From trace to "C"

[KiheiMan]

After tracing an object by adding nodes to get a curve, I want to first transform it scientifically to a "C". Once accomplished, I then want to apply some artistic elements. To accomplish the 1st step:

 

• How do you reduce the nodes and yet retain the shape? Or, is it a best practice to have more nodes then less nodes and I should not be concerned?
   
• How do you "smooth" the results of nodes in a "perfect" way? While I could choose each node and visually try to do it, this will be imperfect and I am looking for a more scientific technique in this first step.
   
• Finally, after the above is completed, how do I transform it to a "C".

See attached, and many thanks in advance for your answers!!!

[Alfred]

1. It's best to have as few nodes as you need to get the shape you want. There is a 'Smooth curves' button on the Action toolbar, but it doesn't work very well yet.

2. You can make nodes symmetrical, and you can use the snapping options to achieve proper alignment, but I don't know whether this fits into your idea of either "scientific" or "perfect".

3. I would tackle this the other way around: make a rough "C" first, and then tidy it up by reducing and/or adjusting the nodes.

[PixelPest]

I highly recommend to use as less points as possible: 3 in this case - when I got your briefing right:

You´ll never get the bending as smooth with such an amount of points in my opinion.

 

Cheers

P.

[KiheiMan]

Many thanks for your responses. What I have discovered, and am following this path for the moment, is that starting with the actual letter "C" from a font that looks good and then converting it to curves has potential. I still have to figure out a bunch of stuff, but I think this could be the right direction to take. Agree or disagree?

[Madame]

Agree! :)

[PixelPest]

Disagree - because depending on the font you will receive as many points as in your example above by converting text-to-path. Better learn some Bézier-basics - so to speak.  :)

 

Cheers

P.

[KiheiMan]

So far, so good. Any "C" I have converted to a curve has had no more than 8 nodes. I'll work at further reducing them but I'm not so sure that as much as 8 is terrible. Maybe not perfect, but I am not a professional graphic artist and I just need something good enough to export to a PSD so that I can use Affinity Photo (just love this on Windows!) or Photoshop where the real work will begin to beautify the logo.

[gdenby]

I'll go with "agree." Because the "C" needs to be well shaped, its easier to start with one that is well formed by the font designer.

 

If/when AD gets a blend tool, I suppose the number of nodes between the 2 shapes will need to be the same from blend start to end. Better to define the trace by the number of nodes in the font "C."

 

Also, while I completely agree that  becoming proficient w. drawing Bézier curves is most valuable, AD still has a way to go w. node editing. In this case, not being able to constrain the control handles to fixed angles is problematic.

 

My example:

 

[Alfred]

I'll go with "agree." Because the "C" needs to be well shaped, its easier to start with one that is well formed by the font designer.

 

What he said!