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I realize that many of you simply use CorelDRAW to create the artwork you use for printing, engraving, sublimating and cutting. But if you are going to already have the software and learn how to use it, you might as well get the very most out of it for your business. So I'm going to go over the new Corel R.A.V.E. program that is included with CorelDRAW 10. It's main focus is to create artwork for the Internet in Macromedia Flash format. Since a large number of you have a home on the Web, this could give you the ability to contribute content for that home.
It's quite possible that you'll open up Rave for the first time and not notice any real difference from CorelDRAW 10. I guess that is because it is almost identical. The main changes are the addition of a Timeline Docker and the effects for creating quality animations. Because of this sameness, you can create your first animation only minutes after starting the program. Even better, you can open an existing CDR file to use as the basis for your animation.
When working with CorelDRAW, everything is static. So the first change we see is in the Movie Setup dialog box at right. You still choose a height and width (the default measurement unit here is pixels), but the most important change is the Frame Rate. This determines how many frames are shown in each second. For reference, movies at your local theater play at 24 frames per second. The higher the value, the larger the file it produces though the animation will be smoother. The default in Corel R.A.V.E. is 12 frames per second and I would suggest keeping this value for the time being. Change the page size to 500 pixels wide by 200 pixels high and click OK. The Movie Setup dialog box gives you the ability to see the number of frames displayed each second.
In order to get the hang of the timeline, we'll need to add something to our file. So, add some text. I chose the word "WOW!" in 100 point Futura XBlk BT for my file. Feel free to use a different word or font if you wish. My only suggestion is you keep the word fairly short and use a bold font. Hmmm, so far this works just like our old friend CorelDRAW.
Now look at the Timeline Docker and you should see "Artistic Text: Fontname" in the tree list just below Layer 1. "Fontname will obviously read as the name of the font you've chosen. For example, mine says "Futura XBlk BT". Just to the right of this entry will be the first frame of the object on the timeline filled with a big black circle. Click on the "Artistic Text" entry in the tree list and then click and drag the circle to the right until a line covers all the frames through Frame 36. You should now see something similar the image at right. The Timeline Docker makes it easy to specify how long each object appears on screen.
Now click your cursor in the box representing Frame 18 of our text object. Hint, this is halfway. If you miss and click in the wrong frame, it isn't a really big deal. Once you've clicked in the frame, double-click right on the line. This will turn that frame into a Keyframe for our text object. When this happens, you'll notice that the big black circles at either end of the line have now changed into hollow squares and a hollow square is now in Frame 18. This just means that each of those three frames is a keyframe.
The idea is that you create artwork in each keyframe and then Rave will create all the frames between each of the keyframes. So let's make a change in our artwork so that you can see exactly how this works. With Frame 18 still selected, choose the Interactive Envelope tool, set the mode to Single Arc, click and drag the top middle node up while holding the Shift key. Keep dragging until you get near the edge of the movie. When you've done this, your screen should look similar to the image at right. After Enveloping the text, your image and Timeline should look similar to this.
Believe it or not, we're almost done. Go to the lower left of the Rave window and you'll see some VCR buttons. Press the Play button (the rightward pointing arrow) and watch the movie you've made. The text will shrink and grow as the movie cycles. The last step is to export this file.
Choose File | Publish to the Web and name your file. The only file format available is Macromedia Flash (SWF). Click the Export button and you'll get a dialog full of options. In the Presets drop-down, choose "High Quality - Optimized and Protected" then press the OK button. Now it is just a matter of adding this file to your Web page. A simple way to preview it would be to find the file in Windows Explorer then drag and drop it on top of an open Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator window. Most of you already have the Flash plug-in required to view the file though some of you may get an error if you don't have the plug-in. It can be downloaded for free from http://www.macromedia.com if you don't already have it.
Our sample project was obviously a very simple example of how to use Rave to create an animation. But if you followed along, you should have seen that learning Rave is pretty darned easy if you already use CorelDRAW on a regular basis. And the results you get are just plain cool!
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CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
Xara Xtreme Pro 5.0
Serif WebPlus X2
Xara Web Designer 5.0
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom Digital Camera
Procreate KnockOut 2
Hemera Photo Objects Volume I and II
Wildform SWfx
Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 and FontLab 4
Caligari iSpace v1.5
Xara X
Macromedia Fireworks 4
Web Site Design Made Easy
Alien Skin Eye Candy 4000
Swish 1.51
Macromedia Flash 5
Corel KPT 6
Dreamweaver Ultradev
1st Page 2000
Adobe Illustrator 9
Corel KnockOut v1.5
Xara 3D 4
Cool 3D 3
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