What about a cylinder tool?

[greenmorpher]

I think I mentioned this way back when I did my piece for PC Update magazine on v.13. One of my demo illustrations was a cylindrical shape ... and I can't remember how I did it.

What about a tool specifically for making pictures into cylindrical shapes? Stuff can be done with Effects > Distort > Outline Warping, but it doesn't go quite far enough. I am thinking of depicting a raster image as a label on a can or bottle -- a very common task for commercial graphic artists. Think in terms of the way the graphic elements on a label just disappear as they approach and finally go "round the corner" of a cylinder.

The Outline Warping shape isn't quite right. In any case, it is too limited. You can make it better by Effects > Shape Tools > Distort with Arrows or Distort with Grid, and messing around with other tools, but for me, these aren't certain enough.

They do demonstrate, however, that the capabilities are within the program to do the job very well.

DAMN~! I saved the document with the label on it, found it was too big, then copied it to a picture window, saved it again at a lower rez and ... the damn thing dumped all my changes to it overboard~! I had to open the distorted file in Canvas to save off a lower rez example to show you the result I got in PL. What happened? I don't know.

Ah -- copied off a merged copy, so we have an all PL example after all. But somehow, I got a picture window with the first copy I tried, and now I can't get one, only documents. It's all very confusing.

Or am I missing something (again)?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
The Ad Doctor Online

Win business with the recession-busting "How to make great ads for (sm)all business: 99 real world advertising ideas to kickstart *your* business today". See http://www.worsleypress.com

[Hoogo]

Maybe you mean this thread? I'd try projection, I think it's somewhere in the effects-menu. I can slightly remember a thread about labeling a tin can, but I only found this thread in German. There is also a link to a video.

And the stuff about the picture window and the documents sound very confusing to me, too

[greenmorpher]

Ah, that's right. Thanks, Hoogo. And isn't it great -- that was two and a half years ago, but (sigh) "Projection" remains with general effects filters instead of in the "Shape Tools" menu where it should be and none of the nominated shapes, e.g. cylinder, cone, donut, is mentioned in the manual. Rather it talks only in general terms about "so called rotation objects".

Hidden or not, though, this excellent tool needs a little more work.

This tool provides a rectilinear image. It needs to take perspective into account. When you look at a cylinder in real life, you have a particular point of view. If the can is standing on a surface and you are looking horizontally at its midpoint, you see an image with straight sides and convex curves top and bottom, like the Effects / Distort / Outline Warping / Fat Center. Raise your point of view a little and you look down on it from an angle, you see a shallow disk at the top, slightly converging straight lines at the side, and a curve at the bottom which is a greater curve than at the top.

Of it were possible to take perspective into account in producing the cylinder and other shapes, that would be really smart.

As it is, I can get a the sides converging by using Digital Camera / Rectify or by pasting the picture into a document, then using right-click to go into extended mode, then grabbing a corner of the picture and dragging it in (holding down shift to get the same movement on both sides). I cannot, however, see how I can deepen the curve at the bottom. I can do this in Canvas (I can also do the sides) which has an Envelope tool for use with both vector and raster.

The attachment illustrates the problem.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

FREE Bonus book offer. Get "How to make great ads for (sm)all business" FREE when you buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" or "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". Amazon or http://www.worsleypress.com

[Hoogo]

but (sigh) "Projection" remains with general effects filters instead of in the "Shape Tools" menu where it should be and none...

What a funny coincidence: I'm currently rearranging the menu items, and just today I moved "projection" to "filter > shape tools".

[greenmorpher]

HA~! How do you re-arrange the menu items? Did you rename "Projection" too?

And while you were moving them, did you move the distortion tools in the Shape Tools menu to the Distortion menu?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
The Ad Doctor Online

Win business with the recession-busting "How to make great ads for (sm)all business: 99 real world advertising ideas to kickstart *your* business today". See http://www.worsleypress.com

[Hoogo]

There is a MenuStructure.txt in the subfolder .\photoline\hlp. Oh, I did not alter the names of the menu entries, I did only move entries, added headlines here and there, dropped others, added some wishes as dead entries... The concept is more or less finished, still in discussion in the betatester-forum, but it is not a very hot topic... We will see what will happen to it - hope for the best, expect the worst

I'm not sure anymore about the original positions. The distortion tools are outline warping, zigzag, free roughen and so on? I moved them to "layer > distort", as they are more like attributes to layers. The distort xyz... all moved to "filter > shape tools".

[greenmorpher]

Right, that'd be something different on Mac. No worries, anyway.

That interface really does need to be fixed, though. The free AND buy stuff coming out with various higher level digital cameras is very, very good and on Mac, iPhoto's improving capabilities have already removed two key reasons why I bought PhotoLine.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

FREE Bonus book offer. Get "How to make great ads for (sm)all business" FREE when you buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" or "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". Amazon or www.worsleypress.com