Trouble using thick lines, help needed

Pistillo · March 8

I really enjoy MTC thick line feature. I use thick lines when I am tracing hand sketched images uploaded from my phone.

The problem I am having is that is takes me forever to edit these thick lines. There are too many small lines generated. I created this bad example to illustrate my point. For example, let prettend I finished tracing a peace and love symbol (I know you can do this using circles, but let's pretend we are tracing it), it would like this.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5012508/uploads/editor/di/tlilug2toyt2.jpg

Then if I begin to shape it I run into these smaller line sections,

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5012508/uploads/editor/kx/fjzh2wqowlrl.jpg

Most of my designs require that thick border outline. Is there a better way to do this? I read in another thread than using shadows can accomplish the same effect. Any suggestion is VERY welcomed. I am spending too much time in these simple designs. Thank you!!!!

Liz_A · March 8

@Pistillo - welcome to the Make The Cut! forum, I see that you are a relative newbie here.

I know that looking at your designs your idea is that they have borders, but technically in MTC, they are not. MTC doesn't really do borders...we have ways in which we can achieve a border like effect, but in MTC terminology, borders don't exist. Other vector drawings allow you to apply a "stroke width" which in essence is also known as a border, but MTC does not do this. The developer of Make The Cut! explained this very well in a webinar early in the development of MTC. It made sense to me at the time, but the whole logic behind it evades me at this time.

To apply a shadow to the shapes you have shown above, use the Shadow Layer tool, apply a Shadow Width, then a Corner Join style, and Accept. Now you have one continuous shape around your drawing. It will cut as one shape, not a bunch of disjointed shapes.

I am sure others will come along and perhaps offer you more tips.

Pistillo · March 9

@Liz_A Thank you so much for your wise advice.

I am still strugling to understand how can I make MTC work. It was a large investment to buy the software and I am determined to make it work.

I agree the border could be created using two independent lines. I think I remember watching that in one of the tutorials the solution was to duplicate the line and then later scale it down to a smaller size to simulate a border.

Are you aware if there is a directory with all the topics covered in each tutorial video? It would take a long time to go back and find the right video with the demo described above. I have simply watched too many videos and cannot recall where I watched that trick.

Again thanks for your help.

Liz_A · March 9

@Pistillo - so what are you using to sketch the images....drawing on your phone? Or drawing on paper and then taking a photo? If I understand your process I might be able to help further.

Someone did create an Excel spreadsheet with a listing of all the videos for one year, I believe, but that was a one time only event.

You can try searching the forum, and see if you get a hit on one of the posts where the topics of the webinars would be announced - this pinned topic is where the announcements were made:

[UPDATED for May 2016] A weekly Q&A Webinar

Crazy_Mr_Zing · March 9

I'm not really understanding what you trying to do

can you give up a few more clues so we can point you in the right direction

I sort of think drawing in single lines > node edit > the when you satisfied with you manual trace use shadowing to create the thickness to the lines

Can you provide an example of the original artwork and the mtc file you have attempted to create from it ?

Pistillo · March 9

Absolutely,

I use a thick marker after sketching it because I wanted the thick border. When I trace it if comes out as a thick border.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5012508/uploads/editor/hg/0zzc60v1xqmq.jpg

Pistillo · March 9

Sorry I forgot the MTC file. Please see attachment.

Pistillo · March 9

Now you can see the nightmare it is to edit my traced file.

Crazy_Mr_Zing · March 9

Are you node editing to attempt to smooth the lines

You could try altering the resample setting so you trace has less detail

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5012508/uploads/editor/m0/rr0e71md757y.png

SandyMcC · March 9

Below is a link to the two Webinar content files that were created by members here. Note that these don't cover ALL of the webinars, however. Maybe someday someone will complete the process of creating these.

You should be able to search them, to possibly find which webinars hold the answers you need. Also, after I trace something and need to node edit, the first thing I do is select my shape, click on the wrench icon at the bottom and apply the top menu choice: Auto Simplify Path. That will often reduce the number of nodes making it easier to then path edit, as needed.

http://www.iloveknk.com/Support/Tutorials/Make-The-Cut/Webinar-Contents/

Gabe · March 9

@SandyMcC, it's good to see those spreadsheet files converted into PDF. I started to convert them, but I got a new computer and it doesn't have Excel. I just checked my FB group and we have the indexes, in spreadsheet format, for 2012, 2013 and 2014. But you have to use MS Excel to view them.

SandyMcC · March 9

@Gabe, I see you have three files on your FB group. I'll download them and confirm that what I uploaded matches your files. I probably combined two of them since mine do cover a range of years. The last one... 2014, was done in a different format which is why I kept it separate... I'm guessing! lol It's been a while since I had those index spreadsheets open.

SandyMcC · March 9

Okay... it appears that there are different indices for the years... as in different people created them. Also, I noticed that when I created a PDF, the right columns were cut off for some of these. So, until I can spend more time on this, I uploaded the XLSX versions, too.

Never mind, Liz helped me get them corrected. Thanks, @Liz!

Gabe · March 11

@SandyMcC, well done.

Di-lite · March 11

I took a look at your glyph and I think you would have been better using a thin line to start with and then trace that in and then use shadow to thicken and delete your original. You would need to make the joins as tidy as possible in your original drawing before tracing tho.

Pistillo · March 11

@Di-lite I followed your advice and that seemed to be a better method. Unfortunatelly, I wanted to give these sketches the 'drawn by hand' look. For example, some designs would look like I used a caligraphy pen to make the borders. That looked awesome when I traced the drawing. With your suggestion, even tough it worked fine, I do not get that caligraphy look that I was looking for.
Thanks all of you for your help.

Trouble using thick lines, help needed

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Trouble using thick lines, help needed

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