Distort Text to make Netflix logo
How to distort text used in an example to make the Netflix logo in Vectric software. This lesson applies to Vectric VCarve, Aspire, and Cut2D.
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Video Transcript:
Hello everyone in this lesson, we're gonna look at how to distort text to curve only one side of the text. So as you can see from this example, we're looking at the Netflix logo and we have a straight line at the top, and then we have a curved line at the bottom. So we're gonna look at how to do this very easily with only a few steps.
All right so we got a new project open and this can be done in Cut2D, VCarve or Aspire . And for this example, we're going to recreate the Netflix logo. So I did a simple Google search and I found out the font used in the Netflix logo is called Bebas Neue, I believe it's called. And that is the font we're gonna use.
But of course you could do any font that you'd like, but if you wanted to do a spinoff with your own custom text to kind of match this look, then you can use this font here. And this should be a font that's already installed on your computer. And since we're recreating this logo, I'm actually gonna bring this image into Vectric.
So I'm just gonna make the window a little bit smaller and you can actually just drag and drop it right into, uh, Vectric here. And I will resize this a little bit bigger.
And we'll center that up there, you can also click F9 to center it. Okay, and if you were to just want to make this logo, if you really wanted to, you can use the trace bitmap tool and just trace that and just apply those changes and click close. And you'll see if we hide the bitmap. You are left with the vectors, but if you were also to look in a little bit closer, they are not exactly nice sharp corners like you may want.
So although that will work for a quick solution, um, you're also not able to customize the text that way either. So I just wanted to show you that upfront, if you wanted to do that very quick, but now let's take this example, I'll just put it up here out of the way. And now we're going to bring back the bitmap layer and I'm gonna show you how to create this from scratch, using the text and distort tool.
So first things first, we need some text, so we're gonna go to our draw text tool, and then you're gonna choose whatever font you'd like. And this one, we're gonna use the same font that the Netflix logo uses. And like I said, that should be installed on your computer already. And then we're gonna type in all caps, NETFLIX, and this can be anywhere on your screen.
The position of this font doesn't matter too much at the beginning because when we use the distort tool, it will move to wherever we place our distortion lines. The size also does not matter because it'll automatically be scaled to the size of our distortion lines. So I'm just gonna leave it like that and click close.
Okay, now that we have our text, as you may know, there is a tool called text on a curve. So some people may want to use that to try to do this. And you could see if you were to use the draw arc tool and you could draw a simple arc from corner to corner and then bring it up in the middle like that. Then click close.
And then if you were to select this text, hold shift, select that arc and then go to text on a curve, and then you can scale up the text to fill the curve and you'll see, you will not get the results that you'd want in this case. As you can see, the top will be arched as well. So this will not be the tool you'd wanna use for this.
You will get that bottom arc, but you'll also get a top arc that you do not want in this case. So I'm gonna close that and undo, and then I'm also going to delete that arc. So you will need a straight line at the top and arc at the bottom. You can draw that arc, like we just did there, but another technique I like to use to keep the top and bottom nice and aligned, is I actually like to take the draw rectangle tool.
And then you can zoom in a little bit and click on one corner and hold your mouse in and drag to the opposite corner. And now we have a nice box, the size of our logo, and then we're gonna click close. And then all we have to do from here is make the bottom an arc and then delete the sides. So to do that, we have to go to the node editing.
So you wanna click the letter N with our object selected, and now it's in the node edit mode. And then you can right click the bottom line segment and click to arc, and that's gonna convert it into an arc. And then you just have to click that center point and move it up until it touches where you want it to stop just like that.
And that looks pretty good. And of course you can customize this however much you'd like. And then we're going to delete the sides, so you just right click and click delete span on both sides. And there we go, now we're left with the straight line at the top and then arc at the bottom and they're nice and aligned exactly on the ends like we wanted.
And to use the distort tool, you'll also wanna make sure your start points are on the left side, so going left to right. Otherwise, it's gonna mirror your text. So make sure you see those green points on the sides. If not, you can right click on them and click reverse direction. Okay so, so far so good.
Let's now hide our bitmap layer and now you can see we're left with our two line segments and our text. So now we're gonna go to the distort tool, which is in the transform object section. And it's second to last one distort object. And for this, we're gonna wanna use between two curves. So select that option, and then we have to select our text and then both the curves.
So there is a correct order to select these. You wanna first select the object that you wanna distort, which in this case is the text, then hold shift and select the bottom line and then hold shift and select the top line. And now you'll get that green check mark there, letting you know that we selected them in the correct order and they're all selected.
Now click apply and there we go. Now we have that bottom curve and the top is still nice and straight. And now the last step here is you want to bake this together because right now we can still edit this distortion by clicking one of these. And you'll see, you can edit that even further.
But if you don't wanna do that, click undo and then once you get it the way you like it, click bake. And now there are individual vectors where you cannot edit the distortion anymore. Okay,and then that's it. Now we can either delete or hide these two lines. Uh, you could place them on a separate layer and hide them, or you can delete them.
If you want them on a separate layer, just select both right click. Go to move to new layer and then just give it a name and say, make that invisible click, okay. And there we go there's our finished logo. And now you could see, we have nice sharp corners and this looks really good. Looks really clean. Whereas the one we traced up here, you could see the corners are really rounded.
Some of them even have the angle cut off there and the lines are not very straight. So that's a big difference between, uh, using the distort tool and doing the trace bitmap. And then from here, you can make your toolpaths or do any other editing you'd like, and then you could see from this other example, I did with a simple VCarve toolpath with the flat depth, this is what the final product would look like.
