A Wholesomely Different Pointer Stroke

The following tutorial was written by deebs, a regular contributor on our Expression Design newsgroup. Thanks, deebs! If you haven't already done so, grab a copy of Microsoft Expression Design and follow along. You'll also want to download this Design.zip file containing sample and project files.

A Wholesomely Different Pointer Stroke

This exploration will feature a wonderful stroke in the Pointers folder and it is called Compass Arrow 2.

Here is a quick sketch drawn with the pen tool to show one feature that is quite pleasant.

		Notice that the two colour fill of red and white changes to two shades of red.
		Add a bevel live effect.
		Add a drop shadow live effect.

This tutorial will explore these effects and more. A .design file of these is attached to this tutorial (101.design).

Fast track summary:
Apply bevel and drop shadow to Compass Arrow 2 stroke originally drawn with B-Spline tool. Convert object to a path then apply a radial gradient with Bevel and Drop Shadow live effects.

1 – Open the accompanying .design file (102.design)

2 – Select the object.

3 – Change joint opacity to 60% (what do you observe?)

4 – Adjust opacity to 100%.

5 – Add a Bevel live effect using:

Width: 2 Contrast: 0.3 Softness: 0.2 Profile: Linear Light Angle: 135

to obtain something like this:

6 – Apply a Drop Shadow live effect using the following settings:

Softness: 1 Offset: 5 Opacity: 0.6 Light Angle: 315 Noise: 0

to obtain something similar to this:

7 – Save the file using a different file name.

8 – Explore different Stroke colours and adjust Bevel and drop Shadow values to see how these adjust the onscreen image.

9 – Save the file using a different file name.

10 – Remove Bevel and Drop Shadow live effects by selecting the effect then clicking on the trash can button in Effects panel.

11 – With the object selected click Object > Convert Stroke to Path.

12 – Select object fill and prepare to apply a radial gradient fill. The following values seem quite pleasant.

Left stop colour: FFE319 Right stop colour FF0C00 Radial gradient option selected

to obtain this or something similar:

13 – Apply Bevel and Drop Shadow live effects at the values used earlier in this tutorial.

14 – Explore different gradient fills.

Left stop colour: 19FFF5 Right stop colour: 0042FF

15 – Add a 1 pt stroke colour 230FD2 using a basic stroke.

16 – Apply a radial gradient fill to the stroke (the gradient fill used at Step 12 gives a good contrast)

17 – Comparing both together:

18 - Experiment!

Thanks again, deebs!