Mini Extrusion Tutorial

[ivan louette]

When I do a shift-ctrl-S on an extrusion, I just get a bitmap object.

Are you doing something different to create a vector?

I do the same. And Yes, the result is a bitmap. A bitmap inside an external vector outline however.

kindly,
ivan

[Xhris]

The extrudes are 'vectors'; is this not obvious? Er, what would it mean to convert the extrude to an editable shape and it be a 'vector' in the example below? Other than it literally being like it were redrawn by hand with separate objects for shading etc. What would be the point of that? It's already a 'vector' before being converted to editable shapes.

And just to clear up some common confusion about vectors: everything on screen is a bitmap by definition, and the monitor only displays bitmaps using pixels. All being 'vector' means is that the information comprising the image is described in a way such that it is redrawn as a bitmap at screen resolution independently of zoom magnification factor, unlike a bitmap which is described in such a way that the information is not recalculated at screen resolution at a given zoom factor. In other words, vectors are variable bitmaps, bitmaps are fixed bitmaps.

[willdean]

The extrudes are 'vectors'; is this not obvious? Er, what would it mean to convert the extrude to an editable shape and it be a 'vector' in the example below? Other than it literally being like it were redrawn by hand with separate objects for shading etc. What would be the point of that?

Well, you could recolour it, turn it into a wireframe and use it as geometry guidance, reextrude parts of it in other directions, add complex transparency, edit points, etc, etc.

And just to clear up some common confusion about vectors: everything on screen is a bitmap by definition, and the monitor only displays bitmaps using pixels. All being 'vector' means is that the information comprising the image is described in a way such that it is redrawn as a bitmap at screen resolution independently of zoom magnification factor,

That 'all' is a grotesque oversimplification. Of course a 'vector' object is just a set of properties that Xara uses to generate a bitmap (or convert to PDF, or whatever), but it's the ability to *independently* adjust these parameters which is the distinguishing feature. Scaling is just one of an vast variety of lossless manipulations you can perform on 'vectors' prior to rendering them.

Think about the shadow tool - that could have been implemented as either a vector or a bitmap tool. In Xara the shadow is a first-class vector object, which allows you a whole host of manipulations of the shadow, including converting the shadowed object to shapes, ungrouping it and dealing with the shadow completely separately. That's a simpler feature, but a much more sophisticated implementation.

I suspect that converting the lit 3d extruded object into an exact set of gradient fills would be boggingly complex though, which is probably why it hasn't been done. Perhaps we could have lost the lighting when converting to shapes and just had flat-coloured shapes, but I don't think we're going to get that either. Never mind.

[ivan louette]

Xhriss,

Your right picture belongs to the wire-frame view which is available in X3D when you hit Ctrl+Shift+W.

This view mode convinced me a long time ago that there is a true 3D modeling engine underlaying Xara3D real time rendering engine.

And thus that should be so sweet to have the possibility of exporting X3D files to true 3D formats like .obj or perhaps better FBX which preserves lights and camera view !

kindly,
ivan

[Xhris]

I'm sure wireframe is there because you can't render in 3D without a wireframe structure. Yes, maybe these other features will appear in the future. A lot of people (judging from comments in recent time) seem not to be fully aware of Xara's design goal and strategy which they've stated on these forums over time. This leads to some interesting reactions when things don't appear as a particular person would like or was expecting. The goal of the extrusion tool was to get X3D's basic functionality into Xtreme (which has been desired for many years apparently). When the tool is next addressed, it may well have additional functionality, but for 'version 1', it simply extrudes a 2D shape as stated on the tin, better and more slickly than any comparable competition. For instance, try extruding in AI and CorelDraw, then try in Xara and compare the ease and quality of the result. AI is buggy, slow and often runs out of memory if you apply a bevel; CorelDraw's result is just plain awful and ugly.

[jclements]

Just for the heck of it, you can "extract" the 3D bevel shapes.

Also, I just noticed that when 3D bevels are converted to editable shapes, their bitmap representations appear in the dropdown list for Bitmap Fills, but NOT in the Bitmap Gallery.

I think this the first time Xara has not displayed all of a file's bitmaps in the Bitmap Gallery.

[OOPS] I stand corrected, the bitmap DOES show up in the Bitmap Gallery, but only after the file has been saved, closed, and reopened [/OOPS] Not sure if this is a bug or not.

[jclements]

Another tip. You can do some nice shading of shapes fairly quickly and interactively which you might not be able to do with fills and transparencies.

Create your shape, apple a 3D extrusion, but assign Angles 1, 2, and 3 a value of 0. Now manipulate the lights and the light colors.

[alexbozhenov]

Thank you guys for clarification.

But no, I don't need X3D-tool inside Xara. It's playful tool, I agree, but results look very cheap (for me at least). I won't use it in the commercial or any other design jobs ) Too much of "plastic world" is around me already )

I was hoping this new tool will be similar to AI or CD, so I have an ability to re-color all parts as I need to, to keep particular spot colors for example etc. So basically I was looking for simple shapes extrusion without lights etc. -- I'd take care about next steps...