| Inkscape Tutorial: Floral Design |
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In this tutorial we use the powers of Inkscape to create a simple Japanese cherry blossom design that would look good as website background or on a creative business card. I am sure you'll find some use for it. The tutorial is suitable for the beginning Inkscape user. Tools and techniques demonstrated: Gradient tool, Cloned Tiling, Duplicating vs Stamping, Spiro Curves, Layers.
File size: 8MB Click on the "START" button in the center of the screen to start this video tutorial. The video can be paused at any time by clicking the pause button on the control bar at the bottom. The design is made available for download in eps, Inkscape svg and in multiple colour png formats here.
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I'm sorry you have troubles navigating the site. But you actually made your comment on the tutorial page for the cherry blossoms, and I just checked all the links and they seem to be fine.
You should see a start screen which reads "Floral design tutorial for Inkscape 0.47". It is a video tutorial which will run when you click on the "start" button in the center of the screen.
Perhaps you get confused by the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen which lead to the previous (or next) tutorial? We dont like those ourselves and plan a bit of restyling on that in the next few days. I hope this helps!
I am planning to release the source file and a high resolution printable 12"x12" at 300dpi of this design in the "vector illustrations" sections in the next few days too, so check back to grab those.
Thanks for leaving a comment!
here's my result:
i655.photobucket.com/.../...
That looks awesome. And I am glad you could do this as a starting Inkscape user! Inkscape is very cool and I hope this result encourages you to continu to use it.
Thanks for leaving a comment!
thanks...
ps using the newest version of inkscape, if that helps...
I dare to say that you forgot to untick the "Used save position of the tile" checkbox at the bottom of the cloned tiles dialog.
If you leave this box ticked, create the clones, and then move the petal, strange things may happen.
Other possible causes:
- not moving the rotation point to the bottom of the petal.
- not setting shift to a -100%.
Note: when I made this tutorial I was unaware of the workings of the "exclude tile" checkbox, which was new in 0.47. It does the same as shift -100% for the originating tile (so tick this box and there is no need to set shift to -100%).
I hope this helps.
Syllie
Great TUT! Thanks a lot! :)
I was using the gradient tool for a flower petal and every time I would move it, it would mess up the gradient stroke or fill. How do I get it to stick?
I am not sure what happens but there is a difference between the linear and radial gradient.
The linear gradient has 2 control points, and when you move either one of them the gradient changes.
The radial gradient has 3 control points, where the square determines the centre point. If you select the square one with the gradient tool, you can move the defined gradient as a whole. If you drag one of the circle controls, it will change the gradient (radius and direction).
To set a colour at a control point: select the control point and then click with the mouse button on a colour in the colour palette (or double click and use the gradient editor dialog).
You can even create new control points on a gradient, by moving the gradient tool over the line between the gradient control points, and then double click. It is sometimes a bit tricky as you may need to reselect the gradient tool, but it will add new "stops".
Hope this helps,
Syllie
Welcome to the wonderful world of Inkscape, it is a great tool with great options.
Cool thing about layers in a vector progam is that you do not need to flatten them. Inkscape has no export to JPEG tho, so you need to settle for PNG (but I am sure you can use that directly or convert that with any other image editing program, irfanview and xnview are free and do a great job in conversion, but also GIMP would do that job at zero cost).
Now about your export: basically you select whatever object you want to export and open up File > Export to bitmap dialog. As you have already selected your object it will assume that that is what you want in your output, and it will export everything that is visible (no matter what layer it is on). Have a look at a more detailed explanation here:http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/File-Export.html#File-Export-PNG
Of course you can move all objects to one layer if you want, use the options that are available in the Layer Menu. It basically comes down to selecting things in a layer and move it a layer up or down till it meets your needs.
Also as you have probably learnt by now, all objects in Inkscape have their own order (stacking, z-order) within a layer. You can move them down or up with the Page Down and Page Up keys, or send them all the way down (End-key) or make them topmost object (Home-key). So flattening never happens with vector objects. And that is very cool as they are editable and scalable at all times.
Happy Inkscaping.
Syllie
Even though I couldn't get the clone tiling to work I managed to make the cherry blossom.
I am not sure what went wrong for you exactly (as you didn't give any specifics), so I cannot give suggestions to fix it.
I use the cloned tiles often, especially when creating patterns or starbursts. The cloned tiles are also used in other tutorials on this site, so perhaps you can give it a go again. Example: the partial starburst in the Abstract Wallpaper - Australia tutorial: verysimpledesigns.com/.../.... It has screenshots for all settings. You can just browse to that section.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Syllie
Glad you did get the cloned tiling to work for a radial pattern, tho not for the flowers yet.
We don't allow user upload of pictures on the site. But you could use some service like tinypic.com or photobucket.com to upload your image and then include it here.
It sounds like you have similar problems as vessi had above comment: verysimpledesigns.com/.../.... It worked for her to start a new document.
Just check if you set the shift correctly (or used the "exclude tile" option that is new in version 0.47 - don't use both at the same time), and you unticked the "used saved position of the tile".
You both got me thinking tho, as I now remember a problem with cloned tiles when you change something in the document settings. I quickly tested it and it appears that it goes haywire if:
Culprit is the addition of a "transform" attribute in the SVG file. This sounds a bit technical but it is not so hard to fix it:
See below screenshot.
I hope this helps. I checked the bug reports for Inkscape and it is a known bug so hopefully fixed in a next version. Till then use this work around if it happens.
Thanks for your update.
Cheers,
Syllie
I do not know what goes wrong as you gave me little information to work with!
Check the settings in the cloned tiles editor carefully. Normally tiles appear on top if these settings are incorrect.
For example: if you use 120 deg rotation then a full rotation (360 deg) is made with only 3 petals. The 4th petal will then be created exactly on top of the 1st, and the 5th on top of the 2nd.
Other things to take into account:
- make sure the rotation centre is moved
- either use "shift -100%" (minus 100) OR use "exclude tile"
- and last but not least - if you changed ANY document setting in the document properties window there may be a transform property that throws things off - read the comment above: verysimpledesigns.com/.../... to solve that.
I hope this helps - if not.. give me please some more details :)
Cheers,
Syllie
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