Path Finder and Power Clip in CorelDRAW

Hello Friends! Welcome

In our last lecture, we created logos with basic shapes in CorelDraw. We created small types of logos with logic.

Today our topic is Pathfinder and another one is powerclip.

First, we will learn about Pathfinder.

Basically, what is Pathfinder? Pathfinder means to cut anything or modify any shapes. OK!

To give path to them.

Then, this is a shape. First, we will learn the basics and after that we will try to understand the uses of it and will discuss it.

First, we learn about how to use pathfinder and what are their types? OK!

So, we have taken a shape and first of all we have to understand that when pathfinder comes in the picture. As you won’t be able to find pathfinder anywhere in the screen.

So, when there is more than one shape selected, then only the pathfinder will be visible. There is Pathfinder. This is the whole panel of pathfinder.

Two shapes are selected and then the pathfinder opens.

OK!

We will change the color of both of them.

We will learn from the beginning. The first tool in pathfinder is WELD. Weld means welding. These tools combined the both shapes.

I selected both the shapes and weld them. So, it automatically combines both shapes together.

OK!

Second one is …………PAUSE…….. TRIM. Cut out a portion of an object by using the shape of another object. An object cuts the other object or trim it.

For that, you have to understand one thing. Here, from sky blue, I want to cut red. If sky blue is below then it won’t be cut, so that we have put this above only. SHIFT + PAGEUP will take it above.

If you want to cut anything, then that thing should fall from above, then only it will be cut. You have to keep it above then only it will cut.

Just as an example, you can understand why we should keep up. OK!

So, I have to keep this above, I have to select this one first, then the red one.

Now, if you will trim then it will cut but when you remove this then only you will understand that there is a cut. OK! So, like this you can cut it perfectly. ……PAUSE………………..

Done! This was the second small logo.

After that……PAUSE………………..Third number tool is intersect.

What is intersect? All those things which overlap or are common in nature then It will separate all those things. Like, as much part of your shape is overlap or common, here this much part is overlap then it will be cut out. We selected intersect, now this is separate and this one is also separate, and the common part also cut out and separated.

Let’s see this once again. Like this, the shape of the round and rectangle part is common. OK! Now, this one is separate, and this is also separate and the overlap part is also separated. OK!

So, this was an intersection.

After that, it is simplified. Those parts, which are overlapping, will be cut. Trim does the same job but both are made differently. In trim and simplify, there are five to six pathfinder but if I talk about practical then only three will be useful. First one is Weld, then Trim and last one Intersect.

These three things will be most useful. Because all these things if you do simplify then it will work but all of them are not useful everywhere.

Time – 5.33 Minute

After that comes the Front Minus back tool. Whichever part is in front that will be minus from back. Done!

After that, back minus front. Opposite of front minus back. The black which is overlapping the orange will be deleted directly. OK!

In other tools like trim,That remaining part exists but in this tool cut and cutting part both will be deleted.

Last one is to create boundaries. You already understand the meaning of creating boundaries. All the shapes you created, select all of them and click on create boundary. Then It will create a whole outline of them. Look. Boundaries are created.

Ok! This was pathfinder.

We will understand the uses of it later, when we will create logos.

Right now, we have to learn Powerclip.

What is powerclip?

Like, we are creating any poster or creating any social media post. Like, this is an orange box. Just like an example, this is a design. So now, I don’t want to cut this black design, rather I want to put it inside of this. OK! I am only able to do this much. Like I am trying to show you with pathfinder how much part is needed.

This much part should be visible to me in this design. OK! So, what do I have to do?

Neither we have to cut it nor we have to use pathfinder. Whenever I wish I can modify this. Ok!

Likewise, I drag this much but I want to drag more, so that should be possible, and I am able to do that. And for that there is powerclip.

The moment you right click on that shape, here is the powerclip inside. You have to click it and wherever you want to do powerclip or fit inside the shape, simply click there. And It will automatically fit inside.

So, this is done but how to take it outside? You have to right click and there is the first option to extract contents. Click it and it comes out.

