Inkscape for Beginners: Custom Shape with a Vector Wood Texture Video Lecture | Inkscape:Design Tutorial for Beginners - Design Softwares

in today's tutorial I'll be showing you
how to create this customized shape with
a vector wood texture going over it
using Inkscape and at any point in this
tutorial you could look down at the
bottom left hand side of my screen to
see which mouse clicks and keystrokes
I'm using so let's close that out and
get started the first thing we'll do
when we open up Inkscape is open up our
align and distribute menu make sure you
have last selected chosen from that
drop-down we'll go to edit objects
colors gradients and Stroke and then
from view make sure you have custom
selected and we'll go to zoom and we're
going to zoom in at 1 to 1 so the first
thing we'll do is we'll take our bezzie
a pen and click on that and we're going
to start we're going to click on the
canvas right here and we're going to
hold ctrl and bring this line out to
about here and then up out to about here
and then up maybe one step kind of like
that and then click again and you can
let go of control and you could hit
enter on the keyboard and it's going to
create that line the next thing we'll do
is we'll go to the Edit path by nodes
tool we'll click on that we're going to
take this line and pull this up kind of
like this right here then we're going to
click on this node right here and hold
ctrl on your keyboard and grab this
handle and make sure that this is coming
out at a straight horizontal line it's
not going up or down or slightly up like
this hold ctrl on the keyboard and drag
this out straight word like that and
we'll do the same thing down here we're
going to hold ctrl and click on this
handle bring this one so it's coming out
completely vertical or horizontal rather
just like that and we'll bring that out
to about here I'm actually going to take
this line I'm actually going to hold
ctrl and drag this up a little bit and
want it to be a little taller we want to
make it look kind of like that we can go
to our arrow tool and click on that and
then with this selected we'll go to path
stroke to path and then we'll
right-click this and go to duplicate and
we'll flip this horizontally by clicking
this button right here or alternative
alternatively you could press H on your
keyboard and that will flip it
horizontally and then click and drag
over both of them
and align them align the right edges of
the objects together with this button
right here kind of like that and it
should put them together like that and
then we can go to path Union unify them
together now let's hold ctrl and shift
in the keyboard and scale this down a
little bit you don't need it that big
and then we're going to take the
rectangles tool click on that and we'll
click and drag over this and create a
rectangle going over this line now once
you've created your rectangle let's go
to the opacity slider and let's bring
the opacity of that down in half so we
can see what we're doing and let's turn
that red for now and let's go back to
the arrow tool and let's lower this to
the bottom with this button right here
lower selection to the bottom click on
that so it's below that line and if you
see how I created this rectangle here
you want to make it so it's slightly
slightly less wide than the line and you
want to make sure it's going over the
top of this line like this you don't
want it down here you want it above that
line so once you get there let's click
and drag over the whole thing and let's
Center it up on the vertical axis like
that now we can click on this line and
we can right click it and go to
duplicate and we could flip it
vertically by clicking this button up
here or pressing V on your keyboard and
then hold ctrl and click and drag this
line down to here just before it gets to
the bottom of that rectangle right there
then we could hold shift in the keyboard
and click on that first line and let's
unify them together by going to path
Union and then we'll hold shift in the
keyboard and click on this red rectangle
and go to path difference and then we
can go to path break apart and that's
going to break that apart into three
different pieces so once you've done
that let's click this top piece and
let's delete that by pressing delete on
the keyboard and do the same thing to
this bottom piece click that press
Delete on the keyboard now we can take
this piece right here and let's hold
ctrl and shift let's scale this down a
little bit now I made a mistake in
creating this is a little too thin for
my
I'm going to make this a little taller
in order to do that I'm going to go to
the Edit pads by nodes tool click on
that and I'm going to click and drag
over this bottom portion of nodes right
here so I select them all and I'm going
to hold ctrl on the keyboard and click
and drag these down to about here
ideally you want this thing to be this
height right here and then we can go to
or create circles and ellipses tool we
click on that and we could hold ctrl and
shift and click and drag to create a
perfectly round circle like that and
after we've done that we can click the
arrow tool and it can take this circle
and put this on the top left corner
right here right about there we can
right click this go to duplicate hold
ctrl on the keyboard and click and drag
this off to the right over here so it's
in roughly the same position and then we
can hold shift and click on the other
one so we have them both selected we'll
right-click that I'm go to duplicate and
hold ctrl on the keyboard and click and
drag this down here so it's about in the
same position down on the bottom and
then hold shift and click on the first
two so we have all four of those circles
selected and we can go to path Union and
then we could hold shift in the keyboard
and click on our original red shape
right here in the middle and let's align
