[abeall]

Simple effect achieved with the new Blend Paths command in Fireworks CS3.

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[blue2x]

holy moly ! i tried the blend paths tool during the jam session, never knew that the stroke could do something like this ! its a very promising tool.

[abeall]

blue2x, on Aug 10 2007, 11:45 PM, said:

holy moly ! i tried the blend paths tool during the jam session, never knew that the stroke could do something like this ! its a very promising tool.

It's a good start, but definitely not the same level of power as the Illustrator blend tool. Put your requests in here, though! How about if you could re-apply the Blend Paths command to an already blended group and it will know to delete the old blend paths and make new ones, so you don't have to keep undoing and redoing when you are toying with different effects?

[blue2x]

heres my shot

[blue2x]

abeall, on Aug 11 2007, 11:49 AM, said:

It's a good start, but definitely not the same level of power as the Illustrator blend tool. Put your requests in here, though, I'm listening! I'm considering making it so that you can re-apply the Blend Paths command to an already blended group and it will know to delete the old blend paths and make new ones, so you don't have to keep undoing and redoing when you are toying with different effects.

Ick, the tutorial image is being downsized and it's all blurry. I'll see if I can resize it so it doesn't get blurry...

a.)was wondering why blending a square with a circle, the image is distorted a bit on its other half ( pls see the link below ) , is there any way to achieve smoothness?

b.) how many steps is the maximum? or the advisable amount? tried it over 350, and the image looks unclear, what do u think?

[abeall]

blue2x, on Aug 11 2007, 12:18 AM, said:

a.)was wondering why blending a square with a circle, the image is distorted a bit on its other half ( pls see the link below ) , is there any way to achieve smoothness?

b.) how many steps is the maximum? or the advisable amount? tried it over 350, and the image looks unclear, what do u think?

a.) All that the command does is blend point to point, it doesn't do any intelligent guessing on what's the closest point or add points as needed, so the number of points and order of points in two given paths makes a difference. If two paths have different number of points, it will blend two points to the same point, and so you'll get a sort of pinching/distorting effect. In other words, it works best with two shapes with the same number of nodes -- and it even matters what order the nodes are in(see attached image).

b.) I wouldn't do more than a few hundred, for fear of Fireworks hanging up on you. Strokes for some reason take a lot longer for Fw to blend than solid paths. For smooth effects, you'd usually want to use filled solid paths, not strokes. Strokes are good for that sort of stepped effect, but for perfectly smooth blends you'd use filled shapes, and go from one color to another. See attached PNG.

PS - sweet image, the dashed stroke creates a neat effect I hadn't tried!

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[raja]

Awesome.Tks a lot

[premiermc]

I have the most basic of questions and thanks for the tut by the way. How do you make the first step?

How do you draw a curved line. Is it with the pen tool and how do you get such a perfect curve as mine is always jagged and no way fluid like your step 1.

The rest I can handle but step one gets me. I try draw a circle and punch with another circle but then it is not a line but a shape, if you know what I mean.

[stompwampa]

premiermc, on Aug 11 2007, 08:47 AM, said:

I have the most basic of questions and thanks for the tut by the way. How do you make the first step?

How do you draw a curved line. Is it with the pen tool and how do you get such a perfect curve as mine is always jagged and no way fluid like your step 1.

The rest I can handle but step one gets me. I try draw a circle and punch with another circle but then it is not a line but a shape, if you know what I mean.

Use the pen tool, and set the stroke to be 1 or 2 pixels soft...the hard edge option looks jagged.

Here's mine:

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[abeall]

premiermc, on Aug 11 2007, 09:47 AM, said:

I have the most basic of questions and thanks for the tut by the way. How do you make the first step?

How do you draw a curved line. Is it with the pen tool and how do you get such a perfect curve as mine is always jagged and no way fluid like your step 1.

The rest I can handle but step one gets me. I try draw a circle and punch with another circle but then it is not a line but a shape, if you know what I mean.

Oops, I completely forgot to mention you need to use the pen tool! Sorry, first time making a tutorial. I updated the tutorial.

Like stompwampa said, the key for the tutorial effect is to use a 1 pixel soft stroke(see attached image), not the default hard line stroke. Of course, you can experiement with using any sort of stroke and color you want.

stompwampa - Nice! This effect can really have a million different outcomes.

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[zabberwan]

That's really an ingenious effect, Abeall. Thanks for showing us how!

[premiermc]

Thank you very much I figured it out and created it as per your tutorial and got an amazing effect.

