View source for How to create a Pop Art Explosion

{{HOWTO Index}} [[Category:EN]]
[[File:pop_art_result.png|centre]]

== Introduction ==
{{TutorialKey}}
This tutorial will show you how to create a pop art explosion.

=== Specific techniques used in this tutorial ===

* Creating shapes.
* Creating a polygon.
* Transforming shapes with rotation.
* Creating a pattern.
* Filling with a pattern.
* Converting text to outlines.

This tutorial can be followed by anyone with a basic knowledge of Scribus but should probably not be attempted by people who have never used Scribus before.

== Set-up ==

First you'll need to download and install the "Startling Font" if you don't already have it from [http://www.dafont.com/startlingfont.font here]. (You can use any font but this one looks right.)

* Open Scribus and create a new document (A4/Letter Portrait will be fine).

This little project needs quite a bit of space so it's probably best to create each "layer" on a different page.

* Choose menu {{menuitem|Page}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Insert…}}
* Change the number of pages to 2 and OK the dialog.

== The Background "Flower" ==

[[File:pop_art_first_triangle.png|frame|Figure 1]]
* Go to the document's first page.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Insert}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Default Shapes}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Right-angle triangle}} (it's the third one down the list).
* Click somewhere near the centre of the page.
* Enter a Width of 14 and a Height of 150.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colours}} set the Line colour to "None".
* Set the Fill colour to "Red" with a Shade of 60%.

You've now got your first starting triangle - see figure 1.

[[File:pop_art_both_triangles.png|frame|Figure 2]]
* With the triangle selected, choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Duplicate}}
* Select the duplicate and in {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|X,Y,Z}} press the "Flip Horizontal" icon (the double-headed horizontal arrow).
* Change the Width to 24pt.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colors}} set the Fill colour to "Yellow".
* Drag the new yellow triangle to the right a bit (so you can more easily select the other one).
* With the yellow triangle still selected, shift-select the red one.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Windows}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Align and Distribute}}
* In the Align and Distribute palette, set "Relative To" to Last Selected.
* Press the "Align right sides of items to left side of anchor" icon (top left).
* Press the "Align Tops" icon (second from left on the bottom).

You should now have two triangles the same as figure 2.

[[File:pop_art_rotation_origin.png|right]]
* Select the red triangle.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Transform…}}
* Press the {{Button|Add}} button (bottom left) and choose "Rotation" from the drop-down menu.
* Set the Angle to 13.9 degrees (you'll have to type it).
* In the "Origin" box select the top-left circle.
* Set the number of copies to 25.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog.

Halfway done, now for the other bit.

[[File:pop_art_flower.png|frame|Figure 3]]
* Select the <u>yellow</u> triangle (you may need to drag-select it to make sure you don't select anything else).
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Transform…}}
* Press the "Add" button (bottom left) and choose "Rotation" from the drop-down menu.
* Set the Angle to 13.9 degrees as before.
* In the "Origin" box, this time, select the top-<u>right</u> circle.
* Set the number of copies to 25.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog.

You should now have a nice "flower" like that in figure 3.

{{Annotation|note|You might notice that the bottom "petal" doesn't look perfect but that's not too much of a worry. If you're really bothered about it you can go back and mess around with triangle widths and rotation values to get it looking how you want but that may take quite a bit of time.}}

Don't worry about the edges being ragged, you'll fix that at the end.

* Drag-select everything you've drawn on this page.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Group}}

== The Explosion ==

Now you'll need to draw the "explosion" that goes between the background and the text.

[[File:pop_art_spikey_shape.png|frame|Figure 4]]
* Scroll down to the second page.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Insert}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Insert Polygon}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Properties…}}
* Change the number of corners to 7.
* Click the "Apply Factor" check-box to activate it.
* Set the "Factor" to -45% (minus 45).
* Set the "Curvature" to 20%.
* Click near the middle of the page.
* Enter a Width of 260pt and a Height of 160pt.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog. (Drag the shape, if necessary, to the centre of the page.)
* With the shape selected, in {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|X,Y,Z}} set the Rotation to 330 degrees.

You should now have your starting shape as in figure 4.

* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Line}} set the Line Width to 3pt.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colours}} set the Fill colour to "White".
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Multiple Duplicate}}
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog without making any changes.

Now for the dotted fill. Hold onto your hat!

[[File:pop_art_filled_spikey.png|frame|Figure 5]]
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Insert}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Default Shapes}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Circle}}
* Click anywhere you have some space.
* Enter a Width of 16pt and a Height of 16pt also.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colours}} set the Fill colour to "Blue".
* Set the Shade to 60%.
* Set the Line colour to "None".
* With the small circle selected, choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Transform&hellip;}}
* Press the {{Button|Add}} button and choose "Translation" from the drop-down menu.
* Set both the Horizontal and Vertical values to 8pt.
* Set the number of Copies to 1.
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog.
* De-select everything and re-select just the copied circle (on the right).
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colours}} set the Fill colour to "None".
* Drag-select both circles.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Group}}
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Send to Patterns}}
* Enter a name of "Dots" and {{Button|OK}} the dialog.
* Select the spiky shape you created earlier (it's actually the duplicate on the top of the two).
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colours}} press the Fill icon and choose "Pattern" from the drop-down menu below it.
* Select the "Dots" pattern.
* In the "Scaling" area below the patterns, set both the Y-Scale and Y-Scale value to 25%.

Phew! You should now have your dot-filled shape as in figure 5.

* Drag-select both the spiky shapes.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Group}}

{{Callout|warning|Bug Watch|Because of a bug in the current version of Scribus, if you save a document with a grouped pattern, when you re-open the document the group will have been given a black outline which didn't previously exist. For this reason it is recommended that you keep the "Dots" group in your document, just off the page perhaps, so you can re-create the pattern before exporting.}}

== The Text ==

Now you'll create the text.

[[File:pop_art_text.png|frame|Figure 6]]
* Scroll down to the third page.
* Create a text frame that is around 400pt across by 160pt high.
* Double-click the frame and enter "BANG" (without the quotes) as the text.
* Select the page background to de-select the frame.
* Re-select the frame.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Text}}, set the font to be "Startling Font".
* Set the font size to be 100pt.
* In {{Window|Color & Effects}} set the text colour to be "Red".
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Convert To}} &rarr; {{Window|Outlines}}
* Re-select the text.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Ungroup}}
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Combine Polygons}}
* Re-select the text.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colour}} set the Line colour to "Black".
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Line}} set the line Width to 3pt.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Multiple Duplicate}}
* {{Button|OK}} the dialog without making any changes.
* Select the text (actually the top copy).
* Press the down cursor key twice.
* Press the right cursor key twice.
* In {{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Colour}} set the Fill colour to "Black". (This is in case you want to move the shadow farther along.)
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Level}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Lower}}

You should now have some text with a shadow, like figure 6.

{{Annotation|note|You could have got similar effects with the Text Outline/Shadow functions ({{Window|Properties|icons}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Text}} &rang;&rang; {{Window|Color & Effects}}) but you would find aligning the text with everything else later a bit more difficult.}}

* Drag-select the text.
* Choose menu {{Menuitem|Item}} &rarr; {{Menuitem|Group}}

== Bringing Things Together ==

* Select the text.
* Scroll up and shift-select the spiky shape.
* Scroll up again and shift-select the "flower".
* In the Align & Distribute palette (open it again if you closed it earlier) make sure the "Relative To" is set to "Last Selected".
* Press the "Centre on vertical axis" icon.
* Press the "Centre on horizontal axis" icon.

== Finishing Up ==

Just one more thing to do to tidy things up.

* Choose menu "Insert -> Insert Shape -> Default Shapes -> Circle".
* Click anywhere on your page.
* Enter a Width and Height of 300pt.
* OK the dialog.
* In "Properties / Colors" set the Line colour to "White".
* In "Properties / Line" set the line width to 6pt.
* With the white circle still selected, shift-select the "flower".
* In the Align & Distribute palette make sure the "Relative To" is set to "Last Selected".
* Press the "Centre on vertical axis" icon.
* Press the "Centre on horizontal axis" icon.

And there you have it. Your very own piece of pop art.
[[File:pop_art_result.png]]