But if I want to edit a powerclip then I have to click CTRL and then I have to double click on that shape in which I filled it. Then I will enter that powerclip. OK!

Now you set it inside according to your choice. The way you choose to go inside, in the same way pressing with CTRL double click outside of shape and it will come out automatically.

As you can see, I modified it. OK!

Like this you can design this! PAUSE let’s select a little bit darker shade.

Ok Friends!!

This was powerclip.

But, If I extract it then the box which we used to fill, there is a cross on that. Means this was created as a frame but we have to take this out of the frame zone. So, for that right click, Frame type and remove frame. So it is in a fresh shape as it was earlier.

Ok Friends!!

This was a powerclip and it is very much used. Because there are many designs, where you don’t want to cut, like if you have taken a photo of someone then you don’t need to cut rather you can powerclip in the same. You don’t need to cut everything. OK!

If you need any modification, then you can incorporate that.

Time – 10.10 Minutes

OK!

Now, next we will learn what things we can create with pathfinder. Just like a logo or any shape or you have to design any character, there also you need to use pathfinder.

But, we learn from the basics. Where is the basic use of pathfinder?

In the last lecture, we learnt that, what is pathfinder? But now we will learn what pathfinder can do.

As you can see this logo. It is not like a logo but a shape. This is a little bit giving the look of 3D because there are three colors in this. OK! Here it is slightly dark and slightly light in color.

We will create this in CorelDraw with the use of pathfinder.

Ok Friends!

Let’s see how to create this shape?

CorelDraw, and we will have one new sheet.

We have to create a triangle. Right!

 So for that, we normally take a polygon and for now I will centralize it. After that, I will select 3 here to make three corners.

Now, you can see here that there are two parts and below here is a separate triangle.

First, we have to convert this triangle into two parts.

Here is a triangle and I color it in red. We remove the outline. And we convert its color mode from CMYK to RGB. OK! And from here slight adjust the color.

Done!

Now, what will we do? I have to make two parts from its center like this, I have to take out the yellow part separately and the same for the red part.

So first, what will I do? To separate this much part, I will take a rectangle only for reference. I took a line from the center. OK!

Now, As we learnt in pathfinder, if I want any part separately. This is a common part as you can see and I have to separate this by using the intersect tool in pathfinder.

First, I will select this and then I will select this box. Intersect is done.

Now we don’t need reference. We will delete this.

You can see that, I got this part separately with intersect. I will take a slightly dark color here.

I filed the color. Then double click and I drag it to a slightly darkish side. ENTER!

You understand till here friends?

Now, these two parts are done but we also need to create this third part. So, I will make a copy of this below red with PLUS (+) and I will stretch it from above as per my requirement. And now SHIFT + PAGEUP and I will take it upside. Now you won't be able to see anything or you might get confused because both colors are the same.

I changed the color once to show you. I darken the second shape. This much!

Now, you got this.

With SHIFT + PAGEUP, I will take this above the shape. SHIFT + PAGEUP. As you can see, the perfect pyramid is created in 3D view.

This is all about colors. Light, dark and darker. Base color is always darker.

Now, you can modify it according to your choice.

What we simply did, we applied some logic and converted it into two parts and slightly stretched it.

You have to apply logic. As I told you in the last lecture, you have to understand the things and their possibilities. If you see any shape or logo, then study it and try to understand how many shapes there are and which trick we should apply to create it quickly.

You have to use shortcut keys always. In industry, mostly shortcut keys are used. So, you always need to apply logic, basic logic or you can say common sense. So with all of these, you can do things quickly.

Let’s see one more example.

Now, see it carefully. How can we create this? Try to understand how many rectangles are there and from where it is cut, how it is shaped, which kind of alignment is there, how much spacing is left there.

Colors are normal in this. OK!

So, you have to understand where it is cut.

So to understand this, we start this.

PAGEDOWN, we take one new page.

First of all you have to understand that how many boxes are there? There are two boxes. Normal two boxes are here and they were cut out of it.

We will draw two boxes first. This is one box and this is another box.

But, you can see here that the other box is a copy of the first one and we simply gave the mirror effect of it. OK!

