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  • Gradient patterns

    Hello I am fairly new to the digitising world but I have been doing it for about 3 months now and steadily learning tips and tricks. I have seen some deigns which have a gradient fill. For example at one end a solid red which ends up being a yellow at the other. I have design shop pro 9, and I don't think there is a tick box to have the software do it for you, unless I have missed it.

    I have had a try with a pair of sunglasses which had black in one corner which faded up to a silver to give a reflective look. I did it by splitting the lense into four sections each with a diffierent thread density. Where the area need to be black I sewed out at about .38 and at the other end it was above 1 but with the opposite values for the silver thread so this showed through. The initial sew out was not too bad, but not quite a smooth transition. Just wondered how others did it?

  • #2
    Hi Marcus!
    There is a way to do this but it still takes a lot of fine tuning and trial and error on each design. I still break up my designs into 3 sections or so for a 2 color fade. Some of the stitching will overlap so decide which color you want on top - each design is different and choosing one color over the other will change the way the design looks so try both! The outer ends will be solid fills or solid satin shapes. Then I create a "middle section" that overlaps both colors. The bottom color will usually be close to solid density - sometimes a little lighter density.
    Then, on the top color - the one we want to fade - click on the Effects sub-category tab under the Top Stitching. In there you select the "CustomDensity" checkbox and select the "linear" from the dropdown. Then punch in your Max & Min densities for the fade. If the fade is going the "wrong" direction you can click and change the direction of the line inside that little graph off to the right - Top Left to Bottom Right or Bottom Left to Top Right. You can also experiment with the "exponential" option

    Couple notes:
    • For a softer, more subtle fade, I put the light color on top and make all the stitch directions going the same angle.
    •For a harder looking fade, put the darker color on top and make the angles more perpendicular.
    •Changing the Fill stitching from Regular to Trapunto will also change the looks
    •Adjust your start and stop points so they are on opposite ends of the fade to avoid a travel stitch running down the middle of the fade.
    •The bigger the design, the better this works but I have made it work on some small sections too!

    This really does take some experimentation to get looking good though so dont be afraid to change those density numbers around and alter the shapes of the art. You will likely need to adjust each section individually for some additional pulling too.

    I can round up a couple designs I have done if you're interested - just send me an email.

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    • #3
      I would be interested in playing with a couple of your designs too. I'm trying to work out some gradients to mimic fur. Thank you.
      [email protected]

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      • #4
        Hi Mike thanks for the reply. I will have a look later today. Do you have design shop pro plus or just pro? I tried to do some lettering the other day with a different colour shadow effect but it turns out that is only in the plus version.

        I would appreciate some designs to see how they sew out.

        My email is
        [email protected]

        Thanks

        Marcus.

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