CorelDRAW Gold Factory

Copyright 2005 by Jeff Harrison Well... well... well. So youve seen those amazing pictures on the site and said to yourself: I gotta know how to do that... I cant believe CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT can do things like this. Believe it. The best part is that extra 3rd party plug-ins, often costing hundreds of dollars are not required. Everything you need is already right there in the programs. This is one of my favorite techniques, thank-you for purchasing this tutorial and allowing me the opportunity to share it with you. Lets go for the gold!

Download Workfile
Click the link above to download the workfile full of examples you can examine to fully understand metallic techniques.

1.

First Thoughts.

The final result will depend largely on the steps you take in the beginning. As I direct you through the tutorial, note how the same processes applied to different initial shapes and font choices produce Figure 1 different results as we go along. Ive included many of the original vector shapes shown in the tutorial so you can use them to follow along. Or, you could create your own text string right from the start and use it from this point forward. Have a look at Figure 1 to see shapes and wording Ive created in Draw as vector components. Notice that the Gold Rush element has some very subtle fountain fills applied. All others are 50% gray.

2.

Convert Now, My Child.

Select your element(s) and choose Bitmaps | Convert Figure 2 to Bitmap. Use the settings shown in Figure 2 for images more than 5" in any direction, or type in 400 dpi for anything smaller than that. Or use another number that you are fond of. Keep in mind that some effect preview windows in Corel PHOTO-PAINT will look slightly different depending on the resolution you choose... however, you can compensate for any differences there (Just use the screenshots shown here as a guide when the time comes). Why are we converting to RGB instead of grayscale? Good question... its because well need to be in RGB anyway in the near future when we add the final gold hue near the end.

3.

Launch Photo-Paint.

Right-click on the bitmap and access Corel PHOTO-PAINT (PP) right through CorelDRAW. If for some reason you dont have it installed, then.... install it! Its a prerequisite for this tutorial. Once you see your graphic in PP, maximize both the window the graphic is in and the entire PP application. Ahhh... thats better, now we can see what were working on! Another handy tip is that if you want to see a pixel-perfect-preview in the PP workspace, press Ctrl+1. The 1 at the top left of your keyboard, not the Num Pad 1. Then there are no

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CorelDRAW Gold Factory

interpolation artifacts on the image from zooming in or out, youre seeing the image as it really is. This is very handy for Web design, as the dimensions you see are the real ones when you export the file. In some versions of PP, the plastic effect coming up next has trouble doing its thing near the edge of a file. So if everyone could please add a little extra breathing space around our elements, thatll take care of that issue. Go to Image | Paper Size and add somewhere between 30-300 pixels for the top and side. Usually I just round up to the next full inch in the dialog. Good enough. Precision isnt required... just make some more space around the edges. Figure 3

4.

Plastic Please.

Ever since discovering the plastic texture effect in version 9, its been a staple for me in creating many kinds of fancy text", along with other elements. Choose Effects | Texture | Plastic from the menu. Try the parameters shown in Figure 3. The Smoothness and Depth adjustments will provide different looks depending on the resolution of your file. Observe the result in the preview window more than worrying about actual parameters. For the examples, Ive applied the effect to the components a bit differently from piece to piece. For the Gold Rush element, I chose some very different settingssee Figure 4.

Figure 4

5.

Tone Curve Surprise.

At this stage, our text is generally looking like something resembling pewtersee Figure 5. Lets crank things up a notch with the insane possibilities of the tone curve plugin. Go to Image | Adjust | Tone Curve. Notice the outrageous tone curve setting. Memorize where the dots are. Column 1, top, Column 2, bottom. Column 3, top, Column 4, bottom. See the pattern? Excellent. Carefully center the dots in the boxes as shown in Figure 6. The artwork may look strange against the transparent background checker board in the preview window, but continue anyway. There

Figure 5

Figure 6

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are two elements that were processed differently in my example; I applied the same tone curve effect to the Silver Bullet text twice, and on the Gold Rush element the tone curve had some small changes from normal.

6.

More Processing.

Since were in RGB, you may have some strange colors on your text. Just select Image | Adjust | Desaturate. Figure 7 This is similar to converting the document to grayscale, then back to RGB. Another thing I often do is auto-equalize the image, Image | Adjust | Auto Equalize. This makes the blacks black, and the highlights white. The goal is for your item to have a Sterling Silver appearance before proceeding. In fact, if silver is your goal, the bus stops here! The text should now resemble Figure 7. (Ive put a black background behind the text so its easier to see). If you are feeling brave, please investigate the Figure 8 Brightness/Contrast/Intensity adjustments as well to massage your components for the next big step.

7.

Its Time for the Gold.

Open the Image | Adjust | Color Hue plug-in and click the Reset button. Un-check the Shadow box, and slide the Step slider to 50. See Figure 8. Now, remember this following sequence: 2 Red, 2 Yellow, and 1 Cyan. One more time... 2 Red, 2 Yellow, 1 Cyan. Click on the boxes labeled as such in that sequence. Figure 9 Your text/object should now have a lovely gold color. Save back to CorelDRAW, and youre in business! See Figure 9.

