Ten Skills for Designing Multilayer Mandalas for Laser Cutting

[@andy-in-indy]

Being willing and able to create and modify designs is a big part of The Maker Mentality. Even if I am not planning to sell or share a modified source file, I always appreciate when the artist has included the ability to modify and customize their files. It adds value and I am willing to pay more for that option!

[@GreylightMay]

Andy, I love the phrase "Maker Mentality", I hope you don't mind if I adopt it!

[@andy-in-indy]

@@GreylightMay It is not mine, but it is in "common" use among some other maker educators. You are well qualified and therefore welcome to use it! It may have come from the book "The Maker Manifesto"

[@GreylightMay]

Andy, I read that book a long time ago because I started at TechShop, which Mark Hatch founded. It's in my library somewhere, it will be fun to take another look at it. After 6 years of making, it will probably resonate even more!

[@InscrutableObjects]

Thanks for the eydropper tip! It was driving me nuts why I couldn't get inner/outer to work! And yes, I can't imagine laser cutting on anything but Lightburn. Here's a tip to share: Paste In Place (ctrl-shift-v) will paste your copied item in the same place that you copied it from on the active layer.

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, inscrutable! Another kind viewer told me about paste in place too, and it really speeds things up! I love how the Internet helps us all help each other. It makes learning new things so much easier!!

[@luturd2330]

I'm a design major and currently trying to learn how to design a relief cut layout. Thank you for explaining things in a detailed way and helping with my assignment

[@GreylightMay]

I'm glad I could help!!

[@theunlivingroom8261]

Thanks so much for this! I have been wanting to get into laser cut mandala designs since I got my laser and it has always seemed like such an intimidating process. The way you break it down and explain things is so digestible! Did you ever make the other video for auditioning colors? That was another part of the process that has eluded me 😅

[@GreylightMay]

Here's the next video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYXFXpKPi76osKc I'm so glad this series is helpful to you!!

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

I've been getting into mandalas for laser cutting. I have 15 Years in Game Development which helps a lot with everything- many interchangeable skills. My pipeline is to start with Photoshop to make a very rough outline using the built in mandala tool. Photoshop doesn't usually take long. Next I move to Illustrator and have a template setup for making mandalas already. I import my rough outline and then trace the main paths of the first rough Mandala's raster image. Next on a new layer trace a slice of the rough photoshop mandala- with illustrator and the template I can clean up the imperfections from the photoshop version with fine tweaking to get nice smooth curves, sharp points and perfectly aligned geometry in general (hard to be precise with this sort of thing in photoshop). There's a lot more to it than just that, though that's it summed up- hope that helps someone ;)

[@GreylightMay]

Wow, I didn't know Photoshop had a mandala tool! I'm going to start by checking that out. One of my goals is to teach Dalle 3 to draw the layers of a mandala. It's great at doing a 3d isometric image of the whole mandala, but currently seems incapable of breaking that down into flat single layers. Thanks for the info!!

[@JustTrendcraft]

Nice welcome back If you use ctrl + shift + v will paste in place and you don’t need to align all the time

[@GreylightMay]

Excellent tip, GOTC, thank you!!

[@johnb5713]

Thank you so much for this, amazingly well explained and demonstrated! You must be a pedagogue in this life or the former :)

[@GreylightMay]

John, one of my nicest comments ever! I'm not an official teacher, but helping others learn things is what really motivates me to make videos, so this really makes my day, thank you!!

[@johnb5713]

@@GreylightMay So happy to hear! Looking forward to more great content, best of luck with your channel!

[@jameswall1076]

Thank you for sharing! Great tutorial!

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, James, glad it was helpful!

[@K40Keller]

Nice, Sorry, I hadn't seen that you were referring to a video. Great explanation. Thumbs up and good luck for the future.

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, you too!

[@onjofilms]

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Heading over to laser tip video now :)

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, onjofilms, I'm glad I can help!

[@drurigney8616]

Enjoyed tge video and got a lot out of it (I use Corel Draw so trying to see if I can use what you show and incorperate it into Corel). One thing that stood out I agree 100%, "...I would follow the instructions...because the person is so experienced, the skip over steps". Well at the 4 minute 12 second time line you say "Now the idead for this next part..." and you have something drawn out and have what you call "swatches" but never say how to create them(?). Continued watching but I guess my skill level needs much improving cause all I heard was "Blah Blah Blah". You definitly have the knowlege I just couldn't grasp it.

[@GreylightMay]

Drurigney, a swatch traditionally is a small square of fabric cut from a bolt of cloth that acts as a sample. THESE squares are samples of strokes that are used repeatedly in the mandala. A little later in the video you see how they are used because the eyedropper picks up the properties of a swatch and applies them to the active path you are drawing. The squares/swatches start out with two obvious properties: a color and a thickness. Different colors and thicknesses are used for each layer. I show adding the third property, which is how the stroke is aligned with the path: centered, on the inside and on the outside. Which of these you will use is based on the shape and the effect you want. The advantage of this setup is when you use a shape tool to draw a path it will start with a default color, thickness and alignment. While it is selected you can use the eyedropper to set the appropriate color and thickness for the layer and your preferred alignment with one click. It is a real productivity tool.

[@brynroberts9570]

Outstanding video thanks

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks, Bryn, I really appreciate you letting me know!

[@ronm6585]

Great info, thanks for sharing. 😊

[@GreylightMay]

Thanks for watching, Ron!

[@RogerBetin]

Have you any information about the Swatches stroke size for the top, middle and bottom, which seels to be different than 18pt. Thanks

[@GreylightMay]

Roger, I will have to go check my drawings, but I suspect the scale is inches, so they will be three different decimal fractions of an inch. I'll try to get back to you today.

[@GreylightMay]

Ah, yes, I see your point. Somehow the swatches were compromised, perhaps while shooting footage, and I didn't even notice!! The top is 18px, the middle is 36 and the bottom is 54. Unfortunately, I have to unlock layers to select things in the video, and this is a good demonstration of the importance of locking and unlocking layers while working. It is all too easy to screw things up. Good catch, thank you!!

[@teutamurati1348]

With wich program designs a models

[@GreylightMay]

I use Adobe Illustrator but you could do the same things with Corel Draw or Inkscape, which is free.

[@ktrazz]

"LightBurn is the best $120 I've ever spent." Preach, sister!

[@GreylightMay]

Well, Randolph, sometimes you just have to speak the truth!

[@TheTexan83]

lol even before you started talking I was like, wait ive seen that exact design before... we watched the same tutorial.

[@GreylightMay]

And it was very helpful too!!

[@GoodBaleadaMusic]

Grís Lightning. You're welcome.

[@GreylightMay]

Wouldn't it be eclair gris, Fuzzy??