Embedded Files
The image is edited by CorelDraw. The image on the left is the original image and it's pixelated. My goal of modifying the image is to change the color of the figure's clothes into blue and make the image not pixelated. First, I opened the Trace Bitmap and chose Outline Trace and used the High Quality option for the image. I used the Detail tab to include the details on the image. The more I added, the more details the vector image includes. I also used the Smoothing bar to make the line it traces smoother. At last, I used the Corner smoothness to make the outline sharp. After I finished modifying the vector, I needed to change the color of the clothes. I went to the Color Tab and click on the original color of the clothes and clicked on Edit. Then I just chose the color I want and clicked OK. The clothes color then changed into the color I had selected. Then the image is turned into a vector and the color of the boy's image is change to blue.
Because I need to change the keychain into an outline, so I practiced on a logo first. I used a Coca-Cola logo because I love drinking it. I used the Trace Bitmap tool and use Logo option to modify the logo. I changed the Preview to Wireframe Overlay so that I could see how the logo looks like after I change it into outline. I then used Detail slider to include more detail and the Smoothing to make the lines smoother, and the last one Corner Smoothness to make the outline sharp. After I had done all of the thing, I clicked OK. The color of the image was still there. So I used the lower-left corner button that looked like a square with an X in it to delete the color of the image. Then all it left was the outline of the Coca-Cola logo.
Logo on the keychain
I first search the Apple Logo on the Internet. I imported the image that I found on the Internet and used the trace bitmap to delete the background. The only thing left is just the logo itself. Then I changed the color of the logo outline to red to easily tell it needed to be raster. Then the Logo was ready to be rastered.
The Final Keychain Design
iI first took a picture of my keychain. Then I used the object function in the photos and remove the background of the keychain. I imported the image into the CorelDraw. For the outline of the keychain, I used another method. I didn't use the trace bitmap tool. Instead, I used B-spline to trace the outline. I started at the very top of the keychain. Every time I clicked, the dot would appear on the edge of the keychain. After I went back to the place that first dot located, the tracing of the outline is completed.
The step of tracing the keychain outline
Cardboard Testing of the keychain
In case there would be something wrong, I tested on the cardboard to raster and vector the keychain. I first measured the dimension of the actual keychain and adjust the size of my design to the real size of the keychain. Next, because we had a specific location for each testing keychain, I had to make sure that the laser cutter was cutting the right place. So I need to adjust the position of the keychain on the CorelDraw. The position was controlled by the x and y. So I measured the length from the short edge of the cardboard to the center of the box on the cardboard, which was the x. And then I measured the vertical distance which was y in the same way. For the y, the measurement on the laser cutter and on the CorelDraw were different. So I needed to measure from the edge that is in the lower-left corner to the center of the box. After I adjusted the position of the keychain to the right place, I clicked Print to send it over. Before printing, I changed the settings of the cutter to cardboard settings and sent the file over. Then the laser cutter started to print and completed the process.
I measured the distance from the short edge of the cardboard to the midpoint of the the short edge of the box and the distance from the long edge of the cardboard to the midpoint of the the long edge of the box. These distances were the x and y position on CorelDraw. However, I didn't do a great job on measuring the position. So the keychain was cut way out of the box.
The Vector Process Video:
IMG_0084.MOVThe rastering process
For the raster, the fist thing I did was to set the settings correctly. Because I was rastering on leather, so I needed to change the settings to the one that fit for the leather. Otherwise, the laser cutter would mess up the whole thing. After I sent the file over, the laser cutting started to raster. The laser was like a pin. It was creating a lot of tiny little dots to form the logo.
The video of rastering the leather keychain
IMG_0088.MOVThe difference between raster and vector process
The machine usually rasters the pattern from top to bottom. The vector can only be done using a vector image. However, the image that is going to be rastered can be either raster or vector image. When the laser cutter is vectoring, the laser cutter is cutting the material all the way through. For raster, the laser cutter is not cutting through the whole thing.
Final Rastered Keychain
For rastering on the leather keychain, I need to first delete the outline of the keychain on CorelDraw because the only thing I needed was the logo. I was supposed not move the cardboard and immediately rastered the logo on the later keychain. However, I moved the cardboard and did the raster the next day. I didn't record the position of the keychain that I cut on the cardboard. So I had to measure the position again. However, there's still some deviation from the original values. So the logo was not in the center of the keychain. On the digital design, the logo is on the center of the keychain. However, the logo is not on the center of the actual keychain.
The actual keychain size is approximately the same as the cardboard keychain. The only difference is that there're no holes on the cardboard keychain. For the logo, the one on the cardboard keychain is only an outline, the one on the leather keychain is the whole darker pattern.
Problem Encountered
When I was tracing the testing logo, I wanted to delete the color of the logo. However, when I click delete the color, all the image immediately disappeared. I had already trace the outline and there supposed to be outline of the logo. After I checked all of the thing, I found out that the outline is None in the box. When I chose the 0.5pt, the outline immediately appeared on the screen.
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