Curly Plant Mesh - Advanced Techniques
Step-by-step Guide
This guide is a follow-up to the Curly Plant Mesh - Essential Guide
. It explains how to combine the Mesh tool and other digitizing tools to create complex embroidery designs.
Example #1 - Use of the Fractal Fill as Core for the Curly Plant Fill
Curly Plant with Fractal as a Core
The main principle behind this example is to create fractal lines, convert them to outlines and
then to carvings
of the mesh object.
Once the mesh object has carvings, they can be used as a platform (core) to grow the plant fill from.
- Draw Mesh Object
, it must be large enough. 10x10cm (4x4 inches) for example.
Mesh object drawn with vectors
- Open Parameters
window
- Select Net > Fractal fill
- Select Fractal Kind
(#25, for example)
- Switch on Smooth
option if you wish
- Set Average Width of Gap to some larger value (20, for example)
- Select Single Layer
- Generate Stitches to see layout of stitches
Net > Fractal fill with large spacing
- Select this new Mesh object and use main menu > Convert > Fill, Mesh & Sfumato > Create Separate Outline Elements
command
- Select the newly created object, which is in fact a group of outlines sitting on top of the original Mesh object. Ungroup this new outline objects.
- Delete outline representing outer contour of the object. We will not need carving line of this shape
Delete the contour line item
- Select remaining outline objects
- Use main menu > Convert > Outline > Outline To Carving
command. The outline items should disappear from the Object Inspector
panel because they become carvings of the original Mesh object
- Select the Mesh object and open Parameters window
- Change mesh mode from Net
to Plant > Curly Branching
- Change the Growth Kind
to From Core
- Switch to Core tab
and change Core Kind
to Carvings
- Generate Stitches
Plant sprouts growing from the fractal core
- Adjust other parameters (flowers, leaves, etc.) if you wish
Leaf and flower parameters changed
Example #2 - Use of Lettering as Core for the Curly Plant Fill
Curly Plant with Lettering as a Core
The main principle behind this example is to create lettering, convert it to outlines and
then to carvings
of the mesh object.
Once the mesh object has carvings, they can be used as a platform (core) to grow the plant fill from.
- Draw Mesh Object
, it must be large enough.
- Create lettering
(you need to have Font Engine plugin for Embird). Select plain fill mode without utlines for the lettering.
Lettering
- Place lettering object on top of the Mesh object. Resize lettering to fit inside of the Mesh object.
- Use main menu > Transform > Envelope
command to enter the envelope mode. Adjust the lettering object with envelope. Notice the space left around lettering inside the Mesh object to allow growing of the sprouts.
Lettering adjusted with envelope placed on the Mesh object (rectangle)
- Lettering is now in the form of plain fills. Use main menu > Convert > Fill, Mesh & Sfumato > Create Outlines from Fill
command to create outlines of the lettering
- You have 2 lettering objects one on top of the other now. The first is in pain fills, the second is in outlines.
- Delete the first lettering object (plain fills)
- Use main menu > Convert > Outline > Outline To Carving
command. The outline items should disappear from the Object Inspector
panel because they become carvings of the original Mesh object
Mesh object with carvings created from lettering
- Select the Mesh object and open Parameters
window
- Switch off the Include contours
(both outer and inner) in the common mesh settings
- Change mesh mode from Net
to Plant > Curly Branching
- Change the Growth Kind
to From Core
- Change Span
to Inner
- Change Maximum Sprout Generations
to 2
- Switch to Core tab
and change Core Kind
to Carvings
- Generate Stitches
Plant sprouts growing from the lettering core
- Because of the limited number of sprout generations the sprouts do not extend to the contour of the mesh object and they roughly follow the shape of lettering
- If lettering is thick, the sprouts may appear also inside of the letters. This is not true with above example as letters are thin and there is no space for the sprouts inside them
Note
- Instead of erasing the lettering object (step #7) you may preserve it and fill it with autocolumn
Lettering with autocolumn fill
- In such a case you need to re-order objects in the Object Inspector before converting outlines to the carvings. Move the Mesh object on position just before the outline object in the list.
When outlines are converted to carvings, they become part of the Mesh object before them.
- Put the autocolumn lettering under the finished Mesh object so that it matches the carved contours. The Mesh object is now a fancy border of the autocolumn lettering.
Curly plant mesh on top of the autocolumn lettering