Is this possible with Xara?

[mindscapedesign]

Hi,
I went away and tried to do some banners. I have n't finished yet I still got a week before I show the client anything. Any contructive criticisms would be appreciated.

[Soquili]

My favorite is the one on the bottom.

Looking at the circular image, the highlight on the fist seems out of place or too small when compared with the highlight on the outer ring.

[mindscapedesign]

Thanks Soquili,
That's my favourite as well. With regards to the highlights, I think reducing the highlight on the outer ring would better than increasing it on the inner part of the logo because the highlight might dominate/overpower the fist. What do you think?

[Soquili]

I think reducing the highlight on the outer ring would make it less dramatic.

The attachment is how I think the highlight on the fist would work with the existing ring highlight.

[ankhor]

I really like the banners, looks good.

If you ever flash animate them, maybe some
photoflashes where you can shortly see the
audience in the background would be nice.

[mindscapedesign]

You're right Soquili that looks alot better. Thanks much appreciated.

Ankhor, With regards to the flash I think it's really in need of some animation. I was going to make shadows come on and off the fighter. Implying there is a light source (maybe a bulb swinging above) But your idea is much better and more appropiate. Do you know the best way to do this in flash?

Thanks Guys

[WolfMoonHP]

Hi, Syd...

You could accomplish the Flash result you want very easily without leaving Xara Xtreme Pro.

When creating a Flash animation, the default timing is .5 seconds, but you can reduce this to create a flickering effect, almost like the old subliminal advertising tricks to flash images on the screen so quickly the eye doesn't process them, but the mind does.

The more vector, and the less bitmap, in your SWF file, the smoother it will run.

Hope this helps. The starting images you have are all striking, by the way, but I concur: The third is the most eye-catching.
---
Will

[Egg Bramhill]

Syd,

How about using a spotlight running over the crowd? This is a quick one I did in XXPro, you could refine it a lot more. I attach the .xar

Basically it's just a rectangle with a hole cut in it. There's 3 of these but with the hole getting smaller each time, and a transparency added to try to soften the spotlights edge. I then added a red circle (put to back) with a transparency to give the spot a colour.

The photo itself is on the background layer.

There seems to be a bug in xars swf export that alters circles to more a rounded rectangle. I thought they'd fixed this. Anyway to avoid it, convert the circle to editable shapes and add 4 more nodes.

It only needs to be small and subtle ~ Try making the red transparency less so it just shows.

[Egg Bramhill]

Syd,

I just tried another idea but unfortunately XXPro crashed on saving. It was quite effective however. Cut out the shape of the boxer. You need some imagination as he's in the shadows. Place your original banner as the background. Then on layer 2 give the boxer cut-out an orange glow shadow set at 99% transparent. Create a copy of this frame twice. In Frame 3 set the transparency of the shadow to 55%.

This gives a pulsating glow effect behind the boxer. You'll need to apply clip views to stop the shadow bleeding away from your banner.

[Egg Bramhill]

Rebuilt it. Didn't get the body shape correct but you'll get the idea. Changing the glow timing might help.