The possibilities are endless. I learn something everyday here.

[so1980==MikeTaylor]

Holy crap, abeall. This is SOOO perfect. Last week I was playing with the paths panel trying to figure out how to really use Blend Paths, you know, more useful than just a shape tween-effect.

Thanks dude.

(in the jam session i even asked if you were around to demo Blend Paths--perfect timing man.)

[abeall]

so1980==MikeTaylor, on Aug 13 2007, 09:23 AM, said:

Holy crap, abeall. This is SOOO perfect. Last week I was playing with the paths panel trying to figure out how to really use Blend Paths, you know, more useful than just a shape tween-effect.

Thanks dude.

(in the jam session i even asked if you were around to demo Blend Paths--perfect timing man.)

I really need to get to the next jam session! I can't believe I've only been to like one, total. They are really great, I always enjoy watching the recordings when I get a chance.

[Zenith]

abeall, on Aug 15 2007, 02:40 AM, said:

I really need to get to the next jam session! I can't believe I've only been to like one, total. They are really great, I always enjoy watching the recordings when I get a chance.

ditto. just want to say that I'm very happy indeed to find this site and this page in particular.

One question i have though, about the blend effect . . .

Could it be used to do something like this. . . .????

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[abeall]

Zenith, on Aug 15 2007, 09:51 AM, said:

One question i have though, about the blend effect . . .

Could it be used to do something like this. . . .????

Hm, probably not exactly(you're best bet there would probably be to look for some photography of real smoke like that), but you could probably get a similar feel at least. The key would be:
1) Create a blend, using stroked paths which are quite squigly and overlap at a lot of points, and for the blend use a lot of steps(careful not to overdo it and stall Fireworks)
2) Select all the paths indivually(easiest way is to ungroup twice, so you don't have the group selected, but rather each path indivually -- or you could try Select > Subselect) and set all the path's opacity to a small number, like 5 or 10

The result is that the areas where paths overlap will cause the the opacity to sort of "build up" in those areas and create a sort of translucent depth feel. Then you could blur and use overlay shapes with blend modes to create a softer, richer appearence. Here's my PNG try(you could get better results with some tinkering):

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[Zenith]

abeall, on Aug 15 2007, 04:36 PM, said:

The result is that the areas where paths overlap will cause the the opacity to sort of "build up" in those areas and create a sort of translucent depth feel. Then you could blur and use overlay shapes with blend modes to create a softer, richer appearence. Here's my PNG try(you could get better results with some tinkering):

OMG!

[Zenith]

abeall, on Aug 15 2007, 04:36 PM, said:

2) Select all the paths indivually(easiest way is to ungroup twice, so you don't have the group selected, but rather each path indivually -- or you could try Select > Subselect) and set all the path's opacity to a small number, like 5 or 10

wow thats some effect.

The only thing i dont understand is the "ungroup twice".
I'm using FWCS3 with the built in blend too but after i do the blend and then ungroup, I get the three original paths and two blends (128 each, rounding hmmmm ).

No matter what I try I cant get the blends to separate into individual paths........

PS ) Many thanks though, this is exactly what ive been after for months

[abeall]

Zenith, on Aug 15 2007, 12:29 PM, said:

The only thing i dont understand is the "ungroup twice".
I'm using FWCS3 with the built in blend too but after i do the blend and then ungroup, I get the three original paths and two blends (128 each, rounding hmmmm ).

No matter what I try I cant get the blends to separate into individual paths........

The blends, ex "Blend: 128 steps" are really just groups, you should be able to select them and ungroup them, too. Even if you don't ungroup them, you can select the groups and use Select > Subselect to select the paths individually. You'll probably want to group the whole thing so you don't have hundreds of paths floating around in the layers panel.

[Zenith]

abeall, on Aug 15 2007, 05:39 PM, said:

The blends, ex "Blend: 128 steps" are really just groups, you should be able to select them and ungroup them, too. Even if you don't ungroup them, you can select the groups and use Select > Subselect to select the paths individually. You'll probably want to group the whole thing so you don't have hundreds of paths floating around in the layers panel.

finally got it! wow! its a whole new technique for me, so some playing is in order
Fantastic

[so1980==MikeTaylor]

hmm...i think a design center tutorial is in order.

:cough: :cough:

this is brilliant.

[Alan]

Here's a similar effect. I kept everything together, increased the amount of blends, and applied a Live Filter > Gaussian Blur at 2.4.

Good show Aaron!

[Zenith]

i'm getting some interesting effects with all this blend stuff but there is one but one thing is causing problems for me.