that on the vertical axis and the
horizontal axis and with them still
selected let's go to path difference and
then we'll end up with the shape kind of
like this this is the shape we are
intending to make here what I'm going to
do now is put a border around this shape
in the shape of that shape so in order
to do that I'm going to right click this
and go to duplicate I'm going to lower
that to the bottom with this button
right here and I'm going to come to the
stroke paint tab I'm going to turn that
on with the blue button and I'm going to
go to stroke style and I'm going to try
out a 25-point stroke first I'm going to
type 25 and hit enter see how that looks
ok that's pretty good once you get there
let's turn that into a path by going to
path stroke the path and then we can
let's turn that green first so we could
differentiate it and then let's right
click this and go to duplicate and let's
lower that to the
and come back to the stroke paint tab
and let's give that a stroke once again
and it should automatically default to a
25-point stroke or whichever number
value you entered there previously and
once you've done that we can go to path
stroke the path and then let's zoom in
on this left side of the shape right
here you could hold ctrl in the keyboard
and use the mouse wheel or you could
press + and - on the keyboard and
that'll zoom you in as well now let's
take this green shape right here and
hold shift in the keyboard and then
click on the black shape so you have
them both selected and go to path
difference now you press one of the
keyboard to zoom back out to the normal
size and let's click and drag over this
whole thing and let's bring the opacity
on that all the way up and then let's
take this shape right here let's bring
that off to the side we got to get rid
of that border on the inside we don't
want that so for this let's bring the
opacity on that down and let's go to
path and break apart and it's going to
break that to a bunch of little pieces
and what we're going to do is click off
of this to deselect everything and let's
click these two pieces in the middle and
delete them you click on them and press
the Delete key and then once you get
down to these last two pieces right here
click on the first one hold shift click
on the one behind it let's go to path
difference then go press 1 on the
keyboard to zoom back out and then we
can turn the opacity on that all the way
back up and hold shift in the keyboard
and click on the red shape we can Center
that up on the vertical and the
horizontal axis and let's turn that a
dark shade of brown so that's how you
can create a customized shape with the
border around it using Inkscape what I'm
going to do now as an added effect I'm
going to give this a vector wooden
texture and I'm going to do that by
importing a raster image of a piece of
wood and I've provided a link to that in
the description if you go to that link
and save the image into a folder where
you can easily access it once you've
done that we can go to file import we
could find that image it should be wood
to PNG click on that to import
what have imbeds selected click ok now
let's bring this off to the side and
let's play with that a little bit I'm
going to press it down on the mouse
wheel so I can pan the page over like
that or you could just use the arrows
that I mean the UM the sliders on the
side and bottom of the BIA the page here
once we have that selected let's go to
path and let's go to trace bitmap and
from this menu we're going to select
color quantization and let's bring the
colors all the way down to 2 and let's
press update so we can get a preview of
what that's going to look like okay as
you can see in this is a preview menu
it's not showing anything so we got a
try color try using three colors and
then press update and as you can see now
it's created a vector tracing of this
wood texture right here however it's
going to create a vector object that
goes negative to the vector object we
want so what we're going to do is click
on invert image and click update and
what I just said will make more sense
once you see this that's what we want
right there we want these shapes this
pattern in the texture to become the
vector object so once this looks like
this on your preview menu go ahead and
click OK and this may take a minute and
then you'll see it creates a black
vector image on top of that piece of
wood now let's close out of this menu we
don't need that anymore and let's take
this vector graphic and move this off to
the side and let's click on our original
raster image of the piece of wood and
let's press Delete on the keyboard to
get rid of that we're done with that now
what we've done here is we've taken a
piece of wood we've taken a raster image
of a piece of wood and created a vector
texture out of it and I'm going to show
you what I mean right here if we go to
the edit path by nodes tool you can see
this is a vector graphic that we can
manipulate accordingly so I'm going to
go back and zoom out and I'm going to
hold shift in the keyboard and click on
this piece in the middle and I'm going
to Center that up on the vertical
axis and the horizontal axis and then
click off of the graphic to deselect
everything now let's click on just the
piece of wood texture right here and
hold ctrl and shift and let's scale is
down so it's just a little bigger than
that shape in the middle there we wanted
this to be about about that big and then
we could press shift and alt on the
keyboard and click again so that it
selects that would that uh that brown
shape in the center and with them both
selected let's go to path and DIF and
you can see we're pretty much done now
you can use this as a button or you know
some kind of a piece for a logo or
whatever else you'd like to use it for
so if you have any questions just let me
know and as always thank you for
watching