. It adjusts the midpoint between the From and To color.
The Mid-Point slider allows the user to control the distribution of
color/shading of the fountain fills.
Custom Blend
setting allows you to add more than two colors in specific locations
on the fill. When the Custom button is clicked, the dialog box changes.
Now there is a color ribbon on which you can select up to 99 intermediate
colors from the palette to its right. You specify where you want the
color to appear on the color ribbon by adding markers: to add markers,
double-click just above the color ribbon and a new black marker will
appear.
To change the color of either the end colors or the markers, you only
need select the marker or end square by clicking it and then clicking
a color from the palette to the immediate right. The color ribbon
and the preview window in the upper-right corner of the Fountain Fill
dialog box will reflect the change. If the color is not in the palette,
click the Others button to open the Select Color dialog box.
To reposition a color on the color ribbon, select its marker and drag
it to the desired spot or edit the value in the Position box. To delete
a color, double-click the marker. More than one color marker can be
selected at a time by holding down the SHIFT key when selecting or
deselecting.
The Presets Area
The Presets area lets you save the fountain settings you specified
so that you can apply them to other objects at a later time. It also
contains over 100 predesigned fills that were installed with Corel
PHOTO-PAINT. If you want to browse through the list, just click the
down arrow to the right of the preset text box and then click the
first fill you wish to view. After that, each time you press DOWN
ARROW or UP ARROW on your keyboard, the next preset will be selected
and previewed. With one of the presets selected, you can type in the
first letter of the preset's name and it will jump right to it.
To save a preset, type a name (up to 31 characters in length) in the
Presets box, and then click the plus button. Clicking the minus button
removes the selected Preset from the list.
Putting Fountain Fills to Work
While it is easy to use fountain fills to fill existing text or objects,
the real power of the fountain fills is the ability to use the custom
blend to produce backdrops for other work.
In Figure upper, everything behind the silver lettering were created
with a single fountain fill. To obtain a sharp cutoff of a color,
place a different color very close to it (as in almost on top of it).
Display Image: each wire is created by making a narrow vertical
rectangle with a fountain fill. Actually, it was only necessary to
make one (rendered as an object) and then apply a hue shift to the
duplicates to create different colors.
Bitmap Fill
The Bitmap Fill dialog box allows you to fill a selected area with
a bitmap image. There are a large number of images in the Corel library
(located in the TILES folder on Corel PHOTO-PAINT CD-ROM). In addition
to the bitmap images provided, you can import almost any bitmap that
can be read by your PC.
Loading a Bitmap Image
When you invoke the Bitmap fill, you will see the currently selected
image in the preview window. To change the image, you must click the
Edit button. This will open the Bitmap Fill dialog box.
How
the Bitmap Fill Operates
Here are some pointers about using files for bitmap fills:
remember that if you use the Fill tool (the bucket), the fill will
be calculated to the boundaries of the mask or the edges of the image.
If the bitmap image is larger than the mask or the image, Corel PHOTO-PAINT
will put as much as will fit, beginning with the lower-left corner
of the original image.
The Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon tools, on the other hand, will
fill to the perimeter of the defined area. If there is a mask, the
masked area that falls within the area will be filled.
You can control what appears in a flood-filled area by using the many
tile/offset controls in the Bitmap Fill dialog box.
Controlling the Size and Position of the Bitmap Tiles
If the bitmap that you import is too small to fill the area, the default
settings will cause the bitmap to be tiled. If the bitmap is too large
for the area being filled, only a portion of the bitmap will fill
the area, beginning in the lower-left corner. But by changing the
default settings, you can control the size, offset, and several other
parameters of the bitmap fill.
Size: the controls in this section allow you to set
the size of your pattern tiles. You can choose one of the preset sizes
or enter custom dimensions. When you select Use Original Size, the
bitmap file will not be scaled to a new size. If it is not checked,
the bitmap will be scaled to the size set in the Width and Height
settings. These settings are greyed-out if the Use Original Size option
is enabled.
Scale Bitmap to Fit: when enabled,
this option scales the tile pattern to fit entirely within the tile
Preview window. It also disables the entire dialog box, except the
Maintain Aspect option.
Origin: controls in this
section set the offset of the first tile (and therefore the rest of
the pattern) relative to the top right-hand corner of the object.
If you want the pattern to start flush with the corner, set the X
and Y values to zero.
Row/Column Offset: these
controls shift either the rows or columns of tiles so that the pattern
is staggered rather than continuous. The % of Tile Side setting shifts
alternating rows or columns by the amount specified. This feature
helps break up repeating patterns.