Its not strictly a blend problem but rather with applying tints and than placing everything into a symbol.

The image below looks a mess right? but load it up into fireworks and examine the symbol "Swirl".

Its built up from lots of flattened blends (boy does that make working with this blend stuff quicker!!!)
When its viewed inside the symbol the colouring is how i want it, but outside the tints just dont work.......

Any suggestions anyone ?

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[MagdalenaH]

Wow - this looks like something diff_lock could use for his rave party poster!
I can hardly look at it for more then 2 seconds

[abeall]

Zenith, on Aug 18 2007, 12:15 PM, said:

i'm getting some interesting effects with all this blend stuff but there is one but one thing is causing problems for me.

Its not strictly a blend problem but rather with applying tints and than placing everything into a symbol.

The image below looks a mess right? but load it up into fireworks and examine the symbol "Swirl".

Its built up from lots of flattened blends (boy does that make working with this blend stuff quicker!!!)
When its viewed inside the symbol the colouring is how i want it, but outside the tints just dont work.......

Any suggestions anyone ?

Zeneth, this is a very unfortunate architecture problem with symbols and object blend modes. Blend modes don't apply when you are outside the symbol -- the blend modes basically get reverted to "normal" instead of whatever you have them at(Color and Color Burn in your PNG -- my favorite blend mode is Overlay, btw). I don't know of any workaround, other than not using a Symbol if you need blend modes, like your case. If you break the Symbol apart(Modify > Symbol > Break Apart) it will create a group with all the elements, including the hidden elements(which will still be hidden), and the blend modes will work -- look out, though, as blend modes on elements which are in a group within another group also have this problem(they revert to normal).

These blend mode problems really need to be fixed, and I hope it does in the next version of Fireworks. Put your vote here:
http://adobe.com/go/wish

[Zenith]

Yup, got my vote in.
Its really annoying that I cant use symbols in the way i expect it to work....

[Jim Babbage .:CMX:.]

Aaron, this is awesome!

[dFever]

great effect. ciggarette smoke can be made with this! awesome

[Alan]

Zenith, on Aug 18 2007, 09:15 AM, said:

i'm getting some interesting effects with all this blend stuff but there is one but one thing is causing problems for me.

Its not strictly a blend problem but rather with applying tints and than placing everything into a symbol.

The image below looks a mess right? but load it up into fireworks and examine the symbol "Swirl".

Its built up from lots of flattened blends (boy does that make working with this blend stuff quicker!!!)
When its viewed inside the symbol the colouring is how i want it, but outside the tints just dont work.......

Any suggestions anyone ?

We have been investigating this issue on the Fireworks team. The fact that we havent engineered this into Fireworks is the limitation. We'll seriously consider this enhancement for Fireworks 10! We are definitely aware of the issue!

[Blue Shift]

Great tip!

I'm aware that this is bordering on thread necromancy, but i just made the following using the Blend Paths tool:



This "wormhole" was made using blend paths, twist-and-fade (only 1 step, so could be done manually), radial blur, and zoom blur.

I'm thinking of submitting it to Solar Voyager so that real artists can laugh at it...

P.S. : You don't want the source file, trust me.

[MagdalenaH]

Blue Shit, on May 8 2008, 05:31 PM, said:

...

This "wormhole" was made using blend paths, twist-and-fade (only 1 step, so could be done manually), radial blur, and zoom blur.

I'm thinking of submitting it to Solar Voyager so that real artists can laugh at it...

P.S. : You don't want the source file, trust me.

LOL - it almost looks like your name
I like it tho... it is really "twisted". Makes me want to go visit my optometrist.

[Blue Shift]

Uh-Oh, I mis-spelled my account name. This isn't good.

Edit: Actually, it's a typo in my Display Name only... I wonder if there's a way to change it.

[abeall]

I fixed your display name

Cool wormhole, too!

[Blue Shift]

Thanks! (For the compliment and the fix, that is...)

[SiamJai]

MagdalenaH, on May 9 2008, 06:30 AM, said:

LOL - it almost looks like your name

Haha - that made me chuckle!

Blue Shift, I'm glad you've resurrected this old topic... otherwise I'd have never found this excellent tutorial.

Aaron, thanks for showing this cool use of the Blend Path tool! LiveDocs only mentions that it exists, but doesn't give any description of its use. I started to appreciate this tool now, thanks to your great tutorial!

I had some fun playing around with this new knowledge, and here are a couple of my results:

[Grafikamateur]

nice