Tutorial 1: Creating a Simple Coin

Power Up and Collectible: Lesson One

With this tutorial we are going to start with simple shapes,

To make something that is in a lot of Mobile Games....The Coin

Things you will learn in this Lesson:

The Circle Tool

The Star Tool

Duplicate

Difference (For Cutting Highlights and Shadows)

Colour Wheel

Alignment

Sending Layers to the Back and Front

Step 1: Nice and easy to start with, Select the CIRCLE TOOL down the Tool Bar on the left Side of the Screen. To Create a perfect Circle, With the CIRCLE TOOL selected, Hold down CTRL and drag in a Diagonal Motion. This Circle can be whatever size you would like.

Step 2: Now we are going to make a smaller circle inside the circle we have just placed.

To do this select the Circle already placed (To select things make sure your Tool is set to The Black Arrow and the top of the Tool Box), And press the shortcut keys for DUPLICATE being CTRL + D.

This is a handy tool to use in Inkscape and you will most probably use it a lot so remember that shortcut!

After the Circle is DUPLICATED resize it by holding CTRL and dragging the Diagonal Arrows surrounding it in abit (CTRL keeps it a perfect circle).

Now to align we want to hit the shortcut for ALIGN, Which is CTRL + SHFT +A. Also pays to remember this shortcut also, As it used a fair bit.

With the ALIGN settings now open down the Right hand Side of the Screen, You want to change the Relative to: Option to LAST SELECTED. Now click on the Original Circle, And then SHFT + Left Click the Smaller Circle (Holding shift allows you to select multiple Objects).

When these 2 Circles are selected you then want to click on the align centre, both for Vertical and Horizontal centre with the 2 Buttons highlighted in the Green Boxs in the Picture Below.

Step 3: Now we are going to create a STAR, to do so select the STAR TOOL, in the Tool box down the left side of the screen. To create the star also hold CTRL to make a Perfect Star (Ctrl is used with all Shapes and Even lines etc!). As you can see there are also Options for the stars above the Tool Box, Including Spoke Ratio, How Rounded the Edges are and how many points the Star will have.

Feel free to play around with these, Till you get a Star you like.

Step 4: Once this is done Select the Inner Circle, SHIFT CLICK the Star,

And Align as you did in the last step. We can also Select everything,

And give it a yellow colour in the Colour Box below the Canvas

Step 5: Now we are going to create a Shadow for our coin on the inner Circle.

To do this Duplicate the Inner Circle (Ctrl +D) and then duplicate it again.

Move the Second Duplicate a little down and too the right.

Select both the duplicates with your SHIFT + Left Click as before

We then will go to the Top Bar of Inkscape,

Select Path and Select the Option DIFFERENCE.

This will cut the shape from the Bottom Layer Leaving you a Nice Little Piece of the Circle to use for a Shadow like in the picture below

Step 6: Now we want to choose a colour for our Shadow,

So with it still selected Press CTRL + SHIFT + F (Another one to remember),

Here you can choose the colour and the Stroke colour.

I personally choose the Wheel Option like below,

So Choose your Yellow Colour that is a bit Darker than the Coin.

Also Select Stroke Paint and Remove the Stroke By pressing the X Just underneath.

This will leave the Shadow Overlapping the Inner Circle,

But to Fix this just DUPLICATE the Inner Circle,

And remove the Fill the same way you just Removed the Stroke.

Step 7: With this Step we will change the Colour of the Star to Pop a bit,

You can choose the Dropper and Select the Shadow colour if you like,

The DROPPER is located at the bottom of the Tool Box down the Left Side of the Screen.

We then want to Duplicate our Bigger Circle,

Move it Slightly to the Right and Down if you wish,

To create the Back Shadow and some Depth.

With this new duplicate Selected Place it in the back Layer by pressing the END key.

This will send that object to the very back layer.

Step 8: Here we will just create a highlight for the Star by Duplicating the Star,

Scaling it down (Remember to Hold CTRL and Drag the Diagonal Arrows inwards),

And placing it where it looks good (Slightly to the left etc).

We then remove the stroke and make it a lighter colour than the Coin,

With the colour wheel as before.

Step 9: Now we are going to Highlight the Big Circle by Duplicating Twice again,

Dragging the Circle a wee bit Down and Right,

Selecting them both as before,

And Selecting Difference as before

Step 10: The Final Step! With this cut from the Difference, We now make it a Lighter Colour (Same as the Star) and Move the layer back till we can see it!

With the cut selected, Press the END key again.

You will not be able to see it,

But to bring it into view we hit the PAGE UP Key,

Till it is behind the Inner Circle but Visible on the Larger Circle.

We then remove the Stroke as before,

And duplicate the Larger Circle and Remove the Fill.