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Houndie dog
01-13-2007, 08:59 AM
I am trying to do my first real project. I have a logo for a company and put it in corel in grayscale and then imported it into the designer program. It looks pretty good but the wings don't stand out and you can't see them when carved. I am sure this has something to do with tracing or grayscale or something like that. I would appreciate any help you experienced (and I mean that in a good way LOL) carvers could give. I also can't figure out how to make the carving above the workpiece (the opposite of relief).
Thanks all.
Grant

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d85/grant10/phoenix4.jpg

pkunk
01-13-2007, 09:18 AM
I thought this looked rather good just as you did it. What other look are you after?

Houndie dog
01-13-2007, 09:31 AM
Thanks Pkunk, I am just trying to figure this out with out wasting to much wood. I will give it a shot for real.
Could you anser another question Pkunk ?
What wood do you find works best for signage ? I have tried oak but it splinters and MDF is too fuzzy.
Thanks Grant

pkunk
01-13-2007, 10:16 AM
Maple(soft or hard), ash(pronounced grain though) poplar, white oak & even sugar pine. For durability outside -white oak. For ease of cleaning up a carving-nice straight grain bigleaf maple.

Houndie dog
01-13-2007, 10:39 AM
Thanks for the help pkunk..... I actually have some very nice kiln dried fiddleback maple from Washington. I have made a few jewelry boxes with it and thought it would make a beautiful nameplate/sign for my wifes office door. I just have to make some test runs cause that wood ain't cheap $$$$$$.

Jon Jantz
01-13-2007, 12:32 PM
Hi Houndie Dog...

I took your logo, cleaned it up, added a little dimension to it and beveled the letters, and added a cut path to cut it out... Sometimes a few little things like that can add a little effect to your carving...

I've attached a couple of pics and the .mpc file if you want to play with it..

Happy Carving!!

pkunk
01-13-2007, 01:44 PM
That is so much nicer than just the plain one! You have talent, I only have experience on the machine.

DustMe
01-13-2007, 02:33 PM
Hi Houndie Dog...

I took your logo, cleaned it up, added a little dimension to it and beveled the letters, and added a cut path to cut it out... Sometimes a few little things like that can add a little effect to your carving...

I've attached a couple of pics and the .mpc file if you want to play with it..

Happy Carving!!

That looks great Jon! What program did you use to create your GIF file?

Jon Jantz
01-13-2007, 02:53 PM
DustMe,

I took his image into CorelDraw, then used CorelTrace to trace the image to get a vector file. From there I cleaned up the Phoenix, eliminated all the bars underneath (they were kinda deformed because of the quality.) I also eliminated the text and re-typed it so I could start out with nice crisp letters.

I added the bars back in underneath by making one and then copying it over... used Distribute to space them perfectly. Then I used the Fillet command to round the edges of the bars...

At this point I had a nice crisp, clean image. I added the gradients to the objects and bevelled the letters by using the contour feature... export to a .gif with a transparent background, (eliminates the Feather Box around the image in Designer..) and that's about it...

Took about 10-12 minutes total...

DustMe
01-13-2007, 03:15 PM
Thanks for the info and quick response Jon. I appreciate it!

Which version of CorelDraw are you using?

Steve

Houndie dog
01-13-2007, 06:28 PM
Jon....thanks for making the Phoenix so much nicer and for the play by play so I can go into Corel and try to reproduce it (and maybe learn something.

Digitalwoodshop
01-17-2007, 10:37 PM
Jon, Very nice work and great play by play. Ever give it a thought of making how to videos for this and selling them? The potential customers base is growing every day. I still have my Corel How to CD's close to my computer as I am still learning. I tried down loading you video earlier but this older laptop wouldn't open it. I will try from the shop laptop tomorrow. I paid over $300.00 for 3 Corel How To CD's from Bob Brewer and about the same for 2 CD's for Corel and Laser Engraving. I am just starting a Laser Engraving and Sublimation Business. Thanks for taking the time to write the play by play.

eepers
01-19-2007, 10:03 PM
Something else to consider might be layering your board with a different colored veneer, so that the recessed areas will be a completely different material.

Aside from that, Jon has it right, you won't see depth on a recess well unless the edges of that cut are beveled at an angle to pick up the light.

Great logo treatment Jon!

MJ carver
01-29-2007, 06:23 PM
Nice work, Jon! I have a question about the solid white areas: if you were to carve this design as it looks in your post, would the solid white areas be cut out completely at the black trap lines or ignored by the machine? I have done some designs on CorelDraw, but was nervous that the white areas look black (like cutouts) when CW software takes over. Related to this, if the white shaded areas are raised on your carving, do the solid white outside areas remain raised? To carve them down a bit, would you have to make your design rectangular to match exact size and shape of the board and indicate a grey area? Thanks for any response.

RJB
01-31-2007, 11:12 AM
What version of coreldraw has the tools you used?

Thanks

Jon Jantz
01-31-2007, 12:31 PM
RJB, I use Corel Graphics Suite X3...

But you could do that with almost any of version of Coreldraw. I've had almost every version since 5 and X3 is BY FAR the best though...

Later, Jon