Vector Workshop 2023

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Day 2

Project 2

I also deleted a lot and started over a lot. It's a lot to remember!

[Royanne Hewko]

Another learning experience ..... thanks

 

[Jackie Savukinas]

Hello Everybody, I am beyond frustrated and I see that there are others in the same boat, although many of you have had success--congrats on that!  I was using 2022 and saw that there may be a bug so I upgraded to 2023 this morning.  Things seemed to have been better with the new version but I quickly started to have the same problem while I was trying to select the node to make the heart (still on step 1).  I don't always see the lines and when I right click on the node, cusp is greyed out.  Now PSP is having a fit, which I was also experiencing yesterday, where all I get instead of a cursor is a white circle with a line through it.  I must be doing something wrong that puts it in a tailspin.  

[Ann Seeber]

21 minutes ago, Royanne Hewko said:

Another learning experience ..... thanks

 

Royanne, that's a really nice cutting board! (I collect cutting boards ? )

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Michele said:

There's no time limit, Sharon. If you ever find the time, you can always give it another shot. By the way, I've been sticking with 2022 because there seem to be too many glitches in 2023

 

I have 2023 but have reverted back to 2022.  It's frustrating when it misbehaves and I think it's me doing it, when it's not me doing it.  Makes success much harder and failure to familiar.

[Cassel]

14 minutes ago, Jackie Savukinas said:

I don't always see the lines and when I right click on the node, cusp is greyed out.

Cusp seems to always be greyed out by default. You have to FIRST choose Symmetric or Asymmetric and THEN do it again and select Cusp.

15 minutes ago, Jackie Savukinas said:

Now PSP is having a fit, which I was also experiencing yesterday, where all I get instead of a cursor is a white circle with a line through it. 

Make sure there is a layer active in the Layers palette. When you happen to delete a vector object, sometimes, you can end up with nothing selected in the Layers palette. Then, you can't do anything. Click on any layer and it should help.

[Jackie Savukinas]

2 minutes ago, Cassel said:

Cusp seems to always be greyed out by default. You have to FIRST choose Symmetric or Asymmetric and THEN do it again and select Cusp.

Make sure there is a layer active in the Layers palette. When you happen to delete a vector object, sometimes, you can end up with nothing selected in the Layers palette. Then, you can't do anything. Click on any layer and it should help.

Okay, making sure that my layer is selected got rid of the white circle with a line in it but when I put my cursor over a node, my cursor has either a plus under it or a wavy line under it and when I right click, everything is greyed out. 

[Susan Ewart]

Lesson 3 Leaf

Today I went back the basics of the way I learn.  Sloooowly (thank you Corrie for that advice to slow down).  I followed and paused the video at each node around the leaf.  I used the same leaf so I could get a better result.  I also realized I might be "over" clicking and getting weird results because of it.  I think I was clicking the node to activate and then right clicking and I wouldnt get the same result as the video.  Then I start hoving over it until I saw the 4 outward arrows.  Sometimes it took some hovering to find it and not the other two symbols.  Also I was not holding control FIRST then moving to the line to see the +ADD symbol.  I have a few questions to straighten me out (below).  The leaf on the left is with the black underneath to see how close I came and the second is after I saved it and tried out the preset.  Of course I had a freeze up...only because I had forgotten to clear my temp files and do a disk clean up for 3 days.

1. Do we in fact click to activate the node then do we right click on the node to select the node type?  
2. Or do we just hover over the node and see the 4 arrows, THEN right click to select the node type?  (so dont click first, then right click again..what I was doing that didnt work)
3. And do I have to see those 4 corners or does it matter what ever symbol is showing as long as I hover over the node and then right click?
4. When you make a selection does it matter where you hover the cursor to right click to select nodes?

Hope this makes any sense.  I'm trying to learn the correct way to approach the nodes.  I had a way easier time and only a few times using undo. At one point I was careless and moved the whole leaf over.  It's hard, but today I feel like I had a little win. 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Susan Ewart

[Cassel]

10 hours ago, Jackie Savukinas said:

Okay, making sure that my layer is selected got rid of the white circle with a line in it but when I put my cursor over a node, my cursor has either a plus under it or a wavy line under it and when I right click, everything is greyed out. 

