AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.0 Tutorial
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There are two main points in this example:
- hexagon pieces
- different images as content of the pieces
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- For creating this kind of shape we should use straight knives and use the "Knots Manual Adjustment" feature of the plug-in (see User Guide pp.10 and 12 - #3).
- Now we should calculate the size of the document for the desired design. Some simple math (Fig.1)
will help us. (Here we called "R" the side of the hexagon.) We need 5x5 piece hexagon design.
For instance, the side (R) of the hexagon piece is 50 pixels: this means that the Height
of all pieces will be 50x5 + 25x6 = 400 pixels. And the Width will be 50x0.866x2x5 = 433 pixels.
Taking into account the fact that we will need some free space around the design for stroking
pieces (making the Splitter's thickness other than zero (0)) we will add up to one segment
(0.866R on width and 0.5R on height) on each side (left/right and top/bottom). Therefore
the total Height of the document will be: 400 + 25x2 = 450 pixels. And the Width will be:
433 + 50x0.866x2 = 520 pixels (the exact value is 519.6).
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- Make a new document (width 520 pixels, height 450 pixels). Add the layer and fill it with white color.
Set the foreground color to red (These colors are not critical.)
Start the plug-in. Make the Cutter window active (just click on any free space of the Cutter window) and then
do the following:
- Set the straight knife's shape in the Shaper. It is very easy to do, thanks to the fact that in the
Shaper all anchor points are by default selected after starting the plug-in. So, just press the
Delete button on your keyboard and remove these anchor points. As a result you will get the straight knife.
- Set the sliders of "Splitter Thickness" and "Randomize Knots" to zero (0), Rows to 18 and Columns to 12.
Select the Splitter Anti-Aliasing check-box. You may ask why 18 rows and 12 columns. Just take a look at
Fig.2 and you will see that you need 10 columns for 5 pieces (in width) plus one column at the left
and one at the right.
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So, the total is 12 columns. The same calculations will give you 18 rows (in height).
The result can be viewed in Fig.3.
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- Switch the mode of the plug-in into the "Knots Manual Adjustment" mode by clicking Ctrl+K (Mac: Cmd+K).
See Fig.4.
- Set Zoom to 200% for more precise adjustments and start draging the appropriate knots for "constructing"
hexagons (Fig.5). See the result of the work in Fig.6.
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Tip 1: Though you can use Undo (Ctrl+Z or Mac: Cmd+Z) for canceling the last operation there is one more
solution for "repairing" wrong moves. Hold down the Ctrl(Mac: Cmd) and double click on the knot - this
will restore this knot. If it is difficult to distinguish two knots that are located at almost the same place
(but their coincidence is not enough for you, see Fig.7a), just drag any of them onto the free area
and restore it, then restore the next one. See Fig.7b.
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- Switch back into the regular mode by clicking Ctrl+K (Mac: Cmd+K) again and select all unnecessary knives (Fig.8a).
Be sure to read the User Guide p.7 about selecting the knives. Then press the Delete button on your keyboard,
this will hide all selected knives (Fig.8b).
- Specify the thickness of the Splitter to 6 pixels (Fig.9). Now go under the Main menu and choose the Save
menu item. This will save the layout as .avpd file for further usage. Do not close or apply the plug-in yet.
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Now, when we have prepared the layout we can create the design. Assume that we have already chosen images that we are
about to put into the proper pieces. First, we should make the proper layout of the prepared images. To make
things easier, we will use the Draw Splitter feature of the plug-in (Read the User Guide, pp.12 and 13 (#6) to
learn more about this feature.) for making the boundaries of the pieces. To do this,
just click the Apply button in the Main window. You will get the Splitter, drawn in the host application with
the foreground color (Fig.10).
Note: while preparing the screen shot for this tutorial we turned off the white background of the
document in order to show that there is the transparency around the drawn layout (just as an additional
illustration of how the Draw Splitter feature works.)
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Now take the prepared images and arrange them (each in separate layer and all of them under the drawn Splitter)
on the canvas. And add three rectangles (in the additional layer) filled with the solid color
(we have used the pale green). You can see the final disposition on Fig.11.
Well, all "components" are ready, therefore we can make the final actions.
Here we should note that there are two main ways in which to put the prepared images in the pieces.
First: select the appropriate areas inside the future pieces and trim away unnecessary
parts of the particular image. Then merge these, just trimmed, images into the separate
layer and then start the plug-in and operate with this layer.
Second: start the plug-in several times for each image. We decided to use this way,
because the results are "perfect" (though, the selecting in the case
mentioned above is not a complicated task) and mostly because it makes little use of the
host application and here we are writing the tutorial of AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.0,
rather than the host. :-)
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So, here are the remaining actions:
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- Hide the content of all of the layers with the images except one (we left Layer2). Choose the visible layer.
- Select the canvas.
Note: this is important to be sure that you should select the entire canvas. Otherwise,
the plug-in will operate with the content of the visible layer and the view of the layout will change.
- Start the plug-in. In the Main window you will see the Splitter that we constructed a few minutes ago.
- Select all unnecessary (for the chosen image) knives and hide them by pressing the
Delete button on the keyboard (Fig.12).
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- Click the Cut button (in the Cutter window). Once the cutting process is over, you will see Fig.13.
- Select both the Splitter and the outer piece and hide them (Fig.14).
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- Click the Apply button and you will get the first piece ready in the host (Fig.16).
- Make the next layer's content visible and start the plug-in.
- Go under the Main menu and choose the Load menu item. Then load the saved layout.
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- Adjust the effects for the current piece (see User Guide, pp.20-31).
We have adjusted the bevel to make it smoother (Fig.15)
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- Repeat for the current layer steps 4, 5 and 8.
- Repeat steps 9-11 for all other layers except the layer with the solid color. See result in Fig.17.
Note!
The plug-in remembers the last used settings if the number of pieces has not been changed.
Thanks to the fact that there is only one piece (though the shape of this piece is different)
in each layer, except the layer with the solid color, the plug-in uses the same settings
as we used for the first image. That is why in the step 11 we missed steps 6 and 7.
We just did not need them. But when we start the plug-in for the last layer with the
solid color, the situation has changed: there are three (3) pieces and the plug-in will
warn us that the number of pieces has changed and that the default settings will be applied.
But do not worry! You just need to make the Undo option (Ctrl+Z or Mac: Cmd+Z) for getting the last
settings back applied to the first one of those pieces. Then you can easily copy/paste
the effects to other pieces (see User Guide, pp.16,17). But in this particular case we
decided to change both the bevel and the color of these pieces. So, here are the
next steps:
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- Make the last layer's content (pale green rectangles) visible and start the plug-in.
- Repeat step 10.
- Repeat steps 4-7. Here we have changed the bevel (to make it not as soft as for the previous pieces) and changed
the color of the pieces by calling the Color Overlay window (under menu Adjust). See the result in Fig.18.
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The design is almost ready. The very last stuff to do is the Splitter. Of course, you can take the topmost
layer with the red colored Splitter and color it inside the host. But, we will show how to do this inside the plug-in.
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- Make the topmost layer's content (red colored Splitter) visible and start the plug-in.
- In the Cutter specify both the number of rows and columns to 1 and click the Cut button. This will let you
use the plug-in as a "host" for applying the built-in effects to the content of the current layer without
splitting the content into the pieces.
- Call the Color Overlay window and set the desired color (we set - gray). Then call the Bevel window.
We made a very flat bevel for our Splitter.
- Click the Apply button.
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That is all... well, almost all. We should add some shadow to the entire design. The shadows are the
responsibility of the main host, so just merge all layers and spice with the shadow. :-)
The design is ready (Fig.19).
