Vector Workshop 2024

[Cassel]

@Trevor Andrew I guess the simplest explanation why we need to activate the Pen tool is that with the Pen, you will edit at the LINE level, which has the nodes, while the others offer different settings, but on the overall shape. So, if you remember that the Pen, will let you edit the nodes, it will be helpful. And the reason why PNG are not allowed in the forum is due to the file size, which uses a lot more bandwidth and storage. If you want to create shapes, you don't have to have a transparent background. For me, it is just a habit.

@Daniel Hess Don't worry about symmetry. Not all shapes are symmetric and you will often use nodes in asymmetric design. You will see tomorrow!

@Doska St. To change the colors, you usually will get better results and more control if you open the Vector Properties dialog window. Is that how you tried to change them?

@Jen Brown Great start. How did it go? Was it easy or challenging?

@Cristina I am glad you remembered an old "trick" with the corner nodes. And yes, it is all about practice, which is the whole purpose of this workshop.

@Anja Pelzer Glad you are still following with the lessons. 

@Susan Ewart Yes, keep it simple and manage the nodes. It is all about becoming comfortable with them.

@Alice Daniel Yes, nodes might be a little finicky and hard to "catch", so if you click a tiny bit off, it will activate some other layers. Have you considered using larger nodes? It might help? You are definitely getting some practice with that character!

@middie We have a very supportive community here. Although I saw your request for help, someone was faster than me in answering you 🙂

@Donna Sillia Simple shapes are great. For those who might wonder, we will look at adding picture tubes in a future lesson.

@Corrie Kinkel That is an interesting idea to choose a different color for this workshop. Since the colors used in making the shapes will display in the drop-down list, you can also choose a specific color for your own shapes. I tend to have blue shapes when I create scripts, or preset shapes that I need to share. They end up associated with me 🙂

@Julie Magerka You are doing good. You will get the hang of those nodes.

@Gerry Landreth Aren't the cats your supervisors?? 😉

If you need more practice, try to turn a rectangle into a single letter. That is another project you can try. Don't create letters with "holes" yet. That will come later in the workshop.

[Mary Solaas]

Lesson 1.  I did the heart and the arrow, but I also did the splash required for my Lab 12 Mod 8. I fiddled around and ended up using the layer styles - Inner Glow and changing the settings and colors on both the arrow, heart and splash.

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 2 Vectors
I had fun with this. I am not sure how many times I played with this one.
Finally...

[Ann Seeber]

4 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Day 2 Vectors
I had fun with this. I am not sure how many times I played with this one.
Finally...

Wow, Jeni, those are awesome. They immediately make vectors more interesting to me. I think my fav is Autumn Shades. 

[Emerald Jay]

Lesson 2

 

[Jeni Simpson]

1 hour ago, Ann Seeber said:

Wow, Jeni, those are awesome. They immediately make vectors more interesting to me. I think my fav is Autumn Shades. 

Thank you, Ann, that really is a lovely boost to my confidence, I've avoided vectors like the plague, and, on seeing what others were doing, I felt I needed to up my game somewhat.  I spent hours during the night thinking about how to create labels, and when I tried to do what I had in mind, it didn't work, so I went with outlines.
The banners just came to me as I was creating them.
I should have mentioned I used Jessica Dunn's damask papers from her Good Old Days kit, her teal paper on the blue banner, and her lime paper on the green banner. I then blended them, I think I used multiply for the blue banner and luminance legacy on the lime one.

[Emerald Jay]

Lesson 3 First image shows the leaf after I edited all the nodes.  Second image shows samples after the vector was exported.

[Cristina]

23 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Lesson 1

Heart and Arrow.  Lots of fiddling around.  I see some very cool hearts and arrows from everyone.  It's pretty inspiring.  I am keeping it simple for this workshop, as others have said, just concentrating on the forms and taming the nodes.  Some of those suckers like to multiply when I accidently click too much.  

 

 

17 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

For day 2 I have kept it really simple because I have so much trouble to see those nodes and although I have set the node size bigger you still have to click in the middle otherwise it won't work. Sadly my eyes won't cooperate at the moment. I have not only the shapes of today but also the ones from day 1 exported in one file and everything is in this blue color to distinguish them from the purple ones of last year. When exporting I got a warning that there were already preset shapes with the names Labels so I had to come up with different names or numbers to avoid getting duplicates. I didn't make a screenshot of my preset shapes because the results of the coming lessons are there too and I won't spoil what is to come the next days.

 

 

15 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Didn't have a lot of time today to work on Lesson 2, but wanted to be on time. We have temps in the 100s (F) and my A/C went kaput yesterday. It has been fixed but it knocked me sideways to endure high indoor temps. The poor dogs too were listless.

Just played with a few shapes. I have NOT mastered those (#@^$*) nodes - my shapes are often a bit wonky - but I refuse to let them beat me ultimately! I will prevail! (Ha)

 

 

Those nodes can be VERY annoying.

Sometimes, I have to click, click, and click to see the arms. The arms are also another issue, as they are so thin, even when the nodes are bigger.

 

[Cristina]

Day 3 - contour

It is not a great contour, but it serves the purpose of practicing, practicing... 😄

 

[Anja Pelzer]

here is my day 3

I used one of the leaves and from the picture the walfish

I used no bevel here , only the lighten darken tool

this was my old lesson 3

[Peggy Dyar]

On 6/2/2024 at 9:39 PM, Cassel said:

Our newest challenge will soon start. Are you in?

Are you intimidated by vectors? Are you at a loss when you need to use them?

The challenge will start on June 17th. This challenge will be FREE for everyone, so spread the word.

