Contour Tool art

I've been looking at the Xara Contour tool and feel that it is limited in it's applications. Can anyone prove me wrong?

What interesting images can be created with this tool?

Hi Anas,

The Circles in the attached image were created using contours and a technique that Ross Macintosh posted several years ago.

A four point quickshape star, contoured, cloned, rotated 25%, blended, cloned and rotated a few more times and animated. What I like about it is the contoured quickshape seems to rotate counter-clockwise, and the rotated blend rotates in the opposite direction. (or is it just me?)
Saludos,
Bob.

Here's a seamless tile made from a contoured rectangle.
Makes nice fills.
Saludos,
Bob.

I'm still not getting enough sleep.... :rolleyes:

Great image, Steve.

Now get some sleep. :)

Gary

Thanks Gary :)

I got some.... ;)

Here is another example.

Contour tool and shadow tool :

I like the "out of bounds" effect of the shapes and shadows
outside of the frame.
This one is just a quickshape and contour.
Saludos,
Bob.

1 photogenic cat (manipulated with Xara), 1 rectangle with contour, 1 glow.
Saludos,
Bob.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iamtheblues

What I like about it is the contoured quickshape seems to rotate counter-clockwise, and the rotated blend rotates in the opposite direction. (or is it just me?)

---

No I think it's a global illusion Bob, I like it as well. Your flower is a very clever application.

Nice one Ren.

Marcia, yours is fascinating, did you apply a shadow on all the layers of the floating objects, as it looks 3D as if you used a bevel?
PS Your avatar is Extremely spooky/ disturbing.

BOB - Great optical illusion I love those, very clever.
And as for the cat, well everyone knows they're infallible and photogenic when they choose ;) :D .

MARCIA - Very good, very effective face effect, I like it - I like your avatar too :)

Old drawing, comes from the ancient inspiration of Ross M.
Sort of hyper-space orbit. Used contour and some bevels around the circular frame.
adios

Salaam : yes, I did apply a shadow on all the layers. Like working in 2D with a 3D result :D Spooky ? Me ?

Steve : Thanks ! :)

Another contoured quickshape for a snowflakey effect. And if anyone wants, they can post this as a coloring challenge on the challenge forum for fun, as I found it quite relaxing trying different color combos.

Some nice images here!

Thanks for the ideas team, I have a better understanding of the tool now.

Are there any, more practical uses rather than purely decorative?

I use it sometimes like this or for making small text more clear instead of an outline

here's something I 'discovered' - playing around with wheels

one 64spoke quick shape given a 4 step contour - cloned - the clone shift+reduced in size to the middle and subtracted - gives a group of five 'gear wheels' each one with progressively thicker teeth - practical? - I'm working on it ;)

BTW

theres an interesting application of contours here by Ross
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=13155
as referenced in Bills current Crystal Ball thread

the mercury file is accessible but the second one seems to be glitched - as Marcia has pointed out :(

Making thicker or thinner text:

That's very practical Bob - thanks.

FYI generally: Bill has re-posted Ross's contour tutorial in the Crystal Ball thread

Christmas is coming......................

Many great applications of the Contour Tool exhibited in this thread. :)

The only limitations with most anything is the imagination.

Purely decorative I know.
Only the background didn't
involve the contour tool.
Saludos,
Bob.

I wasn't sure if I should post this here as it continues the contour tool thread, or in Graphics Chat. The "Universe" program I used to create the background was made with the feature limited demo of the program found here.
The use of the Amina font; see "making thicker or thinner text" in my post above (#21) set me thinking about the old arcade games like Space Invaders and Galaxian that were popular many years ago. I used the contour tool on the text of the 2 "X" spaceships, the flashes and the lines of tracer (text dashes).
If anyone wants the .xar file to improve the look of the ships, be my guest.
Saludos,
Bob.

Marcia,
I had forgotten that this is a very effective way of highlighting text, in cases such as this, with dark text on dark backgrounds, I think it works better than using a drop shadow.

Steve,
Those gears are very clever, I'd be interested to see how they develop.

Penny,
That's a very neat tree decoration. "Christmas is coming......................"
I suppose that in the UK the shops are putting out their window displays and stocking their shelves with Christmas goodies.
It gets earlier every year, doesn't it?
Here in our local village there might be the odd bit of tinsel and a nativity scene in the main plaza, but otherwise, one may go out on Christmas Eve and shop with impunity.
No queues, crowds or the panic that I recall when I lived there.

Saludos,
Bob.

I like that Penny,
although it isn't a simple 'circular envelope mould' is it?
How did you make it look so 3D?

Thanks Bob,
Useful tip.

Thanks Bob and Salaam - no, not mould tool, a circle with repeated linear fill and contoured with 100 steps. Then, with fill tool selected, twiddle the centre section until you get the result you want. Here's the .xar file if any use.

Thanks Penny,

Now that's clever!!

Bob, where did you find that Architext One type ?

Edit : Never mind, I found it at Dafont..:o As allways I was too quick...

Contour is excellent when drawing maps. Trivia: map02, I was born in Hanko (Hangö) and today I work in Turku, about a 2 hour drive from the home town - and I live in Raisio which is located between Naantali (Nådendal) and Turku (Åbo). And some more triva: Helsinki (Helsingfors) is the capital of Finland, another 2 hour drive from Hanko.

Very practical Paul, nice.

I was inspired by Penny's Christmas decoration ball to create these global clouds: