Player button
Some ideas on how to create a cool all-in-one player button with as many functions as you wish. Folow these steps to learn some tricks and understand the benefits of the web-to-print conditional objects removal option along the way.
Before you start
Add a page frame (Layout/Page Setup/Add Page Frame). This will create a rectangular shape with the exact same size as the paper size of your template and place it as a bottom layer.
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For this particular type of button we need four circles on top of each other. Draw a circle with the Ellipse tool (F7) and make three more copies of it.The largest one at the bottom and the smallest on top of all.
Note. Hold the Ctrl key to draw a perfect proportional circle.
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Select all except the bottom circle and move them to a different page for now. We will add and edit them one by one starting with the bottom one.
Bottom circle
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Select the bottom circle, open the Object Properties docker (Alt+Enter), assign a Fountain Fill from the Fill tab and click the Advanced button to open the fountain fill editing options pop-up window.
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Use these settings for the gradient.
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Lets add an outer glow to the circle. With the shape selected, click on the Drop Shadow tool from the right tool box menu and use the Small Glow preset from the Presets drop-down list in the top menu.
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Set the glow color to white and adjust the value of the Opacity to 30 and the Feathering to 10.
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The result should be something similar to this.
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Second circle
Bring back the second circle from the page where you temporarely placed it. Select it and assign a shiny metallic conical fountain fill to it from the Object Properties docker.
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The result should be something similar to this.
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Third circle
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Bring back the third circle and assign the same bluish conical fountain fill that you set on the bottom circle.
Top Circle
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Bring the top circle back and assign a dark two color radial fountain fill to it. (Ex. From: Black To: 80% Black).
Set the fountain fill highlihgt center closer to the bottom right corner by clicking in the Fountain fill preview box in the Object properties docker.
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The result should be similar to this.
Add a glossy glow
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Lets add a glossy glow to the top circle and give it a 3D look. To achieve this we need to draw a smaller circle on top of the original one and place it close to the top edge.
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Assign a white uniform fill to the new circle and activate CorelDRAW’s Transparency Tool.
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Click on the top edge of the white circle and drag the cursor downwards. You can adjust the transparency transition by dragging the nodes to the desired position.
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The result should be something similar to this.
Button functions
Lets start by adding a “Stop” function to our button. Use the Rectangle tool (F6) to draw a square in the middle of the button.
Set a small outline to the square and a white glow with the same properties as the Bottom circle of the button.
Note. To copy effect properties from another object, select the object you want the effect copied to, go to Effects/Copy Effect, choose an effect and click on the object from which you want to copy that effect.
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Assign a fountain fill to the square. You can use the same conical bluish gradient you assigned to the bottom circle but move the highlight center down and out of the view area.
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The result should be similar to this.
Text
Input the dummy text and turn it into a variable web-to-print field.
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Set the same mettallic fountain fill that you assigned to the second circle of the button. Make it Linear this time.
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With the text frame selected, use the Extrude tool from the left tool box to add an extrusion to the dummy text.
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Click on the Bevels icon in the top menu and check the Use Bevel and Show Bevel Only check-boxes.
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The result should be something similar to this.
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All in one
The button we just created can be used for as many functions as we want. This way the users can get a Play, Stop, Pause, Stand by, or any kind of button they need out of a single page template.
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To achieve this we need to create a shape representing each function (Ex. A rotated triangle for “play” or two vertical bars for “pause”). Create as many shapes as you need to make your button represent multiple functions and group each of them with an invisible text frame.
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Since the texts that each shape is grouped with are invisible, it doesn’t matter what they are. The reason we need them is so that the shapes become web-to-print conditional objects. These objects will show up only when the text that they are grouped with is suplied.
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To make it more easy for the users, we can use the Field Editor on the site to add values for each button so that each function can be activated by a simple check box. To create a check box for each field, add one value under the list of values (Ex. Stand by) and one empty line (Press Enter). Read more about lists of values.
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The user is asked to select one of the checkboxes (Ex. Stand By) and imput the text that will go under the button. This tells the system to remove all the other objects from the template and leave only the selected ones (Ex. The “Stand By” symbol).
All done!
Our web-to-print software can handle this effect easily! Upload the template into your catalog and test it.
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Try this web-to-print template.
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Download the FREE CorelDRAW template file.
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