Using paths to clip other paths

Clipping is a computer graphic technique to limit something to being drawn only where it is inside the area filled by a particular shape. In Comic Strip Factory, clipping is a useful way to make outlines appear to come together precisely (without actually having to place them that precisely) or to apply shading that doesn’t go outside the object being shaded, among other things.

Examples of clipping in Fred’s shirt.

How to clip inside a path

To apply clipping, you must be inside the part editor and you must have created a path that will act as your clipping path. This path, in additional to clipping other paths, has all of the graphical properties of any other path available to it.

The model for clipping in Comic Strip Factory is that the clipped objects are  contained within  the clipping path. So to add clipped objects inside a part, or to edit objects that are already clipped inside a path, you select the clipping path (or the path you want to make into a clipping path) and choose  Edit Path Contents  from the  Objects  menu. (Or use the  Edit  button on the toolbar, or just double click the path.) This will bring you into a new level of the part editor.

You can tell you are editing the contents of a path (that is, the objects that will be clipped to that path) because the current location shown in the editing level control is Path Contents, and the path you are adding clipping contents to is shown with a green outline. Anything you draw in this view will be clipped to that path in the part (as shown in the part preview) but in this editing view, parts that are outside the path will be merely dimmed so that can still seem them and edit them.

When you are done editing the path contents, you can return to the part you were editing or out to the document level with the editing level control.

Shirt stripes

An example of what you can use this for is the stripes on Fred’s shirt. You can draw each stripe as a separate path, or you can draw one path that includes all the stripes, because the part that connects them will be clipped out. Note you don’t have to end those stripes close to the clipping path, and if you actually go outside it somewhat, you give yourself more leeway to edit the clipping path without revealing the end of the stripes.

Shading

You can create shading of the shirt shape inside the same clipping path. First, draw paths that run along the contours of both sides of the shirt, being sure to go outside of the shirt’s boundaries. Hand drawn is good for this, as a little bit of sloppiness makes it look more natural.

Then select the paths you drew for shading, set their fill color to Shadow, their line color to None, and apply a small amount of Blur to them.

A tip about using blur: A blurred object can be hard to look at if you can see all of it, because your eyes will keep trying to bring it into focus, but they can’t. But a blurred shape that is clipped on one edge like this is easy for your eyes to interpret as shading on a three-dimensional object.

Clipping paths and editing

If a clipping path is edited with the reshaping tool, its contents are unaffected, although parts of them may become hidden or revealed. If a clipping path is moved, scaled, rotated, or skewed, all of its contents are transformed along with it, at any level.