tutorial APRIL 17, 2001 • page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Complete, Home

Recreating Apple's Aqua Gel Effect with Xara X
[Page 4 of 8]

Draw another rectangle, this time exactly the width of your rectangle and 2 pixels in height. The easiest way to specify this is in the W and H (Width and Height) text entry boxes on the Infobar. To apply changes that are not linked to one another, press the tiny lock icon button on the Infobar so it is in the raised (non-proportional scaling) position.

Make a duplicate (Ctrl K or Edit > Duplicate) and position it at the very bottom of the page. Position the first rectangle at the exact top of the page.

Apply a 20% black fill to both rectangles and set the line width to none by right clicking on the cross hatched square to the left of the screen palette.

In this step we will create a blend between the top and bottom rectangles.

Select the Blend Tool. Click on the top rectangle and drag down to the bottom rectangle. Release the mouse button.

You should have a 5-step blend. Change the number of Blend Steps on the Infobar to 18 and press Enter on your keyboard to apply the changes.

Select the blended rectangles and the background and press Ctrl B (as in Back) to send them to the back, or select Send to Back from the Edit menu.

NOTE: To multiple select objects, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while you click on multiple objects.

Select the blended rectangles and the background and group them (Ctrl G or Arrange > Group).

Select the capsule, and the background and line group, and make a duplicate. Edit > Clone or Ctrl K.

Select the capsule, then the Shadow Tool , and click the left square shadow icon on the Infobar to turn the shadow off.

The lines behind the blue capsule would be distorted due to the roundness of the capsule.

Center the duplicate capsule over the duplicate lines and background. Select the lines and background, select the Mould Tool, then click the Elliptical Envelope button on the Infobar. The enveloped shape can be seen over the original background.

Go to Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Complete, Home

Post a comment or question in the Digital Media Designer User Forum!
Gary Priester's articles appear on Efuse.com, Designer.com, Unleash.com and Xaraxone.com as well as in Communication Arts Magazine. His monthly Web column/tutorial, "Logos for the Design Challenged," can be seen at Unleashed Productions. Priester is co-author with Dave Huss of CorelDRAW Studio Techniques (Osborne CorelPress) and the author of Looking Good in Color (Ventana Press). He can be reached at garypriester@earthlink.net. ©2001 Gary W. Priester Tutorials are for private use only. No text or images may be used or reproduced in any form (except as tutorials) without the express written permission of the author.
tutorials 2001

[an error occurred while processing this directive]