Don't forget to check out the Icon-A-Day tutorials, and icons at mormegil.wincustomize.com.
These videos are in Windows Medea Video format, you should be able to play them in Windows Medea Player.
I have to admit that exporting the bitmap is CorelDRAW's weakest link. I have reported several time a few bugs in the exporter that make it almost useless to skinners, and they have not been fixed. However there are several work around. Here are the ways I have found to get the best results.Overall note: When you design set your general DPI to 300, you can do this in the options dialogue. This is important to the way it makes drop shadows and how it exports and always do your work at a 1" = 100pixels scale. so when I want the finished Icon to be 128 pixels, I will design it in a 1.28"x1.28" box.
Exporting Icons: 1) I seam to get the best results exporting Icons using the PNG file exporter. You can also use PSD to go results, but I like PNG. You will also notice that I alway have a box around my Icons, that is a fixed square, before I export it I set its fill and outline to none. 2) Now marquee select the Icon, and the box. Hit export. In the export dialogue make sure export selected only is checked. And select The PNG export filter. 3) Now there will be several check boxes, make sure Transparent Background is checked. and that your DPI is 300. (I use RGB 24 bit) 4) In the next dialogue you will see a check box that says Masked Area, make sure you have that selected, and hit ok. Save the file were you want. 5) The result will be (if you were using a 1.28x1.28 box as a guild) a 384x384 bit map. That you should be able to use in any Iconmakeing program. Most of the time without any touchup.Exporting Skin Graphics: This can be a bit more work. But the steps are pretty much the same as above. Fallow the same guidelines as above. 300dpi, 1"=100" pixels when designing. I am usually not happy with the results Corel gives me if I export a image at a 1 to 1 scale, so what I always do is export it at 300dpi, like the icons. And use a graphics program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, to resize the Graphics to 100dpi. This will give you the proper scaling. And if necessary cropping. I will add a exporting video to my list of tutorials. and try and do make this clearer.
there are alot of ways, I try and just design stuff like that as more then one mesh. But if you want a Hole, you can draw the overal shape. and powerclip the mesh fill inside it. This can come in handy for otherthings. I will tutch on this more as the Icons continue.