Strokes and Paths and Objects (Part 1)

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 file deebs provided for this tutorial.

In this tutorial you will turn this

into something approaching this

and possibly this

and here are the step-by-step instructions.

This is a two stage tutorial that will adventure through converting Fancy Arrow pointer stroke into paths, applying specified live effects and gradients to increase complexity and richness of the design.

Part 1

0 – Open the accompanying .design file (Part1.design).

1 – There is only one object in the file, select it and apply Fancy Arrow stroke from the Pointers folder in the Stroke list.

2 – Adjust stroke width to 72 points then click Object > Convert Stroke to Path.

3 – Apply a gradient fill.

Radial gradient Left stop colour: 27FF00 Right stop colour: 08410F to obtain something like this: (Save the gradient fill to your swatch)

4 – Add a Bevel live effect:

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

5 – Add a Drop Shadow live effect

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

6 – Switch to Direct Select tool, select the topmost “flower head” and resize it using the Transform panel. (120% and a slight repositioning seems fine.)

7 – Using Direct Select tool select the lowermost “flower head” and resize it smaller, rotate it a bit and then move it into a new position slightly closer to the stem. (80% and slight repositioning is ok.)

8 – With Direct Select tool select the topmost flower head and adjust Bevel.

Width: Contrast: Softness: Profile: Light Angle:	5 0.3 0.2 Linear 135
Before After

9 – With Direct Select tool select lowermost flower head and adjust Bevel:

Width: Contrast: Softness: Profile: Light Angle:	4.6 0.3 0.2 Linear 135
Before After

10 – With the lowermost flower head selected adjust gradient fill:

Radial gradient Left colour stop: Right colour stop:	F5F901 0042FF
(Save the gradient fill to your swatch)

11 – Apply a 1 point basic stroke using fill colour 0096FF.

12 – With Direct Select tool select the uppermost flower head and adjust gradient fill:

Radial gradient Left colour stop: Right colour stop:	FAFD61 00ACFF

This is a good point to save the file using a different file name then take a break to reflect on what constructs have been used, look at how those appear in the Layers panel and then to prepare for Part 2.