Interweaving

[Hwy101]

* * * John

Nicely done John

[gwpriester]

Leslie

Can you create the effect you are looking for in Illustrator and post it here as a GIF or JPEG image. You may be envisioning something that we are not.

Once we see what you are trying to do we might be better able to find a solution.

Gary

[zaphodeist]

Thanks Tom The lattice is a fill I made - I'm attaching the xar if it's any use to you.

John

[lesliegug]

Gary,

Here is what I was working on. I finally got it into Extreme, but when I put it into 3D I lost my gradient and the interweaving.

I have tried different approaches but to no avail. Now I am just very frustrated!!

Leslie

[handrawn]

making a shape and then putting the gradient bitmap on as texture in xara 3D should give you something like this - bit rough as your post is low res - is this the sort of effect you were after?

[DGehman]

Gary,

Here is what I was working on. I finally got it into Extreme, but when I put it into 3D I lost my gradient and the interweaving.

Leslie

You're asking for something that's actually very sophisticated in 3D. You could use 3D computer-aided design (SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor), but it would require an advanced user to make the curves. You could use an advanced 3D program (Maya, 3DSMax), but again, you'd have to assimilate a hefty learning curve to make the curves.

I was able to do the attached in a moderately powerful 3D application, but it doesn't take long to see that the interweaving is very basic and nothing like what you want.

[handrawn]

ah if spacial 3D interweaving is required different ball game - you could use blender - free - but certainly no easier to learn

[ss-kalm]

Leslie,

All Xara 3D will import is a shape - either a simple shape like a circle or a letter, or a complex vector shape like a trace of your initials. whatever you import is just a shape. You cannot import gradients or fills as such, but as Steve said, you can add the gradients as textures.

The interweaving is much more complex. If it can be done at all.

If you want the letters to have different depths or attributes, they will have to be imported separately.

[gwpriester]

Leslie

Here is what I would suggest.

Bring the letters into Xara 3D individually.

You can add the gradient as has been suggested as a texture. A texture is a bitmap that you apply to the 3D object.

Get the angle, bevel, depth etc. that you want and then save as a Transparent image.

Bring the transparent image back into Xtreme. Now cut and position the three letter shapes. Then clone and some of the letters as mask all but the overlapping portions to create the over and under effect.

Gary

[gwpriester]

Here's something else that might work. By making the extrusion depths different, one letter will come forward.

Basically, 3D programs work in a 3D space. To make letters weave in and out of one another in 3D would have to mean that the letters themselves are warped or curved. As pointed out while this is possible in a very high end 3D program, I am not sure it can be done in Xara 3D, though I'm sure Egg or Mike Sims can come up with some work around.

I'm attaching the Xara 3D-6 file if you want to play around with it.

Gary