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Here's another total newbie question!
How do I make the edges of a bitmap photo fade into the background while preserving the rest of the photo?
I would like the photo to fade into the background of a web page.
J [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]
Here's another total newbie question!
How do I make the edges of a bitmap photo fade into the background while preserving the rest of the photo?
I would like the photo to fade into the background of a web page.
J [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]
Have you tried the feathering slider? It's in the top right hand corner of the infobar. You can read more about this in Gary's WebXealot area on this web page.
Mickie
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wyccaad - Your question is a very good one. I say that because the skills necessary to successfully fade an image into the background are extremely useful skills to have.
Certainly Xara X's feathering tool is very helpful but there are other interesting techniques that were developed out of not having a feathering tool in earlier versions of xara. Those techniques I find continue to be useful.
The non-feathering techniques use xara's transparencies. The most basic idea is to use a circular or eliptical transparency to cameo the part of the overlayed bitmap you want to merge with the background. Some 'tricks' to using this approach successfully involve using clones. After applying a eliptical transparency to a bitmapped-filled shape so you can see it start to merge with its background, try cloning it. You will immediately notice that when one transparent object is on top of another the results are better - less washed out. You can also adjust the transparency handles on successive clones to fine tune what is appearing. The result will not necessarily look like eliptical transparency was used.
Linear transparencies can also be effectively used. Making bitmap copies of shapes that already have had transparency effects applied can also be very efficient. The advantage there is that new transparency effects can be applied to the bitmap copy greatly exopanding the possibilities.
There are two forum participants I consider masters of using transparency effects to merge objects. Roman (Dmagician) and Masque are both particularly skilled. Maybe one can be encouraged to produce a guest tutorial for Gary's xaraxone.com???
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
Here's an example that merges a pic (the fishes) into a relatively complex background (the swirling colours). Circular transparency was used. By-the-way the swirling colours were created in xara too! (Xara is powerful [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] )
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
Thank you Mickie, Egg & Ross. I love this forum, every time I ask a question, the answers provide me with more and more insight into XaraX.
I would dearly love to see a tutorial on transparency. Lets hope Dmagician and Masque can be persuaded to do one soon. :O) J
On of the great things about Xara is there are often many ways to do more or less the same thing. Often with subtle differences that can make it possible to get just the right affect.
Try the countour tool to fade into the background. Or the blend tool by creating a clone of the object, sending it to the back, increasing its size say 20%, make it transparent and blending it with the first objec. you can start with the background object at 50% transparent so you can see where it is. You can always pick the starting or ending object in a blend by holding Control down when you select. Then you can change its color, transparency, size etc. to get the affect you want.
John D