Category Archives: GT20G S2 2023

Combining Shapes

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We’ve been working with Illustrator over the past little while and one of the most difficult, but most important concepts to pick up is combining shapes to make a clean outline that can be cut out of vinyl to make a sticker or a shirt.

Not only do you need to put something together using shapes, but you have to figure out how to combine shapes or cut pieces out so that each different coloured piece can be cut out and put together separately.

Here’s a quick and easy challenge. I want you to draw a simple picture of a snowman, kind of like this:

But… here’s the tricky part, you need to be able to go into the View menu, turn on Outline

And see something clean and simple like this:

If you have a whole mess of overlapping lines, it isn’t right and you’ll have to fix it because it wouldn’t cut out properly.

You could draw something else if you want to instead, but make sure it incorporates the same tools and ends up with the same, simple outlines for the different coloured pieces. There are no points for creativity here. It’s either right or it’s wrong!

In order to do this, I recommend learning a bit about the Pathfinder options:

Here’s a good writeup (the video is way too fast for me): https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustrator-in-60-seconds-how-to-use-the-pathfinder-tool–cms-25572

Official Adobe info: https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/illustrator/using/combining-objects.html

Roland Cut Outlines

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Once you have a design and wish to have it printed on our Roland printer and cut out as a sticker or heat transfer, you need to follow a very specific procedure in order for those cuts to happen.

First, you will need to download a file called Roland VersaWorks.ai which is in The Hand Out Folder. DOWNLOAD that file. You DO NOT NEED TO OPEN IT. It will most likely go into your Downloads folder.

First, in Illustrator, open your Swatches panel. You might see it on the right side of the screen next to your Properties panel:

If not, go to Window/Swatches

At the top of the Swatches panel, look for the little three stripe – hamburger menu. Click that. Then go down to Open Swatch Library

At the bottom of the new window that pops up, you’ll see Other Library…

You need to find the Ronald VersaWorks file that you downloaded. It’s probably in your Downloads folder:

Open that and a new panel will open up. Look for the pink square with the little black dot on the bottom

Drag that pink square into the main Swatches panel. It will appear at the bottom of the main folder:

You’ll need that specific colour swatch in order to create your outlines!

You need to find your Layers panel. There should be an icon on the right side of your screen by the icon for the Swatches panel

Or again go into the Windows menu

Any images & designs that you’ve got on your Artboard will probably be on Layer 1

At the bottom of the list of layers, there’s a plus sign that will Create a New Layer:

You can rename layers by double clicking on  the Layer name. I’ll rename mine:

If you don’t, yours will look like this:

On that layer, you need to draw shapes or lines that will cut around your images/designs.

I’ll start with a simple one. I’ll make a rectangular sticker with a Warriors logo on it. (by the way, you can always download Westwood logos from your class page on this site, or just go HERE

Here’s the logo that I’ve placed on my Artboard.

On TOP of that (on my “outlines” layer – or Layer 2), I’ll draw a rectangle that will serve as my cut line.

I’ll activate the Rectangle tool (press M on your keyboard)

On the Properties panel, make sure the shape has NO FILL (white square with a diagonal red line) and use that special pink colour (Cut Contour) as the stroke

The thickness of the stroke should be .25 pt

On that top layer, I’ll click and drag a box on top of my image:

You’ll now see a really thin/faint pink outline on top. It will not print, instead, it’ll be where the printer cuts

You don’t have to have a rectangular cut line though. You could make it any shape you want.

I also have a circular Jets logo that I want to cut

For that, I’ll use the Ellipse tool (press L on your keyboard)

Again, the shape should have NO FILL and that Cut Contour for the stroke colour. The size should be .25 pt

You should know that to draw a perfect circle instead of an oval, you hold shift. But it’s hard to know exactly where to start.

Here’s a neat trick. If you go near the centre of an object, Illustrator will help you find the centre. You’ll see a little pink “intersect” point:

If you hold the Alt key, you can draw a shape from the centre. If I hold Shift and Alt, I can draw a circle out from the centre. Because the printer doesn’t always cut totally precisely, I like to leave a little bit of white space around my object.