Here is the link again: https://scrapbookcampus.com/workshops/vector

Let us know when you are registered, and share your biggest challenge or fear about using Vectors.

The workshop will be the same as offered last year, however, I plan on offering different extras for our DIAMOND members.

I am registered for the workshop (just registered today), but the link above does not work to get me into the workshop. I've tried my regular browser (Brave) and also Firefox, but cannot get in. (Help??) Thanks

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Peggy

In addition to that web page Carole sends emails containing linked to each lesson.

We are working with lesson 3, I am sure Carole will soon send you the links.

 

 

[Ron Yarborough]

It's good to learn more about PSP. Thanks.

[Trevor Andrew]

Changing node types

Working with lesson 3 I found I was switching node types from cusp to symmetric and back many times found that a bit of a pain.

Are there keyboard shortcuts to achieve, I found Ctrl+S switched node type to symmetric but cannot find one for cusp.

 

 

[Cassel]

17 minutes ago, Peggy Dyar said:

I am registered for the workshop (just registered today), but the link above does not work to get me into the workshop. I've tried my regular browser (Brave) and also Firefox, but cannot get in. (Help??) Thanks

The link above is for registering. The links to the individual lessons are in the emails you will receive. However, as a DIAMOND member, you can also go directly to the lesson by going to the DIAMOND > Workshops page where the Vector Workshop is listed with all the lesson links. Can you access them that way?

[Donna Sillia]

"On the blog

 

Speaking of vectors, did you ever wish you could turn a selection to a path? Well, you can with this script!"

 

I downloaded this script, found it very easy to use and saves a lot of time. I used the selectiontopath script on the leaf, created a pattern from one of my leaf  pictures and filled my vector with the leaf pattern.

 

Carole, thanks for the tip on the blog. Is it ok to to use the script? I do realize that it will not work for all projects and want to continue learning how to manipulate nodes.

 

Now that I viewed on the forum, I see where the pattern did not show all the spikes. 

Edited June 19 by Donna Sillia
add info

[Corrie Kinkel]

5 minutes ago, Donna Sillia said:

"On the blog

 

Speaking of vectors, did you ever wish you could turn a selection to a path? Well, you can with this script!"

 

I downloaded this script, found it very easy to use and saves a lot of time. I used the selectiontopath script on the leaf, created a pattern from one of my leaf  pictures and filled my vector with the leaf pattern.

 

Carole, thanks for the tip on the blog. Is it ok to to use the script? I do realize that it will not work for all projects and want to continue learning how to manipulate nodes.

 

Now that I viewed on the forum, I see where the pattern did not show all the spikes. 

Interesting Donna, I have downloaded that script from the blog too, but haven't had the time to play with it yet. 

[Alicia Garbelman]

Yesterday's labels. I was hungry; can you tell?

[Mary Solaas]

4 hours ago, Cristina said:

Day 3 - contour

It is not a great contour, but it serves the purpose of practicing, practicing... 😄

 

Love that flower!!  Really great

[Alicia Garbelman]

Today's leaves

[Susan Ewart]

On 6/18/2024 at 12:26 PM, Trevor Andrew said:

Lesson 2 I followed the video and saving the shapes worked correctly and now show in the pre-sets.

Thanks Carole

I did start to create a group of arrows all went well until the program decided to do its disappearing act, at the time I was working on layers and grouping, then a silent closure.

Next time it works ok.

Png images are not allowed on the forums so is there any benefit in using a transparent background. For me the squares get in the way, I find it better to use a white background with the grid view, now I find it easier to keep things in proportion. I have also noticed that I can use the arrow keys to move nudge the nodes making positioning much more accurate, need to investigate further I’m sure drawing and using those nodes will get easier with practice, I need to watch that video again.

 

 

I got the silent treatment from my PSP last night.  I however, wasn't so "silent" about PSP's rather abrupt and rude behavior.  

.

[Jnet Allard]

Text translated with Google

Hello to all participants.

I arrive late, because I am in the boxes full to bursting from our 52 years of life together for my husband and me. I think I will have enough to sort through, throw away, keep and give away everything we have accumulated over these 52 years.

In addition to the move, I was surprised when I turned on my computer that all my saved passwords had disappeared. I think I'll have to change them all because the ones I have in note don't go through, as if I needed that!

[Susan Ewart]

6 hours ago, Cristina said:

 

 

Those nodes can be VERY annoying.

Sometimes, I have to click, click, and click to see the arms. The arms are also another issue, as they are so thin, even when the nodes are bigger.

 

I have all these issues too.  I had to turn the node size back to small because I couldn't seem to hit the middle when they were bigger.  Lots of zooming in required.  Oh, and sometimes the arms are so short I don't think they are there.  I'm trying to watch the cursor better as it switched to arrows doesn't it.  And sometimes I get the 4 arrows but don't know why.  they don't let me click on the nodes, this did stop once I went back to smaller nodes.

[Susan Ewart]

16 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Day 2 Vectors
I had fun with this. I am not sure how many times I played with this one.
Finally...

I love the cornflower shape, it reminds me of 50's-60's design.  I have just made a similar one like your Cayenne one.  And like Ann, I love that Autumn Shades.

[Julie Magerka]

I remember now, from the last Vector Workshop, that the leaf design made my eyes glaze over! It was just too much node-work for my skill level. This time, I managed the nodes better but I did something wrong b/c when I fill in the shape with a solid colour, the three cutout parts in the middle get filled in too. I'm just too pooped to figure it out right now. But hey, I did the outline! Don't have to get an A every time, right? I will try again if I can get some direction on what I did wrong.

Update: just read Carole's note (after her comments to us) about not using a shape with holes! Which is what I did.

Edited June 19 by Julie Magerka
added info