Transform:
the Transform setting specifies the angle on which the tile is rotated
and skewed. You can set the rotation value in two ways: type a value
in the Rotate box or use the scroll arrows to adjust an existing value.
Loading Bitmap Images
To the right of the Preview window in the Bitmap Fill dialog box is
a Down-arrow button. Clicking the button or anywhere in the preview
window opens a color preview of the first nine bitmaps that have been
imported into Corel PHOTO-PAINT. If there are more bitmaps than can
be displayed, scroll bars appear on the right side of the preview
window that allow the user to see the remainder of the bitmap fills.
Clicking the Load button opens the Load Bitmap Fill dialog box, where
you can import a graphic to use as your bitmap pattern. There is a
large selection of existing bitmap fills available on the CD-ROM containing
the TILES folder.
The Texture Fills
Texture fills are the feature that makes Corel PHOTO-PAINT unique.
The Texture Fill dialog box is used to select one of the 100-plus
bitmap texture fills included in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Each texture has
a unique set of parameters that you can modify to create millions
of variations.
Important rule of bitmap textures:
a texture fill expands to fit the volume of the available area = same
texture fill: as a square increases in area, the size of the
fill increases proportionally.
The fill size is calculated
by creating a square that is determined by the greatest dimension
of the mask. For example, if you made a mask that was 50 x 500
pixels, the resulting fill would be as if it were a 500 x 500 pixel
square.
Texture Fill dialog box
This dialog box allows you to edit and create an unlimited number
of new texture fills from existing fills. Unlike when working with
bitmap fills, you cannot import files for use as texture fills. The
texture fills are actually fractals that are created as they are applied.
This goes a long way to explain why some textures can take a long
time to apply.
If you cannot find the exact file that you want in the 160+ preset
textures that were shipped with Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you can edit the
existing textures in the Texture Fill dialog box.
Texture
Library: this list box displays the names of the texture
libraries. Corel PHOTO-PAINT ships with several libraries containing
textures made with the Texture generator. The Styles library contains
samples that are the building blocks of the bitmap texture fills.
It is from the textures in this library that all other samples in
the other libraries are made. This library is a read-only library.
If you modify a texture and want to save it, you will not be allowed
to save it in this library. You must either create a new library or
save it in one of the Samples libraries.
Texture List:
this window lists the texture fills available in the currently selected
library. Clicking a texture in the Textures list will select it, and
the default setting for the texture will display in the preview window.
Each time a library is selected, the texture list returns to the default
texture for that library. Preview and Locked/Unlocked Parameters:
each time the Preview button is depressed, Corel
PHOTO-PAINT varies the appearance of the selected texture by randomly
changing all unlocked parameters. This button does more than is apparent
at first. There are over 15,000 textures with several million possible
combinations for each one. Corel PHOTO-PAINT textures have certain
variables that are either locked or unlocked by default.
You can lock and unlock a parameter by clicking the Lock button next
to it. You can also use the Preview button to update a texture after
changing the parameters yourself. The default settings for the locks
generally provide the best, quickest results.
Save As
(Plus Button): after changing the parameters of a texture
in the library (or a new library you created), click the Plus button
in the upper-right corner to overwrite the original. This opens a
dialog box for naming (or renaming) a texture you have created. The
texture name can be up to 31 characters (including spaces). The Library
Name option allows you to create a new library in which to store the
textures. You can type up to 31 characters (including spaces). The
Library List displays libraries where you can store the modified texture.
You must save any modified Style textures in a library other than
the Styles library, because Styles is a read-only library.
Delete
(Minus Button): this deletes the selected texture. You cannot
delete textures in the Styles library.
Style Name and
Parameter Section: this part of the Texture Fill dialog box
shows the names of the selected textures. The value boxes in this
area list parameters for the selected texture. Changing one or more
of these parameters alters the appearance of the texture. The changes
are displayed in the preview box whenever the Preview button is depressed.
The Style Name fields list numeric parameters. All textures have texture
numbers, which range from 0 to 32,767. The names of the other parameters
vary with the texture selected and usually range from 0 to 100 or
-100 to 100.
To change a numeric parameter, enter a value in the text box or use
the cursor and click either the up or down arrow.
The right side of the field lists up to six
parameters, depending on the texture selected. To change a color,
click the color button and select a new color from the pop-up palette.
If you desire a specific color or named color that is not on the color
palette, click the Other button. The Other button opens the Select
Color dialog box. After you have made the desired changes, click the
Preview button to see the effect the new color has on the selected
texture.
The letters in right figure appear to be three-dimensional. The fill
for the letters was made using the Texture fill tool. The shadowing
on the letters was created by making a cutout from the background
(see the next tutorial "Shadow"). |
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