If you don’t perfectly line up your outline and the image, you could activate your Selection tool (V) and select both the image and the outline (draw a box over both), and then choose Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center in order to perfectly line them up

 

If you want to outline an irregular shape (something that isn’t rectangular or elliptical, for example), you can either use the pen tool to create an outline yourself OR follow THIS TUTORIAL, which explains another method quite well.

 

In the end, make sure that all of your Cut Contour outlines are on the very top layer

There’s one more important step that you need to follow. Select all of your outlines.

Go into the Object menu and choose Flatten Transparency…

In the box that pops up, change the Preset to High Resolution:

The rest is fine so just hit OK

Now it’s time to check your file and prepare for printing. Go to the File menu and choose Save As…

Change the file type to PDF

Hit Save

Now, check on the left hand side of the Save box for the word Summary. If it has an exclamation mark after it, there’s a PROBLEM

Click on it and you will see a warning at the bottom

This often means that the layer with the images also has transparency that needs to be flattened.

I like to lock my top, outlines layer before doing this

Then select the images layer

And again, Object/Flatten Transparency

MAKE SURE your outlines are still at the very top! If so, go through the Save As… step again. If the Summary now looks like this:

You’re good to save your .pdf file and hand it in for printing & cutting!

I don’t necessarily print every file I see, so if you would like yours printed, please put your hand up and ask nicely. I will check and make sure that you are eligible and that your file is set up correctly.

 

 

 

 

Press Your Design! (Sublimation)

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Once you’ve designed something and you want to show it off, you could potentially press your design onto a variety of materials/objects.

You always need approval and assistance before putting a design onto anything, so make sure that you’ve run your design by me and completed any previous assignments/steps first.

You also need to make sure that your parents have paid the course fee if you wish to use school materials.

Your designs can be created in pretty much any program, but for most of these, the finished file needs to be the right size and resolution, and needs to be dropped off in the correct format.

The big thing is that you make sure you are allowed to make something, I approve your design, and you follow the correct instructions.

 

T-Shirt design:

Set up your file to be 8.5 x 11 inches, resolution 300 pixels/inch.

You can decide how big your actual design is. A design on a small shirt would be smaller than on my XL shirt. Get a shirt and MEASURE how big you want your design to be.

Transfering your design is MUCH easier on a white shirt than it is on a black shirt.

Your finished file can be dropped off in almost any format. (.psd, .png, .ai, etc.)

 

Shopping Bag:

By far, the easiest is a basic white bag. Those are pretty big. I’d recommend setting up your file to be 8.5 x 11 inches, 300 pixels/inch. If you want something bigger, you could go as big as 11 x 14 inches, resolution 300 pixels/inch.

If you wanted a different colour or size of bag, I do have some, but things are more complicated.

If you wanted, you could put something on the front and back.

Your finished file can be dropped off in almost any format. (.psd, .png, .ai, etc.)

 

Mouse Pad

9.5 inches by 8 inches (outer edges will be cut off), ideal resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 400 degrees for 35-45 seconds

 

Water Bottle (white or silver):

about 5 inches by 7 inches in size, resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 320 degrees for 120-140 seconds

 

Ceramic Mug

small white mug: maximum 3.75 (h) inches by 9 inches (w), but often smaller, resolution 300 pixels/inch

larger white mug: maximum 4.25 (h) inches by 9 inches, but often smaller, resolution 300 pixels/inch

black mug with white patch: 3.75 (h) inches by 7.75 inches, but often smaller, resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 360 degrees for 160 seconds

 

Ceramic Tile

4.5 inches by 4.5 inches (outer edges will be cut off), ideal resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 400 degrees for 360-420 seconds

 

Pencil Case/Makeup Bag

maximum 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches, but often smaller, resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 360 degrees for 120 seconds (2 minutes)

 

Tea Towel (white)

maximum 11 inches by 17 inches, but often smaller, resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 360 degrees for 120 seconds (2 minutes)

 

Glass Cutting Board

maximum 8.5 inches by 11 inches (outer edges will be cut off), resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 360 degrees for 120 seconds (2 minutes)

 

Jigsaw Puzzle

99 pieces: maximum 8 inches by 10 inches (outer edges will be cut off), resolution 300 pixels/inch

252 pieces: maximum 11 inches by 14 inches (outer edges will be cut off), resolution 300 pixels/inch

dropped off as .png or .jpg file

press at 400 degrees for 60 seconds (1 minute)

 

And more!