While I'm walking down the path of memories, (you can ignore this) but remember those good ol' days in primary school when the goal/standard of PPTs were to fill each slide with as much colour and movement possible. Abusing the custom animations by using as many boomerangs, bounces and spinners as possible with the text, using a bright red or yellow as the font colour and stretching tiny 150 x 150 animations to fit the slide so it could be the background. I feel really sorry for all my teachers grading my PPT work in primary school now... How their eyes must have bled.
So here comes a short basic tutorial, should you try drawing in PPT. I'm assuming basic PPT skills here. I use Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, but the functions should be similar for most other versions. Excel can also be used in a similar fashion, for those more comfortable with it.
Setting Up Your Canvas (Slide)
Before you start anything, you will need to right click on the slide and select 'Grid and Guides'. In the box that pops up, untick 'Snap objects to grid'. This will allow you to edit the points of your shapes to any location, rather than just the points on their grid. You can also turn on a grid to help you draw, if that is your preference.
Now to lay down your actual shapes. You can draw them from scratch using the curve tool or freeform tool (this one gives you straight lines and sharp corners). If you are not happy with you're shape, you can edit it either by right clicking and selecting 'Edit shape' or by going into 'Drawing tools'. Thus I don't bother getting the curves right, just the points, as I can fix it later. Here you can move points and change their curvature.
Alternatively, you can insert shapes and edit them. Like below, I inserted a circle and stretched it into an oval. I then converted my oval into a freeform (under 'Edit shape' in the 'Drawing Tools') and edited the points like I did above.
Outlines can be added a number of ways. I use three ways, depending on their location and the pictures' complexity and style. The simplest, of course, is adding a shape outline. I do this when I want consistent line width. When I want my lines to constantly change width, I just add draw another shape as an outline or throw a black shape behind.
To see all your layers, go into the selection pane. Here you can move your layers, rename them and change their visibility. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as merging layers, so you can end up with hundreds of little shapes. I find this to be the main shortcoming of using PPT as a vector drawing tool, as when you end with a few hundred shapes, it becomes quite a hassle rearranging your hundreds of layers. Also very slow. The group function partially alleviates this problem, acting as a merge of sorts I suppose, allowing you to apply an effect to your 'merged group' and tidy up your layers.
You can also add textures to your solids. I never thought they were particularly nice as a opaque fill, but at about 60-80% transparency, they can give a nice effect. Just duplicate your shape, give the shape on top the texture at your desired transparency and lay it on top of your bottom shape. It may give an unwanted tinge to your shape, but you can always import your own textures as a fill if this bothers you.
For blush or some soft shading, play with gradients. Insert a circle/any shape and give it a radial gradient fill. Make sure the fill on the outside is 100% transparent, so it ca blend. I usually make the central colour 20-50% transparent , as some gradients can change colour very sharply. I wouldn't suggest extensive soft shading in PPT as you will build up many more layers. PPT is easier for cell shading.
- Sorry, I have no idea why this is stretched so much.
When your picture is done, just select all your shapes, right click on any one of the shapes and select 'Save as Picture'.
*Tip: When resizing your shapes, hold shift. This will ensure that your shape retains the same proportions.
And voila, a quick breakdown using my old picture of a lady in red going to the races. I really can't draw limbs or shade OTL. Urgh, she looks so stiff, but you get the point. PPT can be quite a useful drawing tool if you know how to use it.
- Idea for a possible future VN.
- I cropped the bits I haven't tidies up yet (unfortunately a good 80%)
- HBB WIP - I don't think I'll ever finish....png (129.2 KiB) Viewed 1453 times
Yes, I know. I've used Illustrator for a short while in the last year of high school for Vis.Comm. Powerful, but I guess after spending a good 12 years using PPT I was too stubborn to change. I know PPT work is slow and inefficient for more complex works, but I am really comfortable with how it works that I haven't bothered changing. All computers I have access to have it, so I can work anywhere (without having to lug around my ancient brick of a laptop, say to uni).
Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend using PPT for complex art unless you really are out of options, stuck on a computer that lacks better programs when on vacation at your gran's place or just for the novelty of it. Simple drawings and quick drafting/layouts would be the best uses of it for VN development. But regardless, have an experiment with PowerPoint. You will be pleasantly surprised by what it can do. For more inspiration (and a much better and wider range of examples), I recommend checking out PowerPoint Heaven (http://pptheaven.mvps.org/). I am constantly amazed at how others utilize PowerPoint to create stupendous works of art.
If you create a piece of artwork on PPT, please upload it here! I would love to see what everyone creates and how they use the program themselves.