You might not have an object active in the Layers palette. The + means it is ready to draw a shape or a path, so right-clicking won't be doing what you are expecting. Check what layer/object is active.

[Cassel]

27 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Do we in fact click to activate the node then do we right click on the node to select the node type?  

When you need to edit the Node type, you can right-click directly. If you need to MOVE the node, then click until it is active (black) then, you can grab it with the left-click.

29 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Or do we just hover over the node and see the 4 arrows, THEN right click to select the node type?  (so dont click first, then right click again..what I was doing that didnt work)

When you see the 4 arrows on the cursor, it means PSP is ready to move the node you are hovering over. Remember that the 4 arrows is the icon for the MOVE tool ?

31 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

And do I have to see those 4 corners or does it matter what ever symbol is showing as long as I hover over the node and then right click?

When you hover, you get the option to move. If you RIGHT-click, then you get a popup window. if you LEFT-click, you just grab the node.

32 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

When you make a selection does it matter where you hover the cursor to right click to select nodes?

If you have selected several nodes at once, as long as you are inside the bounding box, you can right-click and get the options for the Node type, and more.

[Cristina]

Here is Lesson 3. As I started late, only tomorrow I will do the extra practice.

The first time I did contour was long ago, probably a Masterclass, not sure... So this was a good exercise... Just need time and patience with all the nodes to edit, but the result is rewarding...Also, we can do so many things with technique... I made one preset and added some lines to it for practice.

 

[Royanne Hewko]

Once again, learned lots.   I used Cass-Edge Magic script to darken the outside of the leaves.   I drew with the pen tool lines to represent the veins of a leaf and then added some Gaussian blur.

 

[Anja Pelzer]

wow this workshop is great, Here is my lesson 2, I made some different shapes and exportet

 

[SHARON HUGHES]

3 hours ago, Cassel said:

Tell us where you are confused. Are you seeing something different in your PSP than in the video? What was the previous version you worked with? Maybe you just need to adjust your workspace?

Well, I did learn one thing to make my work space brighter that was a first. I have been using mostly PhotoShop Paintshop Pro, I upgrade to 2022 but never used it and then I upgraded to 2023 to see if I could find an easier way to make my strips into an SVG file using the PNG for my Circuit Cutting Machine so it would cut the strips for me. A lot of the time I have used Jasc PSP 7 and PSP 9. They were easy to learn once you get into the higher version it's like a whole different program. I used to make my own Tubes but with the newer versions, I find it difficult. 

I got lost when it came to making the eclipse and it did not have any nodes even though I check the box on nodes everything else seemed to be checked right and I couldn't get the image to path correctly so I had nodes every place I click on. So I got so confused and deleted the hold thing and started over and still have problems once the video. Cristina moved down to the left of the screen and talked about all the different ways to make it work. So once I got there I was totally confused. After that, I gave up. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by SHARON HUGHES

[fiona cook]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

When you need to edit the Node type, you can right-click directly. If you need to MOVE the node, then click until it is active (black) then, you can grab it with the left-click.

When you see the 4 arrows on the cursor, it means PSP is ready to move the node you are hovering over. Remember that the 4 arrows is the icon for the MOVE tool ?

When you hover, you get the option to move. If you RIGHT-click, then you get a popup window. if you LEFT-click, you just grab the node.

If you have selected several nodes at once, as long as you are inside the bounding box, you can right-click and get the options for the Node type, and more.

Good questions Susan and I think Carole's answers are clear so thank you both. I have used undo quite a lot in this process.

[fiona cook]

I have managed to export my design OK to the Pre-shape but the shape is a little rough!

