drawing a 3D similar couch !

Hello everybody,

Using Xara photo& graphic designer 10, i wanted to draw a 3 seats couch to look like a 3D shape, that was very difficult until i found a vector shape one and all i could do is to turn it to a 3 seats.
Now that i want to make it black, that was the hardest part, the fill was a bitmap once applying the black color all the 3D effects disappeared, by 3D effects i mean those fills with lighting effects that defines a 3D object so that those pillows look like real.

Any help please ?! i would appreciate it much .

One more question if i am allowed to post it here:
Should i have the talent to know how to draw those lines and effects or that should come with years of practice?
Any Xara link or book that teaches me how to draw like 3D shapes ?

Thank you very much .

Hi,

The way it is now, each part of your design is a bitmap, so applying a colour to it will simply turn each bitmap into an object the same shape with a flat fill of one colour.
I think you would need to find the original design before you changed it to bitmap and change the colour there. You could try changing the hue for each bitmap so its tinted a different colour but I don't think that's the effect you want, or, depending what version of Xara you are using, you could place a coloured rectangle over the top of the design and apply an overlay/soft light transparency? otherwise I can't think of a way of doing it without the original vector design.

The only other way I can think of is to recreate it as a vector drawing. It would be quite simple to select each piece which is a clipped photo and right click to bring up a context menu. Select open clipview. your selected piece will now open in a separate edit inside window and will appear unclipped draw vector shapes to recreate the highlights, use the transparency and feathering options to get the graduations. Then select the photo and change the fill to flat and the object will change to the default black. It's now a vector shape and it's lost it's original shape but don't worry about that as it is still inside the original clipview. Just hit ctrl+s and you'll be back to your original drawing. you could even create a named colour to use instead of the default black and be able to make it any colour you want.

Here is a video tutorial from the Xara Xone that may help with recreating the highlights http://www.xaraxone.com/tutorials/tr...-not-cheating/

Edit: I've just noticed that the back cushions are sliced into two parts it would be easier to trace them and just recreate the piece that way again the video will be helpful

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gaftalik

Hello everybody,

Using Xara photo& graphic designer 10, i wanted to draw a 3 seats couch to look like a 3D shape, that was very difficult until i found a vector shape one and all i could do is to turn it to a 3 seats.
Now that i want to make it black, that was the hardest part, the fill was a bitmap once applying the black color all the 3D effects disappeared, by 3D effects i mean those fills with lighting effects that defines a 3D object so that those pillows look like real.

Any help please ?! i would appreciate it much .

One more question if i am allowed to post it here:
Should i have the talent to know how to draw those lines and effects or that should come with years of practice?
Any Xara link or book that teaches me how to draw like 3D shapes ?

Thank you very much .

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Hi gaftalik,
I've attached your file which I've edited slightly, showing what ONE option is in adding your texture back to the couch by making a clone of the entire couch, grouping the clone, then applying your texture to the clone (you will have to adjust the dpi of the texture, most likely), and then applying a "flat multistained transparency" to the textured copy. (adjust transparency as needed)
Also, I've included an example of the advantage of creating a named color with shades of that named color. (for info on how to create named colors see the help menu, "Search" and type Create new named colors)

You'll probably have more questions, so I'll try to help you with them if I can.

ron
P.S. In IMHO, the 3D tool has very limited applications. It's not very suitable for what you're drawing. Just my opinion.

Hi,

Thank you Angelize for your instructions and that amazing video, i think by following them with a bit of patience i'll be able to redraw it as you mentioned.

Ron, thank you for your option, but i got lost with texture, i cloned the couch & grouped the clone but what do you mean to apply the texture to the clone what texture and how ?
Forgive my inexperience.

Thank you all for your help.

No apology necessary. My bad.
I assume you had a particular texture you were using to emulate the fabric of the couch. When you had mentioned bitmap fill I made an incorrect assumption that it was a bitmap texture.
My mistake.
I apologize.

You are very welcome gaftalik although the one to thank for the video is Gary Bouton :)