About
This is a simple guide to creating skins with Vectr. If you at any point have questions, feel free to reply to this topic, or send me a Personal Message!
Getting Started
- First what you want to do is make an account here.
- Then once you’re logged in, you should see a screen with some buttons on the left side! Click “new artwork.”
- Then, make sure to set the canvas size to 300x300!
Making your first shapes
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Now you’re ready to get started! Select the pen tool by pressing the “V” key (or clicking it on the toolbar on the left side of the screen) and try to make your first shape! Make sure the end point meets the start point to complete the shape. Notice that there are a lot of blue lines that tell you if it matches the x or y position of another point, and some purple lines which tell you if the point is in the center of the x or y axis of the canvas! If all goes well, congratulations! You just made your first shape! (note that you do not have to do this for most shapes, you can find a lot of simple shapes in the “shapes” tab on the left hand side of your screen.)
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On the right hand side, you will see the color controls. Make sure to set the fill color by clicking the box next to “color” in the fill color section of the rightmost portion of your workspace, or else your shape will be hard to select! Feel free to play around with the different colors and borders!
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Once you have these done, you should double-click your shape to re-enter shape edit mode. (note that if you accidentally exit shape edit mode, you can re-enter at any time by double clicking your shape.) Each of the squares (these are called “nodes”) are the points which make up your shape!
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Try double clicking one of the nodes. You should now see a rounded point! The two circles depict where the line of your shape goes. Try playing around with it! This is one of the ways how you can make a rounded edge. Additionally, hold down “control” while dragging one of the circle ends to only control one of the directions at a time.
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Okay, now time to reset! Double-click the node we were messing around with again to make it a hard edge once more. Now you should see a small circle with another smaller blue circle inside it, on the inside edge of your point. Try clicking and dragging this point to the inside of your shape to create a clean, rounded edge! This is the other way you can round a sharp edge.
Working with Multiple Shapes
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Now that you know how to create shapes, edit points, and edit their colors, it’s time for some more advanced techniques! First, use your shape-making skills to create another shape. Make sure this shape is smaller than the first one! Then change the color to something different than that of the first one, too.
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Once you’re done making the second shape, drag it to the center of your first shape. Then, hold down shift and click both shapes! When they are both selected, you should see a menu with a lot of little squares at the top of your selection. If you don’t, then both of the shapes are most likely not selected! Click the canvas, then try again.
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Once you’re done selecting, look for the button above your selection that looks like a white square behind a blank square. It should read “subtract” when you hover your mouse cursor over it. Try clicking it!
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You should see a hole in your shape now, and now they’re also the same color! If you double click, you will see that you now have one shape instead of two, and their nodes have been merged! This is how you make holes in your shapes.
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Next, make a new shape. Drag it to the top of your merged shape, then shift-click both of them to select everything. (note that you can also use control+a to select all shapes at the same time.) This time, try clicking the button above your selection that looks like two white squares! It will read “unite” when you hover your mouse cursor. Click this button.
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You’ll notice that although they are now one shape, it did the opposite of the “subtract” button, and that they are now joined. Congrats! These are all the basic functions of shape tools.
Glow
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First, delete all your previous shapes (unless you want to keep it, in which case click the home button in the top left corner).
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Next, click the shapes tab, click the circle, and create a decent-sized circle. Then drag it to the center.
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Select your shape and try using the opacity slider on the right side of your screen. Try playing around with this for a bit, then set it back to 100%. You can also set the rotation in the bottom right corner, under the “dimensions” tab, then pressing enter. (although this doesn’t really matter, because it’s a freaking circle.)
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Click the box next to shadow. It should create a drop shadow. You can edit the parameters for offset x and y to edit how close or far away the shadow is.
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To create a neon effect, set the color of the shadow to the same color as the shape (you can use the eyedropper tool here, click the color under the shadow tab, then click the eyedropper, then click the shape, then press escape on your keyboard. Next, set both offset x and y to 0. Finally, set “blur” from anywhere from 7 to 20. It should create a cool neon effect!
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It’s hard to see the neon with such a bright background. Try making a black background by getting a square from the shapes tab, making it very large, setting the color black, then clicking the down arrow at the top of your selected square, until it is at the back. Then when it is in the position you want, click the “L” key to lock it. congrats!
Shading/Highlights
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Now it’s time to make some simple lighting effects. First make a new project, then make a circle. Set the color to any color you want.
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Next, make a small curved shape with the pen tool. Set the rotation to around 45 degress, then put it in the right hand corner of your circle. Set the color to white, then set the opacity to around 20%. Congrats, you just made a highlight! You can make shadows by doing the same thing, but black. When creating lighting, make sure that it makes sense, by having consistent lighting (have light and shadow on opposite sides.) In order to make these effectively, be sure to trace an incomplete outline around what you’re trying to shade. Then make it black or white, black for shadows, white for highlights. In general, you should make your shadows larger than your highlights.