And you can get very creative with this that does not have to be an arc. You can use, uh, straight line segments. You can move the lines, however you like. And the top does not have to be straight either, you can make that curved or angled, so you can get very creative with this, but hopefully those tips helped you out.
And if they did make sure you like and subscribe for more.
All right so we got a new project open and this can be done in Cut2D, VCarve or Aspire . And for this example, we're going to recreate the Netflix logo. So I did a simple Google search and I found out the font used in the Netflix logo is called Bebas Neue, I believe it's called. And that is the font we're gonna use.
But of course you could do any font that you'd like, but if you wanted to do a spinoff with your own custom text to kind of match this look, then you can use this font here. And this should be a font that's already installed on your computer. And since we're recreating this logo, I'm actually gonna bring this image into Vectric.
So I'm just gonna make the window a little bit smaller and you can actually just drag and drop it right into, uh, Vectric here. And I will resize this a little bit bigger.
And we'll center that up there, you can also click F9 to center it. Okay, and if you were to just want to make this logo, if you really wanted to, you can use the trace bitmap tool and just trace that and just apply those changes and click close. And you'll see if we hide the bitmap. You are left with the vectors, but if you were also to look in a little bit closer, they are not exactly nice sharp corners like you may want.
So although that will work for a quick solution, um, you're also not able to customize the text that way either. So I just wanted to show you that upfront, if you wanted to do that very quick, but now let's take this example, I'll just put it up here out of the way. And now we're going to bring back the bitmap layer and I'm gonna show you how to create this from scratch, using the text and distort tool.
So first things first, we need some text, so we're gonna go to our draw text tool, and then you're gonna choose whatever font you'd like. And this one, we're gonna use the same font that the Netflix logo uses. And like I said, that should be installed on your computer already. And then we're gonna type in all caps, NETFLIX, and this can be anywhere on your screen.
The position of this font doesn't matter too much at the beginning because when we use the distort tool, it will move to wherever we place our distortion lines. The size also does not matter because it'll automatically be scaled to the size of our distortion lines. So I'm just gonna leave it like that and click close.
Okay, now that we have our text, as you may know, there is a tool called text on a curve. So some people may want to use that to try to do this. And you could see if you were to use the draw arc tool and you could draw a simple arc from corner to corner and then bring it up in the middle like that. Then click close.
And then if you were to select this text, hold shift, select that arc and then go to text on a curve, and then you can scale up the text to fill the curve and you'll see, you will not get the results that you'd want in this case. As you can see, the top will be arched as well. So this will not be the tool you'd wanna use for this.
You will get that bottom arc, but you'll also get a top arc that you do not want in this case. So I'm gonna close that and undo, and then I'm also going to delete that arc. So you will need a straight line at the top and arc at the bottom. You can draw that arc, like we just did there, but another technique I like to use to keep the top and bottom nice and aligned, is I actually like to take the draw rectangle tool.
And then you can zoom in a little bit and click on one corner and hold your mouse in and drag to the opposite corner. And now we have a nice box, the size of our logo, and then we're gonna click close. And then all we have to do from here is make the bottom an arc and then delete the sides. So to do that, we have to go to the node editing.
So you wanna click the letter N with our object selected, and now it's in the node edit mode. And then you can right click the bottom line segment and click to arc, and that's gonna convert it into an arc. And then you just have to click that center point and move it up until it touches where you want it to stop just like that.
And that looks pretty good. And of course you can customize this however much you'd like. And then we're going to delete the sides, so you just right click and click delete span on both sides. And there we go, now we're left with the straight line at the top and then arc at the bottom and they're nice and aligned exactly on the ends like we wanted.
And to use the distort tool, you'll also wanna make sure your start points are on the left side, so going left to right. Otherwise, it's gonna mirror your text. So make sure you see those green points on the sides. If not, you can right click on them and click reverse direction. Okay so, so far so good.
Let's now hide our bitmap layer and now you can see we're left with our two line segments and our text. So now we're gonna go to the distort tool, which is in the transform object section. And it's second to last one distort object. And for this, we're gonna wanna use between two curves. So select that option, and then we have to select our text and then both the curves.
So there is a correct order to select these. You wanna first select the object that you wanna distort, which in this case is the text, then hold shift and select the bottom line and then hold shift and select the top line. And now you'll get that green check mark there, letting you know that we selected them in the correct order and they're all selected.
Now click apply and there we go. Now we have that bottom curve and the top is still nice and straight. And now the last step here is you want to bake this together because right now we can still edit this distortion by clicking one of these. And you'll see, you can edit that even further.
But if you don't wanna do that, click undo and then once you get it the way you like it, click bake. And now there are individual vectors where you cannot edit the distortion anymore. Okay,and then that's it. Now we can either delete or hide these two lines. Uh, you could place them on a separate layer and hide them, or you can delete them.
If you want them on a separate layer, just select both right click. Go to move to new layer and then just give it a name and say, make that invisible click, okay. And there we go there's our finished logo. And now you could see, we have nice sharp corners and this looks really good. Looks really clean. Whereas the one we traced up here, you could see the corners are really rounded.
Some of them even have the angle cut off there and the lines are not very straight. So that's a big difference between, uh, using the distort tool and doing the trace bitmap. And then from here, you can make your toolpaths or do any other editing you'd like, and then you could see from this other example, I did with a simple VCarve toolpath with the flat depth, this is what the final product would look like.
And you can get very creative with this that does not have to be an arc. You can use, uh, straight line segments. You can move the lines, however you like. And the top does not have to be straight either, you can make that curved or angled, so you can get very creative with this, but hopefully those tips helped you out.
And if they did make sure you like and subscribe for more.
