Creating an Impasto Painting Photo Effect - A Mini Tutorial

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Originally Posted by stygg2003

Now that is a really good one Rik, did you use the extra settings in V3.25. for this image?

Stygg

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I did as Gary suggested in the first place - I played and adjusted the settings in V3.25, until I got the look I wanted, with not too much detail.

Then, I did something different to what Gary suggested (I hope he doesn't kick me for it!)
I didn't make a bitmap copy.

I applied the Fine Touch and the Emboss to the same image.
That way, I got the depth I was looking for as well.

Don't think Gary will kick you for it Rik seeing how the image turned out, brilliant and a cool tip as well :D

Stygg

Bend over Rick. Just kidding. The only reason for creating a bitmap copy is speed. But you may be more leisurely than I am.

Gary P, thanks for the tutorial.

I'm using DPX9 32 bit as I still can't reinstall X10, and the 64 bit X9 does not have the Emboss tool (nor many others). I had trouble with the 300dpi bitmap copy. When I tried to open Emboss, it would crash, out of memory I believe (I have 16GB). The solution was to just leave the image at 96dpi.

I noticed that the image rendered in Xara was quite different from the Fine Touch preview. The photo is as shot. Here is an example:

Fine Touch preview image:

Attachment 108411

After rendering in Xara :

Attachment 108412

Embossed still look ok, but I played with the parameters to push the raised parts. Zooming in shows the raised parts quite well and the leaves show smoothing and the raised effect:

Attachment 108413

Here is another example and it is fairly close to what I was looking for. I need to do some touchup on the colours first, there should be some green on the foothills:

Attachment 108414

These are likely not the best photos to use as examples, but I want to see how they would turn out.

I also noticed an anomaly with Emboss in X9. A couple of the parameters, Depth and Smooth end up showing 1 and 0, respectively, even though the slider is completely to the right. The correct values are 100 each. See below:

Attachment 108415

A final comment, depending on the type of image, reducing significantly the Smooth parameter creates an interesting effect.

Thanks,
John

Good observations John.

I installed the plugin but when I click on the live effect tool there's no dropdown box. The only thing that happens is an "e" is out beside the cursor (Not sure what that's about)

Bob
XARA P&G 10

Hi Bob.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'there's no dropdown box'?

Are you sure that you have the photo (the picture you're trying to change) selected?

Couldn't resist another go at it.

So, here are 2 friends, out for a walk.

Bob - When you select the FX Tool, there is a drop down on the top left of the window that reads New... Click the New... then scroll down to Redfield or Stylize > Emboss.

Well Duh.
I am living proof "Rivers" don't always run deep"

thanks
bob