[Cassel]

30 minutes ago, SHARON HUGHES said:

Well, I did learn one thing to make my work space brighter that was a first. I have been using mostly PhotoShop Paintshop Pro, I upgrade to 2022 but never used it and then I upgraded to 2023 to see if I could find an easier way to make my strips into an SVG file using the PNG for my Circuit Cutting Machine so it would cut the strips for me. A lot of the time I have used Jasc PSP 7 and PSP 9. They were easy to learn once you get into the higher version it's like a whole different program. I used to make my own Tubes but with the newer versions, I find it difficult.

I have a blog article about how I do customize my workspace, so if you want something similar to what I have, you can check this

 

31 minutes ago, SHARON HUGHES said:

I got lost when it came to making the eclipse and it did not have any nodes even though I check the box on nodes everything else seemed to be checked right and I couldn't get the image to path correctly so I had nodes every place I click on. So I got so confused and deleted the hold thing and started over and still have problems once the video. Cristina moved down to the left of the screen and talked about all the different ways to make it work. So once I got there I was totally confused. After that, I gave up.

One thing with vectors is that you will have some LAYERS, some OBJECTS and you have to make sure they are active. Then, you have the Pen tool that has different settings than the Rectangle/Ellipse/Preset/Symmetric tools. Go slow. One step at a time. Sometimes, it is the wrong layer/object being active, sometimes, it is the wrong tool.

Don't give up. You can do it.

[SHARON HUGHES]

13 minutes ago, Cassel said:

I have a blog article about how I do customize my workspace, so if you want something similar to what I have, you can check this

 

One thing with vectors is that you will have some LAYERS, some OBJECTS and you have to make sure they are active. Then, you have the Pen tool that has different settings than the Rectangle/Ellipse/Preset/Symmetric tools. Go slow. One step at a time. Sometimes, it is the wrong layer/object being active, sometimes, it is the wrong tool.

Don't give up. You can do it.

Thank you very much for the help. I just never got to the Rectangle/Ellipse/Preset/Symmetric tools. I could not get that option. I went directly to using the pen tool so that was probably where I got confused. Nothing worked as it should have. 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by SHARON HUGHES

[Cassel]

1 minute ago, SHARON HUGHES said:

Thank you very much for the help. I just never got to the Rectangle/Ellipse/Preset/Symmetric tools. I could not get that option. I went directly to using the pen tool so that was probably where I got confused. Nothing worked as it should have. 

What is the icon you have just above the Pen tool? Maybe it is the Preset shape and if so, you need to pull the others by clicking the little arrow:

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

When you need to edit the Node type, you can right-click directly. If you need to MOVE the node, then click until it is active (black) then, you can grab it with the left-click.

When you see the 4 arrows on the cursor, it means PSP is ready to move the node you are hovering over. Remember that the 4 arrows is the icon for the MOVE tool ?

When you hover, you get the option to move. If you RIGHT-click, then you get a popup window. if you LEFT-click, you just grab the node.

If you have selected several nodes at once, as long as you are inside the bounding box, you can right-click and get the options for the Node type, and more.

THANK YOU! This is so helpful.  It's the little details that mess me up, that I'm doing wrong and i know I'm doing them wrong but dont know what is wrong.  I'm so glad I'm in the class when it's a workshop so I have the benefit of everyone's mistakes and questions.  Thank you again, Carole. 

[Anja Pelzer]

another great lesson,  

my leaves 

[Sheila Hogg]

My result for 3rd lesson. I must admit, I do like working with vector nodes. TFL. Will only let me post Jpgs, is that the norm?

Image filled with light and dark shading added.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Sheila Hogg

[Cassel]

6 minutes ago, Sheila Hogg said:

My result for 3rd lesson. I must admit, I do like working with vector nodes. TFL. Will only let me post Jpgs, is that the norm?

Yes. That is to prevent posting other formats that are big file sizes. We only need a jpg version anyways.

[Cindy Lawrence]

I make a fair number of cards and I use shaped layers for the cover sentiment so I decided to make shapes that I will use there. I also learned how to center and align shapes.  

[Jannette Nieuwboer]

I absolutely have to do this tut again CASSEL, I break my brain here. All of a sudden I could type words. ???