Fire/Flames

[Gilles C]

I am a newbie at Xara X1 and mainly because I kept using only the basic functions.

Now, I would like to do flames as explained in Sue Lawrence tutorial, but I find it hard to follow right at the beginning with the fill and transparency functions. I just can't get it.

And I'm motivated more than ever because that's exactly the kind of fire that I want to reproduce.

Any tip that would help me with that tutorial? Please...

Right there at this paragraph:

"Give this rectangle a fractal plasma transparency. The values used were: mix, repeating tile, Start 0% - end 100%, 29 dpi, fractal scale 30%. Also adjust the transparency handles in the same way as the fill. I decided to give it a transparency profile of: -0.32 in the top box and -0.38 in the bottom box, to define it a bit more but this is not strictly necessary. (See Figure 3. From now on I will refer to 'top box' and 'bottom box' figures for profiles)."

I'm kind of lost.

Thanks,

Gilles

[gwpriester]

"Give this rectangle a fractal plasma transparency. The values used were: mix, repeating tile, Start 0% - end 100%, 29 dpi, fractal scale 30%. Also adjust the transparency handles in the same way as the fill. I decided to give it a transparency profile of: -0.32 in the top box and -0.38 in the bottom box, to define it a bit more but this is not strictly necessary. (See Figure 3. From now on I will refer to 'top box' and 'bottom box' figures for profiles)."

1. Select the rectangle with the Transparency Tool. From the drop down list of Fill Types on the Infobar, select Fractal Plasma (at the bottom of the list).

2. Mix is the default transparnecy.

3. Right click on the rectangle with the Transparency Tool and you should see some additional boxes appear on the Infobar. Change the resolution to 29dpi and press enter. Change the other setting to 30% and press Enter.

4. Click the Profile arrow icon on the Infobar to open the Profile dialog. Move the top of the 2 sliders to -0.32 the bottom slider to -0.38 and press Enter.

5. Adjust the length and position of the fill path arrows in the same manner as for the rectangle's fill.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

Gary

[Gilles C]

Ok, it helped me realise that I should use commas in place of periods to enter the values in the profile window...

I was entering -0.38 in lace of -0,38 and it wasn't working, but when I used the sliders, it worked and I realised that detail (french canadian keyboard...)

And the other detail I wasn't catching was the "Start 0% - end 100%" that I didn't know how to set... (sorry, I told you I was a newbie) I just wasn't seeing it.

Thanks. It should be clearer than yesterday...

Gilles

[Charles Moir]

Another case where some fractal textures can add the realism. This is Dmity's fire with a little fractal plasma texture added to the blend. Not as realistic perhaps as the bitmap plug-in based ones. but look the Xar file is only 6k !

[Gilles C]

It looks good, but I think it is better as an effect added to an object like in your picture.

What I am trying to do is some realistic fire as being the main subject.

Gilles

[ivan louette]

Creating flames and other electrical effect is also possible without live effects and I am sure a combination with theml could be explosive !

See there in the XaraXone : http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest10/index.htm

And here are some brushes to help you : http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=14487

kindly,
ivan