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tutorial
APRIL 17, 2001 page
1,
2,
3,
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5,
6,
7,
8,
Complete,
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Recreating
Apple's Aqua Gel Effect with Xara X
[Page 7 of 8]
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Make a
duplicate of the beveled text. Convert it to editable shapes
(Arrange > Convert to Editable Shapes).
Ungroup
twice (Arrange > Ungroup). Delete the solid
portion of the text leaving just the beveled portion.
To delete
in Xara just press the Delete key on your keyboard
or right click and select Delete from the pop up menu.
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Position
the empty bevel over the beveled text.
This last
step was not really necessary but enhances the light and dark
of the beveled edges.
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The problem
with most vector applications is vector objects are too hard
edged producing an unrealistic effect. If we were in Photoshop,
we could apply a tiny amount of Gaussian blur to soften the
white highlight and make it softer.
But who
needs Photoshop when we can add a small amount of feathering
right in Xara X! Select the white highlight. In the upper
right corner of the Infobar, move the Feathering slider
to about 2 to 2.5pix. Doesn't that look more realistic?
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Since we
went to all the trouble to lighten the bottom of the blue
capsule using Xara's Elliptical transparency, we should
go the extra 9 yards and add a soft shadow beneath the text.
Duplicate
the beveled text. (Ctrl D) and convert the duplicated
text to editable shapes (Shift Ctrl S)
Select
the Mould Tool and apply a Default Envelope.
(The first rectangle button on the Infobar). Click in each
corner and drag the Bezier control handles downwards as shown.
Drag the bottom handles a little more than the top ones.
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One
of the few features missing from Xara is a Gaussian Blur filter.
But lucky for us, Ladislav Seridi has created a cute little
utility called SL Blur which can be downloaded for free from
the XaraXone Shareware
Page along
with a ton of other cool shareware and freeware stuff.
Select
the text and from the Arrange menu, select Create
Bitmap Copy. From the Color Depth drop down list,
select True Color (24-bit). And press Create.
Copy the
bitmap to the clipboard.
Open SL
Blur and press the Clipboard icon on the far left to paste
the bitmap.
Move the
slider to 10 and check the Add Border check box. Press
the water drop button to apply the blur. Press the Copy button
(to the left of the hand button), to place a copy of the blurred
bitmap in the clipboard. Close SL Blur and say thank
you, Ladislav.
BY THE
WAY: Add Border automatically expands the width of the bitmap
to accommodate the blurring. If not checked, the blurring
is truncated.
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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. |
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tutorials
2001
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