Interlocking Shapes

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 the .design files deebs provided for this tutorial.

In this tutorial you will adventurously explore some interesting techniques and create interlocking shapes as in the image above. It is probably quite helpful in the first instance to follow this tutorial using the associated .design file.

Fast track summary #1
Infamously create two shapes and look for an open edge in each path. Once located, the shapes may be interlocked using a gap in the paths. (Please be sure to read Fast track summary #2.)

to this

1 – Open the accompanying .design file (200.design)

2 – Scrutinise the Layer panel.

3 – Click the small pointers/triangles to expand each layer.

4 – Click on Pentagon object in the Layer panel to select it.

5 – CTRL+C > CTRL+F to position a pixel perfect copy into the Pentagon layer.

6 – Rename upper Pentagon object to Pentagon Copy.

7 – Click and drag the green square (shown below) from Pentagon layer to Triangle Layer.

From

To

8 – Click and drag Pentagon Copy above the Triangle object.

9 – The onscreen image should now look something like this:

10 – Zoom in on the lower intersection indicated below.

(Note: “Edit > Options > General > enable Mouse wheel zoom about mouse position” may be quite helpful.)

11 – Select the Pen tool from the Toolbox.

12 Draw an object something similar to what is shown below using No Stroke and No Fill:

13 Details in the Layer panel should (must?) look like this:

14 – Select [4 points] object and Pentagon Copy object.

15 – Click Object > Clipping Path > Make with Top Path.

Observe in Layer panel:

16 – And onscreen:

17 – Select the Triangle object in Triangle Layer. Apply Bevel live effect.

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

18 – Add Drop Shadow live effect.

Softness: 1 Offset: 5 Opacity: 0.6 Shadow colour: Black Light Angle: 135 Noise: 0

19 – Select Pentagon object in Pentagon Layer.

20 – Apply Bevel and Drop Shadow live effects using the same settings as above to obtain something like this.

21 – Select the Clipping Mask object in Triangle Layer. Some corrective intervention is needed.

Here is how it looks on this computer:

22 – Select Pentagon Copy in the Clipping Mask after expanding Clipping Mask object in the Layer panel.

23 – Apply Bevel live effect to Pentagon Copy at the same settings as used earlier.

24 – Notice that there is an obvious edge about the clipping mask. Some corrective action is needed.

25 – Switch to Direct Selection tool then select [4 points] object in the clipping mask:

It should look like this onscreen:

26 – Adjust both lower nodes to look similar to this:

27 – The finished image should now (all being well) look like this:

Fast track summary #2
Pay no attention to Fast track summary #1. One merely creates clipping masks of intersections and then use ordering in the layers panel to create an effect of interlocked objects.