8.
A.

Other Ideas.
Glare

Try this novel idea I came up with to add a little glow, based on the luminance of the brightest areas of any object. For quite some time, Id make a shadow, separate it and layer it over top in add mode (accessed via PPs Objects Docker"). That route is okay, but I Figure 10 was hoping to have less glow over the darker areas. How to do this? 1. Duplicate the object. 2. Run the Effects | Noise | Maximize command. This will broaden the general object in a hurry. See Figure 10. 3. Apply Gaussian Blur. Effects | Blur | Gaussian Blur. This will smooth out the edges from the previous step. See Figure 11.

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CorelDRAW Gold Factory

Figure 12 Figure 11 Desaturate the layer, than add a little bit of light yellow using the Color Hue command. Image | Adjust | Color Hue. See Figure 12. I clicked yellow 5 times with the settings shown. 5. Put the blurry yellow-ish object into add mode through the Objects Docker. Slide the opacity of this object to taste. I used 40%. You can see how this adds a unique glare. Since our glare is a whole separate object, also consider adjusting Brightness/Contrast/Intensity (BCI) so that the Figure 13 glare is really defined to specific areas. See Figure 13. 6. The final result with BCI adjustments is now layered over top with 60% opacity. Wherever there was a hard highlight in the original image, there is a now a nice soft glow. See Figure 14. Figure 14 4.

B.

Lens Flare

This is fairly straightforward. However, instead of the defaults, try changing the color of the flare to a pale yellow instead of white. Adjust the settings so that the effect is somewhat subtle, and looks natural. See Figure 15. I added 3 small flares. Can you pick them out?

Figure 16 Figure 15

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Figure 17

Figure 18

C.

Tone CurveAgain!

I had run the tone curve effect twice in the Silver Bullet text string. The effects that can be achieved are outstanding. Figure 16 is an example of what can happen. In that case, the original lettering also had fountain fills before running the plastic effect. Then the tone curve effect was run twice. Figure 17 shows a silver effect (a cool look in its own right), with the tone Figure 19 curve run once. After running the effect again and applying some lens flares, Figure 18 is the result. With Figure 19, I re-ran all effects on separate components. After adding some drop shadows, a compelling image is the result. The silver tone curve lettering turned out very well. An advanced method: Remember those columns in the Tone Curve plugin? Slide the dots upwards and downwards within the columns, and see the results as you go. There are incredible possibilities here, for other Figure 20 kinds of surfaces like glass lettering. Try playing with this idea from the first time you enter the Tone Curve plugin.

D.

PlasticAgain!

Running the plastic filter again either before or after the tone curve adjustment yields excellent results. It can provide a liquid metal look. See Figure 20. Odd fonts can make interesting metalsee Figure 21. When you use clipart or Webdings, or Wingdings as part of your original vector shapes, many interesting possibilities

Figure 21

Figure 22

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CorelDRAW Gold Factory

become apparent. The drama masks came from the Webdings library to create Figure 22. Go back and have a look at diagram 15. This was created with a font containing Egyptian symbols. In Figure 23, I used a shape from the Wingdings library to create a fancy border. The vector shape is in the workfile. Many Oriental restaurants use red and gold in their decor.

E.

Brighten Top Half

Zoom in on Figure 24 to see how the very top lettering seems to reflect an environment. To do this on your own text, slightly brighten any areas you want after running the first plastic effect. Then run the tone curve and you can see how a dramatic change will take place with the slightest of brightening adjustments beforehand. Figure 23 I use the brightness effect tool as opposed to masking off an area, though that will work too. Press V to bring up the effect tools. Youll find one on the Property Bar. Press it to open up all of the tools. Find the light bulb. Then open up the drop-down menu and pick brighten. Choose a nib, and start painting brightness onto the image where you require. Many PP users overlook the effect tools. Theres a lot of power in there! I find them very intuitive. You may be already comfortable with how Figure 24 PPs nibs feel with painting, cloning, and erasing. You are probably thankful for how smoothly you can change the size of any nib by pressing shift and dragging the mouse up and down. Figure 25 is a very early example of playing with the general idea of this whole tutorial. I was eager to try the effect on a shape, not just text. I had also put in a subtle reflection of a mountain range reflecting on the word machine". Creating a shape like the one at the very bottom of Figure 25 is easy in CorelDRAW, but impractical in PP. I cant stress enough how powerful these programs are, especially when used in tandem. When solving graphic problems or creating new artwork, understanding the strengths of each program simplifies things immensely. Figure 26 shows a type of highlight effect that spans the elements. Duplicate your main text object. Press Ctrl-M to mask it. Fill with a linear fountain fill, at an angle if you like. Put that object into add mode, and adjust the opacity. Figure 27 shows the brighten top half technique on some antique text.

Figure 25

Figure 26

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Figure 27 Remember how the tone curve provides its own Figure 28 colors? In Figure 28, these are the colors it made all by itselfI didnt desaturate the image. Figure 17 seen earlier is a similar example. Figure 29 shows the final result of contouring text in Draw with various grayscale values. When the various contours are plasticized, interesting ridges appear. Figure 30 is an example of various objects layered together to create a metallic look. One of the objects Figure 29 has this tutorials treatment applied. Other objects include various degrees of distress, and at least one with a glare effect. Thats it! Im sure you can see the awesome potential of these techniques. Create a bunch of examples of your own and print them off on good color laser to see how they are turning out. Have a look at the workfile and see if there is something in there that interests you. If youve come up with something really cool, upload it to a Web site and send me the link to it (as opposed to emailing the image directly to me), Id love to see it! Figure 30 Sincerely, Jeff Harrison jeff@pmgindex.com

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CorelDRAW Gold Factory