Icons & Commands

(in order as they appear in the text)

     In Part 2, we drew the basic circles, and changed their colors. Now, we are going to make a few variations on this circle. So, copy the circles off to the side, so we don't loose them. To do this, click COPY . Then, select the circles. Right click, Do It. Since you should still have SNAP on (bottom right of the screen), you should have no problems placing the copy. Once done, continue.

Icon

     Next, click on PATH . This will enable you to draw a path entity. This path will be unsmoothed (meaning it has pointy corners). Since we do not want interference from CC2's automatic snap function, we will turn it off. Click on SNAP, and turn it off. Now we can "free hand" the foot prints.

     For inspiration, think of a really big human foot, with claws for toes. Think of how it would look, if the footprint had been made in mud. It would have depth, and be reasonably defined. Now we're ready to draw. When you've drawn a basic outline of the footprint, return here to continue. Don't forget to stay within the circle, and leave some room for other details.

     Now, you should have a path resembling a foot print. If yours is very "jagged," you can smooth it out somewhat by using more "nodes." Nodes are the corners of the path. Remember, draw enough short, straight lines, and you get a circle.

     If you used the PATH command like I told you too, you should have a gap between the beginning and the end. Click on EDIT icon. Select the foot print. The Edit Entity dialog will appear, without you doing anything further.

Image 1.

     Check the "Closed" check box. This closes the path you drew. You now have a complete, unsmoothed polygon resembling a foot print. But you need a second one, of the opposite foot. So, you could draw the whole foot over, or you could "cheat" and do it the quick way. Type MIRCPY. Or, if you have CC2 Pro, you can right click over the COPY icon, and select "Mirrored Copies." In either case, select the existing foot print. Right click, Do It. Now, draw the "mirror line." This line will represent the mirror, and the mirrored copy will appear on the other side of this line. Don't worry if it's not perfectly straight, or going to a snap point, it will help make the mirrored copy look more organic.

     Bingo! Now we have two feet, a right, and a left. Now, since our "demon" probably wasn't standing at attention, we will adjust the position of the second foot. Click on MOVE ,and select the second foot print. RCDI (Right Click, Do It). CC2 gives you a set of crosshairs to choose a point to move from. Click anywhere, then move the footprint a little behind the first to give  a more natural appearance to the prints.

     Now, when I think of fiendish visitors, claws, wings, and tails all tend to be included in the image, so we're going to include them in our circle. First, the tail.

     Click SPLINE , and draw a S-curved line "behind" the foot prints. SPLINE draws paths, just like PATH does, but they are smoothed. An indention is not made by one line, so we will need a second side to this tail.

     Click SPLINE , again. Now, we will need to attach the spline to the end point of the first spline, in order to prevent problems with the multipoly we are about to make. So, click ENDPOINT . Now, click close to the end of the fist spline. Our first node is on the endpoint of the first spline. Now draw a second side to the tale. Remember, when finished, use ENDPOINT to ensure that the ends of the two splines meet.

     You're probably wondering how we're going to make these two splines into one polygon. Well, there's two ways to do so. We're going to use the MPOLY2 command. This will create an entity called a multipoly out of the two splines. While multipolies are very good at preserving the "formatting" of the original lines, paths, splines, and polygons, they have one major flaw. They can "leak." This causes a multipoly to appear misformed, and in general very ugly. Such leaks occur at the intersections of paths, splines, and lines. That's why I had you use the ENDPOINT modifier. In doing so, you avoided a multipoly. Now, click MPOLY2 , select the two splines, RCDI. You know have a new multipoly.

     Next, we need to show where the tips of the wings dragged on the ground. Now, in my opinion, wings would have moved with the shoulders. So, the marks could be in some sort of arc, or a polygon. I'm going to go with the arcs.

    The ARCB command works a little differently from lines and paths. You place the end points first, then a third point showing the "bulge" between the two points. Use ARCB to draw two arcs behind the foot prints. Now, we will use SPLINE to draw the second edge of the wing print. Click on SPLINE , and then on ENDPOINT to match the first end of the spline to the arc. Draw your path. Don't forget to use the endpoint modifier again to finish the process.

     Now that you have drawn the two splines, use MPOLY2 to turn all four entities (the two arcs, and the two splines) into one multipoly.

    So, we have four entities (two foot prints, the tail, and the wing print multipoly) that are hollow. Obviously, they will need to be filled. To do this, click on CHANGEFS , and select all four entities. RCDI. Select the Solid fill style, as discussed in Part 2.

     Unless you were very lucky in picking your colors when you started drawing the prints, you probably aren't happy with the color. Click on CHANGEC , right click, and select Prior. Doing this will select the last entities modified or created in CC2. RCDI. Now, I choose color 145 to resemble the slightly singed color of the dirt the prints are in.

     In Part 2, we discussed how to outline entities. I prefer OUTLINE2 for this work. Again, I can use the "Prior" selection method described above. RCDI. Since I don't want to make the prints stand out too much, I choose color 33 for the outline.

     There, four flat, outlined prints. Let's give them some depth. Click on SPOLY . Now, draw smooth polygons to represent the "bottoms" of the prints.

     Done? OK, if you're like me, you probably need to change the colors and fill style of all these polies. Click on CHANGEC , and then right click. Select Color, and type in the number of the color you were drawing in, or use the dialog box to select your color. RCDI. I used color 144. Then, click on CHANGEFS . Use the select by prior, RCDI, and select solid. Now the prints look much better.

     What else could be summoned with the fiend? Why, fire and brimestone of course! So, time for some scorch marks. Use SPOLY to draw some scorch marks to the side. Use CHANGEC to change the color to 32, and CHANGEFS to change the fill to solid. Looks good, right?

     Now, for the last part. Click SNAP on. Type SYMDEF at the command prompt, and hit enter. It will ask for the symbols name. Type in "Demon's Footprints" and hit enter. It will then ask for the symbols origin. The origin is where the symbol snaps to when snap is engaged. Let it snap to the snap point in the center of the circle, and click. Now select all the prints, and scorch marks. RCDI. And it's defined. Repeat for the Summoner's Circle, using the same snap point for the origin. You now have made not one, but two symbols! Cool!. Save the file, and you're done!

    You can download a copy of my copy of Wizards Lab.fsc here. Return next time when we discuss manipulating symbols in a catalog! In the meantime, don't forget to visit the Mysaniti Cartographers Guild for more great symbols!