Using The SHAPE BUILDER Tool In INKSCAPE

so version 1.3 of inkscape has been released for around a week now so you've probably been experimenting with the app maybe messing around with the add Corners LPE tool checking out the new patterns in the pattern menu or maybe you've just been experimenting with the blur's directional effects well whatever it is you've been probably having a really good time because I personally am very impressed with this new update but none more so than my favorite tool that they have currently added the shape Builder tool thank you hello my friends welcome back to another video Rob from button press Graphics here and today I'm going to be giving you a little tutorial through the new shape Builder tool what you need to know how to use it and what kind of designs you can make while using it so without further Ado let's get into it first come to the toolbar on your left hand side and grab the ellipses tool now we're going to create a basis for the entire design so this circle is going to start at the center of your workspace now once you've got your circle make sure it's selected and go to path object to pass now we can duplicate this circle and put it around on the outsides for this we're going to make sure that snapping is enabled up in the top right corner so that way you can snap onto the midpoints of all of the other shapes so for this we are going to right click duplicate or I use the shortcut Ctrl alt and D once you've done that we're going to use our select tool grab the bottom and snap it onto the right hand side of the main Circle and now we're going to do that again for the bottom right bottom left and top left so Ctrl alt d bring it down snap it underneath Ctrl alt D bring it to the left and then Ctrl alt d one more time and bring it up to the top and there you have it now what I want to do is I want to make sure that there is a a very swooping motion so I want it to look kind of like a Vortex of sorts in order to do this we're going to create four more circles but this time it's going to be a lot bigger so we're going to select this one Ctrl alt d then we're going to hold Ctrl and shift so we scale with the width and the height and we're going to try and get one around that size would be good and now we're simply going to click and drag the bottom of this circle up until it snaps on with the other just like that the area that we're paying the attention to is from the center here at the bottom of the circle this shape swooping up and then coming across and back down here that's the area we're looking to get so with them both selected we are now going to Control Alt d but this time we're going to snap this one to the right hand side and then we're going to alternate so as you can see where all the circles join the cross section between the circles here and the bottom right left and top that is the area we are going to snap onto and it will always be snapping onto the right so as you can see this is going up this circle will go to the right this one will go down and this one will go to the left so we Control Alt d grab the top and snap it to there Ctrl alt d one more time grab the right and snap it there now as you can see it looks just like a jumble of different shapes but this is where the shape Builder tool comes in to help now if we click drag over everything to select it all and then come to our shape Builder tool as you can see we now have the main shapes that we want now to begin with all these extra bits here you would have to go through individually and delete each one or hold shift and select them all so you get them all selected and then hit the delete button with this you don't as long as you are not holding shift at the time you can simply click and drag to select every single shape outside of the area that you want to keep and do that now we're working with the shape that we wanted to to begin with now as I said I want a kind of Vortex flow to this so what I'm going to do is hold shift I'm going to create these three shapes into one these three shapes into one these three and you you probably guessed it now then three two and already you can see in a nice little watt shape in the middle now if you want you can also get rid of the center you won't need that and you can also get rid of any other parts that you want you don't really need to keep them so what I'm going to do is just keep this section here and it already looks like a pretty decent logo now that you've got them all selected finish and you have now created yourself a standard little logo just like this it's really that simple to use the shape Builder tool and it is very very powerful it has allowed you to streamline your workflow a hell of a lot now and with this little design that I've created here it's very very simple to change the colors and make them look a lot more Dynamic shall we say just by creating a singular gradient just like this click and drag over everything and turn the opacity up so you can see now this gradient is saved I can go to the next piece and from that little drop down select the gradients go to the next one select the drop down it will select the same gradient and tone every single time and then if I come to the gradient tool on the left hand side I can now make each of the directions for the gradient go in the way that I want them to and now if I just want to add a little background to it which is its own kind of shape I can do so and I'm just going to go to the select tool drop that to the bottom maybe give this a radial gradient of a contrasting color like an orange or a deep red and just like that you can create very abstract patterns and you can help to develop your skills when it comes to the shape Builder tool no more going to the menu to path and all the different path commands now you can use the shape Builder tool a lot quicker it's a lot simpler to understand and it makes the game a whole lot easier to play when it comes to graphic design so let me know if you have any feedback on this video because that is pretty much it I would love to see your designs if you'd like to send them to me but for now that's the end of the video thank you so much for watching if you haven't already I would appreciate a subscribe until next time I will bid you all a fun farewell and see you in the next one thank you [Music] all right

Channel: Button Press Graphics

Views: 6,323

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Id: DUuykp-RH9o

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023