03 May 2004

Sometimes you find something very unexpected on the net. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found it now, but somewhere in my random wanderings on the net, I came across a link to Expression 3—a vector drawing application developed by Creature House, which has now been bought by Microsoft. It's a full application, with a lot of unique and interesting features, and yet you can download it for free. I needed to produce a new logo for the hubby's art site, which I'm in the process of redesigning. I wanted to have an image of a brush in the logo, but—since Mr. Bsag is a real artist—all his brushes are chewed, battered and paint splattered, and not terribly photogenic. So I wanted to draw a brush instead.
The Bezier Pen and I are not the best of friends. Every attempt I've made to get to grips with it, and resulting in much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part. However, Expression has a much more intuitive tool called the B-spline1, which I found quite managable. Anyway, the result of my tinkering about was the new logo above. It's not perfect by any means, but I'm quite proud of it. And even more impressed by Expression.
1 It's perfectly possible that Illustrator has a B-spline tool too, and I've never found it. But Illustrator costs serious money, and is glacially slow on my machine.
2
Nathan: I didn't find it completely intuitive at first, but I've certainly got a lot further than I ever have with Illustrator (I have a licence through work).
The Hack: I know—I had the same feeling! But it does seem kosher. I'm going to keep a copy of the download safe anyway, just in case ![]()
3
Great stuff, bspline. Is there no end to your talents? ![]()
And here's a philosophical poser: how did that line get drawn by that brush with no paint on the end...
by pete @ 05/05/2004 7:06 am • Permalink •
4
1
Nice logo!
I downloaded Expression 3 a few days ago (did I mention that I got my Mac working again?) to try it out. I love the program, but I haven't been able to create anything decent with it--especially as nice-looking as the logo you've created.
Now, if I can find a drawing program that would let me (who hasn't a single artistic bone in his body) draw something nice, then I'll be truly happy.----- A free program from Micro$oft? Scratches head and wonders what the catch is. Oh, and yes, neat logo.
by The Hack @ 04/05/2004 2:05 pm • Permalink •