Problem with mould tool

**MarkMyWords** · 28 October 2006, 03:51 AM

A friend of mine, another Xtreme user, recently tried using the mould tool to distort an bitmap image, but instead of distorting the image only the overall shape around the bitmap was distorted and the image inside remained unchanged, in fact it appears to be a repeat tile fill inside the distorted shape.

I couldn't repeat the effect on my PC, I imported a rectangular bitmap and applied the circular mould as she did and my bitmap was distorted (spherized) as expected.

I can't find any options that would affect this, are we missing something?

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 October 2006, 05:32 AM

Mark,

Of the 2 types of Mould options only the perspective mould will work with bitmaps, the Envelope type won't work. (you'll get a circle but the inner bitmap is just tiled) At least I think I'm correct here.

**stratocast** · 28 October 2006, 09:38 AM

Egg's correct, as far as I can see. That's how it works for me.

Originally Posted by MarkMyWords

I couldn't repeat the effect on my PC, I imported a rectangular bitmap and applied the circular mould as she did and my bitmap was distorted (spherized) as expected.

I'd be interested to see how you did that.

**Xhris** · 28 October 2006, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by stratocast

I'd be interested to see how you did that.

You can do this, but you need to create a vector trace of the bitmap as shown below.

**stratocast** · 28 October 2006, 11:29 AM

Xhris, that's interesting. I can see some uses for that technique. Thanks.

**MarkMyWords** · 28 October 2006, 12:10 PM

DoH!

This is my fault, sorry, the bitmap I used was traced.

Instead of importing a bitmap I opened a .xar file I knew I had imported a bitmap pattern into, but that was done so I could play with the bitmap tracer.

I tried out various settings on the tracer then undid back to the original state before trying different settings.

I must have saved the document without undoing and now I'm warping a vector pattern (to make me look even dumber, the original bitmap is on a layer underneath it LOL!).

Tut! Sorry, I can be a dope sometimes.

Leaving aside my lack of intelligence (please), wouldn't it be great if the mould tool could warp bitmaps?

**Xhris** · 28 October 2006, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by MarkMyWords

...wouldn't it be great if the mould tool could warp bitmaps?

It would indeed, as well as if it did more; see here.

**-=Drifter=-** · 28 October 2006, 02:18 PM

Xhris, that is without a doubt the best trace I have ever seen. I printed out a snapshot of your settings and will play with that later.
I have actually not used the tracer in quite a while having NEVER gotten results anywhere near where yours are.
[3 minutes later: Couldn't wait to check it out. Xhris, thank you so much, those settings work great! You have renewed my faith in the bitmap tracer.]

**Xhris** · 28 October 2006, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by -=Drifter=-

Xhris, that is without a doubt the best trace I have ever seen. I printed out the a snapshot of your settings and will play with that later.
I have actually not used the tracer in quite a while having NEVER gotten results anywhere near where yours are.
[3 minutes later: Couldn't wait to check it out. Xhris, thank you so much, those settings work great! You have renewed my faith in the bitmap tracer.]

FYI: perhaps you missed this I did some time ago - it's the tracer "bible". Also in the Xara Xone.

I should also mention that the skill in using the tracer is to adjust the settings to get the best trade-off between accuracy of trace and complexity of detail. Above, I was just being lazy and selected the maximum quality settings (analogously to setting 100% quality for JPG, or even worse, using a BMP instead of a PNG).

Originally Posted by -=Drifter=-

You have renewed my faith in the bitmap tracer.

This in itself shows that Xara should consider updating the tracer interface (and ideally the tracer itself to surpass Illustrator CS2's advantages in tracing line art). Despite my efforts to highlight the greatness of the tracer, this gem is still being overlooked and readily dismissed owing to the lack of ease in understanding the interface and failure to getting immediate good results.

**-=Drifter=-** · 28 October 2006, 03:30 PM

Xhris, thanks for refreshing my memory. I DID read that once (when I first got Xara) but rushed through it. I even did the tut but rushed through it. Now, older and wiser

and more comfortable with Xara, I will re-read it. I just took your 26 page .doc file and made it into 10 pages which is printing out right now.
Thanks for doing that, Xhris. Excellent material!