We have to do effects in one box and then we have to apply mirror effects in that box.

Box is here. There is a cut out in this. OK!

What will I do? I will PLUS (+) it means I made a copy of it and changed the color, so that we don’t get confused.

Made is smaller and from here as well. You have to keep judgement on how much space is left, up and down and both sides. That will help you learn from experience. Right now you try to do your work with precision. Because you are a new learner, you have to take care. As soon as you get experience, you will do these things very easily. Then you don’t have to take care as much. You will get the judgment of how much spacing you have to leave.

Now, those pathfinder we learnt in the last lecture, like we have to do trim here. Trim is done. We will delete this part. Finished!!

This box is done. Now, another box, which is part of the first one, only has a mirror effect.

I made a copy of it and gave it a mirror effect. I change the color to both of them.

But, in this you have to take care of one thing. You have to bring perfection here. As you can see what happened here. Spacing is not proper. This patch should come in the center. And if you want to do this thing with 100% perfection, if you are making the logo of any company, then you always need 100% perfection in everything. You can’t even make a mistake of 1% in alignment.

So, first things you need to take care that spacing should be perfect here. For that what will you do? Always for some things, we need to take references. We took the reference box.

Now this is the ruler, you can say the reference line to this. So, I took the ruler from here and dropped it here.

Now, I took reference of its width and here I took reference of space between both of them. Now, we will do alignment of this one and this one.

Now, as we learnt in the previous lecture, E is used for center align or horizontal align. You can see that there is little minor difference, which we have to adjust from here. With pressing SHIFT slightly adjust a little bit below. Adjustment is done.

We will delete both the references. We deleted the references.

Now, you can see how perfectly this is aligned. We will delete this ruler as well and we will take this slightly inside.

OK!

F9 for full screen.

You can see how perfectly it is aligned. As we aligned upside, automatically downside aligned according to that.

You only take care that all the spaces, above and below should be judged well, so that perfection will come.

You can do modification in this. OK! If you want to make it a little bit more creative.

Double click it here and stretch it longer. OK!

Now, we are going to learn a new tool, which is very basic, but it will be used in many places.

OK Friends!!

Time – 20 Minutes

We have to learn a small tool, which is known as Nudge or distance. This is used for small adjustments. If you want to do anything in detailing, then take this shape out and do some modification and then fit it in the right place. OK!

Now, I will show the uses of it. Just for example, I want to go into detail for the orange one but there are so many designs that I can not zoom in; rather I have to take this out and work on separately.

So, if I move it like this with a pressing shift then if I move it back, then it won't come to the right place.

OK!
So, to bring it to the same place, we will use the nudge tool. But the nudge tool will be visible when any shape or any object in CorelDraw won’t be selected.

As you can see, here beside the unit, it is written 0.01 inches, that is called nudge. As you can now, nothing is selected. If I select it now then you can see that the nudge tool is not visible any more.

Ok Friends!

Here I give a distance of 5 inches. Now, if I click the right arrow key then it will go 5 inches on the right side. If I click the left arrow key then I will come to the same place.

So, this was all about nudge. It is very useful. Because, If you want to move anything for the same size as I want to draw a four square logo where all the gaps which look like a plus should be equal from every angle. Distance should be perfect.

We can maintain this distance, when we distribute it. But how to maintain distance between upside and downside? So, to maintain that we use this tool.

If I flip it and keep the distance of 2 MM, it comes 2mm on the right side. Now, I will flip both of them on the downside. Now I will add distance for this in a downward direction.

Now, you can see that you will get a perfect distance. This is the best use of nudge tools. But there are lots of other important uses of nudge tools also. We will learn that later gradually.

I will show you, what is the use of nudges in this. In this shape, where I double click and you can see that two nodes and we also learnt that we could modify this, so I hold these two nodes and press SHIFT to stretch a little further. And if I want to repeat the same procedure with this also then is it possible to get the exact size ? It does not seem possible. Hence, I apply 3 inches of nudges here and after that I select the both and press right click. Now, it is perfectly 3 inches.

I do the same with orange also. I clicked it and left align. Now, it automatically takes the perfect size of 3 inches.

Now, if I want to bring a little bit more modification in this like I want to set corners. So for that, I give a nudge of one inch and shape this corner like this and this one also.

It has become a little bit stylish. I take this little bit inside because it is very much extended.

So, we can create stylish logos like this one. It looks like an S logo.

Ok! Nudges are very much useful to make logo like this one or if we want to extend any exact portion or bring any design in blank portion any do some modification on that or we have to explain things clearly or give a proper shape to it or we have to give mirror effect to complicated design, so that extensions in left align is same to right align, so to all these works, Nudge is very much useful.

You have to practice it.

Now, let’s go further and make a new logo. We have learnt this. After that, comes this one.

Almost everyone has seen this logo. This is a logo of a master card. 

But If you look at it carefully, then you will find that it is not as easy as it looks. OK!

Because there are lots of cuts and also try to create an illusion in the center. This portion is main and you will also use the pathfinder tool a lot here in this logo. We have to apply lots of logic here so better you see it carefully. Because this logo is a little bit complicated, and it needs your attention.

What do you see first? Two rounds! Ok! And a little bit of stripes. Two things here are round and stripes. I will explain this properly.

I made two rounds and we will change the color. Make it blue and we will adjust it slightly and select RGB and ENTER. We color the light blue to another one and adjust slightly to purple and pinkish type and select RGB. This much is done. Two rounds created.

Now, we will see stripes. This much spacing is enough. OK!

I copied it once with right click, now we will repeat this with the help of repeat tool, as we had seen earlier. CTRL + R ,CTRL + R,CTRL + R. We got this many stripes and it is enough for us.

Two rounds and some stripes. OK!

But as you can see the cut, somewhere it is red cut and somewhere it is yellow cut. OK! We have to define this. And another thing, you can see that here is the round of yellow and here is the round of red. 

So same thing, we have to see here as well. So, we took the stripes but we need a round shape here as well. OK! I keep the width slightly smaller. So make a round shape, what we do! We will click on this then we will apply intersect. Why Intersect? First I give blue color to our stripes. As you can see that our stripes have this much round part,this much part specifically and it is overlapping with stripes,stripes and round parts are overlapping here, hence if I do intersect then I will get this much cut of stripes. So we got the round shape of one of them.

Now, I will intersect and remove the outside part. As you can see that I got the round, this much part. OK!

 Let’s watch it again, what I did! This much part I want like here the red part. I want this much part, so what I will do. I will intersect. Intersect will separate the common part or overlap part. So we got this separately.

Then, I will align this and take it a little bit inside. Now, if I want to remove this round on another side of stripes. Then what I will do! I will do the same with the pink one as I did in blue.

Intersect in Pink one. I will take the reference part outside. OK!

For color change, I will show you another trick. Color changed here because I selected stripes first. This time we will select round one first and after that we will select stripes and then intersect.

Now, this cut is out. We did intersect with common things. After applying an intersection, most things are cut out.

Now, I can give any color to this one. I gave the blue color to this one with the help of an eye drop tool.

I changed the color of any one stripes and after that I clicked SPACE and CTRL + R. And all became blue.

As you can see, we got a perfect cut and the same shape. OK! As we wanted.

This is a very basic thing but a little bit complicated to understand. We got this separately.

And same thing we did here in mastercard.

Intersect used many places. Intersect, trim, combine, create outlines, and pathfinder, all of these are used in many places. It is not only for logos, rather it is used in designs, posters, cartoons, any charter designing.

If you are making any typography then pathfinder and intersect are used.

So, this is done! I hope you understand the design of this master card and it is very easy as well. You need to practice this and you will get it. 

In the next topic, we are going to learn about the Pen tool, drop shadow and transparency.

What is a Pen tool? That I will teach you in the next lecture.

Drop shadow, as you are well aware about that, to create any shadow of anything. And in transparency, create downside of anything.

Ok Friends!

In Pathfinder, if you have any question or are not able to understand anything in logo or master card or in any assignment then you can comment on FORUM.LEARNVERN.COM. We will resolve all your queries in a speedy manner.

Thank you!!